It's a Metal Gear without many cinematics and a little story that only closes the Big Boss saga.

V is based on Peace Walker's mission structure, do whatever it takes to complete a mission alongside some useful gadgets that will help you along the way so nothing feels wasted in your inventory.

It is also the sequel to Peace Walker and that follows it's plot (it is linked with Ground Zeroes as well). Almost everything built in PW is destroyed here. Miller instead of being a commander is now a disabled crybaby who does not get over what they did to him, Ocelot your buddy and won't take a chance against you to betray the team ot something. He only serves to give you the mission instructions. Chico and Amanda practically disappeared. Paz exploded. Boss is barely mentioned here. Strangelove for some reason was killed by Huey and Huey is a traitor for some reason.

Now talking about the cast of the game, Venom as avatar feels good as it resembles iconic Big Boss from PW, almost totally silent on cutscenes. Sutherland gives a good impression of Snake, it is not the over acting of Hayter but does not reach the charisma of the same, it is a somewhat boring voice in comparison and more muffled while Hayter despite being more forced you could see the desire that he had. The voices of the others are no problem, they all go according to what is shown.

Mother Base is the main base of operation for the game, you will spend it expanding, moving personnel around, changing them, expelling them, etc. Modifying the base, training, upgrading the morale of the soldiers, and a few other things. There is not much to while physically at Mother Base other than greet the soldiers and do training, and if you want to get fancy, go see Paz who may die later so it doesn't matter.

The missions in this game are varied, kill this one, recover this, bring this dude, follow these, rescue this prisoner, destroy that. It's simple what you have to do, what matters is the way you do it; blow up the whole area, rescue him on the sly, put them all to sleep, shoot them in stealth, shoot them in non-stealth, in a tank, on a horse, with guns, without guns. It's up to you how you do it and that makes Phantom Pain more special than other Metal Gear Solid games.
Also this game has less Boss Fights than the other games. In fact there are only 2, counting only those with a life bar at the top of the screen. Every time you want to start a mission you have to eat some 30 seconds of cinematic of Snake descending by plane whether it's a side mission or not. Thanks Kojimba.

The open world is what would you expect out of a Ubisoft game. Enemy bases scattered everywhere, collectables, secondary missions scatter around the map, a bit empty map, too big of a map for it's own good. Do whatever you want.

In conclusion, it's a great game with a lack of focus. The open world mainly is what kills it for me. Compare that to the more structured missions of Peace Walker. Consice and direct.

Now, talking about the "It's incomplete" theory I can probably say it's true and not. Kojima ran out of budget hiring Hollywood actors, licensing music, making the Fox Engine itself and some more. Also knowing the internal restructuration Konami went through on those years. Plus the P.T controversy. So Kojima might had been a naughty boy at that time knowing he'll quit the company soon enough. But that affected this game.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a mixed game. It had a troubled development cycle to keep it short and expectations were at an all time high for games considering the series history. Metal Gear had already past its peak in popularity by this point and the series had already ended once as well. This game didn't need to exist but it does and the finished product is pretty good but has very clear flaws.

Metal Gear Solid 4 had already ended the series back in 2008 but Kojima still had ideas that would connect Metal Gear Solid 3 to Metal Gear 1/2 and that came with the sequel to Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. To me, Peace Walker is a phenomenal game. It's seen as a good game to the community as well but theres definitely a lot of mixed reception around it as well but I really enjoyed the game. Peace Walker is the blueprint for this game and its clear. A lot of mechanics introduced there are included here like managing Mother Base, gathering resources, developing weapons, fulton recovery, and the biggest being mission based structure.

With all those extra mechanics the game had to play well in which it does, MGSV makes you feel like Snake with the way the game controls. Each movement is tight and precise and I feel if you ever get caught it is because you messed up somewhere and it is realistic when you do get caught. Metal Gear has always been ahead of its time and MGSV is no different. This game is incredibly free as there are countless ways to tackle each mission in this game besides the tutorial mission (which you need to play twice for some dumb reason). The amount of weapons in this game is insane and the tools included make it even better. The open world is a bit lacklustre in the sense there isn't much out there but it's impressive with its size and graphics for the time. The fact they got the game running on PS3 and X360 is groundbreaking to me. The gunplay in this game is very good as each gun feels nice to shoot. It makes me excited to see if Konami integrates the adaptive triggers with the PS5 version on Master Collection Volume 2. which is highly unlikely but it would be neat. Overall though the gameplay is by far the best thing the game has to show off.

The issue is though that the level design isn't all amazing. Each mission in the game can be seen as repetitive even if you approach things in different methods and good gameplay can only take you so far in a game thats over 40 hours long at the minimum. The so called "difficult" missions in the game happen to just be repeat missions with insane scaling issues, besides Mission 45: A Quiet Exit which is one of the most broken missions due to the fault of not being able to exit the mission once you start it and it begins from a Side Op which gives you 0 prep for the mission, one of the weirdest design choices I have ever seen. I would say that most of the missions in the game are pretty cool and the game features one of the coolest boss fights in any game I've played with Sahenlanthropus. But the lack of boss fights (none in the second half of the game besides repeats) and the countless amount of skulls fights really shows how development was not smooth on this game at all.

Narrative is definitely the worst part of this game. I understand that there really is nothing more they could do with the game story wise but it's still disappointing. The Metal Gear series had always been a narrative heavy series and it's very jarring having such a sudden shift in one game. You can argue Peace Walker was the start of that but even then that game had more plot than this game did and it happened to be a very good one as well. This game, right after Chapter 1 which is already forgettable story wise it completely takes a huge decline. There are great moments here and there like Mission 43: Shining Lights, Even in Death which is one of the best moments in the series it just sort of happens. And you can say that for all of Chapter 2 where events just happen and it provides for weak story telling. The characters in this game are also alright at best. All the legacy characters included serve very little purpose in this game. Ocelot can be argued for but even then his adaptation in this game is the worst in the series. Liquid, Volgin, and Psycho Mantis are here for no other reason besides fanservice which is annoying. Volgin being dealt with in a side op is incredibly weak and gives 0 emotional value. MGSV just happens to be a forgettable narrative experience with occasional cool moments which is disappointing from the series.

The review seems to have me hate the game, but my opinion on it is actually the exact opposite. In terms of a Metal Gear game, it's horrible but in terms of being a video game, it's great. It's definitely flawed and not perfect despite all the 10/10 reviews it got at launched. There are parts of the game that flat out suck. But for majority of the game, I felt I was having a lot of fun with the core gameplay mechanics and was making my own memorable moments without the story. Doing no alerts base clear-outs was always fun to me and had me thinking and had me feeling like a badass when I would extract a tank or something like that. The game did such a good job at making you feel like Snake. I'm glad I saw this one out all the way, and I would be open to replay it but it definitely wont be any time soon considering the length.

This game to me is honestly a perfect game everything about I just loved completely until the end. I know to many the game is unfinished and I would have loved to see the game have its cut content restored but what we got in this game is absolutely amazing and one of the best gaming experiences I have had to date. The only thing I wish that was different for my playthrough at the least is I wish I could have gone into this game completely blind and remained that way until the end because even if I didn't know a lot of the plot details I knew what the MAJOR spoiler of act 2 was. Even with that spoiled I still loved absolutely everything especially the end Quiet mission That had me in tears and I cannot express enough how much I loved this game and everything it had.

É um jogo complicado, realmente o desenvolvimento afetou muito ele, mas eu achei um jogo genuinamente charmoso e interessante, é uma prequel ao primeiro metal gear que funciona muito bem, seus personagens e sua história são muito satisfatórios e a conclusão também. O meu maior problema com ele foram as partes que não responderam dúvidas minhas, e acabei mais ficando perdido do que entendendo a situação. Em conclusão Venom Snake, Quiet e Ocelot são personagens incríveis que fizeram esse jogo ser pessoalmente mais especial do que ele deveria ser.

okay, so a couple of things right off the bat that i think will discount this criticism for a lot of people but regardless feel like they should be mentioned. first, this is the first metal gear game i've ever completed. i've played a bit of mgs1, i've played a bit of peace walker, a bit of mgs4, and a very little bit of mgs3. i never had a playstation until i got a ps3 in high school and didn't want to just jump into mgs4 on the platform, and found myself really frustrated by the stealth gameplay of mgs1, though most of these complaints are things i have since moved past and have been wanting to play these masterpieces quite a bit (though with only a mac and a ps4 it's hard to get yr hands on the main series these days). the other thing that i think will discount some of this for people is that my completion rate currently sits at 49% complete. i've done the entire story, including missions 45 and 50, done quite a few side ops, and collected a decent amount of intel and such, but the rest of the mission tasks, side-ops, wildlife, developments, etc. will have to wait as i slowly chip away at them for the next few years.

WITH ALL THAT SAID i absolutely loved my time with this one (all 77 hours of time). kojima is pretty clearly influenced by cinema in all his work, and it is on full display in this game. the way that cutscenes are interwoven into the gameplay, allowing some player control at times and at other times creating these unbelievable compositions that are fully expressive through the game engine, it's an undeniable experience. i feel this aspect of the game gets even better in the "post-game" as all of the side characters get brought to the forefront, and their endings are all displayed in the most melodramatic and gorgeous fashions. this even extends to all the little details that i saw someone on reddit derisively described as "time wasters" such as: the helicopter intros to missions, the on land or helicopter exfiltrations, the credits at the end of each mission, etc. all of this stuff creates a richly constructed world and immerses the player within all of the processes that are required to make the gameplay possible (whether that be giving an intro to snake arriving at his destination or showing the player what labour goes into creating the thing that they are playing). it allows this game to play like almost nothing else, and to me (as more of a cinematic thinker) makes this game reach to the heights of expression that cinema can achieve.

the gameplay here is obviously amazing, a kind of proton-breath of the wild with how open every objective is, how anything can be accomplished in whatever way the player wishes and there's so many different options to experiment with. it makes it so even at it's most brutally annoying (for me, the mechanized unit in mission 45) it makes the player want to continually try again and again to until the moment where it all just clicks. there's so much more to say just about the gameplay here, but it's also already been thoroughly praised by almost everyone else in the eight years since this game came out.

what is easily the most hotly contested part of this game is the narrative itself. i won't be able to make any comparisons to the other games, as previously mentioned, but i've heard they're all masterpieces so if this is supposed to be the worst one it's clear that those other games must be some of the greatest experiences ever made. what we have here is more expressive than it is coherent, much like some of my favourite films (southland tales, mulholland drive, etc.). there's so much that is explained here but at the same time it feels like it can never be truly understandable. grim nihilistic militarism, organizations created with no ideology except blind devotion to themselves. paranoia and revenge are the only ways forward but even that brings more destruction than it can ever bring peace. kaz constantly looking for spies until he becomes completely consumed with delusions, ocelot drawing further and further away until it's never really clear what he wants, snake seemingly just doing what he believes he should be doing even if he never really knows why he's doing it. even skull face seems hellbent on world domination just because he wants to sow more hell than ever really getting anything from it. the one character that feels like they're able to transcend the constant downward spiral is quiet, who learns the power of forgiveness in a world where it seems to mean so little, and sacrifices herself for a friend in what is one of the most affecting scenes in the entire game.

lot of other little moments i loved here (the ashes, sahelanthropus, the rain into the rainbow, the truth, etc.) but in all honesty i just loved playing something so willingly obtuse and full of questions while also being so endlessly replayable with one of the best gameplay loops i've ever experienced. guess i should finally finish death stranding soon lmao

Perhaps the artistic work that is the closest to being the spiritual successor to John Ford’s The Searchers. Instead of Wayne’s machismo and madness (the latter being given to Kaz), Venom (as deeply pathetic seeing that he’s a loser that vapes all day long) is a confused, misplaced cowboy who ambles around unsure of what the fuck he’s actually doing as he is left mute by the labyrinth of lies while also expanding his military empire and brainwashing people. Instead of miscegenation, you get the War On Terror and hegemonic languages. A deeply sad game of pathetic men who are attempting to convince themselves that they can get closure when in reality they are trapped in an eternal proxy war and are resigned to damnation. An absolute masterpiece.

Primeiramente já vou dizer que não curti muito o open world, sempre preferi metal gear sendo mais linear e mais curtos, esse daqui é 5x vezes mais longo que um metal gear normal isso se tu ignorar um pouco as side ops e as FOB, e confesso que lá para a metade do jogo eu já havia enjoado um pouco do loop de gameplay, por mais que seja o mais polido e diversificado da franquia, eu só comecei a fazer as main missions.
Outro ponto crucial que me faz gostar menos deste jogo , sim, ele esta incompleto e isso machuca muito a minha experiência, não que não concluam algumas pontas soltas, mas o arco geral não teve seu devido fechamento.
Em conclusão, dou pontos pela gameplay e pelo carisma que metal gear sempre tem, por mais que nesse jogo ela esteja diminuído.

TPP is a bit of a mixed bag in my opinion. It has extremely high points and a bunch of low points. That being said this game is still fantastic and deserves your time.

The gameplay is some of the best the stealth genre has to offer and in the 40 something hours I've spent I never found myself getting bored at all. I could lose hours just walking around the map doing random stuff. The fact that there's online elements tied to the main story is something truly unique and I wish more games did something like this, and all the different things you have to do to build your army never felt like a chore.

That being said, the story pales in comparison to the gameplay. It being an unfinished mess and all, I can't really praise it and it's unfortunate we'll probably never see a proper conclusion to this.

Overall, it's one of if not the best stealth game I've ever played and I can't recommend it more to anyone who loves stealth and third person shooters in general.

genuinely not sure how the hell you're even supposed to talk about this game. the easy answer is the cop-out, to say that "the gameplay is good, the story is bad", but idk, i actually quite liked the story! i thought the interpolation of mgs1/mgs3 characters at the interstice of their existence, timeline-wise, was incredibly fun. the problem is, naturally, that it just ends. this game is sort of like a breakup, in that sense.

sometimes there's the furtive warnings that something isn't quite right under the hood - that's the scene where you and skull face are sitting in a jeep driving across afghanistan while you listen to Friday I'm In Love by The Cure on your Walkman. sometimes there's the arguments, and the cold shoulders - that's the part where the story ops dissolve into extreme difficulty/total stealth variants of earlier missions you'd already completed. and then there's the part where it just ends, and you're forced to part ways. much like a lost love, you're stranded in the dust wondering what could've been. but there's no point reminiscing, just gotta pick up your bags and keep moving.

it also goes without saying that this game is no labour of love, rather one of the most pronounced products of abuse to ever hit any level of prolificacy - in that sense, it's kind of a miracle it ended up as good as it is. but my god, is it also exhausting. there's a fatigue that hits you around the 20-30 hour mark that it truly never recovers from. there's a great writeup to be done on the metanarrative insertion of online missions and functionality into the game - much like Big Boss, your work is never truly done - and the great nuke stuff as well, but if i can be honest, i spent every moment of this game running as far away as i could with anything to do with the F.O.B... not for me, thank you! seems like a premise death stranding capitalised on far better than this game ever had the chance to, and good for it, i reckon. mgsv is a game that tries to do everything, and ever-so-nearly touches the sun. then, naturally, konami burns its wings off, and offers you an EVA boob jumpsuit dlc as an apology.

also worth noting that the first 20 minutes of the prologue before it turns into action movie gonzo slop is truly something incredible. blew my mind as a 12 year old, probably my first introduction to games-as-art, nothing's hit me quite like it since.

I want to preface this review by saying that I currently have 94 hours in this game.

Metal Gear Solid V is easily the weakest experience of the mainline titles. Its story, while an intriguing premise, is horribly botched by godawful pacing. Most of the game itself is filler, or at the very least feels like it is. Whatever bits of story that are there aren't strong enough to truly make the experience itself justifiable. Say what you will about a game like Metal Gear Solid 4, but at least in that game everything you did felt relevant to the plot at hand.

That's not to say it's a terrible game, because I don't think it's completely irredeemable. As I said earlier, I have roughly 94 hours in this title, and that's almost entirely because of the game play itself. The stealth action is the greatest it has ever been here, and the missions themselves can be tackled in any number of ways. Everything feels so fluid in ways that earlier titles weren't. However, in the second half of the game, everything starts to feel a bit samey. MGSV doesn't do enough with its latter half to truly justify playing through it in its entirety. Boss fights are disappointing here as well, with only two real boss fights throughout the entire game. It's incredibly embarrassing that the series had some of the most creative and engaging boss fights in gaming as a whole, while V only has two decent ones.

This game lacks any of the charm present in other titles. Characters in V (with few exceptions) pale in comparison to characters in other games. Nearly everyone present sounds flat too, and V is missing that characteristic theatricality that was present in other Metal Gear titles.

In summary, I would say that V is fun as its own experience. But as a Metal Gear title, it fails to properly maintain what made the series special. Play it if you wish, as its definitely enjoyable as a game. But it is far from being representative of Metal Gear as a whole.

Looks and sound
MGSV came out in 2015 and still holds up very well visually while still being well optimized. Sure the textures aren't as high quality as games nowadays but it has some impressive art direction that has helped it age well. I do think some of the visual effects with the man on fire were a bit weird or the 'glare' surrounding large scale fire effects in general but that is pretty much my only complaint here.

One thing I think deserves some praise is the UI. Its by far one of the best UIs I've ever seen. There's not one intrusive or irritating element and the game lets you remove any of the UI elements to your hearts content while also providing with diagetic replacements in the form of certain item upgrades. While I personally prefer using most of the UI, it is fascinating to see how the game feels without no hud.

The sound effects are all very well done from the horse as it sprints, all the various guns and items ate your disposal, the helicopter and other vehicles, the voice acting in the cutscenes and throughout the world. It adds quite a lot to the immersion in the game especially when paired with the non-intrusive UI.


Gameplay
Stealth games don't tend to have the best combat. Most of the gameplay is themed around hiding and avoiding fights. This is for one a very difficult system to build because you have to make hiding around and moving slowly and silently actually fun. You have to make the AI seem smart enough at finding the player while not making it look like its blatantly cheating. Metal Gear has always pushed the boundries with what can be done here but V perfects it. I don't like to use words like 'perfection' because it implies there's nothing else to fix or work on but I think it works here. It has been eight years and there is no stealth game that manages to challenge the smooth controls, insane variety of approach through area design, weapons, items, vehicles, mechanics that this game has shown. I have played more than 60 hours and I'm sure I haven't even scratched the surface of everything that the player can do in this game.

Even if you're thrown out of stealth into a 'boss fight' you can still deal with it in a stealthy manner. And unlike the previous metal gear games, the shooting is decent enough that being thrown out of stealth isn't annoying as hell.


Story
Metal Gear has had an interesting story throughout the past few decades. I wouldn't call it a 'good' story because Kojima has a massive lack of understanding when it comes to basics of storytelling like tone, structure or pacing. He makes up for that with how entertaining it ends up being, and interesting social and political commentary. The commentary is still here in MGSV though it's a bit subtle, subtle for MGS to be clear, since these games are pretty direct about what they want to say. It does feel a bit unfinished or abrupt in its execution but the main focus for me here is the gameplay.

Embora inacabado e repetitivo, é um baita jogo!

MGSV é um jogo que pode ser dividido em 2 experiências: a da história e a de conteúdo opcional (ou nem tanto) juntamente com o gerenciamento da base.

As missões de história são 8 ou 80 pra mim. O prólogo foi incrível, me deixando tenso até a conclusão do episódio. A partir desse ponto, se inicia a gameplay nos mapas abertos e a experiência também vai variando entre as missões. Algumas são diretas demais sem muito desenvolvimento na história, enquanto em outras eu reagia com "É DISSO QUE TÔ FALANDO, *" no quão empolgantes são pelo acontecimento em si e pelo desenvolvimento que elas geravam para a história. Consigo lembrar claramente de algumas missões em que eu ficava mexendo o pé como reflexo da minha empolgação kkkkk isso me fez criar um carinho enorme pelo jogo e gerou longas conversas com amigos que jogaram ou conhecem o jogo.

Entre os episódios da história, podemos explorar os 2 mapas do game e fazer missões opcionais; capturar soldados, animais e recursos; e administrar a base.
É divertido encontrar a sua gameplay ideal. O jogo oferece diversos recursos para o stealth, mas também temos vários armamentos para virar uma máquina de guerra. Ambas abordagens foram prazerosas em minha experiência, inclusive eu montava kits bem distintos para variar a gameplay.
O problema aparece quando a gente percebe que as missões opcionais são pouco variadas e algumas parecem ter sentido nenhum. Normalmente são 10 missões do mesmo tipo "extrair prisioneiro [1]", "extrair prisioneiro [2]" e por aí vai. As missões de limpeza de minas eram meio ????? pois algumas ficavam amontoadas em locais que nem os animais andavam.
O desenvolvimento da base faz diferença no decorrer do jogo para disponibilizar armamento e equipamentos novos, além de melhorar alguns serviços, como o processamento de materiais (que alegria não precisar ficar saqueando materiais processados no late game).

Alguns pontos que eu achei BEM CHATOS foram:
- os pré-requisitos invisíveis para algumas missões da história serem disponibilizadas. Ok, talvez o jogo force a fazer algumas coisas opcionais para dar a sensação de que o tempo passou, porém ser obrigado a escutar as fitas é estranho. Elas são essenciais para compreender melhor os acontecimentos, porém podia ter alguma indicação sobre essa obrigatoriedade;
- pra quê misturar as missões da história com as missões de desafio? podiam ter colocado isso em uma aba separada pra evitar confusão, principalmente quando é necessário descobrir algum requisito invisível 🙄;
- os episódios da história são estilo seriado, tendo uma intro mostrando o Snake no helicóptero e rolando os créditos iniciais SEMPRE exibindo os personagens participantes, e ao concluí-las é exibida uma tela de créditos. Eu particularmente adoro esse lado cinema do Kojima, mas os créditos iniciais nos dão spoilers sobre quem vai aparecer, sejam personagens relevantes ou inimigos diferenciados. Poxa, isso acaba com a surpresa.

E por último, mas não menos importante: infelizmente o jogo não possui um final. Algumas missões são consideradas como "finais do jogo", mas nenhuma encerra os arcos do jogo, o que é uma pena.
Eu gostaria de falar mais sobre os acontecimentos, personagens e detalhes sobre as missões boas, mas não vou entregar o ouro. Esse é um jogo que tem seus problemas, mas seus picos na história roubam a cena e definitivamente merecem ser apreciados sem spoilers.

O tema da Quiet ❤️

"Hurrrm, Colonel....

'I'm fulton extracting this soldier with a C4 strapped to his back, then waiting until he's high up in the air, then detonating the C4. That'll show these commie bastards not to mess with the Diamond Dogs!"

"What the fuck snake"

Directed by Hideo Kojima