Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

[Ivan]

QUIET BOSS FIGHT

i think I was severely underprepared for this. I did it with the tranq pistol and took forever.

 

[Surf Solar]

Couldnt you just have called a support chopper to drop your desired weapon?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Or ask for them to drop your desired weapons on top of Quiet and take her down that way (yes, it works).

It took me two punches with the robot arm to take down Quiet. Very fast and easy.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Couldnt you just have called a support chopper to drop your desired weapon?

Just call it "on" her head, litterally

 

[Alienman]

Since this game uses a Denuvo updade, the crack will take some (hopefully not as long as Lords of the Fallen). And so I have been indecisive about buying this game. Because I've been hearing good things about this title but at the same time it's a MGS game. The only one I've completed was Twin Snakes on my GameCube (still have both! :D). And it was OK for my taste, not bad nor great. Also tried the demo of the third one for 3DS, but that doesn't count.

For those of you that played this game, and know anything about shealth/action gameplay, how does it hold up?
Does the enemy AI is actually intelligent or the mindless drones we get from all other games nowadays?
Are the missions fun and challenging, with unique and varied ways to solve them and interesting level design?
Is the the open world any fun to explore and does it have any aplications in the missions and gameplay?
Does it hold your hand in the slightest difficulty with any hints or popmole mechanics, or is it challenging enough to make you think for a moment (or several)?
And since this is a japonese game, is it well optimized?

In the end should I wait for the crack or is it worth 20 EUR?

The enemy AI is good. The have a lot of different states. If you open fire and such, they will go to combat alert and hunt you down, and if they take casualties they will call for reinforcement from another base. If you have destroyed the communications equipment they will panic a bit
If you knock someone out and they get back up, they will report in what happened to them, but if you knock someone out with a tranc-gun they will think they just passed out (fell asleep) - if they didn't see you that is. They will report missing supplies, and equipment, like mortars or heavy machine guns. All that increase the alert state. Like Surf Solar said, when the combat starts the AI really comes together. The group up, flank and provide cover-fire to each other.

They also have to sleep, so they shift around the troopers. So infiltrating by night you will see soldiers sleeping in tents and so on, and there will be less of them. They also upgrade their equipment depending on your performance. I have noticed that many of the guys I'm fighting now have equipped body armour, since I mostly aim for the chest. They don't use helmets that much - guess I have to increase my head-shooting ability
Lately I have also infiltrated by night, so many of the soldiers have night vision googles now.

Level design is good. You can go about however you like. You also have buddies that affect how you can play. You can request gunship support, mortar support and so on. But there is only so many ways to infiltrate a base I guess. I prefer the sneaky approach. I don't know, I don't need that much variety. Give me a good base and a silenced gun and I'm happy. I like to sabotage their equipment, like radar and AA-cannons, and those things stays destroyed if you ever return.

I think it is challenging. At first I thought it was a bit too easy, and wanted to increase the difficulty. But now... one mistake and ouchy.

 

[sexbad?]

The enemy AI is good. The have a lot of different states. If you open fire and such, they will go to combat alert and hunt you down, and if they take casualties they will call for reinforcement from another base. If you have destroyed the communications equipment they will panic a bit
If you knock someone out and they get back up, they will report in what happened to them, but if you knock someone out with a tranc-gun they will think they just passed out (fell asleep) - if they didn't see you that is. They will report missing supplies, and equipment, like mortars or heavy machine guns. All that increase the alert state. Like Surf Solar said, when the combat starts the AI really comes together. The group up, flank and provide cover-fire to each other.

They also have to sleep, so they shift around the troopers. So infiltrating by night you will see soldiers sleeping in tents and so on, and there will be less of them. They also upgrade their equipment depending on your performance. I have noticed that many of the guys I'm fighting now have equipped body armour, since I mostly aim for the chest. They don't use helmets that much - guess I have to increase my head-shooting ability
Lately I have also infiltrated by night, so many of the soldiers have night vision googles now.

Level design is good. You can go about however you like. You also have buddies that affect how you can play. You can request gunship support, mortar support and so on. But there is only so many ways to infiltrate a base I guess. I prefer the sneaky approach. I don't know, I don't need that much variety. Give me a good base and a silenced gun and I'm happy. I like to sabotage their equipment, like radar and AA-cannons, and those things stays destroyed if you ever return.

I think it is challenging. At first I thought it was a bit too easy, and wanted to increase the difficulty. But now... one mistake and ouchy.

This all sounds pretty good, actually. Is the AI faster to respond to threats than in Ground Zeroes, or is it just their coordination that's impressive? Also, are the areas you need to infiltrate large, or are they mostly just little settlements like what I've seen in some gameplay demos? Did you notice any segmentation in areas for checkpointing/streaming, like the entrances to the cages and that big building in GZ?

This is news to me. If I like what I hear I might end up buying it and hopefully change my tune.

 

[Kem0sabe]

I think the dog only develops as you return to the base, people said you need to go back after every mission... Any truth to this?

 

[Surf Solar]

sexbad? There are many different layouts for levels, from small afghani villages to mountain cities, heavily armed supply bases to very big bridges or power stations. Levels really arent that small imo

I didnt notice any streaming inbetween areas. There are however outposts on the streets, but you can easily avoid them.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I think the dog only develops as you return to the base, people said you need to go back after every mission... Any truth to this?

Yeah, thats true. You don't need to visit him everytime though just returning to base is enough.

 

[Surf Solar]

Yeah I just got him after the mission where I had to blow up the colonel and his tank convoi. Ocelot will ask you to come bacl check him on mother base

 

[Cyberarmy]

This all sounds pretty good, actually. Is the AI faster to respond to threats than in Ground Zeroes, or is it just their coordination that's impressive? Also, are the areas you need to infiltrate large, or are they mostly just little settlements like what I've seen in some gameplay demos? Did you notice any segmentation in areas for checkpointing/streaming, like the entrances to the cages and that big building in GZ?

AI response speed changes with alarm level, on higher alarm level they'll shoot you as soon as they detect you, they even fire blindly to your last know spot while they are withdrawing. They coordinate good till you cut their coms, from that point chaos ensures, especially if you cut it before they raise any alarm. No "Batman Arkham" games type of dialogues though.
There are some large villages and camps we need to infiltrate, no huge cities with dozens of enterabl places though.
Haven't experienced any checkpointing/streaming, only some very very distant textures pop up 1 secondish late but you have to be fast with your binoculars to spot that.

 

[sexbad?]

By checkpointing and streaming I meant the kind of segmented level design in GZ. There are convenient hallways connecting key areas of that game for the hardware to catch up with the game. I'm not a fan of that, but I've been convinced enough by other things folks have mentioned now to give it a shot. It sounds loads more reactive and well simulated than GZ.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I've played 3 hours - got past the opening missions and I've finally hit the main game (being able to go back to your base, select missions, buy upgrades, recruit people etc).

Apart from the opening being headache inducing, I'll say this: this is definitely a game for weekends. You need to put hours into a single session or none at all. It isn't a game you can just jump in and out of.

That is not a criticism. It is the first time I've played a game like this since Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Hitman: Blood Money or Commandos 1 and 2, and I rank those games as the best stealth games evar.

If there was a quicksave option then I'd probably play 2 hour sessions every evening, but there isn't - it is checkpoints and you don't really know when they come about. So I'm going to hold off playing MGS V properly until the weekend.

 

[DDZ]

Triple A gaming done right.

 

[Surf Solar]

Running around with the dog, clearing minefields to earn money.. waiting for the sandstorm to settle while petting the scared dog. Calling in my chopper for extraction while Rebel Yell plays over the choppers loudspeakers. 10/10 :D

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

 

[DJOGamer PT]

This all sounds very tempting, but... unfortunately there are still some things that I need to clear out before wasting my precious gold.

I noticed in some videos I watched that there at least 2 popmole mechanics.
1) Is the 3D Spoting - Wall Hack is a better suited name;
2) The already irritating ''Reflex Time'', last stand, bullet time, let's give the player's a chance to not fuck up, bullshit;

SO. Can I disable these things - like limit enemy spotting to the minimap and completly disable shitty time mechanic? And are there more of this mechanics (regenerative health also counts)?

 

[Surf Solar]

Yes you can disable all that.
And dont mind the health regen, when shit hits the fan and you get spotted you will die in seconds, no cover will help you there.


In other words, the scene after the Quiet Bossfight on the chopper was cheesy as hell... but also awesome :D

 

[Villagkouras]

It seems very well optimized:

So Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is out, and everyone on your Steam friends list is busy playing it. The only problem is, what if it doesn't run on your rig that isn't full of brand new, top‐tier components? You know, a normal gaming rig that doesn't come loaded with a $1000 graphics card encrusted with priceless jewels.

Here we'll be taking a look at just how MGS 5 runs on older hardware; whether the next generation of stealth is compatible with the last generation of PC gaming goodness. For these Metal Gear Solid V benchmarks we'll be seeing how the $110 GeForce GTX 750 Ti holds up to playing Konami's latest at Ultra graphics settings, from 720p resolution to the current industry standard of 1920 x 1080p.

It's backed up by an AMD FX 4100 processor and just 4GB RAM, so it's only barely squeaking in above the minimum system requirements for The Phantom Pain.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain Graphics Options and Settings

For the Ultra benchmarks this is the graphics options we set in MGS 5. AS you can see, everything is cranked up as high as it can go, and set at 1920 x 1080 resolution. There's quite a few options here to tweak in The Phantom Pain, with Konami going above and beyond what it has already achieved with the impressive Ground Zeroes port. We went into much more detail on the additional MGS 5 graphics options available in an article yesterday.

MGS 5 The Phantom 750 Ti Ultra Benchmarks

As per usual for the 750 Ti benchmarks, we'll be running through Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain on its Low, Medium, High and Ultra settings, as well as at three different mainstream resolutions; 1280 x 720, 1600 x 900, and 1920 x 1080. Below the results we've got a 1080p / Ultra benchmark video which gives an idea of the sort of run through we performed at each setting.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Benchmarks GeForce GTX 750 Ti And AMD FX-4100

The GeForce GTX 750 Ti absolutely blitzes through Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, hitting the 60fps frame rate cap with regularity. Bar Ultra at 1080p it was flying, with very few dips and performance and nothing noticeable to the eye. The only time it was really tested was on Ultra, where it still managed an impressive 39 frames per second average. This is still some solid performance if you want all the detail enabled, but if you're a stickler for 60fps then you may want to dial things down a notch.

For a point of reference, the Ultra settings at 1080p brought MGS 5 down to a low of 30 fps and a maximum of 44 fps. I know for a lot of people it's important not to drop down below that 30fps figure, but the 750 Ti just about manages to hold its head above water.

Having played both versions of the game, I would estimate the PlayStation 4 is running at the equivalent to High settings. We also know it's confirmed 1080p/60fps. Pound for pound for the GeForce GTX 750 Ti is running pretty much at the equivalent level of the PS4, which really isn't bad for a graphics card can be picked up for as little as $110 new.

GTX 750 Ti Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain 1080p Ultra Gameplay Benchmark Video

To give you an idea of how it plays on the GeForce 750 Ti, here's a benchmark gameplay video taken at the Ultra settings, 1080p resolution. This is part of our new, dedicated PC Game Benchmark YouTube channel, so click through and subscribe if you want to see more.

TL;DR: AMD FX4100, GTX 750 Ti, 4 Gb RAM = 39 fps average on ULTRA 1080p. Almost 60 fps in every other variable.

 

[Alienman]

This all sounds pretty good, actually. Is the AI faster to respond to threats than in Ground Zeroes, or is it just their coordination that's impressive? Also, are the areas you need to infiltrate large, or are they mostly just little settlements like what I've seen in some gameplay demos? Did you notice any segmentation in areas for checkpointing/streaming, like the entrances to the cages and that big building in GZ?

This is news to me. If I like what I hear I might end up buying it and hopefully change my tune.

They respond fast. If they hear a gunshot they will respond to that immediately. If you mean how they respond to the action, well, it all depends on the severity. If you go all out blazing and killing lots of dudes they will call for backup. But if it's something minor like missing equipment they wont go full out alert. Often they will still contact HQ and warn the other bases, so if you go to another base, that base will now have tighter security. This resets when you go back to your HQ.

I'm not sure what you mean by checkpoints, you mean after you find Paz? Because I think that was just because it was a "main mission" and the scripts required it. I would bet nothing get reset if you infiltrated that base in free-roam. Because well, you can capture a base temporary and you get hero points for it.

There is a ton of small outpost / settlements, but there is also some big soviet style concrete bases to infiltrate. Tons of guards all over, tanks driving around, and helicopters buzzing above. Makes for some crazy escapes. There are some impressive vistas as well. Like a giant bridge between two mountains. Fun to sneak around on and throw people off it These places exists outside of the main missions, but are used in main missions - it is just that the scripts might be different. Like in the main mission there might be a tank there or something like that that isn't there otherwise.

And yeah, if you use a silencer and fail to kill your target, they will call you a bastard for using such a devious weapon

Another big thing is that the game is well balanced money-wise. In many other (open world) games you get rich too quickly, but in this game everything is expensive, and there are so many damn upgrades. So you really have to work for your money. I love that aspect. Every captured car, machine-gun and so on makes a difference.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

This all sounds very tempting, but... unfortunately there are still some things that I need to clear out before wasting my precious gold.

I noticed in some videos I watched that there at least 2 popmole mechanics.
1) Is the 3D Spoting - Wall Hack is a better suited name;
2) The already irritating ''Reflex Time'', last stand, bullet time, let's give the player's a chance to not fuck up, bullshit;

SO. Can I disable these things - like limit enemy spotting to the minimap and completly disable shitty time mechanic? And are there more of this mechanics (regenerative health also counts)?

You can disable all that, but let me tell you that the 3D spotting is not a bad thing at all. It stimulates the player to stop, take the binoculars and take a look to the enemy basement in search of enemies. Is a better system than the Soliton radar from MGS (And MGS2, if I remember correctly) that directly told you where the enemy were.

 

[Puukko]

Haha. My SLI'd 780s would run this game fine almost maxed out at 5K if it weren't for the VRAM. Had to settle for "just" 4K.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

You can disable all that, but let me tell you that the 3D spotting is not a bad thing at all. It stimulates the player to stop, take the binoculars and take a look to the enemy basement in search of enemies. Is a better system than the Soliton radar from MGS (And MGS2, if I remember correctly) that directly told you where the enemy were.

Yes I agree with you in that. But at the same time, once I've spoted all of enemies then I have no more worries because I will always know were they are, and it takes away the thrill (at least for me). While on Thief, Dishonered, Splinter Cell, Hitman (I could go on) I have to memorize the enemies ''schedules'' and ''routes'' and be awary of sound, because since there is no 3D spotting the player must do that by himself. It may come down to taste, but me that one of the things I like about shealth games it's that unique preparation and stratagy the player has to make to achieve the objectives and also that emotion of suspense. With the 3D spotting I don't even need to be listening to the sound of the enemies or memorize their rotines to know where they are, nor do I need much thinking or skill to complete the goals and much less do I get the sense of acomplishment and suspense of sneaking.

But then agian thats my opinion, and the game fortunatly let's me disable that (hoah!). So I'll definitely buy it for 20EUR.

 

[Whisky]

Yeah, I remember Ground Zeroes was really well optimized for the quality of graphics on the PC. My friend who couldn't play Witcher 2 on full could crank Ground Zeroes to the limit without frame rate issues. Crazy as shit.

Oh and I bought this...the key deals I found were just as bad price wise. Fucking Canadian dollar.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

Guys, guys. Are you seeing what is riding because Quiet, her clothing and the fanservice cinematics? I can't believe it. I mean, we come from games like the last GTA which have sex scenes, from the games like the Witcher 2 where we start fucking Triss and watching senseless Ves's neckline and The Witcher 3 where the characters fucks on a unicorn. And now, a bikini clothing character who rubs on water, takes a shower and have a camera shots in a very erotic way is object of controversy. I mean, wa da fuck man.

Yes I agree with you in that. But at the same time, once I've spoted all of enemies then I have no more worries because I will always know were they are, and it takes away the thrill (at least for me). While on Thief, Dishonered, Splinter Cell, Hitman (I could go on) I have to memorize the enemies ''schedules'' and ''routes'' and be awary of sound, because since there is no 3D spotting the player must do that by himself. It may come down to taste, but me that one of the things I like about shealth games it's that unique preparation and stratagy the player has to make to achieve the objectives and also that emotion of suspense. With the 3D spotting I don't even need to be listening to the sound of the enemies or memorize their rotines to know where they are, nor do I need much thinking or skill to complete the goals and much less do I get the sense of acomplishment and suspense of sneaking.

But then agian thats my opinion, and the game fortunatly let's me disable that (hoah!). So I'll definitely buy it for 20EUR.

One interesting thing is when in MGSV you use de 3D spotting system, and the beginning of the "marking" you can watch the enemy behind obstacles in a X-ray way but, a couple of seconds later, the X-ray disappears and only a red triangle remain indicating where is the marked enemy but it doesn't tell you in which direction is the enemy looking. Still being a help but well, at least looks well designed and we can disable it.