What took you so long?
That phrase will always remind me of Mr. Kojima
asking that very question when I saved him from
an enemy camp.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, shortened
to MGSV: TPP or MGSV due to the rather long
name and possibly easily confused by people, is an
open-world tactical espionage that follows from a
line of tactical espionage games known as the Metal
Gear franchise.
My experience from the other Metal Gear Solid
games is not quite what it felt like playing MGSV.
The main reason for this was most likely the freedom
of an open world on two rather large maps
(There’s a reason for only having 2 maps). All Metal
Gear Solid games featured instances in a single level
which emulated the feeling of open world but the
danger was mostly exclusive to that instance rather
than elsewhere.
Due to the open world mechanic of MGSV, an example
of how the rest of my gameplay was affected
was how an enemy spotted me during my small
incursion on an enemy camp. After dealing with
the situation however, the other camps in the area
was alerted to an enemy presence (which in this
case is myself) they made their soldiers more alert
and they were more defensive than those who were
unaware.
On to the summarised story before the events of
MGSV: MGSV is the continuation of the events
that happened during Ground Zeroes (The prologue
of MGSV: TPP), which happened after the
Peace Walker Incident. After saving Chico and Paz,
Mother Base is under attack from XOF, another
private military company guised under as the
inspection group checking on the apparent ‘threat’
of MSF, Big Boss’ own private military company.
After being almost wiped out by the sneak attack,
Big Boss and Miller and the rest of the MSF survivors
attempt to escape the danger that befell them.
However, nothing is at seems and Snake was setup
and Paz was in fact operated on forcefully and had
a bomb surgically placed in her.
The medic was able to get the bomb out but Paz
had woken up in a sudden daze to warn Snake
of another bomb that was inside her.
However,
before they could take action, Paz jumps out of the
helicopter in an attempt to prevent the bomb from
exploding inside the helicopter but was too late and
the bomb exploded just outside of the helicopter
heavily injuring everyone inside of the helicopter
and eventually sent crashing from the force.
It has been 9 years since that event and Snake has woken up
from his 9-year coma. Placed in a hospital bed in a location he
has no knowledge about, Snake is recovering from wounds 9
years ago. After a few weeks of recovery and learning about his
condition, he finds out that the same people who invaded his
PMC are hunting him and are killing people in the hospital to
get rid of the evidence and any form of witness as to why the
XOF was there.
MGSV plays just like how Ground Zeroes did but on a larger
scale and several features that a Metal Gear Solid game has such
as the recurring and iconic cardboard box, now with a new
feature which allows you to have a poster stuck on the cardboard
box to emulate certain effects such as a saluting soldier which
other soldiers will salute to for a certain amount of time, giving
the player enough time to choose the method of elimination
whether it be lethal or non-lethal.
“With enough upgrades to the
cardboard box, they can even take enough bullet
shots to be called a riot shield.”
I somehow found using the wormhole fulton upgrade fun somehow
and used it as often as possible. It’s extremely useful though since it can be
used within buildings and things with roofs.
D-Dog grows up and develops into some kind of dog-wolf hybrid. Not
the only awesome thing about having D-Dog as a companion.
This brings me to another feature of MGSV that most likely
comes from one of its predecessors (MGS: Peace Walker) where
you are able to develop your items and equipment. This includes
all forms of weaponry ranging from pistols, sub machine
guns, rifles, sniper rifles, light machine guns, rocket launchers,
grenade launchers and so on. The R&D development isn’t only
exclusive to weaponry which means it also includes several
items that can provide certain tactical advantages such as smoke
grenades to cover your assault, stun grenades to stun several
enemies within a vicinity, an invisibility device that renders the
user completely invisible for a length of time, EMP mines that
stops vehicles in its tracks ready for capture or you can opt in
to using AT mines which will destroy tank treads or destroy
vehicles completely. As it shows, equipment development plays
quite a role in MGSV although in such a way that the game can
be played with the minimum items or with every single item
upgraded to its highest potential.
This can result in many different ways to approach every mission
available in MGSV. MGSV may be the game that allows
other people who have never played a MGS game before as it is
far more lenient in the way missions and other such encounters
can be handled. A person could go all in guns blazing, forsaking
the stealth mechanic to take out all the people who are potential
witnesses. As they say, dead men tell no tales.
Whereas another person could play as the most invisible operative
known to man, taking out objectives and finishing their
mission as cleanly as possible, with no evidence of their existence
ever emerging... or a person could play between the two
extreme play styles and create their own ways of handling the
situations they are given in which case, most people would tend
to go for without actually realising it.
However, there is one feature that everyone will be constantly
doing all the same: the Fulton Recovery System. During
gameplay, players will constantly be using the Fulton Recovery
System to ‘borrow’ resources, gun emplacements, vehicles and
even people? Well, it’s not exactly stealing but more on taking
people to persuade them into joining Snake’s own new PMC,
Diamond Dogs. Each person persuaded will be placed in his or
her appropriate speciality such as the Combat Unit, R&D Unit
or the Medical Unit. The units will provide different functions;
the combat unit periodically provides the PMC with GMP (ingame
currency used to research and develop equipment), the
medical unit increases the efficiency and how quickly an injured
or sickly soldier recovers when in the sickbay or the Intel team
provides information on the field, updating the players map to
any immediate danger or any other information concerning
other things in the proximity (Which will then give the player a
sound prompt notifying them that the “Map has been updated”).
My only concerns from the game would have been the missing
content or content that was late to be added and a story that was
quite abrupt, even though it is a Metal Gear Solid game. There
was also the issue of losing a certain character after progressing
through the story enough. After all the development costs and
wait time, only to have them taken away with no compensation.
They have been fixing these slight concerns that has the MGSV
community have been waiting to be readdressed. Hopefully the
progress of content additions and bug fixing continues.
Overall though, the positives have heavily outweighed the negatives
(Which is not exactly good in all cases but for this matter,
it actually worked out because they’re working towards amendments
in adding more content and fixing the very small and rare
bugs. Let’s hope that’s the last teleportation across Afghanistan.)
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