so your saying that if we expect it to play like any other game in the series besides its portable counterpart, that we would be disappointed. Gotcha.

Phantom Pain, being the swan song of Hideo Kojima, should be on this list. It should have been a celebration, a magnum opus of the entire franchise. It wasn't. It was not a bad game by any stretch. But for me, Metal Gear was much more then building your base and recruiting soldiers, it was the kind of game that made you think, and it's insanely impactful narrative and visual design was a force to be reckoned with.

Say what you want about the overlong cutscenes, by the end of Metal Gear Solid 4, I think I cried at least a few good times. I was propelled forward by the mysterious nature of the twist and turns of the narrative. The sense of intrigue and conspiracy permeated every set piece, punctuated by interesting characters that demanded our attention.

I'll never forget the feeling of nudging forward a wounded, weathered Snake, his frail body dragging on the ground, inching forward while Jackie Presti's Love Theme plays in the background. That remains one of the most emotionally charged segments of gaming I've ever experienced. Now, people will remember Metal Gear with the concept of attaching a balloon to a goat, and watching him to shoot up into the sky at 150 miles an hour.

"if we expect it to play like any other game in the series besides its portable counterpart, that we would be disappointed."

That hasn't been my experience at all. It plays like Metal Gear, same stealth against the same sort of AI, same sort of weapons. It's just that you can go to any level (base or outpost) at any time if you want to. I enjoyed Free Roam enough that often I went to locations before the story required me to, so I had some knowledge of the bases and had maybe destroyed the radar or some other defensive equipment. I found that to be very cool, personally.

"for me, Metal Gear was much more then building your base and recruiting soldiers, it was the kind of game that made you think, and it's insanely impactful narrative and visual design was a force to be reckoned with."

Building the base and recruiting soldiers were both secondary at best to me when playing MGS5, and it's open design made me think more than the linear games ever did, as did the story because it wasn't spelled out for me like it always was before. Imo the story is much better than some people are giving it credit for, though it's clearly much more straightforward than past MG stories.

"by the end of Metal Gear Solid 4, I think I cried at least a few good times. I was propelled forward by the mysterious nature of the twist and turns of the narrative. The sense of intrigue and conspiracy permeated every set piece, punctuated by interesting characters that demanded our attention."

MGS4 was great indeed, and I agree about it's narrative and characters. Awesome. What propelled me forward with MGS5 was and is the gameplay. I've gotten so much game time with TPP, I could have played all the previous games at least once if not multiple times. As for emotional impact, the story hit me hard at least once and it's a gaming moment I'll never forget.

"I'll never forget the feeling of nudging forward a wounded, weathered Snake, his frail body dragging on the ground, inching forward while Jackie Presti's Love Theme plays in the background. That remains one of the most emotionally charged segments of gaming I've ever experienced."

Agreed wholeheartedly. So cool.

"Now, people will remember Metal Gear with the concept of attaching a balloon to a goat, and watching him to shoot up into the sky at 150 miles an hour."

Disagree wholeheartedly. I'll remember Metal Gear the series for the same kind of stealth fun I've had with TPP, against the same distinctive and entertaining AI, but with TPP specifically there are just so many cool moments, created by me and the AI… not scripted so that the same thing happens to everyone almost exactly the same way. Even when doing the same sort of side mission back to back to back, I find the difference in terrain, patrol patterns, and the type/positioning of the enemies can lead to some very different results, especially when I start feeling so badass that I get careless. Those spontaneous moments of awesome are what I'll remember this game for, not extracting animals, which I rarely do.

It's clearly a divisive title though. IGN gave it a 10 but I just watched a video of them talking about some 1 star Amazon reviews. Needless to say I don't agree with those reviews, and I have a hard time believing that people honestly hate the game that much, but if that's how they feel so be it. In the end it's all just opinions, mine included.

Agreed. Making it smaller and adding less options doesn't some how help the game. Those who wish to play it like other MGS games...auto assign members to mother base, don't use the features ie air strikes, supple drop etc, go into the missions with 1 set of options, fast travel the whole way and live life lol.

One can play MGSV like the other MS game as no one is forcing anyone to actually play MGSV that way, if you like those ways of playing...its not really stopping you from playing that way.

You had bases you had to enter in MGS..

Missions to complete, people to save, bosses to fight. Don't feel like sending a dude off to mother base? lol...don't.

If you go back and play MGS1, clearly you didn't need to do that, you still don't really need to do that unless its part of the mission.

The previous MGS games where levels where you had to get past parts not being seen....you still actually do that in MGSV, those levels are not just in 1 area, they are in many, many areas. The meat of what you do in MGS games is still very much in MGSV.

Infiltrate

Save someone

Kill someone

Question someone (ie MGS3 fame!)

Boss battle

Cut Scene

Don't get caught.

All that is still very much in this title, even if some try to use the whole "cassettes thing" soooooo we didn't have codecs in MG series? I mean...must you stop the game play to hear such a thing? The last games stopped you to hear those specific story driven conversations, this game lets you continue playing and have the choice to listen or not listen to them.

That is like saying none of the other MGS games had story because you choice to not call certain people on the codec or RE has no back story because you choose to not read the documents placed ALL OVER THE GAME lol MGSV is very, very story rich if you choice to actually listen to all the cassettes regarding events in the series. I always have them playing during side missions.

MGSV is perfectly fine open world as you can choice to take advantage of it or not. Real life is not played in some tunnels of events, you live in a open world, this just made MGS series just that much realistic. Watch someone's lets play where you never see them travel and legit tell me it some how hurt you...you don't actually NEED to traverse the open world, fast travel and live life.