Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

[TheHeroOfTime]

But a lot of the missions (probably 40 or 50%) are boring filler.

If the game is constructed around improving Mother Base, well, I guess it's a bad game then? The game should be focused on the various ways you can approach missions, not picking up plants and people to unlock +1 smoke grenades. Keep that shit in fucking Far Cry and Clash of Clans.

I'm not saying there isn't mission variety and lots of ways to do some missions; I'm saying that the open world serves absolutely no purpose, is detrimental to the core gameplay mechanics, breaks the AI, and introduces a whole set of problems that wouldn't exist otherwise. It was included for the sake of going "Well, I guess an open world would be cool?" when open worlds are shit until proven otherwise. Fuck, I had more fun in Ground Zeroes than most of the missions in TPP. It had a tight narrative focus, meaningfully punished you for not being stealthy, and was just big enough to give you freedom of movement but not so big that it required endlessly trekking.

What exactly does an open world do that makes designing the whole game around it worthwhile?

The game is focused on the various ways you can approach missions. And developing the mother base brings you more ways to approach the missions. It is a very similar philosophy of the Monster hunter series. The missions of the game are repetitive, but all the possibilities of the game is what does fun playing that missions.

The open world is fresh air after playing Peace walker and after experiencing it. It serves for the purpose of making the game better. A bigger map brings more possibilities than a rattle-box. Because, after all, an open world is a bigger ingame room and nothing else. Just look all the possibilities that this game brings thanks to his open world. And it's funny, because Ground zeroes is the same that one main mission of The Phantom Pain: A big bounded area with stuff to do. And since the beginning of the game you have a horse for travel that big world in a fast way. Honestly talking, your complaints in that regard looks hollow.

PD:

 

[sexbad?]

So far, in regard to the open world, I don't think it is that necessary, but it doesn't detract from the game compared to a potentially entirely linear progression. It reminds me of Rage, in that the world is essentially a series of large corridors. There are lots of mountains you can't climb and that block off more approaches to objectives, although it is still on a thankfully larger scale than Rage. A couple missions so far have been linear, since they just have you following a road past a couple of outposts.

But for what is permitted, even if I can't just snipe everybody for a cliff above, the level design in the missions themselves is pretty good. When spaces do open up, they feel pretty natural, and they allow for plenty of planning and different approaches.

I don't like the Mother Base shit. I would prefer just to have new tools and weapons that become available with progression or something, but instead I get a huge metagame with an annoying console interface. The tasks don't seem to be that complicated, but the UI is fucking awful and convoluted. I am not sure there is any clear indicator of which staff members are assigned to departments on their menu, so occasionally I just go there and auto-assign everybody.

 

[CptMace]

Well I'm really enjoying the game so far. Though it confirms my opinion that this disease called "open world" is nowhere near to be stopped. Every fucking game I've played that features an open world never had anything positive coming out of this side of their nature.
You stop a second and you think about what, concretely, does the open world bring to this game... It's such a fucking pain in the ass to get every successful AAA game series get washed out by this fuckin merchandizing gimmick "it's open world ! extra sauce for free !" and yet, even if none of these games actually use that open world aspect properly everybody asks for more. What the actual fuck. There was only one occurence of the open world being relevant in my MGS5 playthrough, and I'm pretty sure it was actually a bug.
Every good mission I had so far in MGS5 happened in closed environments or on the border of the map(s). The mission from Ground Zeroes is yet the best I've had and the fact it happened in a close level isn't unrelevant in that regard.

No wonder Kojigod didn't want his name affiliated with this one. It's so anti-kojima in its very essence. The guy is first and foremost a level designer, the fame of the first three MGS games is mostly due to their excellent level-design, there is absolutely no way to transpose these games in an "open world" shit without making half of their content bland. There is no way anybody's gonna make me believe he's the one who wanted to go for that fucking gimmick that yet claims another victim.

Why god why

edit : well i would have just fisted the message above but it popped while I was writing this one
though I don't agree about the open world having little negative impact. How many times in MGS5 have I run away in any random direction with the target on my shoulders and successfuly escaped with the most stupid strategy ever, made possible and viable precisely because it's open ended.
The fact areas give multiple approaches (which is very true) has yet nothing to do with the open world gimmick. MGS games always had areas that gave several approaches already, it's more about the areas level design than the world design in itself.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Just got the helicopter upgrade where you can choose which tape to play when your helicopter arrives. I chose Ride of the Valkyries. It is every bit as brilliant as I thought it would be.

I just completed a mission where I captured a Russian translator, a puppy and a goat. Climbing into my helicopter with Richard Wagner blasting out gave me a great feeling of accomplishment.

 

[34scell]

Open world is still better than MGS3 and 4 corridor level design.

 

[Nryn]

Unlike the previous numbered entries, I'm finding the game to be frustrating on trying to ghost everything, and it's not because I'm finding the game difficult; instead, it is mostly due to gadgets and weapons being tied to mother base research, which is in turn tied to capturing enemy soldiers. I feel any stealth game that encourages non-ghost playstyles in such a lopsided manner is committing a serious design blunder. Disliked Portable Ops and Peace Walker for the very reason.

Also, most side ops and a lot of the main missions suffer from unimaginative and repetitive mission objectives, prompting me to take breaks to avoid burning out from the filler. Despite boasting the best mechanics and controls the series has seen, the structure and pacing is my least favorite amongst the numbered entries.

 

[Malpercio]

My enemies are starting to wear full helmets and protective jackets. They even shoot fultons now.

Also, a tip: you can kick enemies to wake up them. This way you can sleep an entire outpost, and then kick, interrogate and then fulton each of em, one by one.


By the way, Quiet is ABSOLUTELY BANANAS. A companion that is immortal, can shoot from any point of them map and oneshot most enemies? She really is Kojima's waifu.

 

[Makabb]

The 80's songs are a nice addition but the original soundtrack is damn gud.

 

[Makabb]

 

[Ivan]

what happened?

also,


:mrpresident::kwafuckyeah:


badass endgame stills:

Spoiler

i love Miller's character model. so badass.

 

[Caim]

Elegia's been around for about three decades though.

 

[Malpercio]

>Language: English

 

[Hobo Elf]

Is it possible to upgrade silencers to actually last a while and not run out after 10 shots or so?

Yes. Just upgrade a better silencer, I guess.

Edit: There's a very important story and gameplay reason for why Kojima's character only speaks English.

 

[Malpercio]

Yes. Just upgrade a better silencer, I guess.

Edit: There's a very important story and gameplay reason for why Kojima's character only speaks English.

Spoiler

Parasites?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Spoiler

Parasites?

Spoiler

Yes. If he had any other Language skills than English his character could get infected and die.

 

[Machocruz]

The most problematic issue of the open world is the boss battles: they don't make very interesting use of it. I thought this would be the one area where they rocked the shit out of the rest of the industry. Some of the battles in the other games are bloody brilliant, and I only thought the open world would carry whatever design philosophy backed them into higher realms of scale and insanity. Not to be.

 

[Alienman]

So just discovered something big - no spoilers don't worry!

I was walking around mother base when I discovered a door I could enter. It had blue light over it. I have been playing like 40 hours and this was the first time. And well, I got a big freaking surprise - story-wise. So just a tip, check the doors at mother base. This was at the medical facility on the second floor I believe.

If you want to know what I found it, click the spoilers

Spoiler

Paz is freaking alive! She didn't have a bomb in her stomach, it was a second helicopter that fire a rpg at the helicopter, a traitor I believe

 

[Hobo Elf]

So just discovered something big - no spoilers don't worry!

I was walking around mother base when I discovered a door I could enter. It had blue light over it. I have been playing like 40 hours and this was the first time. And well, I got a big freaking surprise - story-wise. So just a tip, check the doors at mother base. This was at the medical facility on the second floor I believe.

If you want to know what I found it, click the spoilers

Spoiler

Paz is freaking alive! She didn't have a bomb in her stomach, it was a second helicopter that fire a rpg at the helicopter, a traitor I believe

Spoiler

Remember the conversation Venom and Ocelot had about the shrapnel stuck in Snake's brain and causing optical illusions and seeing things that aren't there?

 

[Alienman]

Spoiler

Remember the conversation Venom and Ocelot had about the shrapnel stuck in Snake's brain and causing optical illusions and seeing things that aren't there?

Spoiler

Yes, sure, but something has to be real right?

 

[KK1001]

Kojima is a fucking hack.

 

[Ebonsword]

Damn it, Codex. You've intrigued me enough to plop down my hand-earned currency for this game.

Downloading it now from Steam.

It'd better be worth it!

 

[Great Deceiver]

I really like the game from a mechanical standpoint, but I can't stand the base-building aspect and in agreement with many others here I also think that the open-world design is to the game's detriment, not to its benefit.

It looks brilliant (animations and tiny little details, physics etc.), runs great (constant 60fps in 1440p on my 2-year old rig) and is pretty fun to play, but then I hit pause and see that mother base menu and just get mad. The whole fulton aspect is so fucking retarded it's actually offensive.

I haven't seen too many missions but Ground Zeroes takes a shit on all of them from a great height so far. I hope there are missions as cool as that one later on.

Overall 8/10 goty etc

 

[Machocruz]

This is one of those cases where attention to realism would have been a benefit for stealth focused players. When you have an open world and the enemies don't pursue you to any great extent when detected, and you can keep running away with several bullet wounds in your body, it makes escape trivial. In the real world, it takes some serious tactics/support, evasion, and luck to escape such a situation. You're not just going to be able to run around a few rocks and try again from another direction. There is a similar situation in the film GI Jane where Viggo Mortensen gets tagged while fleeing form a Libyan patrol, even though he had a large head start on them (providing overwatch for Demi Moore, from an elevate position hundred or more yards away from the patrol)

 

[CptMace]

Open world is still better than MGS3 and 4 corridor level design.

Nope. Maybe you meant "bigger levels like the cuban base from Ground Zeroes is still better than MGS3 corridor level design" then yes. Although bugs me so I have to ask you what in MGS and MGS2 corridor level design gives them a pass over MGS3, it really is the same design. Talking about MGS4 level design is kind of a dick move considering there's pretty much nothing there but whatever.
Anyway the game would have been way better if they focused on designing big ass levels like the cuban base and spent less time and ressources on how to spread guard posts in Afghanistan so the poor player who travels the mile between actual levels can pretend something's happening.

I haven't seen too many missions but Ground Zeroes takes a shit on all of them

Amen.

Still, this is a fucking good infiltration game. They actually managed to keep the player interested by slowly spicing things up as the game goes, regarding the enemy gear and support.

 

[Malpercio]

Spoiler

Yes. If he had any other Language skills than English his character could get infected and die.

Kaz and Ocelot do just fine.