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.
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.