Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

I don't think you could call Solid Snake a rookie during Zanzibar Land tho, since he'd already survived Outer Heaven prior to that.

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Nah, Venom is the one killed at Outer Heaven. Big Boss was burned almost to death in Zanzibar Land.

 

Ok, ok. I just had a thought about the characters in MGSV and here are some things I thought about concerning them and Solid Snake:

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Skull Face was taken away from him family and went through many different families in his childhood. This must've messed him up a bit since he never had any "real" family anymore. Just lots of different people and most of them were army people teaching him the tricks of their trade. This might mirror Solid Snake as he had a similar upgringing. A child born in a lab to no real parents, he went through several families during his childhood.

Venom Snake learning that he isn't who he thinks he is and he didn't take it very well. It's not show in game, but it's pretty obvious that this causes him to eventually become very bitter at Big Boss to the point where he is a real threat and forces Big Boss to orchestrate the events of MG1 where Solid Snake goes and kills Venom. Again this might mirror Solid Snake as he himself also learns that he is only a clone of Big Boss.

Eli/Liquid is self explanatory with what I'm getting at.

Big Boss, we all know his history and it needs no explaining, but it's pretty clear that his story is quite a similar one to a certain other characters.

Solid Snake on the other hand is able to put all the bad shit in his life behind him and become the bigger man, become a hero, unlike all the other characters who are shown to come from similar backgrounds and share similar situations as he but instead of rising above it all they decide to not just fall but dive head first into their own insanity. They become hopeless monsters that cannot do anything else but lash out angrily at the world. What do you guys think?

 

Yeah, I agree. I mean, as a whole picture, what happens in MGSV isn't necessarily the worst, and:

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one of the primary themes of MGS1/2 was genetics vs memes in terms of heritage - this is yet another jab at it (can some random medic who has comparable training to Big Boss be convinced he is Big Boss? Is there really something special about BB, or can anyone with the motivation and support actually become that effective?)

It also explains why Big Medic doesn't speak much in the game - since he legitimately isn't Big Boss, he doesn't have the memories and opinions of BB. Of course, when we saw in the gameplay demo a while that you needed an interpreter to understand Russian, almost everyone immediately screamed "THAT ISNT BIG BOSS!".

Big Medic is also kind of a slab of meat that does whatever Kaz tells him to, which ties into how detached he always looks on the chopper (although the real BB looked this way in Ground Zeroes too)

That said, MGSV still feels like a wasted opportunity. If they were going to tie in MG1/2 and MGS1, they should've at least brought in more interesting characters like Campbell instead of Deus Ex little kid psycho mantis.

 

I think there was a wasted opportunity to throw some interesting new bosses at us instead of recycling Volgin and Psycho Mantis.

The entire thing feels like an incomplete mess: cut content, broken game systems, half-assed attempts at cashing in on the build-a-base mobile game craze, tacked on features, a lazy imitation of today's AAA-follow-the-quest-marker open world nonsense,the lack of any boss fights, awkward as fuck cutscenes (I was literally laughing at the Jeep ride with Skull Face; how embarassing). The list goes on and on.

I would have loved to been a fly on the wall to watch the trainwreck that was this game's development.

 

Actually, they didn't even recycle Psycho Mantis, there is no boss fight involving him - which is really a shame since there could surely be some fun ways to break the fourth wall with advances in technology of the past 20 years - maybe some social media shit to truly scare the normies.

The base building is almost the same as Peace Walker's, so it's not an attempt to cash in on the mobile market - it's Kojimbo (or his team, idk) continuing to be obsessed with this concept. The entire game is basically "Peace Walker 2"

Also that jeep ride was a highlight of the game. Was it a janky mess? Yes, but I couldn't stop laughing when sins of the father came on. Legitimately the hardest I've laughed at a game since the ladder in MGS3. But yeah, I'm fairly certain that Jeep Ride was unfinished - Venom Snake just sits there in his idle animation while Skullface drones on for 8 minutes without a single response or even nodding his head.

 

KK1001, you're trying too hard.

wra wra wra I don't like this game wra wra wra worst game ever wra wra wra

 

Completely agree DDZ - it's true that the story is a huge letdown for fans of the older games, but there are a lot of extremely fun missions and gameplay scenarios. Despite finishing the main story missions, I will likely go back and do the missions I skipped over, even if some of them are just older missions on EXTREME!!! difficulty.

There are two "subsistence" missions that are actually incredibly fun - you start off with no loadout, and cannot call in support; meaning you have to procure all of your equipment on the scene (similar to the start of the older metal gears olids)

Would've been really cool if that was simply a toggle that could be turned on for all of the other missions - perhaps with a different ranking for playing on that mode.

 

Also, as contrived as it may have been

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shooting your infected soldiers as they salute you - in particular the room with the peace walker theme - was a god tier moment

 

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That would have been extra awesome if it actually was Big Boss doing the shooting

 

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Another key difference is that Solid Snake is the only one who has an unflinching will to be his own person, and be defined only by himself.

The key reasons for Big Boss falling the way he did were not so much that he couldn't simply endure the betrayals and hardships he faced, he's also left completely lost because he never sought to define himself by his own choices. He never got over the fact The Boss never told him how to think and believe.

All other characters are ruled either by their genes, their scene, or the memes around them. Solid Snake remains the only one that fully realized and held true to not being a tool of the government, or anyone else, and acted based on what he believed in personally. A big part in his heroism was also that Solid Snake never tried to change the world, he dedicated his life to undoing mistakes that should have never been made. And despite his cold demeanour, Solid Snake is also the most dedicated humanist out all the characters, always being willing to at least listen to someone's last words if not to comfort them in their last moments. EDIT: Additional note goes to the fact that Solid Snake is the character that has no love for war, and is the one who calls out others for their fantasies, romanticism, or addiction in respects to war and violence and for the same reason chews out anyone aggrandizing him.

Not to mention facetanking the microwave corridor firmly establishes him as the toughest bastard in the universe.

Another part of great details in MGS4 is how the game tells us that we aren't Snake, such as through Snake vomiting if the player engages in senseless slaughter, his back pains, or the psyche gauge drops in cutscenes beyond your control. All those little ticks that are the character's own actions beyond your input.

 

On RE 4:


You are the problem, KK0000

 

I once read something about MGS 1 to 4 being about genes, memes, scenes and sense in that order. MGS1 was about how your genes do not determine who you are, MGS2 about how memes affect people, MGS3 about how scenes change people and MGS4 had to do with the sense put into things.

Or something like that, I don't remember 100%.

 

Am I the only one who doesn't give a shit about the story or the deep themes as long as the game play is good?

 

sexbad? brofists this

In all seriousness though, the story alongside the gameplay have always been huge draws of MGS. it was always a case where if someone hates the story, they can enjoy the great arcade stealth - or if they hate the gameplay, they can enjoy a campy, fun narrative that occasionally explores interesting issues (or other times just has poop jokes...). Alternatively, if you enjoy both (as I did in 2 and to a lesser extent 3), the games will be god-tier for the player.

In V however, there were some concessions made to the tight level design of the older games in exchange the for vast toolbox the player gets, and the narrative was also gutted to allow for the extremely high mission count and game-time. The game is gud though, and I can understand why casual non-MGS fans and journalists would give it a 10; even if personally to me it's nowhere close to a 10.

 

Yeah, good call on the stuff there. The characters also have a tendency to lose their shit over the LEGENDARY Solid Snake when they learn who he is only for him to quickly dismiss all the fantasies they might have of him. People glorify Big Boss and his battle prowess, and he seems to revel in the attention, but Solid Snake knows that it's all just bullshit and that there is nothing glorious about who he is and what he has done. Especially in MGS4 when he's just an aging old man who gets spasms and back pains; not exactly the vision of a legendary soldier.

But what if they're both fun? I love the gameplay in these games but I also enjoy the stories. Even if they are convoluted at times and filled with faux science, that's still part of the charm for me.

 

Big Boss don't care that much about the legendary soldier stuff that much either, he always seem to get uncomfortable when someone mentions it.

 

I never tried any of the old MGS games.
Should/could i still give this a try or will i miss out to much?

 

Yeah, play them in release order MGS1 (best emulated tbh) -> MGS2 (hd collection is the best version) -> MGS3 (hd collection again)

Playing them out of order ruins a lot of setups - it's especially pertinent to play 1 before 2

Then when you complain about 2 I will call you a dum-dum

 

Why would he complain about MGS2 ? Isn't MGS3 the one to complain about with its back and forth in the menu ?

 

Has anyone checked up on what that head transplant surgeon guy is doing now that the game is out?

 

I just read the spoilers to the game and are you fucking serious Kojima

You were the chosen one! You were supposed to save MG not destroy it. You fiddle playing fuck

 

A lot of dum dums dislike 2 because Big Shell reuses a lot of environmental assets (even though the rooms play out very differently), and the story is 2deep5them

 

Do I have to play ground zeroes before this or may I skip it? I already played mgs 1- 4

 

Yes.

 

(ground zeroes is better than like 90% of the missions in TPP )