Metal Gear Solid 5 (+ General Series Thread)

[Russell]

Ordered my copy today.

So I never played 'Ground Cash Grab Zero', do I need to have played it to get into MGS5?

 

[Jason Tandro]

Ordered my copy today.

So I never played 'Ground Cash Grab Zero', do I need to have played it to get into MGS5?

You need to at least know the 45 minutes of story concept to understand what's going on. Knowing Peace Walker would be best too. I recommend watching the story content on YT (which is what I did for PW). The GZ segment is semi-essential and since you didn't play it the gameplay will be totally new for you, but they still explain it step by step like you didn't.

 

[Interslicery]

I feel like an ass...

 

[Jason Tandro]

^ Relevant:

 

[Tetsujin]

Been playing this for a few hours although I only finished three missions plus two side ops. Been messing around in Afghanistan a bit, trying to hitch a ride on the back of a truck (and eventually just stealing one)
The lighting is really gorgeous. Dat Fox Engine. Feels so much better to play this on PS4 too as opposed to GZ on PS3. Buttery smooth 60FPS.

 

[Jason Tandro]

I finished my first day of playing and... well only one image does this justice.

Spoiler: General Content

So aside from the ability to customize your own Mother Base, including something as simple as the helicopter, you then get the benefit of employing your mad powers of customization to everything else, such as your helicopter(I roll up in a solid silver war machine), your horse, etc.

I love gathering soldiers which thanks to the Fulton recovery skyhooks never feels like a chore. With upgrades you can even get vehicles and cargo but I'm not there yet.

The free roaming is a joy and the stealth mechanics are vastly improved and far more realistic. And with the improved CQC, I feel that employing that is rewarding when needed, but honestly at this stage I am so superior that I am able to roll up on enemies and take them down faster with my hands than with a gun (esp since I'm playing non-lethally). I feel like GZ was more difficult in that respect but it's most likely just the sheer volume of enemies in a much smaller space.

Spoiler: Story Content

And that freaking opening mission with the man made of fire was one of the scariest things I've ever played. Seriously mission 0 is pretty much a survival horror game they tacked on at the beginning of this stealth action game. It was absolutely intense with some of the darkest imagery I've ever seen in Metal Gear.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

This was exceptionally touching.




X

 

[Kuja9001]

I finished my first day of playing and... well only one image does this justice.

Spoiler: General Content

So aside from the ability to customize your own Mother Base, including something as simple as the helicopter, you then get the benefit of employing your mad powers of customization to everything else, such as your helicopter(I roll up in a solid silver war machine), your horse, etc.

I love gathering soldiers which thanks to the Fulton recovery skyhooks never feels like a chore. With upgrades you can even get vehicles and cargo but I'm not there yet.

The free roaming is a joy and the stealth mechanics are vastly improved and far more realistic. And with the improved CQC, I feel that employing that is rewarding when needed, but honestly at this stage I am so superior that I am able to roll up on enemies and take them down faster with my hands than with a gun (esp since I'm playing non-lethally). I feel like GZ was more difficult in that respect but it's most likely just the sheer volume of enemies in a much smaller space.

Spoiler: Story Content

And that freaking opening mission with the man made of fire was one of the scariest things I've ever played. Seriously mission 0 is pretty much a survival horror game they tacked on at the beginning of this stealth action game. It was absolutely intense with some of the darkest imagery I've ever seen in Metal Gear.

Spoiler

The man on fire is very familiar if you've played MGS3.

 

[Hisako]

MGSV is possibly one of the most mechanically superior open world games I've played in a very, very long time. What a fucking astounding technical achievement.

Except for the horse, because no game will probably ever hit the perfect balance of horse controls. Give the player precise control and the horse looks stupid, give the player realistic horse control and it fucking rockets off in a direction you don't want it to and have a second's delay trying to stop it

 

[Tetsujin]

Spoiler: gameplay stuff

I overheard two guards saying they saw a naked woman at the power plant. Went aaaaaaall the way to the power plant (no LZs anywhere closeby) but I only found guards. =<
There was an ominous gate to a large cave or something in the back...

It's funny, I enjoy infiltrating shit for no reason whatsoever. I feel like I haven't progressed the story in hours (well I actually haven't) and I don't even mind.

Also, DD's still a puppy. So adorable <3

Mother Base is slowly growing. Doesn't seem as customizable as I hoped it would be though (I hoped you could decide on the placement of platforms and possibly even influence their internal layout and shit)

Does anyone else find it funny how the opening credits to each episode spoil who's in it? o.O

 

[Hisako]

Yeah that's super weird. I try not to pay attention too much to it though, and at least the constant closing credits are quickly skipped

 

[X-SOLDIER]

There're a couple awesome birthday-specific easter eggs: http://kotaku.com/check-metal-gear-solid-v-on-your-birthday-for-a-cool-su-1728367101




X

 

[Lex]

This was exceptionally touching.




X

Holy fuck the tears are blinding me. Caught me off guard.

 

[Lex]

I've been meaning to get into MGS for years but this song:

Has absofuckinglutely sealed the deal. Should I just fire through them chronologically? I've got the first few from way back anyway, I just never really got around to giving them a proper bash. I'm pretty sure I've got the HD collection from PS Plus a while back too.

 

[Jason Tandro]

Lex: If you want the best story experience I recommend playing through them in release order rather than chronological order. While a chronological playthrough would be cool, without understand some of what happened in 1 and 2 you'll miss key points in 3, etc.

If you have no clue about the chronological confusion within the series, then without giving away too much, play the games in this order:

Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid 2
Metal Gear Solid 3
Metal Gear Solid 4
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Just watch the videos on YT, the game is lackluster)
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (You can just watch the videos on this too, though the game is fun... despite lasting about 30 minutes).
Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain

You can ignore these entries:
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (and Ops Plus)
Metal Gear Acid

They're non-canon.

Also if you want a challenge:

Metal Gear
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (are good to play right at the beginning, though you get the story of what happened in them during the briefing section of Metal Gear Solid)

 

[Flintlock]

^ I agree with all of this, with just a couple of addenda.

Metal Gear Solid 3

Make sure you play the "Subsistence" version of Metal Gear Solid 3, since it has a user-controllable camera. The fixed camera was pretty much the only thing holding it back upon its original release. It's pretty much the best game in the series now (MGS5 notwithstanding, since I haven't played it). I'd recommend the HD version in particular - part of the HD Collection - since it also has a much better frame rate.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Just watch the videos on YT, the game is lackluster)

If you do get the HD collection (for PS3/XB360), you'll get Peace Walker as well, and you can play through almost the entire story in online co-op mode. With me, for example.

Also if you want a challenge:

Metal Gear
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (are good to play right at the beginning, though you get the story of what happened in them during the briefing section of Metal Gear Solid)

These are the games I'd probably watch on Youtube, or just read up on. You could even ignore them altogether; the other games in the series largely fill in what happened anyway. It's not that they're bad games; they can just be very frustrating, and that's not a fun way to start a marathon of games.

 

[Tetsujin]

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Just watch the videos on YT, the game is lackluster)

Don't listen to him, Peace Walker was the most fun I've had with MGS and Phantom Pain is pretty much the natural evolution from this.
Also, you can play it in Co-Op!

You can ignore these entries:
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (and Ops Plus)

They're non-canon.

Portable Ops is only partially non-canon according to Kojima. Though he did not specify what elements are non-canon
It does get briefly referenced by Miller in the beginning of PW and in TPP there is a mention of one event that happened at the end of PO.

It's kind of annoying, because when the game came out they emphasized its canon status all the time and it's the reason I bought it. I guess Kojima decided to retcon it since he didn't direct it and then went back to make his own prequel PSP game. =/

I'd skip it though because out of the PSP games, *this* is the lackluster one. (but actually, don't skip games because opinions and all that and you might think differently but then again maybe do skip it because questionable canon status and there's enough games as it is I don't know, it has weird stylized comic book cutscenes that are actually kind of cool and worth watching though Peace Walker follows the same style I'll stop rambling now)

But yeah, release order is the only that makes sense.
Make sure you do read the story summary of the original MSX Metal Gear games in the menu of MGS1 though

 

[Lex]

OK, I own the MGS Collection for PS3 already, all I have to do is download it. What does that contain and what will I have to obtain outside of it to really get in to the series? Doesn't the collection start with 2? I think that's what put me off playing it when I actually got it, because I wanted to play "1" first.

In terms of story, I'm aware that it's fairly engrossing and interesting, but also convoluted. How convoluted? On a scale of fairly easy to understand to Kingdom Hearts, where does it fall? I ask because even though I've played every single Kingdom Hearts game, paid rapt attention, read backstory and watched GameTrailers's Timeline video at least three times, I still have no fucking idea what Kingdom Hearts is about (and I've given up trying). I have a motherfucking science degree but I cannot understand that plot, it's too convoluted. Will I suffer the same with MGS?

I'm looking forward to getting into it. I'm kinda jealous of all you fans that got to experience the hype of this game since I'll probably never have that now that Kojima's left ;-;

 

[X-SOLDIER]

(@Lex: I too, should probably do this since I have several friends who've been bugging me for years to finally play them)




X

 

[Lex]

I should add that I'd love to play Co-op with you Flint (and anyone else) when I get to those games that we can do it with.

I also wanted to say just that re: that vid I quoted that X posted,

Spoiler: emotional jibber jabber revealing too much of myself because weird mood

I've been feeling really kind of "off" for the past two days emotionally, just with ups and downs etc. and that video brought back a lot of personal memories for me. Most of you know that someone close to me (and around the same age as the guy in the vid) died in a similar way five years ago and there was a whole "make-a-wish"-like charity foundation thing going on there too because it was terminal, and I cried like a baby for all those reasons as well as the video itself but it was needed to kind of just let out whatever I've been feeling recently so I'm really glad for that. Anyway I've been awake for 36 hours so I'm going to sleep

I have no idea why I felt the need to post that, but there it is XD. Just thought I'd explain my reaction to the video.

 

[Tetsujin]

OK, I own the MGS Collection for PS3 already, all I have to do is download it. What does that contain and what will I have to obtain outside of it to really get in to the series? Doesn't the collection start with 2? I think that's what put me off playing it when I actually got it, because I wanted to play "1" first.

The HD Collection contains 2, 3 and Peace Walker as well as ports of the original MSX games (selectable from the main menu of MGS3).
MGS1 is available on the PS Store.

In terms of story, I'm aware that it's fairly engrossing and interesting, but also convoluted. How convoluted? On a scale of fairly easy to understand to Kingdom Hearts, where does it fall? I ask because even though I've played every single Kingdom Hearts game, paid rapt attention, read backstory and watched GameTrailers's Timeline video at least three times, I still have no fucking idea what Kingdom Hearts is about (and I've given up trying). I have a motherfucking science degree but I cannot understand that plot, it's too convoluted. Will I suffer the same with MGS?

Yes.
Or maybe not. At the very least, MGS did not introduce time travel shenanigans into the picture.

 

[Tetsujin]

Spoiler: Some stuff about Quiet

So I was just riding towards the ruins and finally encountered her and triggered a boss battle. Wasn't quite on the level of fighting The End but still pretty intense. I tranq'd her and hauled her ass on the chopper, natch.

...she is now in a cell listening to Billy Idol. I'm okay with this.

 

[Flintlock]

In terms of story, I'm aware that it's fairly engrossing and interesting, but also convoluted. How convoluted? On a scale of fairly easy to understand to Kingdom Hearts, where does it fall? I ask because even though I've played every single Kingdom Hearts game, paid rapt attention, read backstory and watched GameTrailers's Timeline video at least three times, I still have no fucking idea what Kingdom Hearts is about (and I've given up trying). I have a motherfucking science degree but I cannot understand that plot, it's too convoluted. Will I suffer the same with MGS?

Yes.
Or maybe not. At the very least, MGS did not introduce time travel shenanigans into the picture.

No time travel, just time paradoxes.

I haven't played (or seen) enough of the Kingdom Hearts series to make a comparison, but yes, expect to be very confused a lot of the time. Not so much in MGS1 and 3, which have coherent, largely self-contained stories, but definitely so with 2 and 4. To this day, there are still things I don't understand about either of them.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Also, as a PSA for everyone who's playing this: There is a Mission 51 that isn't properly in the game that you need to see when you're far enough.




X

 

[Tetsujin]

Didn't read the spoilery bits obviously but that sounds like a shame. Especially since it's only on the collector's bonus disc...