Would've been so great if it was finished. I find the story to be solid but the direction they went about some of it to be pretty dumb. XOF is the main faction we fight against yet we only directly fight them in one mission? I don't know if there was some hidden meaning behind why they decided to do that and I wasn't complaining because the gameplay was fun throughout, but the fact that most of our time was spent doing filler and side stuff was pretty disappointing. I also found almost every boss fight in this game to be trash. The Skulls were just a nuisance that show up to just fuck your day, and not in a good way. Other than these issues, I found Chapter 1 to be pretty engaging and the overall freedom this game give you to tackle encounters however you want to be genuinely impressive. The adaptive AI and the fact that the game basically plays like a mil-sim make this game stand out. I also didn't totally mind listening to the tapes to understand the lore, as the game kinda tells you to at least listen to the yellow ones to get a gist of what's going on. I did feel like a couple tapes here and there about Code Talker and Zero should've been yellow too, as they do add some much needed context. I also don't think there should've been that many required tapes to listen to, as some of them could've easily been cutscenes. Overall, I didn't have too much to complain about with Chapter 1 and found my time to still be engaging despite its flaws. I loved the darker tone they established with this one since Ground Zeroes and how that prologue set the stage for what goes down in this one. I also found Skull Face to be a pretty competent villain despite his lack of screentime, and the final two missions in Chapter 1 left a strong impression on me.
And then Chapter 2 happens. This part of the game is actually awful. All the story stuff that goes down is cool and there are a few highlights here and there. However, the game expects you to know when and how to unlock and trigger certain chapters, and if you don't, THE MISSIONS WON'T FUCKING LOAD INTO YOUR iDROID. This might've been because of the unfinished state it was released, but it is the way it is nonetheless, which is still ridiculous. I also thought that having you replay old missions with modifiers was really lazy. Sure, some of them were cool, letting you experience the same mission in a new way. But making us replay through some of the worst missions in the game in Extreme or Total Stealth just made the whole experience much more tedious. Not to mention, the ending fucking sucks. The final mission consists of you replaying the first mission ALL OVER AGAIN, WITH NO CHANGES, FOR NO REASON. THEY COULD'VE JUST SHOWED US THE CUTSCENES AFTER TRIGGERING THE MISSION BUT NOPE, YOU GOTTA REPLAY (more like rewatch with how many cutscenes it was) THE FIRST HOUR OF THE GAME. AND THE WORST PART?! THE GAME DOESN'T EVEN HAVE AN ENDING. The Eli thing never gets a conclusion and the game ends after showing you a twist that was clearly leading into a third act that doesn't exist. The Truth tapes do wrap up a lot of loose ends that were unexplained and were pretty interesting to listen to, but the main plot went fucking nowhere. Listening to the Truth tapes make a lot of events more impactful in retrospect and help strengthen the overall story but the lack of a third act still makes the narrative falter. It's truly a shame that it was never completed.
Overall, I should rank it lower but I still had a fun enough time with it. Definitely some of the best action-stealth gameplay you can find in the industry, even today.
And then Chapter 2 happens. This part of the game is actually awful. All the story stuff that goes down is cool and there are a few highlights here and there. However, the game expects you to know when and how to unlock and trigger certain chapters, and if you don't, THE MISSIONS WON'T FUCKING LOAD INTO YOUR iDROID. This might've been because of the unfinished state it was released, but it is the way it is nonetheless, which is still ridiculous. I also thought that having you replay old missions with modifiers was really lazy. Sure, some of them were cool, letting you experience the same mission in a new way. But making us replay through some of the worst missions in the game in Extreme or Total Stealth just made the whole experience much more tedious. Not to mention, the ending fucking sucks. The final mission consists of you replaying the first mission ALL OVER AGAIN, WITH NO CHANGES, FOR NO REASON. THEY COULD'VE JUST SHOWED US THE CUTSCENES AFTER TRIGGERING THE MISSION BUT NOPE, YOU GOTTA REPLAY (more like rewatch with how many cutscenes it was) THE FIRST HOUR OF THE GAME. AND THE WORST PART?! THE GAME DOESN'T EVEN HAVE AN ENDING. The Eli thing never gets a conclusion and the game ends after showing you a twist that was clearly leading into a third act that doesn't exist. The Truth tapes do wrap up a lot of loose ends that were unexplained and were pretty interesting to listen to, but the main plot went fucking nowhere. Listening to the Truth tapes make a lot of events more impactful in retrospect and help strengthen the overall story but the lack of a third act still makes the narrative falter. It's truly a shame that it was never completed.
Overall, I should rank it lower but I still had a fun enough time with it. Definitely some of the best action-stealth gameplay you can find in the industry, even today.