You can use all the laughing gifs you want but I think it's ridiculous how few fun bases there are in such a large game. So much space gone to waste. I know empty space used as downtime is good in an open world but I really don't think Kojima knew how to design an open world game despite the mechanics being top notch.
My point being is that there is more than ONE fun base to infiltrate in TPP with a shit tons of ways to do it, with a fuck tons of tools at your disposal and the level of freedom is unparalleled when it comes to the stealth genre or action games in general. To say that GZ is better than TPP is just....
The controls and animation alone dethrones GZ. I will say this that when I started playing the game, I disliked how empty the open world is but the more I played, the more I loved the detail of my surroundings without being jam packed with useless shit like many other open world games, it's the closest thing to RDR but with better controls save for the fact that RDR has random encounters and shit. It's done in such a way that all the other bases are connected to one another and I love having the freedom to plan how I approach any base in the way that I want and the game doesn't punish me by doing so. Listening to the fantastic array of music at my disposal while DD sniffs out dudes as I snipe out every guy from 100+ meters away is fantastic and why is it so good? because everything you do looks and feels fucking great. That's just one buddy, when you bring in your support and the endless ways to approach anything with the tools you have as well as what the other buddies do to the playing field, it's damn great.
Everything you're doing in the game is beneficial to your MB developments whether its items or weapons or buddy equipment or helicopter.etc and leveling up each part of your MB, down to the very simple fact of you killing a guy or fultoning him would be a better choice? The side ops seem repetitive sure save for the story based ones and I agree with that but when you look at it as a quick way to get someone awesome for your MB? It's great, especially if you want a quick fix of playing time before heading out to work or anything.
Then of course you have the missions and how different people can have different outcomes, many times where I thought I was sure about getting a mission failed like most other open world games but it turns out no, I can keep on playing and try out the next best option I can and this shit just goes on and on throughout the entire game. I think the best example is mission 16 where there are loads of people having problems within that mission but with the way I did it, you could interrogate enemies and they will give you the exact location of the vehicle which is in an airport and thus the rest of your mission will be there, I know many people who wasted an hour or so just chasing around the vehicle's predicted movement whereas I didn't. Then when the skulls appear you either have the patience to attract their attention else where and you could fulton the vehicle if you have that upgrade at that point OR you could bring in D-Walker and wreck havoc OR you could fight them off with rocket launchers OR you could call in your support to help you with the fight as long as you're away from the vehicle itself OR OR OR OR....
Then when all is said and done you got the great MGS details that most developers won't give a fuck about but you know Kojima and co always does. These weird, who gives a shit about it detail but it's awesome that it's there and I appreciate it kind of things that you don't see anywhere but MGS games because they don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Then you have FOB's which are great especially when you're done with the game, it's fun to defend your base it's just a shame that the servers SUCK. I am hoping with MGO things are different and that's another thing, we got MGO coming. There's just so much game here, too much even. I'm 200+ hours in, still unlocking new things to develop and try out. It's hard to even put this game in one genre because it excels as an action game, stealth game and open world game in the sense of having so many options as well as the freedom for said options. I just wish we could skip these damn helicopter rides when dropping in but that's really a small negative when I think about how much good the game does and how many discussions I had with people I know about the ways we tackled every mission and succeeded in doing so.
Edit: Storywise I prefer the first 4 by a mile but even then MGS5 has a very interesting story than many other games thanks to the ideas/themes presented, execution is not all there though. I massively prefer it to PW. I also dislike the tapes and prefer the codec BUT there are some excellent lore stuff in there that I loved. In the end though, I'm strictly talking gameplay here.
Edit 2: I forgot about how the enemy adapts to your playstyle as well which is excellent and the fact that you could basically go from mission to mission without ever returning to the ACC. Just resupply on your ammo, exchange buddies on the fly if you want, drop a vehicle if you choose to do so and get going unless you want to change your costume.
You know whats up. The game feels its big for the sake of being big with nothing else in it. Nothing really happens between outposts too. Its a waste of time.
The only thing that happens is the logical thing which is time shifts for the other guards to arrive. I don't now what you guys were expecting to happen in a war torn occupied land. It would have been cool to see Afghans trying to retaliate but it would be just that, cool. I don't think it would benefit in the long run because it'll ruin your plans of infiltrating a base in the way you wanted but I could see it as something good to witness if it happened randomly like sandstorms. I'm past the point of waiting for sandstorms now though as I can make them on my own will as well as rain haha.
