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[TimeEffect]

I agree. It seems the open world is just to serve as atmosphere and to give a sense of scale to the environment. There's no BS about there being some racing mission or collection hunt or whatever else is in modern open world game design these days.

Still, I think the world being half the size would have given the same effect but oh well.

So it's like Shadow of the Colossus?

 

[heringer]

tbh I actually like this open world a lot better than most because it doesn't bullshit me a la Ubisoft and its "HERES 10 MILLION ICONS GO HAVE FUN".

edit - I liked SotC's too for the same reason

This is why I was wondering if this is a good or a bad thing.

It might be good if you don't like open world games. You can just treat the game as level based and do missions from the menu, never actually going free roam.

However, one of the strong aspects of an open world game is that exploring is not merely encouraged, but it's an intrinsec part of the gameplay. You have a bunch of points of your interest spread out on the map and you have to travel between point A and B, meaning you are in practice exploring the area between the two points. This aspect is completely removed if you can simply do what's in point A and B by a menu. It renders the open world meaningless.

On the other hand, the game inherits some of the weak aspects of open world, like the lack of variety in the design of missions and environment.

 

[Intheflorsh]

Do you have to

Spoiler

bond with Quiet

to progress her story? I don't want to stop using D-Dog.

 

[SkylineRKR]

I actually asked on GameFAQs and the guy there said it doesn't work. :/
It looks like Malak's Anesthesia Specialist is unique too, so I can't ever make the high level tranq guns.

I'm fucked as well then.

 

[Outrun]

Colour me impressed with this game.

Kojima is an example of a dev that evolved as an artist to give us a masterpiece.

Whereas I felt that MGS4 was bloated with story and possessed dated gameplay mechanics, MGS5 is fresh and cutting edge.

Kudos to Kojima...... and Konami (mumbles)

 

[TheBear]

So is the idroid just fucked or what?
Has anyone got it working?

 

[CHC]

Can anyone tell me, in spoiler tags, how many environments there are? Please don't name them, I am just looking for a number here. I know about A

Spoiler

fghanistan

and A

Spoiler

frica

, obviously.

I can't trust Google with this either since it'll probably take me to GameFAQs where someone spoils the ending one post in or something....

 

[Inferno313]

No I got that part. But that's not a story; that's a context. That's a starting point.



See, people say that, but they do this anyway? They don't point out all the Anti-Air radars and comm towers and hundreds and hundreds of things they encourage you to collect, but its there. And as you iDroid/Intel levels up they're always telling you about more and more filler missions to do. Hope you have the poorly-advertised fast travel or one of the few pre-determined helicopter drop-off points activated or its gonna be a BITCH getting there. Hope you have D-Horse unless you like running 1000m(and then sneaking past another outpost and running into walls cuz mountains EVERYWHERE).

You always have D-Horse, from the very beginning, if you're using a different buddy, you can switch buddies on the fly using iDroid.

You don't collect Anti-Air Radars and Comm Towers. You just destroy them if you feel that's a valuable tactic. Is their destruction even permanent? I assumed they rebuilt each time you loaded into the map. What other hundred and hundreds of collectibles are there? There are resources, but that's just a thing to grab when you see, not a collectible in the sense of Assassin Creed feathers.

There are a lot of filler side-ops, but they're all optional. Only do them if you think the reward will be valuable for you, or if you think it seems fun. I've found there to be a lot of helicopter drop-offs, so I've never had to walk that far to my objective unless that was the intent of the mission.

 

[sueil]

Anyone know where the Cybernetics Specialist is in mission 9? The one where you have to

Spoiler

blow up a bunch of tanks in 15 minutes

 

[Xyber]

Also I really wish food mechanics were back, I really miss eating from MGS3. It would also fit this game best of all - the feeling of surviving in this huge open environment by eating mice and sheep and stuff would be really good.

Plus you would have a good excuse to raid guard outposts - Snake's hungry, bitches.

I'm glad they didn't. You are going back to the base/plane constantly, wouldn't really make sense for you to have to eat out on a mission.

Would just be tedious extra work.

 

[Kama_1082]

So is the idroid just fucked or what?
Has anyone got it working?

Disconnect from online in the pause menu and it'll be instant access

 

[firehawk12]

I'm fucked as well then.

Seriously, they should at least warn you that violent members can kill your guys. I guess if you were playing on PC, you can maybe just mod it back in or something... on console, you're screwed. He's not even that good outside of his special skill.

 

[NotLiquid]

Mission 11 oh god so good

Spoiler

The Quiet boss battle is so satisfying to actually pull off. Such a good battle of attrition.

 

[Outrun]

So, guys, other than the ending evaluation (Rank S,A,B,C...etc), what does being stealthy offer compared to just doing the mission normally?

Money?

I am wondering the same thing. Because I like to mix it up and go Rambo III on the enemy when the need arises.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

Why are you ignoring the game play that's as rich as it is to play even with these filler missions? It's got so much more to it than Destiny in that regard. Even without upgrading anything, the depth is crazy. You're simplifying too much in trying to compare the two. You aren't entirely wrong, though. I just think it's stretching.

"+AMAZING Play Mechanics" was the first pro I listed. There's a reason people keep coming back to Destiny despite its myriad of flaws, and its because it feels really fucking good to play. The smooth jump arcs, the animations, the clean UI, the sound of the guns, the various effects for all the moves, chaining specials together, the POWER of your Supercharged, how blowing off those fat robot's heads looks and feels so good every.single.time. Its the kind of polished mechanics you get from a studio that's been making this kind of game for 20 years.

Similarly, MGS5 feels really fucking good to play. When you arrive at a base, you scope out the place. The AI is intelligent, they are a myriad of options, the UI always tell you what you can do at any given moment, the controls are smooth and intuitive, shooting people in the head feels so good, etc. That's all dope as shit.

And they both look really nice, if obviously cross-gen

Its everything surrounding the honed gameplay mechanics I find of more questionable value.

 

[TheLight]

This is why I was wondering if this is a good or a bad thing.

It might be good if you don't like open world games. You can just treat the game as level based and do missions from the menu, never actually going free roam.

However, one of the strong aspects of an open world game is that exploring is not merely encouraged, but it's an intrinsec part of the gameplay. You have a bunch of points of your interest spread out on the map and you have to travel between point A and B, meaning you are in practice exploring the area between the two points. This aspect is completely removed if you can simply do what's in point A and B by a menu. It renders the open world meaningless.

On the other hand, the game inherits some of the weak aspects of open world, like the lack of variety in the design of the environment.

I think the maps in the truest sense of the word are just a sandbox. Its one BIG level. If you want to explore, cool you can look around. The game looks nice at night time, but 100% of the time, while you're exploring, you will find something interesting or valuable that will distract you. In theory this could be a linear game and it would work, but it just isn't because it didn't HAVE to be.

EDIT: SOTC is being brought up and that too, could've been absolutely linear and not had an open world, but it just refused to. Makes it more of a journey than following a story. MC in that game barely talks too now that I think of it

 

[Kama_1082]

My only issue with this game is that after a flawless stealth mission, why am I covered in blood back at mother base? Lol

 

[Alienous]

Absolutely not comparable to Ubisoft open worlds.

Spoiler

Which I tend to enjoy more than TPP's boring ass open world (well, with Far Cry 3 and 4, don't play other Ubi games)

Far Cry 3 and 4 are exceptions as far as Ubisoft open worlds go.

I do think I enjoyed their worlds more. I think The Phantom Pain is on par with Far Cry 2. I think that the level design and core gameplay mechanics push The Phantom Pain beyond those games overall, but the open world design is uninspired in TPP, certainly.

 

[TheBear]

Disconnect from online in the pause menu and it'll be instant access

Sorry I meant the idroid app on iPhone
Don't really care about the map but it would be great to listen to cassettes on the go

 

[TimeEffect]

Very cool to hear SoTC comparisons.

My only wish is that MGS has areas that feels genuinely immersive or interesting to explore like SoTC. Remember that little forest, or the top of the tower, stuff like that?

I find this hard to describe, but it's just exploration for the sake of it. Open world games like Ubisoft's often are littered with checklist tasks, but other open world games make you just want to explore for the sake of it.

Are there not any areas in MGS that aren't full of MB recruits or direct-story related?

 

[TheAquaticApe]

Do you have to

Spoiler

bond with Quiet

to progress her story? I don't want to stop using D-Dog.

I am right there with you.

DD is so good at scouting. I feel like

Spoiler

Quiet never scouts a base properly

 

[ScOULaris]

So I just completed a prisoner rescue Side Op this morning, and I was running late for work. After it said "Side Op Complete" I did the Return to ACC option, and then from there I returned to Mother Base. When I got back to MB I checked my iDroid and it shows that Side Op as checked off but still has a glowing white dot next to it as if it were a new mission.

Do I have to return to Afghanistan and go to a new checkpoint or something to make it show as properly completed?

 

[| Praxis |]

I'd add War Ensemble by Slayer as well that already killer list!

Oooh, good call. So far my custom folder looks like this:

Creeping Death - Metallica
For Whom The Bell Tolls - Metallica
No Remorse - Metallica
Ride The Lightning - Metallica
Seek & Destroy - Metallica
Angel of Death - Slayer
Mandatory Suicide - Slayer
Piece by Piece - Slayer
War Ensemble - Slayer
All For You - Annihilator
Knight Jumps Queen - Annihilator
Syn. Kill - Annihilator
W.T.Y.D. - Annihilator
Waidmanns Heil - Rammstein

I'm going to buy the rockets for my helicopter in a minute, sit on a hill and watch it fuck shit up to some of these.

 

[Kama_1082]

Mission 11 oh god so good

Spoiler

The Quiet boss battle is so satisfying to actually pull off. Such a good battle of attrition.

If you want to get S rank:

Spoiler

spot her with your binoculars and do a supply drop on her twice. You'll get all the tasks complete in one shot and S-rank

 

[Inferno313]

Can anyone tell me, in spoiler tags, how many environments there are? Please don't name them, I am just looking for a number here. I know about A

Spoiler

fghanistan

and A

Spoiler

frica

, obviously.

I can't trust Google with this either since it'll probably take me to GameFAQs where someone spoils the ending one post in or something....

Spoiler

That's it.

 

[Hypron]

Mission 11 oh god so good

Spoiler

The Quiet boss battle is so satisfying to actually pull off. Such a good battle of attrition.

Spoiler

I just finished it too about an hour ago, and yeah it was great! I "sniped" her with the tranquilising pistol, it took forever (to the point where I was wondering if it was actually working at all) but she eventually fainted

 

[MiamiWesker]

Someone asked about gun attachments, you need to find a certain weapons expert in side ops mission 109.

 

[SomTervo]

No I got that part. But that's not a story; that's a context. That's a starting point.

See, people say that, but they do this anyway? They don't point out all the Anti-Air radars and comm towers and hundreds and hundreds of things they encourage you to collect, but its there. And as you iDroid/Intel levels up they're always telling you about more and more filler missions to do. Hope you have the poorly-advertised fast travel or one of the few pre-determined helicopter drop-off points activated or its gonna be a BITCH getting there. Hope you have D-Horse unless you like running 1000m(and then sneaking past another outpost and running into walls cuz mountains EVERYWHERE).

1. The mountains thing is irrelevant in the second map. It's in the first map to make things easier and more focused for the player, I reckon. And it's also not true of certain parts of the first map, eg the Western area.

2. Every single 'collectible' in the game has gameplay impact. Herbs help you make better weapons/upgrades. Diamonds help you pay for upgrades. Materials help you with upgrades and base-building and can be sold. Comms dishes knock out reinforcement calls to other bases. Comms stations knock out all communications to HQ. Anti-air arrays allow you to call in choppers. Invoices let you fast travel. Cassette tapes let you feel like a badass and fill down-time between missions. Posters get you money and can be put on your cardboard box to distract guards.

Let's compare that to most other open world games shall we?

Animus fragments. Do nothing. Riddler trophies. Some are amazing, but most are just there for the sake of it and do nothing. Pigeons in GTAIV. Do nothing. The thousands of notes and stupid pointless side missions in FarCry 4. Do nothing, except rarely a unique weapon which you'll have a better version of anyway.

3. Side ops are not 'filler missions'. They are a) optional b) often really fun even if it's the same objective as an old one and c) help you expand MB/your gear.

Christ man, at this stage it sounds like you just have really heavy confirmation bias and you're complaining for the sake of it.

Play for another 10 hours and get back to us. Your complains seem really, truly insane.

 

[daveo42]

Early support character question: How long until

Spoiler

you can at least play with DD at MB? I know there are only a handful of missions between extraction and deployment, but I just wanna play with that pup, not give him tough love like I do with my soldiers.

 

[backlot]

You always have D-Horse, from the very beginning, if you're using a different buddy, you can switch buddies on the fly using iDroid.

You don't collect Anti-Air Radars and Comm Towers. You just destroy them if you feel that's a valuable tactic. Is their destruction even permanent? I assumed they rebuilt each time you loaded into the map. What other hundred and hundreds of collectibles are there? There are resources, but that's just a thing to grab when you see, not a collectible in the sense of Assassin Creed feathers.

There are a lot of filler side-ops, but they're all optional. Only do them if you think the reward will be valuable for you, or if you think it seems fun. I've found there to be a lot of helicopter drop-offs, so I've never had to walk that far to my objective unless that was the intent of the mission.

For collectibles there's blueprints, invoices, prisoners, and cassette tapes (music and non-music which are a lot harder to find).

 

[nOoblet16]

Can anyone tell me, in spoiler tags, how many environments there are? Please don't name them, I am just looking for a number here. I know about A

Spoiler

fghanistan

and A

Spoiler

frica

, obviously.

I can't trust Google with this either since it'll probably take me to GameFAQs where someone spoils the ending one post in or something....

Spoiler

those are the only two, along with mother base

 

[LiK]

I used Air Support for the first time in Episode 6 last night. oh man, so fucking awesome. felt like I was in a movie. this game rules.

 

[CHC]

Spoiler

That's it.

Noooooooooooooooooo

 

[Tovarisc]

My only issue with this game is that after a flawless stealth mission, why am I covered in blood back at mother base? Lol

You have done mission before that wasn't as flawless? In my experience you only get blood on you if you get hit, someone gets shot near you etc., but do flawless stealth run without blood being spilled and you get out all clean.

 

[IMACOMPUTA]

If you want to get S rank:

Spoiler

spot her with your binoculars and do a supply drop on her twice. You'll get all the tasks complete in one shot and S-rank

If i just ran through and avoided it altogether,

Spoiler

did i miss getting her as a buddy? Or do i get another chance?

 

[aravuus]

Seriously, they should at least warn you that violent members can kill your guys. I guess if you were playing on PC, you can maybe just mod it back in or something... on console, you're screwed. He's not even that good outside of his special skill.

Wait, you mean like AFTER I extract him, I can still miss out on the tranq upgrade if someone kills him in the MB?

I'm gonna do the Malak mission right now and take care I'll extract every single fucker that I come across. Not a fan of possibly missing something permanently, especially in a long game like TPP.

 

[Auto_aim1]

I actually asked on GameFAQs and the guy there said it doesn't work. :/
It looks like Malak's Anesthesia Specialist is unique too, so I can't ever make the high level tranq guns.

Oh damn, that sucks. Someone posted earlier about troublemakers in this thread so I keep dismissing them from staff.

 

[Inferno313]

For collectibles there's blueprints, invoices, prisoners, and cassette tapes (music and non-music which are a lot harder to find).

Cassette's, I'll give you, the rest I guess I don't see so much as collectibles, but valuable items to seek out.

Collectibles in my mind are things like Assassin's Creed's feathers, Gears of Wars' dog tags, stunt jumps in GTA V. Basically things that exist for little value other than achievements.

 

[Death Metalist]

No I got that part. But that's not a story; that's a context. That's a starting point.

See, people say that, but they do this anyway? They don't point out all the Anti-Air radars and comm towers and hundreds and hundreds of things they encourage you to collect, but its there. And as you iDroid/Intel levels up they're always telling you about more and more filler missions to do. Hope you have the poorly-advertised fast travel or one of the few pre-determined helicopter drop-off points activated or its gonna be a BITCH getting there. Hope you have D-Horse unless you like running 1000m(and then sneaking past another outpost and running into walls cuz mountains EVERYWHERE).

I won't get into anything else but the story goes into a very interesting and insane direction, it isn't as simple as "revenge lolz". It's great, I think the major complaint is the later part of the game where you'll have to replay a few missions again on a harder difficulty just to continue with the story, which is terrible. It's the same thing with Peace Walker. The tapes help out flesh the story as well as many other things in the game. White labeled tapes are more info in general about a specific thing, yellow labeled tapes are plot related(important).

I don't see them as "filler missions" because everything you are doing is affecting your choices in gameplay. The more you progress in the game and expand your motherbase as well as you level up each individual unit, you gain tons of stuff you could develop to experiment with in any level. Everything you are doing has a purpose to how you can shape up your gameplay.

In the main missions, you don't even have to eliminate the target that Miller tells you about(sometimes you take jobs much like any other private military force would) you could extract them, this way you could get more general info about the target/their relationship with any other PMF and let them work for you. Heck, if you upgrade your fulton even more,

Spoiler

you can fulton tanks and trucks as well.

After finishing a mission you could just press select and hit return to the ACC instead of calling a chopper, there is also a fast travel within the open world itself if you go to the yellow platforms, take the small slip on the sign and then use a box lol. You could drop in and out a buddy at any time so walking is never a problem, if you fulton

Spoiler

cars/tanks you'll be able to bring in vehicles.

That's not to mention the air support, supplies, gun/buddy/MB/Chopper customization, and anything else you could bring. MB is a part of you during the game, at all times. The options are mindboggling, I don't see how this can be compared to Destiny or any other open world game. Heck, it running in 60FPS at all times is enough.

 

[tamaster92]

So what's up with some members have a box with a x in it next to them and I can't dismiss them?

Me want to get rid of all troublemakers

 

[The Xtortionist]

No fucking way you can permanently lose out on upgrades like that. There's just no way. (I hope)

Edit - re:Malak

 

[Revolutionary]

Did anyone get MB Coins for their login bonus yesterday? Didn't work despite the amount of times I logged in, but I got today's bonus immediately lol
Edit: oh shit apparently someone tried to invade last night but they got wrecked lol

 

[mindsale]

Are the servers offline? I haven't even been prompted with FOB's yet. But I'm having so much just doing side missions I don't really care.

Another question - do I have infinite room on my Waiting Room? I've been dismissing soldiers with low stats so I don't extract a gem and have no room for them.

 

[Tovarisc]

So what is with lack of blueprints in the world? I have collected one and same blueprint now 5 or 6 times from different side ops and areas of the world.

 

[Jarmel]

Side ops and even most of the main ops are shit and just filler.

 

[marrec]

I really really like that MGSV's "open world" isn't actually an open world. Most games that attempt to do Open World end up shallow messes because they try to stretch content across some pretty mountains that occupy a needlessly huge continent.

That said, I'm only about 6 hours in right now so maybe it gets more expansive and boring... but the maps I've dropped into so far are just the right mix between pretty to look at and having a diversity of stuff to actually do within reasonable size limits. Screw traditional Open World games, give me more of this.

 

[Savantcore]

If i just ran through and avoided it altogether,

Spoiler

did i miss getting her as a buddy? Or do i get another chance?

You can replay the mission.

Christ man, at this stage it sounds like you just have really heavy confirmation bias and you're complaining for the sake of it.

Play for another 10 hours and get back to us. Your complains seem really, truly insane.

I think that's a bit dismissive. I think that the Side Ops are just filler as well, even if they come with perks. They are very fun to play, sure, but when they're literally called 'Take out Tank Unit 1/2/3/4...' I think that's the dictionary definition of 'filler'.

I'm not a fan of the open world either. The missions and the levels they take place in are near perfect and incredibly fun to play, even the 2-minute extraction Side Ops (mainly thanks to the astounding gameplay), but once I'm done I just return to the ACC and redeploy. There's so much empty space in Afghanistan and it takes so long to get anywhere (plus the time it takes to navigate outposts on the way, which I am certainly not always in the mood for) that I'd rather the world was half the size with the same density.

 

[firehawk12]

Wait, you mean like AFTER I extract him, I can still miss out on the tranq upgrade if someone kills him in the MB?

I'm gonna do the Malak mission right now and take care I'll extract every single fucker that I come across. Not a fan of possibly missing something permanently, especially in a long game like TPP.

Seems like it, unless there's another way to get the skill in the game. But if these skills are random, then what are the chances you'd find another one of him in the world?

Oh damn, that sucks. Someone posted earlier about troublemakers in this thread so I keep dismissing them from staff.

Yeah, wish I knew that before he died.

 

[tamaster92]

Reposting cos new page

So what's up with some members have a box with a x in it next to them and I can't dismiss them?

Me want to get rid of all troublemakers

 

[LiK]

I really really like that MGSV's "open world" isn't actually an open world. Most games that attempt to do Open World end up shallow messes because they try to stretch content across some pretty mountains that occupy a needlessly huge continent.

That said, I'm only about 6 hours in right now so maybe it gets more expansive and boring... but the maps I've dropped into so far are just the right mix between pretty to look at and having a diversity of stuff to actually do within reasonable size limits. Screw traditional Open World games, give me more of this.

we're not forced to climb towers, hah