Metal Gear Solid 5 (+ General Series Thread)

[Blade]

Crazy hidden codes and conspiracy theory stuff: http://www.gamesradar.com/mgs-5-fans-are-trying-decode-secret-game-hidden-code/

That seems like a fun thing to do in concept for practicing writing code.

Hide a videogame inside a videogame, but instead of being able to play said game WITHIN the game... make it so that programmers have to make it themselves.

 

[Cthulhu]

That feel when you redo a mission for perfect stealth (no reflex), stealthily abduct everyone, then the very last fucker discovers you.

I find myself ragequitting this game rather often lately, .

 

[Cthulhu]

Spoiler: late-game spoiler

Eli is a little cunt why do we even have to put up with his shit

 

[Roger]

Okay, took some doing but this time tomorrow, I'll have a nuke.

 

[Flintlock]

Spoiler: Mission 20, "Voices".

This was probably my least favourite mission so far. Below are my thoughts on it as well as the game in general.

• It's very linear; for the first time in the game, I felt like there was only one way from the start to the end. That was a shame, because the environment was much more interesting than most of the North African region.
• Further to that, there was a point at which the path was blocked by a fallen tree, that Snake had to crawl under. DD could easily have made it through as well, but there was an invisible wall that applied only to buddies. I tried dismissing and redeploying him on the other side of the tree, but the drop point was reset to behind it - wasting my GMP and causing my bond with him to go down from 10 icons to 9. I don't mind if the game designers wanted me to experience that part of the game without a buddy, but they could have done a better job with it, especially since the helicopter was able to reach the rest of the mission area to pick me up later on.
• Despite being so linear, one of the objectives was to read an intel file in Munoko ya Nioka Station "pinpointing a route" to Ngumba Industrial Zone. I had already cleared out and captured the station before (without finding any intel, since it doesn't spawn until the mission starts), so I just waltzed straight through it. I feel like the game gives me every incentive to neutralise, interrogate and Fulton every single enemy I encounter, and whenever I try to deviate from that, I end up missing something. While there is something fun about single-handedly capturing hundreds of soldiers and then stripping everything from their outposts, it gets tiring after a while.
• The game has enough suspense through trying to be stealthy, so I can do without poor attempts at horror like the "Devil's House".
• The subsequent fight with the Man on Fire must be one of my least favourite boss fights from the entire series. Maybe there's a trick to it, but it seemed very luck-dependent, and I was on fire far too often for it to be fun. I tried everything and died so many times before he walked into one of my C4's on a water tank, basically by accident. Not that that was enough to complete the objective of fighting him off. While I get (like, even) the weapon carrying restrictions in this game, I basically never carry any lethal weapons around with me, because I don't like killing anyone, but it has really screwed me over in a couple of boss fights. Sure, I developed and then supply-dropped a couple of things (which always seemed to land in the fire - yay), but it's pretty stressful having to navigate the iDroid's menus in the middle of a fight.
• Almost every mission up to this point has been "this might lead us to Cipher", and this was no exception; the briefing for it ends with "Whatever Cipher's up to in the region, Shabani might just be our best lead". Um, why? I haven't seen any concrete evidence of Cipher yet; sure, there are lots of things that point to them, but Miller just says "this must be Cipher", and I'm not convinced. One, MGS stories are never that straightforward, and two, I don't trust Miller after "The Phone Call" in Peace Walker. Should I have forgotten about that? I can't say I really care about the story behind each mission right now, since I know there's going to be a big twist at some point, revealing everything I previously thought to be false. I used to get a bit fed up with the overly long cut-scenes and codec calls in some of the earlier games, but at least they kept me interested. This has gone too far in the other direction. My MGS-loving IRL friend told me after I had played the first few missions that the story takes a while to pick up, but after 20 missions, I'm still waiting.
• Speaking of Peace Walker, I have to agree with Snake's comment a couple of missions prior, when Huey suggested developing Battle Gear - I'm getting a very strong sense of déjà vu.
• I absolutely hate having to spend time on Mother Base to raise morale. It is so poorly designed, both in terms of being uninteresting and incredibly difficult to navigate. It shouldn't take me two minutes just to figure out how to get from the base level to the top of one of the structures. Why did nobody think to install lifts? And why are there some doors that buzz to indicate I can't go in? I (well, Snake) own the damn place!
• I can't stand Quiet's design either. I knew that before I even played the game, but it's actually worse now that I've seen her "boob physics" and the way she flaunts herself in the helicopter.

There are lots of good things about the game that keep me playing every day - it looks stunning, and the core gameplay is the best in the series by far - but otherwise, I'm feeling a little disappointed. Then again, I've been disappointed by every MGS game besides 1 and 3. :\

 

[Ghost X]

Spoiler: Spoiler that Flintlock can read.

From what I've watched, MGSV comes across as probably the worst written of the series, and the boss fights didn't do anything for me either. I agree about Quiet too. In previous games, at least the perverted stuff is kind of justified (at least far more so). A lot of scenes involving her are just gratuitous. I recall Kojima saying something along the lines of "You'll be ashamed of your words when you find out why she's that way" to critics, when her appearance was first shown. Nope, I think critics were spot on . I disagree with you on the horror elements though. They weren't too bad.

With MGS4, I enjoyed MGO more than the single player storied game itself, so hopefully that's the case with MGSV

 

[Roger]

I absolutely hate having to spend time on Mother Base to raise morale. It is so poorly designed, both in terms of being uninteresting and incredibly difficult to navigate. It shouldn't take me two minutes just to figure out how to get from the base level to the top of one of the structures. Why did nobody think to install lifts? And why are there some doors that buzz to indicate I can't go in? I (well, Snake) own the damn place!

You never have to bother with this. Just sell your abundant resouces until you're in the green.

 

[Flintlock]

I'm never in the red anyway. In fact, most of the resources might as well not exist, since fuel is always the one holding me back. The leap from 18k to 48k to build the fourth platform of each type is ridiculous. I had my fourth Support platform built before I had my third Combat or Medical platform because it's the only one that doesn't need fuel.

I know the morale raising is optional, but when I get notifications that teams are leveling down because of poor morale, I can't help but do something about it.

 

[Cthulhu]

Yeah IDGI either, the fuel resource seems unbalanced compared to the others. I've got my platforms at level 3/4ish atm. No chance of developing a nuke if that keeps up.

As for monies, take a look at your resources; I try to extract all weapons and vehicles (get the EM mine if possible, it's cool), so I can sell them for monies. I don't actually know how much you need for your base though, or whether you consume vehicles if sending them off on combat deployment missions.

 

[Roger]

Yeah IDGI either, the fuel resource seems unbalanced compared to the others. I've got my platforms at level 3/4ish atm. No chance of developing a nuke if that keeps up.

As for monies, take a look at your resources; I try to extract all weapons and vehicles (get the EM mine if possible, it's cool), so I can sell them for monies. I don't actually know how much you need for your base though, or whether you consume vehicles if sending them off on combat deployment missions.

As long as you're willing to leave the Playstation on while Snake is hitchhiking in a box in a truck while Resources are being processed it's doable, if you're not, you're not complete the nuke for a long, long time anyway.

 

[Flintlock]

I guess I'll just be a pacifist then. (Also, I didn't know about the nuke before, so, spoilers. )

Yop: I already said I never have financial problems. I do extract everything I can get my hands on.

Or am I missing something - does morale increase as my GMP balance goes up?

 

[Tetsujin]

Having your gmp in the red gives you an optional scene on mother base btw. It's a neat little scene, don't miss it.
Fuel resources are grindy as fuck. I raided two dozen FOBs just to get enough quickly but even then processing takes forever. Oh yeah. I love poorly secured base dev platforms full of containers. So take care of those

 

[Geostigma]

Oh boy lol

http://www.siliconera.com/2015/10/05/konamis-pachinko-company-filed-a-trademark-for-big-boss/

 

[Hisako]

I thought the Devil's House was fuggin' great, you crazy man. I wasn't frightened or all about anything, but the atmosphere of the scenery definitely put me on edge.

Then again, I wasn't put off or tired by the linearity of the level beforehand so maybe that was it

I'm never in the red anyway. In fact, most of the resources might as well not exist, since fuel is always the one holding me back. The leap from 18k to 48k to build the fourth platform of each type is ridiculous. I had my fourth Support platform built before I had my third Combat or Medical platform because it's the only one that doesn't need fuel.

I know the morale raising is optional, but when I get notifications that teams are leveling down because of poor morale, I can't help but do something about it.

I beat endgame without even maxing out my Mother Base. Expanding the free FOB is cheaper,

Also, if you have custom music blaring from your helicopter speaker, it raises morale of anyone nearby. If you really have to be bothered by morale, you can just do the rounds by sitting in the choppah and slow-travelling from base to base, instead of walking up to all your dudes and punching them.

 

[Flintlock]

I'm not getting the "staff morale increased" notifications when playing helicopter music. How can I tell if it's working or not?

I just unlocked FOB missions. I don't think I want anything to do with them. I can't believe that the game devs thought it would be a good idea to let people invade bases while the defending player is offline. I guess I just won't expand my FOB, at least not until Mother Base is maxed out.

I also just got my first "perfect stealth, no kills" bonus... and a B rank for the mission (22) because I was too slow. That doesn't seem right to me. In story terms, why does an extra 15 or 30 minutes matter so much? I've spent many times that amount idling in the ACC...

 

[Tetsujin]

You generally don't seem to get invaded much if you don't play fobs a lot. At least thats how its been for me. By the way, the new patch puts a lot of your resources that used to be safe on your mother base such as plants, vehicles and processed stuff on your fobs where they can now be stolen. At the same time, Konami now offers fob insurances...for real life money.
Figures.

I used to sell tanks and shit for gmp. Now you can only have up to three vehicles of each type on your mother base and the rest gets sent to the fob where you cant sell them anymore either.

 

[Cthulhu]

I've got a few S ranks, there's some missions where that's almost required to get, .

Also I've tried the FOB thing... twice, neither of which was successful; it's very different (IMO) from the regular gameplay. Maybe I was just unlucky with high security opponents though (think full armor, UAV's, that kinda shit). I was invaded once, too. I'd like a 'no thanks' option for that... preferably free.

Off course,

Spoiler: late-game spoiler

IDK if I could nuke them into oblivion, that would be funny. If expensive. They'd log in and get a message "Sorry boss, we got nuked, all of our men are dead, that's hundreds of your gameplay hours wasted. Restarting now from mission 1."

 

[Flintlock]

I just finished chapter 1. What a let-down, in terms of the story. Also, the final battle was surprisingly easy. Also also, I wish I hadn't seen a preview of the next chapter. I know the game is supposed to imitate a TV series, but it revealed too much.

Now I've started seeing repeat missions in the main list. Do I have to play them to see the rest of the story, or can I choose to do only the new ones? Because if it's the former... fuck that shit. It's Peace Walker all over again.

 

[Tetsujin]

I just finished chapter 1. What a let-down, in terms of the story. Also, the final battle was surprisingly easy. Also also, I wish I hadn't seen a preview of the next chapter.

I agree with all of that. Got pretty annoyed when Kojima decided to spoil the entirety of chapter 2. Especially since the teaser made it seem all exciting when it's really just a slapped-together epilogue with no cohesive narrative. Well, there's one really good episode.

Also, you don't need to do any repeat missions. Only the new ones as well as yellow-marked side ops. If you don't get anything new, do other side ops or replay main missions until shit happens. Yeah, it's Peace Walker all over again.

 

[Cthulhu]

I finished ch. 1 too, and while I thought at first that there was a whole second game behind it, so far I'm a bit disappoint and I'm quickly losing motivation to keep playing.

 

[Hisako]

I thought the actual story beats were interesting

The second act is mostly "do missions then follow the gold-marked ones", but at the very least it only entails doing like, three in between, as opposed to Peace Walker's "do 4 then 5 then 6 then 5 then 4" structure. Plus, with actual variations in gameplay and AI the hard variants being unlocked are a lot of fun if you're digging the gameplay by itself.

There's also some significant story beats that escalate up to the end of Act 2 and some genuinely tense moments. It is a weaker story experience than previous Metal Gears, but mostly because the distance in between those beats are farther, and there's one standout mission towards the end that kind of poke at the feels

 

[Flintlock]

Two "endings" down for me now, and if anything, I'm even more disappointed than I was after the first. Apparently there's still a third?

Edit: not sure if this review has been posted already, but it really sums up how I feel about the game.

 

[Hisako]

I definitely agree with some of Super Bunnyhop's issues with the game, but he's had a habit of basically writing off every Metal Gear Solid game after 3 because he doesn't find any of them necessary

 

[Flintlock]

Are any video games necessary?

I know he thinks 4 was unnecessary because 2 was supposed to end the story (and I agree, insofar as 4's story became extremely convoluted as a result), but did he actually say that about Peace Walker, Ground Zeroes or 5?

 

[Jason Tandro]

4 was convoluted as fuck but it was tying up 5 games worth of storyline. We all know that the games are very poorly written but that's part of the charm and for what we got (a 9 hour long movie with gameplay segments) I'm satisfied with the resolution we got in 4.

5 pissed me off because even going into other games in the series nothing is tied up, there's no big wow moment. The most important element this explains

Spoiler

is how Big Boss survived Metal Gear's end encounter- It was his "phantom"

. And the most touching story moment for me, apart from the ones that you played (YOU KNOW THE MISSION I MEAN) was probably the casette tape we get after ending 3

Spoiler

that reveals that Zero actually visited BB while he was in a coma and felt truly remorseful for what had happened between them. Seriously as a lifelong fan of the series that really hit a feel nerve with me. That tiny moment sends ripples through the rest of the games as it completely changes my perception of the relationship the two had, and furthermore it shows that the way of "REVENGE" is not the way to peace. Even with Zero being the primary antagonist, near the end he saw the error of his ways. Big Boss didn't figure this out until the end of MGS4.

At least that's my interpretation.