Beat the game last night. Have mixed feelings, though I loved it overall. The biggest issues I have is that the game feels unfinished. Chapter 2 NEEDED a climax to feel in any way satisfying, and it definitely did not get one. Episode 51 will be missed.
As for the whole Venom Snake thing. I had hoped that it was not the case that you weren't actually a double, even though, let's be honest it was pretty obvious, if not from the trailers, then from the heavy handed opening where you give a name and create an avatar. Who you were was by process of elimination the medic, so I wasn't shocked by that. I did however find myself OK with the twist though. Venom doesn't act like the Big Boss we knew, something that is abundantly clear when you go through episode 46. I also find myself LIKING Venom a whole lot. He's not motivated by vengeance, or at least not entirely, but a lot of his motivation is guilt. He wasn't able to save Miller and Boss due to not finding the second Bomb in Paz. He's clearly not consciously aware of it, but it shows through in his actions. He WANTS to save people, Quiet, the kids, even Huey gets spared.
I found the stuff with Paz might be the most important character beat for him in the game. He rewrote his whole memory of events into making the right call and saving her. It's just ironic that he didn't know that no matter what, she was going to die, they had removed far too many internal organs, she had hours left according to the tapes. But that explosion nearly killed Boss, killed Chico, and crippled him. And he has to walk around with bits of Paz in him at all times. Kinda fucked when you think about it. The stuff also implies that medic might have had a thing for her, but that could just be me.
It does show though that GZ REALLY should have been part of the same game. It's just too important to be left optional, and it ties in thematically to episode 30. I mean a long jeep ride with Skull Face while music plays? I actually liked it for that reason.
Other thoughts:
-Parasites, dumb but not as bad as Nanomachines. Even better if you consider the ramblings of Code Talker being the work of a somewhat senile old man. Or at least a crazy one. How exactly would he prove that parasites gave us speech? That one was probably my least favorite part of the game. I still prefer them to nanomachines because it just follows the weird shit can be found in nature deal.
-Quiet was amazing. Hearing her speak for the first time to Code Talker blew my mind.
-Huey is a sociopath, but part of me thinks that he is just broken. Skull Face was great at breaking people and psychologically torturing them, and Huey would have been a perfect mark. The thing with Huey is, that I almost think he BELIEVES his own BS. I also don't think he was a traitor initially. Personally I pegged Strangelove for the GZ incident, as she had just left base, and we know she willingly defected to Cipher.
One question for everyone though, so CAN you kill quiet and lock yourself out of getting her forever? I assumed you could but everyone here is talking about her all the time, and she has mission 45. SO what is it?
Damnit.
