You guys have to understand the point of view of more "casual" gamers too.
This game seems to be extremely hardcore and niche oriented ....
I personally can't invest 100+ hours in the game and if it means "rushing" through the 40 ! hours main campaign is not enough to fully enjoy the game then it is a pretty big issue.
Of the 5 million people (more or less ) who are gonna play the game, how many will really get to enjoy all of its content ? the requirements are just too demanding.
They shouldn't hide critical information behind obscure optional sidemissions.
I very much appreciate this, and I think it is important.
However, I think there are a few counterpoints, several of which are specific to MGSV (it's a very idiosyncratic open-world game):
1. you certainly don't need to invest 100+ hours to 'complete' the game. If you imagine GTA V - you can choose which missions you want to play. If you just want to play the main missions (in MGSV apparently 30+ hours), you can do just that. Maybe you'll miss some fairly important backstory/details which are in side ops, but you'll probably still get all the main plot points.
2. From the sounds of things, the moment-to-moment gameplay will be so compelling (we know this from Ground Zeroes too) the game will be incredibly fun and engaging
on a half-hourly basis. Some missions will be short, eg 15 minutes, and perfectly designed for a busy adult's schedule. Other missions will be longer, but you can probably affect how long they take through your approach.
3. We know that you can go as deep or as broad as you want in terms of the meta-game. You can set Mother Base to do it's thing automatically, while you just enjoy the open world action and story missions.
4. You don't need to finish a game quickly - you can eke out those 100+ hours over a year, two years, whatever. This is
especially true of MGSV, which follows Peace Walker's game strucutre and it
perfect for short-burst gameplay
So wait, some of yall are making it sound like you can't pick up weapons that enemies drop? Is this true? I assumed we'd have to develop more unique ones but we can't just grab weapons in the field when we come across them?
You definitely can, but most of the on-site weapons will be just AKs and Pistols, maybe the occasional rocket launcher or more powerful weapon.
You'll have to research special weapons like silenced variations, special gadgets (like better Fulton, better Medkits (not confirmed, I'm spitballing), better carboard boxes, better goggles, arms etc).
Basically every generic/mundane weapon will probably be out there on the field. And a few generic gadgets probably will be, too (distraction magazines, base cardboard boxes, mines). But all of the specialist, super-useful stuff will probably have to be researched, because normal grunts won't be carrying it around.
Edit: if you mean game-advancing 'key' items, then yeah those probably do exist, but they'll be mission-specific and contextual. Eg 'find a key on a guard in this town'. I doubt it will impact the 'to research or not to research' question.