So I finally got around to finishing this today, been avoiding this thread just in case of any in the air spoilers. I did enjoy it and surprisingly got into all the mother base stuff, might have to go and give PW another try now although obviously this has spoiled a lot of the story. Definitely was a feeling of repetition though, most missions followed the same angle bar a few.
I've S-Ranked about 40% of missions, some of them I surprised myself how well it went, others got lucky. Some are a pain in the rear, I'm glad I S-Ranked Mission 15 first go, I hate escort missions! The rest I'll work towards, I want to try them all on my own before I look at guides. It feels like a few can't realistically be S'd until you get later gear, but maybe I'm wrong. Same for the objectives, since for sure you can't do some of them without the best fulton and so on.
I tended to play mostly the same way, infiltrate at 6am with a silenced pistol and later silenced Sniper, take out the guards and fulton them just to get them out of the way, then rescue whoever needs rescuing. I liked that the game adapted, not really enough though, even without me doing the missions to cut their supplies off. The armored guys were the best deterrent, meant I couldn't just snipe them to sleep from a distance like you could even if they had helmets.
The weapons are kinda annoying though, at least for non-lethal. You either have the slow initial gun with only 30 ammo or the other one with more ammo and faster speed, but poorer distance. The unlimited surpressor I also realised was pointless with the first gun, because a 2-stage one is enough for all 30 bullets, then you need a supply drop with a surpressor anyway.
Then you have a whole myriad of lethals that you're basically encouraged not to use because you constantly need to fulton the best guys.
I've been playing in online mode but I've absolutely zero interest in doing the FOB stuff, I hope nobody ever invades me because I can't be bothered with it, all the insurance and security nonsense.
As for the ending/story:
I've S-Ranked about 40% of missions, some of them I surprised myself how well it went, others got lucky. Some are a pain in the rear, I'm glad I S-Ranked Mission 15 first go, I hate escort missions! The rest I'll work towards, I want to try them all on my own before I look at guides. It feels like a few can't realistically be S'd until you get later gear, but maybe I'm wrong. Same for the objectives, since for sure you can't do some of them without the best fulton and so on.
I tended to play mostly the same way, infiltrate at 6am with a silenced pistol and later silenced Sniper, take out the guards and fulton them just to get them out of the way, then rescue whoever needs rescuing. I liked that the game adapted, not really enough though, even without me doing the missions to cut their supplies off. The armored guys were the best deterrent, meant I couldn't just snipe them to sleep from a distance like you could even if they had helmets.
The weapons are kinda annoying though, at least for non-lethal. You either have the slow initial gun with only 30 ammo or the other one with more ammo and faster speed, but poorer distance. The unlimited surpressor I also realised was pointless with the first gun, because a 2-stage one is enough for all 30 bullets, then you need a supply drop with a surpressor anyway.
Then you have a whole myriad of lethals that you're basically encouraged not to use because you constantly need to fulton the best guys.
I've been playing in online mode but I've absolutely zero interest in doing the FOB stuff, I hope nobody ever invades me because I can't be bothered with it, all the insurance and security nonsense.
As for the ending/story:
It was actually probably the first MGS that I had a good grasp on by the end. Given how long it took me to play it after release I'd mostly forgotten the pre-release coverage but even after playing the opening I had a feeling something was going on, since the bandage guy was voiced by Sutherland. It was either all a dream/imagination, Sutherland wasn't really voicing Big Boss or as it turned out, you were a copy. Not sure which I leaned more towards but certainly not a surprise when it was revealed.
Everything else though, I followed pretty well which was certainly unusual for MGS, but then story was quite light anyway and you could digest it on your own time with tapes. It was easy to work out Eli was Liquid, Man on Fire was Volgin.
I liked the Quiet sub-plot and I thought the reasons for her not speaking were done well, even if the whole vocal chord plot was classic MGS silliness. Her lack of clothes and reasons though were clearly just an excuse for classic Japanese perving, their culture is just not the same as the West. That scene when you first come back smelling of ****.
Shame that you lose her at the end but I've now read you can get her back, doing her mission 7 times?
Since I finished it and checked I had done all the missions I found out about Mission 51, shame it got cut and I did wonder why that arc was left open but watching the unfinished cut-scenes were enough to cover it, obviously would've been nice to play it but it'd have been the same thing really, sneak up on them, then another fight against the MG.
The only bit I can't remember and need to look up is how Ocelot and BB ended up together and pally, I only vaguely remember the end of MGS3 and it was basically double/triple/quadruple crossing or something. Might end up replaying that one as well.
Everything else though, I followed pretty well which was certainly unusual for MGS, but then story was quite light anyway and you could digest it on your own time with tapes. It was easy to work out Eli was Liquid, Man on Fire was Volgin.
I liked the Quiet sub-plot and I thought the reasons for her not speaking were done well, even if the whole vocal chord plot was classic MGS silliness. Her lack of clothes and reasons though were clearly just an excuse for classic Japanese perving, their culture is just not the same as the West. That scene when you first come back smelling of ****.
Shame that you lose her at the end but I've now read you can get her back, doing her mission 7 times?
Since I finished it and checked I had done all the missions I found out about Mission 51, shame it got cut and I did wonder why that arc was left open but watching the unfinished cut-scenes were enough to cover it, obviously would've been nice to play it but it'd have been the same thing really, sneak up on them, then another fight against the MG.
The only bit I can't remember and need to look up is how Ocelot and BB ended up together and pally, I only vaguely remember the end of MGS3 and it was basically double/triple/quadruple crossing or something. Might end up replaying that one as well.
Running in 1080p also gives cleaner look, especially when Big Boss is in the desert.
