Metal Gear Solid V

[Xeogred]

Sounds like you weren't fully informed. The second chapter / episode whatever it was called is obviously unfinished and there are a lot of repeat missions with varied changes and higher difficulty, however the game blatantly shows you the main story missions are the ones highlighted in yellow. In the second half a lot of missions open up at once so you can freely skip over the repeat ones and just focus on the main story missions.

So, no biggie.

Anyways, this game is arguably more gameplay driven, and the gameplay is practically literal perfection, so I just see the alternative missions like more awesome content in an arcade/old school kind of way and you'll get tons of money/resources. But I got stuck on one of the boss ones later on hhaa, they get way harder. Been meaning to go back to it sometime to try and finish everything.

The story concludes itself for the most part, but is definitely unfinished in a Xenogears like way, a lot of "what if's" ... but you're still looking at 50+ hours worth of content.

[isiolia]

what's this BS I've read about Chapter 2 being a bunch of missions you have replay? That sounds meh. Not that I should concern myself w/ Ch. 2 when I'm only 90 mins into the game...

I'd say that's not 100% accurate, as I don't think you have to play the repeat/challenge missions in chapter 2 (I played most of them, but opted out of the final couple). It does have a number of them in there to pad it out, but it also has unique missions, which are some of the best in the game. At least one of them is technically a replay but also adds things to the story...but most are simply challenge versions of earlier missions that you can bypass.

That said, some of the new story missions have additional requirements to unlock them (for Quiet at least), which might make it seem like the repeats are the only things available.

[noiseredux]

ah ok, so the replay stuff isn't mandatory. That's fine with me then. I'm just not a completionist like that.

[Forlorn Drifter]

Hmm. I'm interested now that I'm gearing up to grab a PS4, but I don't know... I haven't played any of the other games, and don't know if I'll be able to get into them (though my short time with MGS3 was good, from what I remember). I also fear getting into something like MGS4, with all those cutscenes... but this one seems to be mostly gameplay.

[isiolia]

I haven't played any of the other games, and don't know if I'll be able to get into them (though my short time with MGS3 was good, from what I remember). I also fear getting into something like MGS4, with all those cutscenes... but this one seems to be mostly gameplay.

Well, if it helps, the game chronology is not the same as the release order. For the game timeline, MGS3 is the very earliest set of events. Technically, Portable Ops comes after that, but it has pretty much been written out as Kojima wasn't especially involved with it. Peace Walker comes after, which Kojima did work on, and refines the base/selectable mission oriented gameplay more. MGSV picks up after Peace Walker, both in terms of story, and in game structure.

So, you really don't need to get too deep in the series in order to be all caught up to what's in MGSV. MGS3 and Peace Walker via one of the HD collections and you're pretty well there. Everything else in the series (so far) comes after it. MGSV essentially sets up the original Metal Gear.

[noiseredux]

I actually commend y'all for being able to keep any of the Metal Gear timeline or stories straight haha.

I'm gonna play this one as much as I can... until Tyranny comes out. Then I'll probably get wrapped up in that an take a break from this one.

[noiseredux]

I'm having a hard time keeping an interest in Phantom Pain. I'm starting to worry that I just don't enjoy a lot of games that "everyone" enjoys. Which is kind of a bummer.

[isiolia]

I'm having a hard time keeping an interest in Phantom Pain. I'm starting to worry that I just don't enjoy a lot of games that "everyone" enjoys. Which is kind of a bummer.

Might depend on your approach to it. For me, trying to approach it like a true open world game didn't work as it was kind of monotonous spending so much time running around the map (or riding D.Horse, as one does). Getting back on the chopper between most tasks, and deploying directly to the next one alleviated that a lot (though it's more expensive).

There are also a -lot- of side ops that just keep opening up as you complete previous ones...so sticking to story ones can help too.

If not, eh, different strokes n' all. I'm sure everyone here could rattle off examples of popular games they didn't care for.

[noiseredux]

Part of it is the way too open world thing. And also the "how do I approach this game?" thing. Maybe similar to how I couldn't get into Dishonored? For one thing I can rule out stealth in a game like this cuz I always get discovered quick.

There's also the sort of discouraging vastness of it all. I mean, after 3 hours I'm still at the very beginning of chapter one. And I literally have 1% completion on the game. Feels a little boulder-up-a-hill to me.

Maybe the bigger problem however is I don't feel either control scheme is all that perfect. Which is to say that keyboard/mouse (my preference) doesn't feel great to me for actually exploring the world. However controller for me is horrible for shooting stuff.

[isiolia]

Stealth gets somewhat easier over time since the map (well, maps) aren't as big as they seem at first. While running around them does take a while, you'll wind up visiting most locations more than once. So even before re-tagging enemies or something, you'll probably know the general challenge ahead. As I mentioned before, getting D.Dog (or Quiet) makes things easier too as they'll mark enemies for you.

Plus you get upgrades or other improvements that can assist.

Overall, too, I didn't feel like it was as big of a deal compared to other games in the series. In, say, MGS3 and 4, stamina killing bosses was a way to get unique items. Once you'd cleared one, that was it for that playthrough. Not being detected or going non-lethal also gave rankings at the end of the game.
For MGSV, you can go back and replay any missions you want if you want to do things better or differently. No need to do it all perfectly the first time.

If what you're shooting for is the story stuff, don't worry about completion percent. At all. It's more akin to getting a platinum trophy for the game. Every mission completed with every objective (even optional ones), every side op, one of every animal captured, and so on.
Instead, there are basically 38 unique missions (you need to do a handful of the side-ops too and/or some other things). 31 in chapter 1, and 7 unique (and 12 repeat) in chapter 2. I'd look more at where you are with those than the percentage given.

Control is comparable to other MGS games. Not necessarily perfect, no, but par for the course I guess. I played the game on PS4 though, so I didn't try KB/mouse.