Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

[Tryhard]

EDIT: Has anyone found D-dog yet?

You're talking about the actual dog? I've heard they're near the drop zones of Missions 3, 4 and 5, I think the Mission 4 drop zone specifically near Spugmay Keep takes you directly to it.

Edit: I've heard there's a pretty important optional cutscene if you visit the room with the blue door as soon as the medical struct is available. Though some people have trouble accessing it, so I dunno, I think there's some other requirement.

Edited September 3, 2015 by Tryhard

[North888]

DD will be at the drop point of a few side ops and story missions, around 3 and 4 iirc. Miller will mention the dog. Merely tanq him to get him. DD starts as a pup though, so he's not immediately usable as a buddy.

[Knight]

I found DD, I redid some of the missions where he was said to be.

Edit: I've heard there's a pretty important optional cutscene if you visit the room with the blue door as soon as the medical struct is available. Though some people have trouble accessing it, so I dunno, I think there's some other requirement.

Yeah, you gotta go upstairs (or up ladder) in the medical facility and go to the door with the blue light above. I don't think you can be too late to get it though, I have no idea of its significance since it doesn't prevent you from progressing.

[Shin]

I've been playing this a little with my housemate. It's not bad at all, it's like a vamped up Peace Walker. My only issue is actually the open world stuff, it's a little too large for my liking.

[Radiant head]

The opening sequence is hilariously over the top.

[BrightBow]

So I finally properly started this sucker and... got my ass kicked right in the first mission. After failing several times to infiltrate the building, I ended up going in guns blazing. This was not a good start.

I've got to say that I am really surprised that my little dual core Laptop with 4 gb RAM is able to play this game so smoothly, on rather high settings no less (after some updates to the game and the graphics card, before that it was at around 20fps at the lowest settings). This game really does have a great PC port.

Edited September 8, 2015 by BrightBow

[Magical CC]

So I finally properly started this sucker and... got my ass kicked right in the first mission. After failing several times to infiltrate the building, I ended up going in guns blazing. This was not a good start.

I've got to say that I am really surprised that my little dual core Laptop with 4 gb RAM is able to play this game so smoothly, on rather high settings no less (after some updates to the game and the graphics card, before that it was at around 20fps at the lowest settings). This game really does have a great PC port.

Yeah. This game is damn smooth and not very demanding. All ports should be like this.

[NICKT™]

To be completely honest, I don't see it as a 10/10 game.

It's good, don't get me wrong, but I feel that it's sort of a good game amongst a large amount of mediocraty making it seem more than it is.

[spoiler=Opinions, maybe spoiler-ry]I'm not a fan of the environments, I've been to both Africa and Afghanistan now and they both have the same issue of a few pockets of something inbetween a literall fuck-tonne of nothing. Those little pockets as well aren't anything to write home about, as most of them feel the same and even though logically that may be the case in the real world it doesn't make for a great nor interesting game or gameplay.

I've only really played MGS3 but I felt that because it wasn't as expansive all the little different areas seemed more interesting in comparison, whereas Phantom Pain seems pretty dull overall when it comes to the locale.

I would have preferred if they took out half of both maps and then made those two halfs into something new.

The story so far is pretty standard fare, I don't think I'm too far into it as I'm only 20% in according to the game but I feel like after 40 hours there should be more than what I've gotten.

There's a scene with Quiet when you're on a heli being tailed by a jet that I feel encompasses completely my absolute disgust with video games that don't give control and agency to the player. A perfect MGS style boss-battle, heli vs jet and yet it's all just cutscene, one tedious and boring cutscene with absolutely no tension because you're not in control and you know you're not gonna die, it's blagh.

The gameplay feels alright for what's there, the weapon and item menus are pretty intuitive, there was a moment where I wish I didn't have to hold the d-pad to change guns and realized if you just tap the direction it'll either toggle between your two options or cycle through your wheel for the tools and items. So in that regard I like it, but I find I'm often in moments where I'm running and need to change items but can't because on a controller the top face is all managed by your thumbs, so to use the d-pad you have to stop using the left thumb-stick making you stay still which in those moments will get me killed. (I end up using my right hand to then change weapons taking away my ability to shoot, dive, reload and mount obstacles. GG)

The graphics look aright, it's running really great on my GTX980 and I haven't noticed any issues, models all look good and the animations are spot on. Though there hasn't really been many actual cutscenes, especially ones that show and focus on Snake besides everything around him, which I'm only mentioning because going in I was under the impression that Kojima wanted a less talkative but more visually expressive Snake, it hasn't been the case.

One thing that interests me though, is how they originally planned Ground Zeroes. I'm not entirely sure of what it was meant to be when they started, but they released it as a prior standalone game and I'm genuinely curious as to whether they changed the hospital scene to compensate. Imagine if the opening sequence of Ground Zeroes was left in, it'd be weird going through a very tedious tutorial section after having already played a decent amount of the game, right? Very curious...

Waiting for the manufacturing of items is a little tedious as well, though I do believe I haven't seen anything in regards to the micro-transactions aside from the missions you can send assault teams out on, which made me laugh so hard in my chair when I noticed that offline missions, at the very lowest level, take about 6 minutes to half an hour. However, the online missions you can pay to hurry up? 660 minutes. 11 Hours. What the fuck. That's so, so bad.

The difficulty, hm. I'm finding it to be sort of teetering between moments of too easy and moments of ridiculous. I'm not sure if it's just me having a dodgy time trying to experience difficulty, but it's either I go in and die or I go in and maybe have a very minor amount of difficulty but nothing that's sort of on the edge of my seat sort of stuff. Maybe I'm not doing it right.

When I die it's usually just me making a mistake or missing a shot so it never really seems like the game's being intentionally difficult, just that the stars lined up and I didn't luck out. The game sort of tries to combat your playing by introducing things like helmets, which before launch was made out to be in response to your headshots but I've a hunch that it's just over-time the game introduces more equipment to the soldiers. Even still, though, I've yet to really find anything completely challenging, I haven't found much tension which is weird because it's a stealth game, maybe it's a side-effect of it being completely open now, but I feel that in most moments there's plenty of things you can do to help your situation so that you're never really put on the back foot.

All in all, it's a fun way to kill time, I guess. I've rage-quitted a couple times due to a mission just having bad-luck or the checkpoint being really dodgy and making me re-do a lot of work.

Out of all the games I've got installed, it's definitely the one I'd want to play most, though that's not really saying much either.

I regret paying the $90 AUS that I did, I'd be more comfortable with that around 50 to 60 dollars instead.

If I had to score it, it'd be a sort of 7 or 8 out of 10. Probably the 7..

[Deviddo]

Having finished the story, I thought the entire game was phenomonal. My only real problem is that at times I feel the game was doing a bit too much to be difficult. Also the Side Ops where you eliminate a tank unit or whatever can go to hell.

I wish there was a guide out there for the different special character you can extract on missions. I know there's a few that you can very easily miss. An example being a mission where you must eliminate 4 armored vehicles and a helicopter. If you actually let the helicopter land, a special character will drop out who you can then extract. My money is that most people don't even know he exists.

And for some spoilery stuff:

I think the whole twist where you play as a body double is actually really interesting, especially since Big Boss himself actually tells you that no matter what, you make up the legend of Big Boss. The two of you combined do. You DO play as a Big Boss. An extension of him. While you build up Diamond Dogs, he builds up the nation of Outer Heaven. Later, Solid Snake kills Big Boss's Phantom, you, in Metal Gear 1. He then later "kills" the other Big Boss in Metal Gear 2.

The only thing I didn't find as clear was, what drove Big Boss to make his military nation? Was it just finding out how vulnerable MSF was as a PMF out in the ocean after the XOF attack?

Also Konami needs to provide us with the missing Episode 51: Kingdom of Flies. That's an absolutely terrible loose end that has no right to exist in a game all about fixing loose ends in the series. Furthermore, players who transferred over their GZ save data were promised some missions in Camp Omega. They need to provide that too.

[Esau of Isaac]

Finally beat it. I liked it a lot. The plot was a bit too meandering sometimes, and the gameplay could get repetitive, but it was really tight gameplay so even having to do it a lot was still enjoyable. The parts of the plot that fall flat are validated by the moments when everything comes together, though they are few and far between.

The only thing I didn't find as clear was, what drove Big Boss to make his military nation? Was it just finding out how vulnerable MSF was as a PMF out in the ocean after the XOF attack?

I'm pretty sure he made it to combat the system of control that was being put in place by Cipher, and thus by extension the Patriots. I don't think he was every incredibly invested in bringing up a military for any other reason.

Also Quiet's theme is nice!

[Deviddo]

Not sure if this will turn out to be true or not, but some people are noticing references to the works Phantom Pain takes after, and realizing an apparent trend of tricking the player. To the point where some think that we'll have another chapter to play of this game before too long. In some ways it makes sense. Kojima is pretty much the ruse king of gaming, I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be true.

Of course, this could all just be incredibly wishful thinking.

The link in question has heavy spoilers, and should only be read once you've completed the true ending of the game.

https://www.reddit.com/r/metalgearsolid/comments/3lme8z/to_unlock_chapter_3/

Edited September 20, 2015 by Deviddo

[Roxas]

To be completely honest, I don't see it as a 10/10 game.

It's a 10/10 for the first few moments as the game gives you a sensory overload with the explosive pleasure of a thousand blowjobs, and begins to simmer down with the pathetic whines of an abandoned fajita, until it nuts a little on your chin and expects you to clean it up.

i am also 14% complete with this game, but i felt it die down post-Afghanistan

Edited September 25, 2015 by Austin

[NICKT™]

No way in the slightest does it start as 10/10.

You open your eyes to tits in your face and then a completely painful tutorial process that's unbareable the first time around let alone multiple retries to S-rank and get the objectives.

(As a note, for a game that expects you to replay it's missions, they're completely un-dynamic aside from how you approach the objective whereas there'd be more fun in a dynamic objective. Not to mention that some missions have cutscenes which always play even if you've already seen them. The prologue alone you have to skip the cutscene multiple times before you even reach the very first gameplay segment which is literally just pushing forward on the joystick, no joke, just pushing forward for like, 5, 10 minutes? It's probably not that long but it feels it.)

On very thin story threads which is next to unheard of in MGS you're thrust into a boring, plain and repetitive open world, with missions that are glorified side-ops and side ops that are just copy and pastes over and over again.

The game supposedly adapts to your playstyle but I found myself getting the emblem that said I did multiple different styles so I ended up with groups of enemies that countered almost if not all different ways you can play making the game very tedious, very, very tedious. At least it was manageable though, for the solid start of the game I could manage whatever was thrown at me despite the poor mission design and bad game design.

Until you reach missions 28-31. These four missions go to show the absolute worst of the game. They bring forth just how thin and empty the story is, the lack and/or shallow (of) character development and motivations, poor boss design, bad level structure, bad cutscene integration, frustrating enemies, the list goes on.

Now that I'm done with 31, I'm starting to get actual missions which are just "Do this old mission but without being spotted", so hard mode versions, but they're numbered like the rest and you have to do them to advance the story which is pathetic.

This game is terrible. The overall twist of the game would have been better if it had been put at the start of the game and used to push the thematics of the game, emphasizing character's motivations and how they each revolve around one another.

After the hour long prologue, the first few hours in Afghanistan are pretty fun, I won't lie, I definitely had fun doing the first few missions but you quickly learn the missions are going nowhere and that the story is being dripfed to you at a very, very slow rate. I'm about 50% through the game and from what I've read there are literally only a few cutscenes left, maybe like 5 actual story missions out of the 15 to 20 I have left? The rest are re-hashes, literally. I've done most of the side-ops despite them being absolutely mind-numbing but you need to do them to unlock other story things and certain unlocks making the game even more frustrating.

Also, enjoy not having to wait for weapons to research. I'm at the point where I have to wait over an hour to research a gun, I couldn't bear it and straight away modded the game to take away timers.

I think at the end of the day it's okay gameplay, but nothing more. It feels responsive, I guess, but sometimes I feel like controlling the character feels stiff, which makes sense because it's "realistic" but it's not fun to play, it also seems that hitboxes are a little off when enemies are going through animations, as trying to head-shot with a sniper rifle at range begins to be a real pain in the arse, especially if they've got a helmet and you only get a small facial window which is not accurate to the shape of the helmet at all.

There's also a lot of little raises in elevation that you slip down for some reason, despite literally being only a step higher. And many places where you'd think you could climb up but can't, though if you dive in the right place you could make up some places you're not meant to go, so many invisible walls...

But literally everything aside from how the game plays is like, 3/10 at best. The game play would get, maybe a 6 if it wasn't repetitive in boring and plain environments and shallow missions.

EDIT:

If you're going to reply, I want you to wait until you've done 100 side-ops, as I believe that's how many I've done.

I'm at 52% progress, I think? I want you specifically to complete missions 28, 29, 30 and 31 and then tell me your opinion on the game with them being fresh in your mind.

[spoiler=Wish I could articulate my thoughts like other people, this is taken from Reddit]

Yup. This game is a huge disappointment to me. The gameplay can be phenomenal, but even that seems held back by bad game design. The game has a bunch of scenes that seem like they're meant to build up to something, but then the payoff never happens. And scenes that should have had buildup, like the one where you go to wipe out the infection of your own men, have absolutely none. The cutscene that happens is great, but I feel like the whole mission came out of nowhere.

The missions all feel like what the side-ops should have been. They're not just repetitive, they feel disconnected from the story. Yeah, you get some "Oh by the way, something-something Cipher" at the end, but I never really felt like I was tracking Cipher or Skull Face down. OKB Zero was pretty great, especially the first time I played it, but you only get a single mission like that. The mission tasks are just absurd time wasters, and some of them have you go really far out of your way to rescue a prisoner that's nowhere near your objective. They don't incentivize you to take different routes to complete the main objective, but rather to ignore it.

This game has the worst use of "tapes" that I've ever seen in a videogame. Like ~60% of the dialogue from the trailers is in end-game tapes. Basic context that let's you know what the game is about you only get after you finish the final mission. Why? In a game like Dead Space, audio logs worked great to enhance the setting, it gave more atmosphere. Here, the tapes aren't played when you pick them up, and they just feel like it's interrupting the action. Plus, Kaz and Ocelot won't shut the hell up. Don't ever listen to a tape on the first few Afghanistan missions because you won't hear a single word.

Removing Quiet was just shit. There's really not much else to say about. People on here are talking about how they lost the will to play after losing her. That should never happen in a game. She was blatantly thrown in just for fanservice, and like 70% of the lore about parasites exists for no other reason than to explain why she's the way she is. Major parts of the story had to be written just so they could throw tits in your face. Priorities, huh? And why would they send someone you've already seen to be a biological weapon? SkullFace could infect any random person with the strain and have them volunteer. Anything would have made more sense than using her. Again, plot points were made just so they could have tits in the game. It's a shame, because I like the character a lot despite that. She looks way better clothed though, and I was getting really frustrated that she's not a main character. They never have much story development with her, so the best character in the game is basically just ignored. A huge misstep.

"The player is Big Boss" crap that people love to spout just seems moronic to me. You don't really get to control him any more than you do in other games. Fallout let's you actually be your character. I usually put myself in the position of characters in videogames anyways, so I never once felt like this game was extra immersive because Snake is so silent. If they were setting out to make you feel like that, they did a worse job than basically every rpg has ever done, for me at least. I actually do like Venom Snake, unlike some people around here, but still, we got almost nothing from him.

The R&D taking like 3 times as long as it takes to beat the game is also pretty absurd. Most items I never really had a chance to use in the story because they were locked behind a time or pay wall. The gameplay here can be amazing, but the simplistic game design really holds it back. It begs to be in a more difficult, immersive setting instead of the generic-sidequest-ops it's used for. The "Boss battles" were way too difficult. Metallich Archaea is really frustrating to a lot of people, but for all the wrong reasons. Started the mission with the wrong equipment because you thought this was a sneaking game? Well fuck you, better go back to the ACC. Haven't researched the brennan yet or a good shotgun? You're just gonna get pissed off at the mission then. But as soon as you do get one of those weapons? Mission is fairly easy. Snuffy Gear has a move where he jumps on a cliff and does some homing attack. It kills you in a single hit, even on the normal version of the mission. As far as I can tell, the only way to avoid it is to hide behind a mountain. When I tried sprinting I'd still eventually get hit by it. That's not fun, it just wastes my time and forces me to start the mission all over again, ruining what I actually though was a good boss fight at first.

The base gameplay and graphics are incredible, and if you go back on play GZ (on pc at least), they clearly made improvements, even on control. The graphics and gameplay departments have clearly been working on this game for 5 years. The rest of the game just feels quickly mashed together. A lot of stuff is generic, and the parts that aren't seem like they were created solely for trailer bait.

I would love to see the gameplay get brought back in a non-mgs game. Let us make our own character and start our own base, let characters make real game affecting decisions, and bring Quiet back just for the hell of it. They don't even need a reason, she's badass, so give us a clothed badass version of her. Then as long as we don't get "Side op destroy/extract X 1-20" and a story that isn't just "nanomachines made nanomachines which is why the universe is nanomachines" in disguise I'd buy the hell out of that game.

[spoiler=another]

My biggest gripe is nothing that hasn't been said already. We were shown really gritty looking shit in the trailers, talking about becoming a demon and what not. Kojima said that there were things so controversial in this game that he may not even release it, because if he did it might tarnish his name. I went in fully expecting having to kill child soldiers, THAT is what came to my mind when I heard the 'demon' phrase over and over. Is seeing Boss/Venom truly become this monstrous person bred from revenge and pain.

I feel totally shit on in that aspect, this game wasn't dark at all imo. Child soldiers? Sure, but even when you get faked out for a second about killing them I was thinking 'oh boy, this is where it starts, this is why the horn grows'. We got totally fucked by the trailers, they cherry picked 2-3 second clips from these random-ass cutscenes and put them in a trailer better than the original scene. Like the MB infection scene, in the trailers we saw what? MB alarms going off, blood everywhere, boss on his knees presumably waiting for death, music to go along with it and excellent buildup. Compared to the game scene.... you know how it is. I haven't played since beating Truth, but Ill go back and play more MGS and V to reform and pinpoint my feelings on it all.

Edited September 26, 2015 by NICKT™

[Raven]

Mission 29 GOD DAMN.

After dying like 10 times or more on that mission using a grenade launcher/rocket launcher combo and Quiet on her standard damage rifle, I stepped back, saved up some GMP to afford the Brennan rifle for both of us. Did some side-ops while I waited for research to finish, went back and finished the mission on the first try. S-rank, to boot.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Raven

[BrightBow]

Btw, does anyone know a way to turn off the music on the Medical Platform? I wonder were the music even comes from. I can't find any speakers or anything.

Edited October 13, 2015 by BrightBow

[Rxmonste]

Btw, does anyone know a way to turn off the music on the Medical Platform? I wonder were the music even comes from. I can't find any speakers or anything.

It's coming from Quiet's cell, there's no way to turn it off as far as I know.

[BrightBow]

It's coming from Quiet's cell, there's no way to turn it off as far as I know.

Yes, I know it's in Quiet's cell. But there is nothing in the cell that actually causes the music. And there is no reason for there to be music in the first place. Unless Ocelot tries to torture Quite through sleep deprivation. At least, this is the only explanation I can think of for why Ocelot isn't spending his time torturing her. I'm pretty sure there was some talk about "breaking that silence" and the Diamond Dogs happily resort to torture for interrogation. Instead she is just chillin' on the medical platform, making lots of noise because it's not like the patients there need to rest or anything.

Anyway, I unlocked weapon customisation. And unless I'm missing something, it looks pretty broken. I can now apparently apply all effects to any weapon without any downside, not even an increase in deployment cost. Like for example, using a Silencer for the lv1 Sniper Rifle. Especially weird since I got the impression that the advanced guns are rarely better in terms of pure stats. Like, a Sniper Rifle will always kill with a headshot, no matter how strong it is. To me, only those effects make the increased deployment cost of advanced weapons worthwhile. So weapon customization seems to be too good to be true.

Edited October 13, 2015 by BrightBow

[Raven]

Try deploying with a silenced tranq sniper rifle along along with quiet also equipped with her suppressed rifle.

However I have noticed that Quiet's tranq rounds keep enemies asleep for a shorter time than your own.

[BrightBow]

Try deploying with a silenced tranq sniper rifle along along with quiet also equipped with her suppressed rifle.

However I have noticed that Quiet's tranq rounds keep enemies asleep for a shorter time than your own.

Yeah, a silenced Trans Sniper Rifle was the very first thing I made. It's soooo sweet. I definitely did not expect that such a powerful tool would just fall into my hands like that.

Edited October 13, 2015 by BrightBow

[Aizenberg]

such a lust for revenge

WHOOOOOO!

[BrightBow]

I have to say the game feels even more incomplete then Knights of the old Republic 2. Chapter 1 is already pretty messy and Chapter 2 is mostly filler. It's very obvious with the missing children. They are basically Wind Waker's Triforce shards all over again. And everything else just feels very disconnected in general.

Thankfully it's fun to play, although I think I can probably thank Ground Zeroes for that one. The "game" may have been a glorified demo but it was relatively polished.

Anyway, I started using mods. I am very impressed that user-friendly mods like Infinite Heaven already exist. Tons of functions and a convenient in-game menu. I mean, this isn't Elder Scrolls. The game wasn't made to be modded.

So far, I used mods for 3 things:

-Whatever characters I am playing as, now appears in cutscenes instead of Snake. This skips those black fade-outs when the game swaps models.

-Quiet now uses her XOF uniform for her Naked equipment. Unfortunately, her wardrobe is the least of her problems (which is saying something) but it helps a little, just not enough to spend 5800 GMP every time I deploy her.

-As for the third change, it's the thing that people can probably guess, so no need to bother with a spoiler tag to write it out.

Also, Infinite Heaven has a neat function were the soldiers on Mother Base become hostile. It's very fun to sneak around in that place. Especially since the game doesn't have a lot of different environments, so this is a nice change of pace. Now I just need a function to give the chopper Infinite HP so I don't get shot down by the turrets on the way out.

Mother Base is the most dangerous place in the game anyway. This place is so unsafe, D-Dog once accidentally pushed one of my soldiers into the pit with the AI pod. Thankfully she survived but I know all too well that this pit is deep enough to kill most soldiers.

With that said, while I do play entirely Offline, I can't help being worried that messing with the game files could still get me into trouble with Konami.

Edited November 10, 2015 by BrightBow

[Raven]

Quiet spoilers:

After the latest update, replay "Mission 11: Cloaked in Silence" 7 times to bring Quiet back into your buddy lineup.

[BrightBow]

^

Man, as if the game wasn't repetitive enough already.

Edited November 11, 2015 by BrightBow

[Raven]

I've trudged my way through all the side-ops. Now I'm trying to get every task done within the missions. It'll take some time, but I'm on chapter 7 or 8 now, I think.

[BrightBow]

Btw, does anyone know what the deal is with the soldiers with colored hair and face tattoos?

Early in the game I got two soldiers (one male and one female) with red hair and a DD tattoo. From what I read, these kind of soldiers were given to people who pre-ordered in Japan. So I am left wondering why they showed up in my game, considering I merely bought the game from Steam a few days after release.

Edit: So apparently, those two can be obtained by international players by purchasing the day one edition on Steam. Well, unless I misunderstand what day one edition means, this doesn't explain why I have them since I bought the game two days after release.

Whatever the reason, I am not sure if I should call myself lucky for getting them. They would be a shame to kick out. But their stats are bad and since there is a cap on the max amount of staff members, it makes no sense to just put them in the Waiting room.

Edited November 18, 2015 by BrightBow