Don't get me wrong, this game was super fun to play. Great controls, great enemy AI, and very helpful "buddies". The problem with this game is it is SUPER repetitive, with ZERO payoff. Let's start from the beginning.
The opening prologue is about an hour long and is honestly one of the best prologue missions I have ever played. The creepy and desperate escape from a hospital that is being overrun by men with guns, and you just woke up from a coma. It sets up the game very nicely with a huge promise of being an amazing game.
The problems come directly after the prologue. What follows is 30+ hours of a vast, boring open world, and maybe 30 minutes of good storytelling. With more lensflare than even JJ Abrams would dare use, and cut scenes that are allergic to the characters faces and just focuses on there bodies (especially Quiet), Hideo Kojima completely failed at his final (for now) attempt at an MGS game.
The so-called Main Missions, are nothing more than Side Missions 90% of the time. Here's a quick recap of every Main Mission except 4 or 5 of them. Take an unskippable 2 minute helicopter ride to the location, while watching opening credits(?) that spoil anyone special who is going to show up in this particular mission, then head for the objective. See that enemy camp there? Sneak in and extract this guy, he can help us in some small way. Okay come back to Mother Base for a 3 minute pointless cutscene, then head right back to Afghanistan. ROLL CREDITS! Not kidding, EVERY. SINGLE. MISSION. has there own opening and closing credits for whatever reason! You can skip the closing ones, but honestly what is the point in putting them in there?
Mother Base is also a giant waste of time. Everyone says it's so important to return there to "boost staff morale", and if you don't, fighting will break out among the staff. You can also send your men to do other missions (online and off). So tell me, what do I care that 2 people got into a scuffle and are now in the Med Bay, but I just sent 80 crew members to do one mission and the expected loss rate is 40%? Pointless. Also you HAVE to upgrade the base just to unlock a couple story missions (later in the game), and (SURPRISE, SURPRISE) those missions are pointless, except for 1 (Quiet's story epilogue).
Despite being a stealth game, there are at least 2 missions that are non optional, full blown, all out war, and one of those missions is the final boss fight. Nevermind the main villian of the game, he died a lame death in the last chapter. Now you have to worry about an 80 foot tall Metal Gear Rex codename Sahelanthropus. This thing just obliterated an entire armies worth of tanks and helicopters, you better get your rocket launcher ready. Did I mention that this game takes place in the 80's? Way before the original MGS and it's own Earth-changing Metal Gear Rex. How is a 10 foot tall walking war machine such a big deal when you had an 80 foot tall walking nation destroyer almost 20 years before?
Then comes the endgame missions. Another virus outbreak on Mother Base, Big Boss has to go inside and eliminate the threat, which is every soldier in the place. Very good mission, albiet heartbreaking and disturbing. Quiet decides to speak English and (presumably) leaves to die in peace. Even though she spoke English right in front of Big Boss so the virus should have spread to him. But it didn't. Somehow. And the final mission you learn the truth about what happened at the hospital.
The big twist of the game is that an avatar you created in the beginning of the game, is actually who you have been playing as. The doctors changed your face into Big Bosses instead of Big Boss almost getting his face changed into the avatar you created. Meanwhile the real Big Boss (codename Ishmael) helps you escape, but then seemingly is shot while driving. The car crashes, but the real Big Boss walks away basically unscathed, and he leaves to find Zero and meet up with Snake years later during the Patriots act. A very nice twist that ties into MGS and also further explains the ending of MGS 4.
In the end, this game is nothing more but 30+ hours of filler just to tell maybe 2 hours of the actual story. I wish Hideo Kojima would have made Ground Zeroes then just elongated the hospital level and made maybe a 10 hour singular game out of both of those storylines. It would have been more fun story wise and gameplay wise to escape and fight back against Psycho Mantis in the hospital setting and just completely forget about building up Mother Base and defeating Skull Face/Sahelanthropus.
The opening prologue is about an hour long and is honestly one of the best prologue missions I have ever played. The creepy and desperate escape from a hospital that is being overrun by men with guns, and you just woke up from a coma. It sets up the game very nicely with a huge promise of being an amazing game.
The problems come directly after the prologue. What follows is 30+ hours of a vast, boring open world, and maybe 30 minutes of good storytelling. With more lensflare than even JJ Abrams would dare use, and cut scenes that are allergic to the characters faces and just focuses on there bodies (especially Quiet), Hideo Kojima completely failed at his final (for now) attempt at an MGS game.
The so-called Main Missions, are nothing more than Side Missions 90% of the time. Here's a quick recap of every Main Mission except 4 or 5 of them. Take an unskippable 2 minute helicopter ride to the location, while watching opening credits(?) that spoil anyone special who is going to show up in this particular mission, then head for the objective. See that enemy camp there? Sneak in and extract this guy, he can help us in some small way. Okay come back to Mother Base for a 3 minute pointless cutscene, then head right back to Afghanistan. ROLL CREDITS! Not kidding, EVERY. SINGLE. MISSION. has there own opening and closing credits for whatever reason! You can skip the closing ones, but honestly what is the point in putting them in there?
Mother Base is also a giant waste of time. Everyone says it's so important to return there to "boost staff morale", and if you don't, fighting will break out among the staff. You can also send your men to do other missions (online and off). So tell me, what do I care that 2 people got into a scuffle and are now in the Med Bay, but I just sent 80 crew members to do one mission and the expected loss rate is 40%? Pointless. Also you HAVE to upgrade the base just to unlock a couple story missions (later in the game), and (SURPRISE, SURPRISE) those missions are pointless, except for 1 (Quiet's story epilogue).
Despite being a stealth game, there are at least 2 missions that are non optional, full blown, all out war, and one of those missions is the final boss fight. Nevermind the main villian of the game, he died a lame death in the last chapter. Now you have to worry about an 80 foot tall Metal Gear Rex codename Sahelanthropus. This thing just obliterated an entire armies worth of tanks and helicopters, you better get your rocket launcher ready. Did I mention that this game takes place in the 80's? Way before the original MGS and it's own Earth-changing Metal Gear Rex. How is a 10 foot tall walking war machine such a big deal when you had an 80 foot tall walking nation destroyer almost 20 years before?
Then comes the endgame missions. Another virus outbreak on Mother Base, Big Boss has to go inside and eliminate the threat, which is every soldier in the place. Very good mission, albiet heartbreaking and disturbing. Quiet decides to speak English and (presumably) leaves to die in peace. Even though she spoke English right in front of Big Boss so the virus should have spread to him. But it didn't. Somehow. And the final mission you learn the truth about what happened at the hospital.
The big twist of the game is that an avatar you created in the beginning of the game, is actually who you have been playing as. The doctors changed your face into Big Bosses instead of Big Boss almost getting his face changed into the avatar you created. Meanwhile the real Big Boss (codename Ishmael) helps you escape, but then seemingly is shot while driving. The car crashes, but the real Big Boss walks away basically unscathed, and he leaves to find Zero and meet up with Snake years later during the Patriots act. A very nice twist that ties into MGS and also further explains the ending of MGS 4.
In the end, this game is nothing more but 30+ hours of filler just to tell maybe 2 hours of the actual story. I wish Hideo Kojima would have made Ground Zeroes then just elongated the hospital level and made maybe a 10 hour singular game out of both of those storylines. It would have been more fun story wise and gameplay wise to escape and fight back against Psycho Mantis in the hospital setting and just completely forget about building up Mother Base and defeating Skull Face/Sahelanthropus.