Should I finally play Peace Walker, now that there probably won’t be any more Metal Gear Solids?
The game always seemed really weird to me, but I ended up really liking some of the stuff that came over to Metal Gear Solid V, like recruiting people, base building, and getting better equipment all the time.
I think MGS5 did the base-building better but PW is no slouch.
The best way to describe it would be Monster Hunter Solid. Heck, it even has MH missions in the post-post-endgame. You go on side missions and story missions. The map size and sprawl is roughly on par with MGS3 or MGS4. Lots of boss battles. Lots of re-fighting old bosses if you want to grind and get cool stuff. Similar to MGS5, though, there really isn't a motley crew of zany villains (a la MGS1 - 4) to overcome. It's a lot of tanks and elite squads and robots and stuff like that.
And hoooo boy... missions. There are a few hundred. Pretty much all of them can be replayed and they usually have side-objectives or secrets to uncover (a blueprint for a weapon, a special person to fulton, etc).
Music is really good, too.
Yeah I think PW succeeds on two fronts:
The main storyline is good. Helps fill in how the Snake of MGS3 becomes the Big Boss of MGS5 and beyond.
There's also a ton of lore / side info for the characters. Tons and tons of audiotapes. For fans who enjoyed listening to all the different codecs and learning more about the Metal Gear world, PW has a ton of that stuff.
But all that said, I don't take MG story serious. It's a fun soap opera to me. I think some people who love MGS3 take the rest of the series way too seriously and games like PW suffer as a result.