From the man who sold the world

This fucking game man. Its such a hodgepodge of so many great things and so many bad things. The gameplay is fantastic and honestly some of the most fun I've had in an open world game I have no gripes against that. Yet the story is such a mess, some of it hidden in cassette tapes and the whole story just gets super unstructured after the 2nd chapter. But I still really like the story and the characters (for the most part). The Man Who Sold The World was such a perfect song choice for this game. I love how that ending just ties together the whole series like a nice bow.

As a big fan of the old Konami and Hideo Kojima's work, I could never have missed the fifth installment, even if I joined the party late.

In short, I would describe this game as the Dark Souls 2 of Metal Gear Solid: a great game, but it leaves a bitter taste after playing it.

This title is an excellent stealth and third-person shooter game, the gameplay is still unreached and masterfully done, so much so that years after, when correcting this review, one of the biggest games on the market right now is Helldivers 2, which takes a lot of fundamentals of MGS:V when it comes to movement, and, rightfully so, feels amazing to play.
The tactical freedom and openness of the game give a lot of ways and alternatives even when facing the same level/mission, there is more than one approach to a problem, and it's fun to play around.
While there are many stealth/action games out there, none have been the same perfect combination MGS:V is.

Graphically the game is stunning and has been made into an engine that was being developed only for it, but it does not waste performance, instead uses clever tricks to save some, i.e. Snake's shoulder being more detailed on the side you're looking at.
An engine so advanced and well-made that Konami kept using it for many of their games.
It's a game optimized for the gods, with my counter never dropping under 60fps, even with my not-extremely-powerful hardware.

There is almost somewhat of a managerial part to the game, having you manage resources, bases, soldiers, etc. It features several ways to keep you playing in singleplayer. In addition, the multplayer Forward Operating Base (or F.O.B.) mode is a Clash of Clans-style make your base, then invade your enemies' mode that is quite entertaining.
There is a lot to do!

The plot is as expected fantastic, especially when talking about the Prologue and Chapter 1. Unfortunately, half of the game is missing. The game was supposed to have 3 chapters and of the 2nd one, we only received a third of it at best. There is an ending to the game, but because this is a prequel, it's obvious that the game is incomplete.
I wasn't aware of this until playing it, but it was especially confusing when, randomly, the game started presenting alternative or copy-pasted missions with a challenging objective as part of the normal story missions, clearly, meant as fillers. The missions even have the dialogues turned on, with Snake repeating the same dialogues from a different point of the story.
The game has an ending, but it's not what you expect and not what it should be. Sadly it's possible to sense that the problems between Kojima and Konami have influenced this authorial work.
News since have revealed that Konami had isolated Kojima completely from his team for months[gamerant.com], pushing the release of the game earlier[www.theverge.com] to keep costs together while aiming more for the mobile gaming market[gameranx.com].
Even though the finances of Konami, in general, had been going down, MGS:V Ground Zeroes, prologue of the V, had sold 1 million copies quickly[www.gamespot.com], basically paying for more than a third of the final development cost of V[www.ibtimes.co.uk], lastly trying to crashgrab on the series' name with a disappointing Survival game[www.metacritic.com].

The game is still an excellent purchase, as you can see from the hours I put in it, and it offers plenty of fun and challenge.
Unfortunately, as a fan of the series, I have to say that this game, however great it still might be, what it really did was show me the potential of what it could have been.
And that is why my vote is so low.
I am disappointed Konami was not willing to invest into finishing the product when this is what they had in their hands.

The game has MANY positives, but it's unfinished, and as long as you can look past that, I strongly suggest it!

6/10

Unfortunately for a series like Metal Gear Solid which has incredibly interesting and well thought-out stories that have left me something to think about by the time it's finished, the story for MGSV is incredibly lackluster and most of the time feels completely disconnected from what I'm doing in missions and I believe this stems from the open-world design, as you'll so easily go between Mother Base or Afghanistan/Africa it feels like there's no pressure to get my job done, sure this Skull Face guy is making a Metal Gear with no known motivation, but I'd rather go mine collecting with D-Dog.

I find this game is just missing a lot of the usual narrative flare, since there's no big revelation or master plan that changes how you saw your actions throughout the game, and whilst I do think The Man Who Sold The World is a good twist and it did feel like a good pay-off for playing through the whole game for 50+ hours, it doesn't really change my perspective on how I experienced the game, and feels like a weaker version of MGS2's twists. When you get to the end of chapter 1 you think "is that it?" as by that time Skull Face has done nothing except talk to himself in the back of a car for 10 minutes and then lose control of everything, which is a shame because Ground Zeroes makes him seem incredibly menacing, but in reality has no presence and is nowhere near the level of Liquid, Solidus or Volgin. Chapter 2 is where I could physically feel the game run out of steam, as you've already completed your main objective, and all you get is repeated content which is made harder, or story content and resolutions which you have to grind towards, which isn't right as you shouldn't have to grind a game like MGS just to see how it truly ends, and was also a problem I had with Peace Walker and made me stop playing.

However, on the other end of the spectrum, the gameplay in MGSV is without a doubt the best in the series and saved the whole game for me. When you look at MGS2 on the PS2 and see how much interactivity and small features that game had, it's really no surprise that this game was able to do what the PS2 was capable of tenfold, as not only is the core gameplay flawless, but due to the amount of weapons, items and buddies at your disposal it adds so many possibilities for creatively making your way through a mission, and can appeal to a variety of gameplay types. I found the Mother Base management really fun this time compared to how lame it felt in PW, as fultoning enemies and watching my base grow felt so satisfying to see my progress grow and earn better rewards, and being able to actually visit Mother Base instead of just look at it through a menu, it all just felt a lot more streamlined and less of a chore to do.

Overall, whilst I think the story quality is far from what I'd expected from a game in this series and is pretty pointless (especially how it feels like a way to explain away a 'plothole' in Metal Gear 1) I find it hard to have any negative feelings toward this game as the gameplay is so much fun that it made me put more time into MGSV than the first 3 MGS games combined, and not once was I bored whilst playing. This game is definitely worth playing if you're a fan of the other games, at least just to see how the gameplay is like on a modern console because even 10 years later it's still fantastic and rivals most modern titles.

This game is so strange because there are a lot of things I really like about it and a lot of things that I think actively make it worse. In a general sense, a bulk of my score is going towards the actual gameplay. I loved my experience with this game because it was so much fun to play. It is by far the most fun I've had with a Metal Gear game, and one of my favourite stealth games now. My only complaint with the gameplay stems from the story itself, in that chapter 2's missions are basically just repeats of chapter 1's with a few standout originals every once in a while.

The story is where my biggest contemplations stem from. In a general sense, I suppose I just don't feel like this game particularly added much. The prologue is an exciting introduction that really prepares you for the tone of the game. Then, Chapter 1 has a plotline that's seen through to the end, but it's paced so oddly that it feels like it ends right as it's beginning.

Chapter 2, on the other hand, just feels undercooked. It introduces some interesting concepts and has some of the best moments of the game, but it's really only like 5 missions long. Of course, I know the development issues this game went through, and how that surely affected the final product, but I can only judge what was made (and say "fuck you, Konami" ;P).

All in all, this is a real departure from the rest of the series in a lot of ways. It's not my favourite story, but it is definitely my favourite to play. There are things I wished had been better or fleshed out more, but as a game experience, I'm more than satisfied.