Reiterating the casualness of what I said for my Evil Within 2 review: I'm behind on writing reviews for what I played so I'm going through those games with just small points that occurred to me while playing.
- This is my first game played in the Metal Gear series (if you discount MGRR) so the narrative weight of, what I've gathered to be from cultural osmosis, legacy characters and their introductions really come off as either shallow or pandering or both. I know Ocelot is nearly as integral to the shape of how casts in Kojima's coalesce into a mixture of soapy camp and military drama as the various Snake's are, and the same is true to a lesser degree (from what I've gathered in some youtube catching up of the over-arching plot of the MG and MGS) of most of the other rotating players here, but clearly there is something lost in the intractability of characters who primarily exposit to each other because their relationships are substantiated not in the narrative or play of the game due to either it not being substantial enough (and really, every interaction can at the very least reinforce characterization if not develop it) or having those characters exist in a vacuum of plot necessary movements devoid of true passion (which given what I've seen in recaps of MG1 through MGS4 isn't the case, but in MGSV it is).
- Even if he doesn't get any remotely interesting narrative action or thematic depth, the visual design of Venom Snake is really interesting and captivating across all costumes and states of play. Yes, a scarred and scraggly military vet is not new or groundbreaking, but the mo-cap sells the beleaguered weight of a now spring so coiled it relaxes with effort instead of firing with effort.
- In the vein of character design, holy cannoli is it inconsistent: Venom Snake is great, the Man on Fire is good, Ocelot, Kazuhira, Huey, and Code Talker are passable, and Quiet, The Skulls (in all forms), and Skull Face are embarrassing, and their unique badness tells on Kojima to a greater degree than most video games in their massive project sizes can for their leads.
- My expectations for the gameplay were about as high as I allow them to get going into the first mission, and even so I was really blown away by the granularity and breadth allowed to the stealth as well as the action. Grasping the sides of buildings and pulling in guards never feels like an affordance of level geometry or of stupid AI (and the same sentiments towards gunfights, sowing fear, storming in on a walker, etc.) but a subconscious nudging along of the assumptions made in the coordination of Snake's character design, kit broadness, encampment verisimilitude to life, and the sheer amount of 'I wonder if I can... holy shit, I can' moments coming up every few minutes. Every second the player is in control in MGSV, the systemic interplay creates as effective a drama about the prowess of Big Boss as the story thinks it does.
- I wish it wasn't open world. I know, everybody likes listening to the tapes and running out of a camp with gun fire pushing their speedometers into the red, but I felt like I was constantly wasting money on deploying cars or hampering my gameplay by going on missions with D-Horse instead of D-Dog or Quiet. Obviously hindsight bla bla bla but as I said with The Evil Within 2, a smaller world that can be swept through and reconquered or aligned over and over is a more ingratiating way of allowing non linear travel while not going full Elden Ring. And even if you want more static environs to allow those running away with just a few bullet holes in your ass shy of killing you, Deathloop works that tension perfectly by allowing you to get to the tunnels and then loading back into the play without putting 10 mins of dune buggying or helicoptering inbetween the actual good parts of the engine's treatment of movement.
- Lightening round: licensed music good, score bad. I only need one of each weapon class! I will never switch assault rifles, don't clutter my menu. Come on, Kojima, you couldn't make patting your soldiers at Mother Base a context sensitive interaction? The sneak suit should more prominently display Snake's cheeks, I want that. That's what makes this a 7/10 instead of an 8. Wtf.
- This is my first game played in the Metal Gear series (if you discount MGRR) so the narrative weight of, what I've gathered to be from cultural osmosis, legacy characters and their introductions really come off as either shallow or pandering or both. I know Ocelot is nearly as integral to the shape of how casts in Kojima's coalesce into a mixture of soapy camp and military drama as the various Snake's are, and the same is true to a lesser degree (from what I've gathered in some youtube catching up of the over-arching plot of the MG and MGS) of most of the other rotating players here, but clearly there is something lost in the intractability of characters who primarily exposit to each other because their relationships are substantiated not in the narrative or play of the game due to either it not being substantial enough (and really, every interaction can at the very least reinforce characterization if not develop it) or having those characters exist in a vacuum of plot necessary movements devoid of true passion (which given what I've seen in recaps of MG1 through MGS4 isn't the case, but in MGSV it is).
- Even if he doesn't get any remotely interesting narrative action or thematic depth, the visual design of Venom Snake is really interesting and captivating across all costumes and states of play. Yes, a scarred and scraggly military vet is not new or groundbreaking, but the mo-cap sells the beleaguered weight of a now spring so coiled it relaxes with effort instead of firing with effort.
- In the vein of character design, holy cannoli is it inconsistent: Venom Snake is great, the Man on Fire is good, Ocelot, Kazuhira, Huey, and Code Talker are passable, and Quiet, The Skulls (in all forms), and Skull Face are embarrassing, and their unique badness tells on Kojima to a greater degree than most video games in their massive project sizes can for their leads.
- My expectations for the gameplay were about as high as I allow them to get going into the first mission, and even so I was really blown away by the granularity and breadth allowed to the stealth as well as the action. Grasping the sides of buildings and pulling in guards never feels like an affordance of level geometry or of stupid AI (and the same sentiments towards gunfights, sowing fear, storming in on a walker, etc.) but a subconscious nudging along of the assumptions made in the coordination of Snake's character design, kit broadness, encampment verisimilitude to life, and the sheer amount of 'I wonder if I can... holy shit, I can' moments coming up every few minutes. Every second the player is in control in MGSV, the systemic interplay creates as effective a drama about the prowess of Big Boss as the story thinks it does.
- I wish it wasn't open world. I know, everybody likes listening to the tapes and running out of a camp with gun fire pushing their speedometers into the red, but I felt like I was constantly wasting money on deploying cars or hampering my gameplay by going on missions with D-Horse instead of D-Dog or Quiet. Obviously hindsight bla bla bla but as I said with The Evil Within 2, a smaller world that can be swept through and reconquered or aligned over and over is a more ingratiating way of allowing non linear travel while not going full Elden Ring. And even if you want more static environs to allow those running away with just a few bullet holes in your ass shy of killing you, Deathloop works that tension perfectly by allowing you to get to the tunnels and then loading back into the play without putting 10 mins of dune buggying or helicoptering inbetween the actual good parts of the engine's treatment of movement.
- Lightening round: licensed music good, score bad. I only need one of each weapon class! I will never switch assault rifles, don't clutter my menu. Come on, Kojima, you couldn't make patting your soldiers at Mother Base a context sensitive interaction? The sneak suit should more prominently display Snake's cheeks, I want that. That's what makes this a 7/10 instead of an 8. Wtf.