Topic: Squeegee Reviews Metal Gear V: the Phantom Pain
squeegee started this discussion 11 years ago #45,277
well, it's metal gear, so i have no idea what the fuck is going on. but, like all metal gear games the first hour or so is tedious and mostly cut scene. yeah, it's playable, but so many cut scenes. also, it's the most bizarre intro i've ever witnessed. also, anachronisms everywhere. is this supposed to actually be in the early 80's? Robotic hands with dexterous fingers and holo-projectors?okay. it's metal gear. let's just get to the fighting.
after this cut scene.... which has credits. in fact, quite a lot of the cut scenes are immediately followed with credits. i've never seen that before. not even in metal gear. It's like a mission ends and they roll credits. You do a little tutorial for advances features, roll credits. finish mission 2, roll credits. it's odd.
so the fighting. which is not bad. it's metal gear and of course there's an emphasis on stealth, which is cool, but it's also quite hard. Still haven't stealthed through a mission. the AI are pretty smart for AI, they don't always follow the same path and they'll busy themselves with chatting and messing with shit. and there's a lot of them. You need to be using all the menu features and gear swaps from the get go. very little learning curve or forgiveness for ham fisting the controls early on. you've got to use binoculars and mark targets and if you attack an AI they WILL scream out and the others WILL come looking for you. It's not like the old games where guards don't even wonder where their buddy just went. they'll go looking until you leave "the hot zone."
It's a nice change from games that hold your hand the whole way through, but it has been frustratingly difficult at times. one interesting thing though is the "chicken hat" which you can wear and will give you a push-button ability to reset guards threat levels, so you can just rush into a base and use the hat and disappear and they all forget they saw you. nice for the inevitable "impossible" fights (in previous games there have been fights that i just hated and didn't want to do 10 times (and watch the same fucking cut scene for the 10th time.)
at least in this one all the cut scenes appear to be skippable.
it's an open world game, and the story line may not exactly be linear. It takes place in afghanistan, but i'm not sure why. the plot... it is bloated as fuck at this point. my best guess: i seriously don't know why. the boss, big bosses, cyphers, a whale. bad guys i guess.
Anyway, since it's hard to stealth i've also tried ramboing missions which doesn't work all that well always either. once you've been detected they'll call for backup. I guess at some point they'll stop coming, but it might be like GTA cops, bad guys on tap, you know? i've been sucessful with a good mix of the two, stealth as much as possible, kill as many as i can quietly, and when the shit hits the fan try and mop up the rest with a machine gun.
that's my MO going forward. that and capturing elites and sending them to my base to be part of my personal army. whatever good that does me. i think they make me stuff.
yeah, there's crafting of some sort and herbalism. mmhmm. like skyrim. so periodically when you're not shooting russians you're picking flowers. yeah... wont' be doing any of that. i'd rather try and bowl through missions. and so far the missions aren't you classic metal gear missions. no "maps", it's all just bases and towns in a large openish world. i think the point is to take contracts as a mercenary and capture bad guys to turn into allies. there's some reason to be building an army.
i'm beyond the 2 hour mark, so no returning this. not that i want to, just pointing out that after 2 hours i don't think it's utter shit. it's really pretty good. you do have a lot of freedom, and this is definitely the most complex in the series as far as mechanics go. you can do quite a lot.
on a scale of Blorn to Grexik i give it a Yernt. i will be playing this more. will i beat it? idk, i've beaten several of them but i haven't played any of the most recent ones. but i bet this one gets 30 hours of my time, maybe more. it's really good looking, btw, the graphics are aaaaall right. they could certainly (as always) go a little lighter with the cut scenes and the fucking credits every 5 minutes has got to stop, but otherwise it's been fun.
(Edited 31 seconds later.)
brie !uXWPG0MygI joined in and replied with this 11 years ago, 17 minutes later[^] [v] #597,740
Thanks, I was wondering if I would like this game. Sounds like I would.
Are the credits different each time or did all the same people do all the same stuff for each cut scene?
Are the credits different each time or did all the same people do all the same stuff for each cut scene?
squeegee (OP) replied with this 11 years ago, 1 hour later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #597,770
@previous (brie !uXWPG0MygI)
they are different. i guess it's probably mostly a loading screen. just kinda odd.
i think you would enjoy the first hour quite a lot. it's bizarre. it's not out of keeping with the weirdness of any of the others, but this was over the top. it's almost kind of like red dead redemption. but i'm not sure the world is wide open in quite the same way. but i think i just got past the big "on rails" intro/tutorial/training beginning and have just had the world opened up. i'll report back.
they are different. i guess it's probably mostly a loading screen. just kinda odd.
i think you would enjoy the first hour quite a lot. it's bizarre. it's not out of keeping with the weirdness of any of the others, but this was over the top. it's almost kind of like red dead redemption. but i'm not sure the world is wide open in quite the same way. but i think i just got past the big "on rails" intro/tutorial/training beginning and have just had the world opened up. i'll report back.
Killer Lettuce !!iNo3FkiZx joined in and replied with this 11 years ago, 3 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #597,772
I feel I should add, it is a Hideo Kojima game. Thanks.
squeegee (OP) replied with this 11 years ago, 5 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #597,774
@previous (Killer Lettuce !!iNo3FkiZx)
it is the most hideo kojima game ever
like how michael bay movies are recognizable by the explosions, you can spot this hideo kojima game from a mile away.
like if michael bay made a movie called explosions about explosions and had special explosion animations done by Pixar or something that's how hideo kojima this hideo kojima game is
it is the most hideo kojima game ever
like how michael bay movies are recognizable by the explosions, you can spot this hideo kojima game from a mile away.
like if michael bay made a movie called explosions about explosions and had special explosion animations done by Pixar or something that's how hideo kojima this hideo kojima game is
(Edited 1 minute later.)
Methlyfe !KansasxqvM joined in and replied with this 11 years ago, 2 hours later, 3 hours after the original post[^] [v] #597,852
I hope to see more open world, War games You make this game sound interesting. The crafting aspect sounds a bit of out of place.
hater !JGlOo5d1iU joined in and replied with this 11 years ago, 1 minute later, 4 hours after the original post[^] [v] #597,855
@previous (Methlyfe !KansasxqvM)
> I hope to see more open world, War games
That aspect made me want to buy it. I love open world games, and I bought one of the arkam games cause it was open world, but I prefer immersive skyrim type open world games.
> I hope to see more open world, War games
That aspect made me want to buy it. I love open world games, and I bought one of the arkam games cause it was open world, but I prefer immersive skyrim type open world games.
Killer Lettuce !!iNo3FkiZx replied with this 11 years ago, 17 minutes later, 4 hours after the original post[^] [v] #597,881
@597,774 (squeegee)
I've never played any of his games, but judging by the outpouring of support over Konami mistreating him, they must be pretty special.
I hope he finds good work after Konami, since it's rumoured he won't be there much longer. He seems to be a positive influence in the industry.
I've never played any of his games, but judging by the outpouring of support over Konami mistreating him, they must be pretty special.
I hope he finds good work after Konami, since it's rumoured he won't be there much longer. He seems to be a positive influence in the industry.
squeegee (OP) replied with this 11 years ago, 8 hours later, 12 hours after the original post[^] [v] #598,011
@597,852 (Methlyfe !KansasxqvM)
i had a mission to take out some radar dishes in a small town. there were something like 15 guards, maybe more. i stealthed in and watched patrols and figured out that a truck rolls into town about every 10 minutes or so and most of the guards gather around by the truck and chat with the driver and i think unload the truck or something. noted. once i knew where everyone was/going to be i went along the perimeter and started sneak attacking guards, cutting their throats, and then dumping their bodies behind some sandbags.
i had just finished killing the last perimeter guard when the truck rolls into town and everyone goes over to say hello and unload boxes. So i'm sitting there thinking of ways i could either A) kill everyone quickly or B) take out the radar dishes simultaneously so i can just run. That's when i saw it. a mortar launcher not 6 feet away. "why not do both," i thought to myself. so i got on the launcher, targeted the hood of the truck, and let fly a mortar round. there were like 9 guards around that truck. it immediately startled every guard who either tried to run or return fire. I let loose another mortar towards some other soldiers further away. The truck explodes, like 9 dudes insta-die, and i keep lobbing mortar rounds until the game says, "Area Captured." Then i simply targeted the radar dishes AND the bonus microwave transmitter, and then got the fuck out of there before reinforcements arrived.
it was pretty satisfying.
And previously i got through a checkpoint by stealing a truck and crashing the gate and running over a soviet. there's lots of ways to complete objectives. and i just "research and developed" a sniper rifle, so we'll see if i can just sit back and snipe a whole town or if it keeps reinforcing.
i had a mission to take out some radar dishes in a small town. there were something like 15 guards, maybe more. i stealthed in and watched patrols and figured out that a truck rolls into town about every 10 minutes or so and most of the guards gather around by the truck and chat with the driver and i think unload the truck or something. noted. once i knew where everyone was/going to be i went along the perimeter and started sneak attacking guards, cutting their throats, and then dumping their bodies behind some sandbags.
i had just finished killing the last perimeter guard when the truck rolls into town and everyone goes over to say hello and unload boxes. So i'm sitting there thinking of ways i could either A) kill everyone quickly or B) take out the radar dishes simultaneously so i can just run. That's when i saw it. a mortar launcher not 6 feet away. "why not do both," i thought to myself. so i got on the launcher, targeted the hood of the truck, and let fly a mortar round. there were like 9 guards around that truck. it immediately startled every guard who either tried to run or return fire. I let loose another mortar towards some other soldiers further away. The truck explodes, like 9 dudes insta-die, and i keep lobbing mortar rounds until the game says, "Area Captured." Then i simply targeted the radar dishes AND the bonus microwave transmitter, and then got the fuck out of there before reinforcements arrived.
it was pretty satisfying.
And previously i got through a checkpoint by stealing a truck and crashing the gate and running over a soviet. there's lots of ways to complete objectives. and i just "research and developed" a sniper rifle, so we'll see if i can just sit back and snipe a whole town or if it keeps reinforcing.
squeegee (OP) double-posted this 11 years ago, 10 minutes later, 12 hours after the original post[^] [v] #598,016
oh yeah, and i think the "crafting system" i guess is more like an unlock system. you have to spend points to unlock stuff like C4, and you collect things in the world to earn the points. but you can also just grab from the world what you want, like weapons and whatever, but i'm not sure if you can then resupply those unless you find more. I'm going to guess that the collection/unlocking system isn't a requirement, because when i needed explosives, "hey look a mortar launcher" but i could've also brought C4 and planted then and blown them all up at the same time and just run away.
There's also a "base building" minigame back at your home base. again, spend collectible items and unlock points to unlock new buildings so you can hire more soldiers who have different skills and all of that i'm sure leads somewhere.
There's also a "base building" minigame back at your home base. again, spend collectible items and unlock points to unlock new buildings so you can hire more soldiers who have different skills and all of that i'm sure leads somewhere.
squeegee (OP) triple-posted this 11 years ago, 10 minutes later, 12 hours after the original post[^] [v] #598,021
@597,855 (hater !JGlOo5d1iU)
it is as immersive as any metal gear, but like every metal gear there are loading screens, and stat screens, and grades between missions that really rip you out of the experience and kind of interrupt that immersion. it worked for the isometric games, but once they went full 3d it started to be annoying in my opinion.
not to mention each time it does that stat screen grading thing it flashes MADE BY HIDEO KOJIMA like 19 times and then KONAMI gets the final say with a splash screen - then you get whisked back to motherbase in you helicopter with a short cutscene. honestly, you can feel the fight between Kojima and Konami between every mission. AND apparently Hideo Kojima does a cameo i will will not be surprised if when you rescue him the following cutscene is him explaining his side of the story. anyway, the gameplay is good, but the transitions could be better. combat is fun, and there's always a real sense of threat and danger that pulls you in and immerses you.
it is as immersive as any metal gear, but like every metal gear there are loading screens, and stat screens, and grades between missions that really rip you out of the experience and kind of interrupt that immersion. it worked for the isometric games, but once they went full 3d it started to be annoying in my opinion.
not to mention each time it does that stat screen grading thing it flashes MADE BY HIDEO KOJIMA like 19 times and then KONAMI gets the final say with a splash screen - then you get whisked back to motherbase in you helicopter with a short cutscene. honestly, you can feel the fight between Kojima and Konami between every mission. AND apparently Hideo Kojima does a cameo i will will not be surprised if when you rescue him the following cutscene is him explaining his side of the story. anyway, the gameplay is good, but the transitions could be better. combat is fun, and there's always a real sense of threat and danger that pulls you in and immerses you.
squeegee (OP) quadruple-posted this 11 years ago, 19 minutes later, 13 hours after the original post[^] [v] #598,023
@597,881 (Killer Lettuce !!iNo3FkiZx)
i played the very first one, but i was shit at it because i was too young to want to mess with lots of menus (and puzzles and slow paced sneaking) and preferred more action paced games. but it's always had a very deep story with lots of twists and turns and you want to play it more than once because it's interesting and you want to know more about what's going on. with all the following games they build more and more onto the story. Now it's a very, very convoluted mess of a tale that makes almost no sense to me. there are websites and infographics that explain the story simply and give major plot points and build the overarching narrative and it plays out as the weirdest manga you can think of. and it's because of the weird mechanics behind boss fights. in the old games one of the bosses was a literal ghost. there's a psychic boss that reads your mind and a vampire guy. bosses can teleport and there's nano-machines and deus-ex machina plot devices, and you struggle to make sense of it all. but it is SO detailed all throughout that the story keeps you as entertained as the gameplay. in the past the cutscenes have been what i would call decadent. it's like Kojima decided to force us to watch a 20 hour movie in between the 10 hours of gameplay it took to beat the game. that's probably hyperbole, but i seem to recall one of them as having 5-7 minute cutscenes after boss fights and a long fucking ass ending. they've reined those in though, i hope. at least stuff is skippable. but the boss fights will not be any more realistic than in previous games. the bosses so far all look very Hideo Kojima.
i played the very first one, but i was shit at it because i was too young to want to mess with lots of menus (and puzzles and slow paced sneaking) and preferred more action paced games. but it's always had a very deep story with lots of twists and turns and you want to play it more than once because it's interesting and you want to know more about what's going on. with all the following games they build more and more onto the story. Now it's a very, very convoluted mess of a tale that makes almost no sense to me. there are websites and infographics that explain the story simply and give major plot points and build the overarching narrative and it plays out as the weirdest manga you can think of. and it's because of the weird mechanics behind boss fights. in the old games one of the bosses was a literal ghost. there's a psychic boss that reads your mind and a vampire guy. bosses can teleport and there's nano-machines and deus-ex machina plot devices, and you struggle to make sense of it all. but it is SO detailed all throughout that the story keeps you as entertained as the gameplay. in the past the cutscenes have been what i would call decadent. it's like Kojima decided to force us to watch a 20 hour movie in between the 10 hours of gameplay it took to beat the game. that's probably hyperbole, but i seem to recall one of them as having 5-7 minute cutscenes after boss fights and a long fucking ass ending. they've reined those in though, i hope. at least stuff is skippable. but the boss fights will not be any more realistic than in previous games. the bosses so far all look very Hideo Kojima.
hater !JGlOo5d1iU replied with this 11 years ago, 10 hours later, 23 hours after the original post[^] [v] #598,194
@598,021 (squeegee)
You do good reviews and writeups have you considered doing YouTube reviews? Be nice to have someone who isn't just following the same angry format that seems popular.
You do good reviews and writeups have you considered doing YouTube reviews? Be nice to have someone who isn't just following the same angry format that seems popular.
squeegee (OP) replied with this 11 years ago, 2 days later, 3 days after the original post[^] [v] #599,003
12 hours in
i think i understand the gameplay now. the world IS open, but it's also containerized for the sake of story flow. certain areas of the map, it would seem, can only be accessed by accepting a mission. the play-flow is pretty much- get in your helicopter "command center"
- accept a mission
- you get dropped in on the edge of the "hot zone"
- sneak in and take care of business
- call your chopper for evac
- get in you helicopter "command center"
- repeat
you also a "mother base" which is an oil platform in the ocean that you can go to and perform all of your base management stuff. there are some bonus missions there, as well as some story content. in my opinion it's a bothersome pain in the ass and the UI is kind of a nightmare. base management feels pretty well shoe-horned in, and it's not fun. so far. you start with tons of cash and i went ahead and unlocked a bunch of additional platforms and expanded the base for some reason. i guess to research new tech and give me some bonus features like reconnaissance and better "support." idk, i'm trying to just automate it and say fuck it, it's super unclear about how to go about doing management and i don't want to spend the time looking it up.
i haven't had a boss fight yet, unless you count escaping on horseback a boss fight.
the missions are pretty fun though, i'm getting better at sneaking but it's fun to kill people even if you lose heroism or whatever "points" you get. i think that just effects your end game score. i have a puppy now
(Edited 33 seconds later.)
squeegee (OP) double-posted this 11 years ago, 2 days later, 6 days after the original post[^] [v] #599,937
squeegee (OP) triple-posted this 11 years ago, 3 days later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #601,155
16 hours in - 8%
pictured: resource collectingmother base is making more sense to me now. it IS the way you unlock weapons and upgrades. you build your base, collect resources, and unlock equipment as you advance. it seems a little more complicated than being optional filler content. there IS automation, so you don't really have to do much more management that "unlock this" or "equip that," but it seems like collecting resources is pretty much necessary. so i'm finding that i can't always just hit my main mission objectives, i have to spend time and effort covering the whole area slowly and methodically so as to not get killed. yeah, pretty much everything is on the map, but you still have to sneak around, wait for patrols, knock people out and hide them in dumpsters and shit. just so you can grab a box of "fuel" and a box of "biological materials" or whatever.
not that that's not all fun, it's just it kinda sucks it's like grinding. i mean it's got me collecting nodes World of Warcraft style. yeah, yeah, it's all conveniently located and i can just run around collecting plants while i wait for the slow ass chopper to land, but i can't not. you know? i'd rather not, and having to just kinda makes it a chore. this is Metal Gear, i should be attacking ammo depots throughout the story to buff my arsenal, not collecting boxes of metal to craft into a gun.
oh well, it's a minor annoyance and the action is easy enough to drop in and out of, so i'm still enjoying the game as a whole. i've been putting a heavy focus on side-ops in the beginning (as has been recommended for reasons) and i'm now ready to advance more with the story missions. as i've said before, the story makes no fucking sense, so i'm ready for anything.
Also there was a save-game corrupting bug that would happen if you played certain main story missions with a specific buddy and they say that is fixed now. but i still plan to do mission 29 and 42 solo just in case.
(Edited 4 minutes later.)
squeegee (OP) quadruple-posted this 11 years ago, 1 day later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #601,629
Methlyfe !KansasxqvM joined in and replied with this 11 years ago, 45 minutes later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #601,634
squeegee (OP) replied with this 11 years ago, 5 minutes later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #601,636
@previous (Methlyfe !KansasxqvM)
pretty much, yes. there are credits after every single mission. and pre-credits as the missions start... it's ridiculous.
pretty much, yes. there are credits after every single mission. and pre-credits as the missions start... it's ridiculous.