MGSV TPP begins 9 years later after the events of GZ, as Big Boss (now Venom Snake) reawakens after his 9 year coma and escapes the hospital he was taken care of when XOF forces attack, including Quiet, the mute sniper we encounter later in the game, the psychic Tretij Rebenok (young Psycho Mantis) and the Man On Fire (reanimated Volgin now with fire powers). Snake is aided by the mysterious Ishmael and Revolver Ocelot, his fr-enemy from the previous games in what is hands down the best opening chapter for any game. It is nail biting tense and sadly the rest of the game doesn't match up especially after Episode 2 which is after you rescue Miller and go on a vengeance mode by Fulton extracting soldiers and upgrading your Mother Base. The story feels like it was made up alongside the game play and no one objected Kojima's decisions in the writing and editing department. Because the story missions feel like stand alone chapters with no common thread, you don't even know what happened to the main objective later. "The life and times at Mother Base" if I may. Nothing makes sense and the ending throws more plot holes than resolving them (too much of retcon) and the story and game feel incomplete (Episode 51 anyone? and where is chapter 3: Peace?), which is a shame because this is (or may be?) the last Metal Gear game directed by Kojima.
And by the way Quiet is not even important to the story (you can choose not to meet her at all or kill her after the boss battle and if you save her she will die after chapter 40 or 41). And episode 46? never mind... and Skull Face is such a lame villain that he doesn't get a boss fight. Period.
But the game does have its shining moments. The game play is a successor to GZ with many enhancements. You can run, crouch and crawl and use stealth or full on assault (or mix them up) to complete your objectives.
The iconic cardboard box returns as the ultimate stealth tool with a few improvements. For example you can now stand up and run and crawl when inside the cardboard box, burst out and aim and shoot or do your CQC and you can even attach posters which have different hilarious responses by the enemy.
You can also enhance Snake's prosthetic hand with various capabilities like a sonar detector, rocket launcher wrist and upgradeable battery to shock enemies and knock them out. Also present is the gun customization option where you can create your own custom guns.
The enemy AI is brilliant and they WILL give you a hard time. Additionally the day-night cycle and weather system affect you and the enemies as well making infiltration easy or hard.
You can Fulton extract every single enemy and assign them in various teams, animal/bird/insects for your own personal zoo, materials containers, vehicles and tanks for you to sell or use, this gives you various upgrades and advantages. For example my Intel team, when leveled up would give me early warnings about enemy FOM (field of movement) nearby and weather changes allowing me to plan my next moves easily.
But the biggest game play changer is the Buddy system, where you can have one of the four "Buddies" assist you in story missions or side ops or just free roaming. The buddies are really helpful (Quiet is a buddy too) and give you many advantages in the battlefield. One my "buddies" is D-Dog and he is the best!!! He can smell out enemies, animals and plants, marking them out for you, bark to distract enemies or outright kill them too.
The graphics are seriously good and the draw distance is amazing. The game is a perfect PC port and runs smoothly on my 4GB RAM and i5 processor (I am playing this on High settings). The soundtrack by Ludvig Forswell is amazing and suits the game. The voice acting is top notch and Troy Baker is the best of the whole bunch as Revolver Ocelot. Kiefer Sutherland IS Big Boss/Venom Snake, but he rarely talks. But it is the game play where the game truly shines.
Sadly while the game play is great, the open world is not. It is barren and empty and there is nothing much to do after Fultoning or destroying everything. Wild animals rarely appear and there are no opposing forces other than you (even MGS4 had it better with an ongoing war despite not being open world)and not even any civilians around. There is barely any difference between most of the story missions and the side ops. And the vehicle controls are bad and seem more like and after thought. You cannot ride a helicopter and there are no motorcycles, only jeeps, trucks and tanks. Snake cannot swim and there are no boats or ships.
Oh and the boss battles fall way short. Its not that these fights are bad, they can get pretty tough especially the Skulls unit, but if you are expecting another Psycho Mantis (missed opportunity here), Laughing Octopus, The End, The Boss (you get what I mean), you will be disappointed.
To summarize, while there is a great prologue chapter, great game play, quirky enemy AI, great graphics and soundtrack; the repetitive mission structure (fulton extract everyone and chapter 2 is a mess), a barren open world, tough-but-not-epic boss fights and a bad story which creates more plot holes hold it back and you truly feel the phantom pain what could have been...
And by the way Quiet is not even important to the story (you can choose not to meet her at all or kill her after the boss battle and if you save her she will die after chapter 40 or 41). And episode 46? never mind... and Skull Face is such a lame villain that he doesn't get a boss fight. Period.
But the game does have its shining moments. The game play is a successor to GZ with many enhancements. You can run, crouch and crawl and use stealth or full on assault (or mix them up) to complete your objectives.
The iconic cardboard box returns as the ultimate stealth tool with a few improvements. For example you can now stand up and run and crawl when inside the cardboard box, burst out and aim and shoot or do your CQC and you can even attach posters which have different hilarious responses by the enemy.
You can also enhance Snake's prosthetic hand with various capabilities like a sonar detector, rocket launcher wrist and upgradeable battery to shock enemies and knock them out. Also present is the gun customization option where you can create your own custom guns.
The enemy AI is brilliant and they WILL give you a hard time. Additionally the day-night cycle and weather system affect you and the enemies as well making infiltration easy or hard.
You can Fulton extract every single enemy and assign them in various teams, animal/bird/insects for your own personal zoo, materials containers, vehicles and tanks for you to sell or use, this gives you various upgrades and advantages. For example my Intel team, when leveled up would give me early warnings about enemy FOM (field of movement) nearby and weather changes allowing me to plan my next moves easily.
But the biggest game play changer is the Buddy system, where you can have one of the four "Buddies" assist you in story missions or side ops or just free roaming. The buddies are really helpful (Quiet is a buddy too) and give you many advantages in the battlefield. One my "buddies" is D-Dog and he is the best!!! He can smell out enemies, animals and plants, marking them out for you, bark to distract enemies or outright kill them too.
The graphics are seriously good and the draw distance is amazing. The game is a perfect PC port and runs smoothly on my 4GB RAM and i5 processor (I am playing this on High settings). The soundtrack by Ludvig Forswell is amazing and suits the game. The voice acting is top notch and Troy Baker is the best of the whole bunch as Revolver Ocelot. Kiefer Sutherland IS Big Boss/Venom Snake, but he rarely talks. But it is the game play where the game truly shines.
Sadly while the game play is great, the open world is not. It is barren and empty and there is nothing much to do after Fultoning or destroying everything. Wild animals rarely appear and there are no opposing forces other than you (even MGS4 had it better with an ongoing war despite not being open world)and not even any civilians around. There is barely any difference between most of the story missions and the side ops. And the vehicle controls are bad and seem more like and after thought. You cannot ride a helicopter and there are no motorcycles, only jeeps, trucks and tanks. Snake cannot swim and there are no boats or ships.
Oh and the boss battles fall way short. Its not that these fights are bad, they can get pretty tough especially the Skulls unit, but if you are expecting another Psycho Mantis (missed opportunity here), Laughing Octopus, The End, The Boss (you get what I mean), you will be disappointed.
To summarize, while there is a great prologue chapter, great game play, quirky enemy AI, great graphics and soundtrack; the repetitive mission structure (fulton extract everyone and chapter 2 is a mess), a barren open world, tough-but-not-epic boss fights and a bad story which creates more plot holes hold it back and you truly feel the phantom pain what could have been...