Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

[HaythamKenway]

Those magazine previews have finally started coming out. Bits and pieces of unverified info so far:

 

- The prologue chapter in the hospital is very linear and cutscene heavy, reminescent of CoD4's Chernobyl mission. It plays and feels like nothing else in the game. Strong horror atmosphere. According to the journalist, it might be one of the best moments in the entire series.

 

- Snake has 108 pieces of shrapnel and human bone and teeth lodged in his body. It was deemed too dangerous to remove sharpnels in his brain and close to heart. Blows to the head could cause him to hallucinate.

 

- Snake can assemble a whole zoo on Mother Base. He puts small animals that can't be Fultoned into his pockets.

 

- You can call in an assault helicopter to distract and attack enemies. And you can make the chopper blast music as its doing it. Including Wagner and A-ha - there are plenty music cassettes full of classic 80's music to collect in the game.

 

- The Afghanistan map is set a bit north of Kabul. The African map is on the border of Angola and Zaire and the DD Mother Base is on Seychelles.

 

- 14 major bases in Afghanistan alone, plus about two dozen smaller outpost and forts. Each unique and handcrafted with multiple entry/exit points and so on.

 

- The playable area is limited during missions, you will be warned if venture out of the boundaries. You can play around with enemy placement and run diversion ops - attack a small outpost to make them call reinforcements from more heavily defended areas, thus lowering the numbers there.

 

- "Skulls" supersoldiers are inspired by MGS4's FROGS. Extremely tough and agile, run faster than Snake's horse and travel in sandstorm.

 

- The story is divided into episodes, not unlike episodes in TV show. Each episode has its own opening, credits and so on.

 

- Optional objectives in missions for 100% completion and extra rewards (blueprints, cassettes). Those objectives are only revealed after completing the mission for the first time, like in TBoGT/V.

 

- Multiple missions are open at the same time.

 

- Snake can't understand Russian anymore (brain damage), so you need to Fulton a translator to make sense of interrogations. Loads of side ops, including tracking down and recruiting crazed MSF survivors from 9 years ago or hunting for unique animals (legendary brown bear). Some side ops can turn into a full story mission.

 

- Much less cutscenes compared to previous games. Much of the exposition is now delivered through cassettes.

 

- Loadouts before embarking on a mission, like in PW. You can choose two primary weapons, one secondary, bionic arm type, explosives, items, vehicle, deployment time, buddy and playable character (you can play as any random mook among DD).

 

And also this:

 

[Creed Bratton]

It sounds insane. In a good way. The hype is real, fellas. The hype is real.

[Jabalous]

I've always wanted an infiltration-based open-world game, and TPP seems to be the one that will finally deliver this. I enjoyed playing through GZ and was impressed on the AI reactions as they're challenging especially on hard difficulty. The only thing that I may miss from the formula, is MGS's well-known long cutscenes and codec. They were replaced with less and shorter cutscenes and cassette tapes.

 

There was an important weapon missing in GZ, which is a knife. It was available to use only when holding an enemy by the neck (R2) as it can't be used anytime you wish. Say I tranquilized an enemy and now I want him dead, do I have to use a gun? it makes no sense. I don't know if it's going to be reintroduced in TPP.

Edited June 6, 2015 by FiS!!HeR

[Theodore93]

I've always wanted an infiltration-based open-world game, and TPP seems to be the one that will finally deliver this. I enjoyed playing through GZ and was impressed on the AI reactions as they're challenging especially on hard difficulty. The only thing that I may miss from the formula, is MGS's well-known long cutscenes and codec. They were replaced with less and shorter cutscenes and cassette tapes.

 

I agree. From a gameplay standpoint, it sounds perfect but I'm concerned about the cutscenes issue. I just hope pandering to the whiners and casuals doesn't end up being detrimental to the story.

[BUT THE BENZ]

And also this:

 

[Señor_Fisto]

Been playing Ground Zeroes since it came out free on plus (and even after playing it I still wouldn't have payed 40 bucks) and all I can say is holy sh*t. This is the stealth game I've always wanted, although I miss some of the cool stuff MGS4 had going in it. I was looking forward to getting back to a technologically limited time period like the 70s but then they gave us a hologram map called the "iDroid" anyways but I can't complain too much about the little things.

 

I love it. It takes the classic MGS stealth and gives you interesting and challenging missions to do in a very organic feeling open environment where it really DOES feel like I'm choosing how I do things. It feels like the first real spy game I've ever played, you're airdropped in at one point and then it's all your call: You choose the route, you do the recon/intel gathering, you choose who to kill, tranquilize, hold up or otherwise incapacitate on your way through, you choose your extraction route and landing point and do whatever it takes to make that extraction go smoothly, whether it's taking out enemy anti-aircraft installations on your way in to clear resistance for a riskier LZ or making sure you left an open trail and no loose ends behind you. Or maybe you just took someone's gun and mass murdered the base. Metal Gear Solid doesn't care. Metal Gear Solid only has objectives.

 

Can't f*cking wait for Phantom Pain, first game I'll buy on release since GTA5

Edited June 7, 2015 by Señor_Fisto

[NYC PATROL]

I love MGS a lot but let me start with the negatives based off of GZ and snippets of TPP info.

 

- Not a fan of the PW mission design and the thought that each mission is being treated like a TV episode and have credits. (We'll see how it turns out)

- That there will be less of the series trademark cutscenes and expect us to get more of the story through cassette tapes. No more codec =(

- A few aspects of the gameplay felt off to me in GZ. MGS4 was smooth in every animation. Selecting things was a breeze. MGSV's movement is well..it needs polish. A lot to do of course with the fact that Kojima wanted to give the illusion of weight in BB's movements for V. Which I think should have been left out. Shooting in GZ feels like a crapshoot also.

- Selecting weapons. I don't know how any hardcore MGS fan could like the D-pad over the classic L2,R2 method. Why would they change what worked perfectly fine, I don't know.

 

Basically the main gist of negatives. Hopefully they applied some good polish on the gameplay.

 

Now positives / looking forward to:

 

- Open World mgs alone should be amazing.

- The story

- Walking around and building up Motherbase

- All of the different gadgets and weapons

- DD

- Detail, detail and more detail. Kojima loves his attention to detail. We love his attention detail. Also easter eggs.

- Last but not least MGO 3

Edited June 7, 2015 by NYC PATROL

[Señor_Fisto]

I love MGS a lot but let me start with the negatives based off of GZ and snippets of TPP info.

 

- Not a fan of the PW mission design and the thought that each mission is being treated like a TV episode and have credits. (We'll see how it turns out)

- That there will be less of the series trademark cutscenes and expect us to get more of the story through cassette tapes. No more codec =(

- A few aspects of the gameplay felt off to me in GZ. MGS4 was smooth in every animation. Selecting things was a breeze. MGSV's movement is well..it needs polish. A lot to do of course with the fact that Kojima wanted to give the illusion of weight in BB's movements for V. Which I think should have been left out. Shooting in GZ feels like a crapshoot also.

- Selecting weapons. I don't know how any hardcore MGS fan could like the D-pad over the classic L2,R2 method. Why would they change what worked perfectly fine, I don't know.

 

What's wrong with the shooting in MSGGZ? I like it. First shot always goes where you're aiming, full auto is inaccurate as f*ck, burst fire's the way to go.

 

And man, the d-pad is totally superior for L2 and R2. No more scrolling through lists of inventory and shooting mechanics were absurd in MGS4.

 

 

I agree on the other points, I missed radio-ing the fire support frequency and interrogating guards for extra codes. Now there's a limited amount of intel guards are really good for and eventually I stop needing to.

[Osho]

This is going to be my first MGS game, and reading through all the details about the open world experience and interesting ideas makes me really excited even more to get my hands as early as possible.

I really hope that all this which sounds great on paper is also well executed in the game too.

[NYC PATROL]

What's wrong with the shooting in MSGGZ? I like it. First shot always goes where you're aiming, full auto is inaccurate as f*ck, burst fire's the way to go.

 

* I think what I don't like about the shooting actually has to do with aiming and the PS4 controller. While I've gotten used to them, I'm not a fan of the PS4 sticks. I miss PS3's taller,bigger convex ones. In MGS4 I could precisely and smoothly move the reticule but in GZ I go to readjust (even just a little) and it moves all over the place, not in a smooth motion. The PS4 sticks are shorter and require more force to adjust. Thus which can make a quick aiming adjustment feel janky. I tried turning down the sensitivity but that can only help so much. The only solution was to physically not move the stick as fast while trying to aim.

 

And man, the d-pad is totally superior for L2 and R2. No more scrolling through lists of inventory and shooting mechanics were absurd in MGS4.

 

* But we could always take away items in the pause screen so there wasn't a bunch of unnecessary stuff. Also your thumb didn't need to move at all to select things. And to each their own. I thought they nailed the mechanics in 4.

 

Edited June 10, 2015 by NYC PATROL

[Señor_Fisto]

Yeah the PS4 analog sticks are terrible, I don't hate the shape, it's just the deadzones are terrible and they're very stiff and hard to pull precise aiming. It's not impossible to get used to but it's definitely high on my list of complaints about the Ps4 controller.

 

And even though the mechanics were functional in MSG4 I did always feel they could use the slight bit of simplification of controls they got in GZ, but definitely to each his own in that department. It is weird not using L2 and R2 for the plentiful amount of gadgets but I still welcome the new changes.

[Theodore93]

It sounds like we will be getting microtransactions. The Italian PS store page supposedly says the game features “Optional in-game purchases“.

 

http://www.tmag.it/2015/06/10/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-pain-has-microtransactions/

http://attackofthefanboy.com/news/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-pain-has-microtransactions/

 

f*cking Konami...

 

Also this:

https://twitter.com/Artemio/status/608292197109088257

Edited June 10, 2015 by Waldie

[KarimNTerr]

This game looks amazing, and the Metal Gear series is one of my favorite ones, although I only played to Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (my personal favourite). Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will probably be the the best Metal Gear game ever made. However, I'm very sad this will be the last one to be made by Hideo Kojima, and I have no idea what the future of this iconic series will be. The three aforementioned games gave me very profound emotions, especially Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and I'm expecting great things from this one.

Edited June 11, 2015 by toxluv

[HaythamKenway]

No one does trailers quite like Kojima.

 

 

[Th3MaN1]

No one does trailers quite like Kojima.

 

 

f*ck this, they quoted a romanian.

 

f*ck YEAH

[Swiss Made]

Solid and Liquid?

[Tyler]

Fantastic trailer. They really know how to produce a good tease of gameplay and thematic exposition. I cannot wait for this game.

[hornedturtle]

It sounds like we will be getting microtransactions. The Italian PS store page supposedly says the game features Optional in-game purchases.

 

http://www.tmag.it/2015/06/10/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-pain-has-microtransactions/

http://attackofthefanboy.com/news/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-pain-has-microtransactions/

 

f*cking Konami...

 

Also this:

https://twitter.com/Artemio/status/608292197109088257

I guess they didn't make a large enough profit from the demo XD

[Creed Bratton]

I f*ckin' hate Kojima's trailers. He makes amazing games and absolute sh*t trailers.

[Theodore93]

Some customization footage:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=623_ELd3Dzs

[HaythamKenway]

http://www.ign.com/videos/2015/06/18/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-pain-gameplay-demo-e3-2015

 

MGS V confirmed for having the best 80's soundtrack since Vice City. Take on Me, Final Countdown, Maneater, Kids in America. The rollerblading D-Walker looks completely cheesy, glad to see that MGS still has that wacky spark, even in a game as dark as TPP.

[Son Of Big Boss]

so,i noticed in both trailers:

>Zero

>some troops like Beauty and the beast unit

>Paz, or something like a flashback or a clone?

>Miller's eyes looks like he's blind

>the Metal gear REX prototype and "Eli" piloting him

>The Boss AI

>some kind of virus on africans

>i think Big Boss tortured Huey Emmerich, because Granin in MGS 3 sent blueprints for a bipedal tank to Huey

>seems like there will be a battle just at the entrance of the Metal Gear's hangar and the kid Psycho mantis floating in the air behind a Colonel Volgin on fire is just a materialized illusion

at the end of the trailer there are 2 identical kids, "Les Enfant terribles", because Solid and Liquid are twin brothers, and also Solid had originally blond hair, he just made it brown

[Theodore93]

at the end of the trailer there are 2 identical kids, "Les Enfant terribles", because Solid and Liquid are twin brothers, and also Solid had originally blond hair, he just made it brown

 

This issue is of much debate but personally I don't buy this idea that idea that Solid Snake is really blonde. Granted his hair is pretty bright in the MGS briefing but it could just be the weird lighting. And why mention scissors but not hair dye? In every game other than that briefing, he's had brown hair and I don't imagine Snake is the kind of guy to just dye his hair for the look of it.

 

And do we even know that's Solid and Liquid in the trailer? Unless he's had his memory wiped or something, then it can't be Solid because he didn't know about Liquid and Les Enfants Terribles until the Shadow Moses incident. If it is him, then I have no idea why the hell he is blonde.

 

Then again, for all we know it's just another retcon.

Edited June 18, 2015 by Waldie

[HaythamKenway]

The "Solid" in the trailer also has the same clothes as Liquid. My theory is that Liquid is simply thinking about and imagining the other son of BB. Occam's razor.

 

Still, I do expect Solid to show up in this game, at one point. If Kojima's really bringing the series full circle, then there is no reason for him not to appear.

[Shaundi.]

Not a huge fan of IGN but this is the only Phantom Pain preview video I found on youtube under suggestions.

 

 

[LiangHuBBB]

lookin great so far

[Parv]

I never play any metal gear solid game except metal gear solid 4 guns of patriot. I love mgs 4 and I am really excited to play metal gear solid 5 phantom pain, ground zeros is extremely short, many peoples beat the game in less than 1 hours but ground zeroes is still awesome because of it's stealth gameplay and graphics are so cool, the open world is really small but ground zeros is just a prologue to upcoming game phantom pain, I love its tralier. It's a massive open world game and stealth gonna be awesome. I love mgs cutscene and this cutscene gonna looks more awesome and boss fights gonna be great

[esmittystud101]

Finally got around to pre ordering this. I love the Sept. 1 release date, good time of the year to start releasing games. I'm pretty sure this is open world, correct? I have a tendecy to get strategy guides for some of these open world games just so I don't have to endlessly search on my phone for questions about areas. The only two I have bought in the past five years is Bloodborne and The Witcher 3 which both are well worth the money. The Witcher 3 CE strategy guide is probably a 9 out of 10 score, pretty good guide. But after the Bloodborne guide, everything else is pretty much a nine max. They set the bar real high with the best guide I've ever seen. 500 pages as well.

 

Do you think this is going to be a game that you may want to pick one up (Bloodborne - The Witcher 3) or do you think it will be an open world game where you don't really need one (Far Cry 4)?

 

edit: Unavailible on Amazon at the moment. It should e-mail me when they are not. I'll let guys know.

Edited June 22, 2015 by esmittystud101

[Haha365]

Loving what I'm seeing so far. Day 1 purchase, most likely.

[Daz]

I may be the only one but I am still hoping the dropping of Hayter is a stunt, I just can't take Kiefer Sutherland seriously as Big Boss. And we still haven't seen any dialog from him aside from the odd sentence here and there. Where are the epic monologues? Where are the bad ass insights into battle and the military world we want to hear?

 

I really hated Peace Walker for the fact it had basically no story. The game was fun considering it was just a PSP game, but with the new gameplay of replayability, getting S ranks and collecting items, weapons, vehicles and most importantly, personnel, it kind of waters down the experience. The removal of the codec was the nail in the coffin for good juicy dialog. The audiotapes were good but a lot were just one-sided and never felt in the moment. That is the majority of why the game felt dead and why GZ felt dead as well. I really hope that when good plot does happen in this game it comes on strong and hard, like a concrete dildo.

 

I am all for Far Cry mixed with GTA but that is not what I love about MGS. I really still hope it feels like an MGS game because so far it doesn't aside from the very first TPP trailer. I want more intense sh*t like that, and less filler. Even if it makes the game shorter. The gameplay is good, but I still have my doubts and my worries. Sometimes a game or a story needs to know when to finish and make itself complete and not draw itself out to pretend it has more life than it does. Otherwise it will get far too diluted.

 

I think I would have preferred to have two separate games. One with all the epic story and moments we are used to, and then the rest of the game playing as a random character or motherbase soldier in co-op and multiplayer, similar to GTAV and GTAO as separate entities, or all the gameplay related content being metal gear online as opposed to just MGSV. In that respect all the replayability makes more sense and doesn't try to drag gameplay from a story filled experience.

 

The problem you get with that like any free roam experience with side quests and other tasks to do. You end up spending real world days not picking up the story missions again until you have had fun f*cking around. It is like watching 15 minutes of a movie to pause it and pick up the rest 3 days late. It ruins the impact of it. I just don't think it will have anywhere near the impact of MGS 1-3.

 

 

 

I am excited, but nowhere near as I was when the first trailer hit. I feel that the impact of the game can't match that.

 

Need moar mindf*ck.

Edited June 22, 2015 by Daz