It seems to me that MGS5 is like an unfinished business that left a lot to be desired…
From a gameplay prespective it’s absolutely stunning with Fox Engine managing to do some pretty amazing stuff especially for it’s time. But story-wise I believe MGS5 managed to leave more questions than the ones that it tried to answer.
I understand that Kojima’s departure from Konami the way it happened played a crtitical role in this but still… I think that the release date should have been posponed in order for the production team to try and complete the unfinished chapters that we never had the opportunity to play. Maybe these chapters contained these answers that might have concluded the MGS saga the way it deserves.
I loved to play TPP, it was smooth and fun. But story wise? It was all over and felt disconnected from the rest of the series. It was a good game, but a meh mgs game if that makes sense.
It does. We all had high hopes for this game, especially since MGS4 was supposed to be the “end” and the “definitive one”. But all of a sudden there comes MGS5 and boom our heads explode.
I covered this in my review actually, which I didn’t fully understand back in 2015 when MGSV first came out.
The reality is that, structurally speaking, the MGSV we got really was the MGSV Kojima always intended to give us. The key differences were that, had the big shitstorm with the Konami JPN VP vs Kojima not gone down, we’d have mission 51, 9 additional modifier missions, Battle Gear, and a few more bells and whistles in the gameplay department.
But from a structural perspective, MGSV is, more or less, a complete narrative that follows a basic three-act structure with the added benefit of a prologue and an epilogue:
Prologue (GZ & Awakening: Where you establish the world “before”)
Act 1 (Missions 1 through 12 (Afghanistan): Where you establish the key characters, main villain, and the central conflict)
Act 2 (Missions 13 through 29 (Africa): Where the heroes pursue the villain, uncover his master plan, reach their low point (Kikongo word worms), climb back up, and have a revelation on how to stop bad guy)
Act 3 (Missions 30 & 31: The climax where the bad guy goes down in flames)
Epilogue (Chapter 2: The world “after”)
There’s a loose end in chapter 2, but not one that really takes away too much, since Eli was pretty much shoehorned from the word go.
So it isn’t really that the game had a bunch of extra chapters because from that point on, it’s basically two games in one. Rather, it’s that the blueprint for this game was flawed at its core.
Mission 46 was always gonna be the ending, and the problem there, is that it shouldn’t have been. Kojima’s vision for the plot was just flawed out the ass. It’s not that the game needed more time because, even if it had mission 51 and all the extra stuff, it still wouldn’t have been satisfying. It’s that it was kinda damned from the start. Which really is a shame because it could’ve been a really good story, but MGSV is a cautionary tale of why a writer should never put an “artistic point” above just telling a satisfying story.
So I got back into mgsv, strictly gameplay wise, earlier this year, i expanded my mother bases(3) as far as i could, and i will say, i cant knock the gameplay, its the saving grace or survive but hell yeah that story is a mess. I believe @Orca told be kojima planned this game to be in development for 10 years and he only got 7, or something like that, so imagine, if true, what 3 more years would have accomplished. it was meant to be an epic, if rumor is true.
MGSV easily has the best controls of the entire series, if not in the 3rd person open world genre in general.
It’s absolute pleasure to play, and there are so many options and such, it really blows everything out of the water. I understand why @Orca plays it so often.
I cannot comment on the story yet because I actually STILL haven’t finished it. I’m about to jump back in though, been thinking about it alot lately.
The gameplay is the best of the series. Moreover, being able to play the game without any of the supporting displays (like ammunition counter, or navigational markers), and simply going forth and tackling a job your way is what kept MGSV on my regular play list.
Mission 33 remains my favorite. It’s high-risk, and feels like a FOX-HOUND mission. My challenge, which I’ve done about once successfully, is to remain undetected and, using only the knife, kill all opposition. It’s very thrilling, moreso than even MGS3. Especially in daylight.
MGSV is a game I have restarted several times from scratch. I love doing a level 1 playthrough, because it brings a more linear feeling to the story, and enhances the urgency of stealth tactics.
In short, I love the game for what it is, but not for its place in the canon. To me, the gameplay should be the new standard going forward, much like how RE4’s version of OTS gameplay has proliferated. The story… Didn’t impress me.
Lastly, the DD Soldier “Creeping Buzzard” is obviously Lara Croft before she was a famous globetrotter in Tomb Raider (1996). This little fantasy of mine tickles me.