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Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes |OT| Kaz, I'm already a demo

Najaf

Member
I have not played MGS3 or 4, despite my fondness of the series. I have MGS3 on the backlog and had the hope that one day 4 would come to the 360 as I have not owned a PS4.

Are these games I should seek out and play before jumping into this? I have avoided spoilers for both games and am tempted to wiki-brief myself on the story elements so I can jump in.

I have the intention of playing MGS3 down the line as I hear it is fantastic, but time for such is not there at this point. I have Ground Zeroes on hand from Gamefly and would like to experience a bit of bite sized Metal Gear. Would this be a serious error on my part?

Thanks GAF.
 
I have not played MGS3 or 4, despite my fondness of the series. I have MGS3 on the backlog and had the hope that one day 4 would come to the 360 as I have not owned a PS4.

Are these games I should seek out and play before jumping into this? I have avoided spoilers for both games and am tempted to wiki-brief myself on the story elements so I can jump in.

I have the intention of playing MGS3 down the line as I hear it is fantastic, but time for such is not there at this point. I have Ground Zeroes on hand from Gamefly and would like to experience a bit of bite sized Metal Gear. Would this be a serious error on my part?

Thanks GAF.
Play 3 first.
 

KORNdoggy

Member
best hour of gaming ive had in a longggg time. if its any indication of what phantom pain is gonna be like, itll be a master piece.

and ppl complaining at the length, remember when everyone paid $50 for the mgs2 demo? no one gave a fuck about zone of the enders. not saying the series is bad,the second runner is cool, but the first is average and wouldnt have sold jack shit if it werent for the mgs2 demo

Maybe ground zeroes should have come with ZOE3...it might have been worth it then
 

Oriel

Member
I know this is a stealth game first and foremost but I really wish they would improve on the physical act of shooting in these games. Shooting your gun doesn't feel satisfying at al and the enemy hit reactions feel like you're shooting through paper

I disagree. The warm, yummy feeling I get after headshotting some guy with the silenced rifle is quite wonderful. The nice sound and the way they go down? Beautiful. :)
 

kubus

Member
I can't make the "mark all enemies" trial on the mission where you must destroy the three anti-air things.

I am at 39/40 when I destroy the last turret, then the vehicle comes, I mark it, I reach 40/40 but it doesn't give it to me the challenge as completed. This is the last thing I need to complete it at 100% :|

Did you check the trial log in the iDroid menu? I believe that the tank marks up the total number of enemies that you need to tag. So before the tank there are 40 enemies, then when you trigger the tank's appearance, it's bumped up to 41 total enemies. I was stuck at the mission on 39/40 as well, then I thought "OH RIGHT, THE TANK!", thinking that would solve my problem, but then realized that that didn't help. In the end I found the last dude I needed, and he was out cold somewhere in the bushes... Man, I spent ages on that mission.

Hope this helps. Good luck!
 
I haven't seen anyone throw this theory out there about why Ground Zeroes exists as a separate $30 product instead of being a cheap $5-$15 thing like Case Zero or just being part of The Phantom Pain... but I've thought about it a little bit...

I remember Kojima said early on when they announced Fox Engine that they wanted to get into a rhythm where they were able to make a Metal Gear game every 2 years-- he was looking at the way western developers were churning out sequels every other year and wanted to get to that point.

Peace Walker was actually the first foray into turning around a Metal Gear Solid game very quickly-- it wasn't Fox Engine but they were able to put that game out less than 2 years after MGS4.

The next game was supposed to be Metal Gear Solid: Rising, which was potentially targeted for 2012 and was supposed to be the first Fox Engine game. However, we all know that went bad and they had to turn to Platinum games which turned around a game in 1 year. It was an incredible feat but I'm sure Konami took a big loss because not only did they have to scrap a few years of work on Rising, but it probably was also a setback to the development of Fox Engine.

I don't know if Ground Zeroes was originally planned as a separate title or not-- but after the cancellation of the original Rising, I imagine that played a bit role in them deciding to make Ground Zeroes a $30-40 product to try to recoup the losses from Rising and the development of the Fox Engine, and also to try to build some hype for MGS5. Platinum's Rising was not really a traditional Metal Gear game so I think some of us definitely needed a reminder as to why we loved MGS in the first place.

---

I do think they were super successful in building up hype for MGS5 just because this is the best playing Metal Gear Solid game IMO, yet the real thing to love about MGS games is the cutscenes and we barely got a sniff of that in this game. The Phantom Pain has a super intriguing setup and I cannot wait to see how it plays out.

Also, after playing Ground Zeroes, I think it'd be awesome if the next Rising game was built in the Fox Engine. I'd like to see if they could try to mix in the action in Rising with the Stealth in Ground Zeroes.

I think more people will be burned rather than "hyped", from the game cover alone it can easily fool anyone into thinking that its a full sequel when in reality it's just a very expensive demo.
 

eXistor

Member
This game makes the wait for TPP so hard. Ground Zeroes alone has so much content and replayability, it's insane. I love it a lot more than I thought I would. Totes worth the money of you ask me. Kojima, you're on the right track with this one, stay the course my man.
 

abrack08

Member
I wish people could argue the value of the game without calling it a demo. The length or amount of content can be considered a negative for sure, especially if you aren't the type to replay missions over and over, but the game is not just a demo in any way.
 

Noahd41

Neo Member
I'm not the type to replay games or missions once I beat them, but this was a fun game. I'm pretty excited for Phantom Pain after beating it today, but I can't help but feel a little bit disappointed based on how much it cost.
 

Griss

Member
I wish people could argue the value of the game without calling it a demo. The length or amount of content can be considered a negative for sure, especially if you aren't the type to replay missions over and over, but the game is not just a demo in any way.

I disagree. It was very similar to the brilliant Just Cause 2 demo. An opening cutscene, a slice of the open-world action, a closing cutscene and a trailer for the main game.

Almost precisely what you'd expect a demo to be, with added side missions. Without the side missions it's 100% a demo.
 

kotor22

Member
I disagree. It was very similar to the brilliant Just Cause 2 demo. An opening cutscene, a slice of the open-world action, a closing cutscene and a trailer for the main game.

Almost precisely what you'd expect a demo to be, with added side missions. Without the side missions it's 100% a demo.

Wasn't there a time limit?
 

abrack08

Member
I disagree. It was very similar to the brilliant Just Cause 2 demo. An opening cutscene, a slice of the open-world action, a closing cutscene and a trailer for the main game.

Almost precisely what you'd expect a demo to be, with added side missions. Without the side missions it's 100% a demo.

It's not a demo. It's a piece of Metal Gear Solid 5 that was chopped off and released early. I understand people having issues with that, but since when has any demo taken place 9 years before the actual game with significant story content and missions that presumably will not be available in the main game? They're even asking for feedback so they can potentially change/improve the controls or gameplay. If the main game plays differently than GZ, how can it be a demo? It is what it is, a short game (At a discounted price), and the best way to describe it really is prologue to MGSV (or epilogue to Peace Walker!)
 

RangerBAD

Member
Finally did this, but I can confirm that there's something wrong with this mission.

During my first retry simply the marking stopped working. There wasn't the alert, so no reinforcement, but simply the game didn't register marked enemies.

So I restarted the mission and finally, after 40 minutes, I marked all enemies.

Now I have all the trophies and 100% completition, I hope that my gamesave will have a purpose on TPP.

Kojima will be part of Diamond Dogs probably.
 

Gui_PT

Member
100%'d the game earlier today

Some of the length is certainly "cheap" as it consists of finishing a few missions on the same level various times but despite that the gameplay is amazingly entertaining and fun.

Even though Snake doesn't talk much, Kiefer did a great job. As did everyone else in this.

The graphics are amazing. The music is awesome. Codec conversations happening simultaneously with gameplay is a great change.

There's only a couple of things I don't really like. The soldiers are still almost legally blind and it sucks that a guard all by himself in the middle of nothing yelling "contact" puts the whole base on alert.

If this happens next to other soldiers, only they should enter the alert phase and if the threat is confirmed, then the whole base does the same. If the soldier is by himself, he should have to radio someone instead of just screaming.

Overall it's a nice game, tons of fun and worth the price.
 

Jonnax

Member
There's only a couple of things I don't really like. The soldiers are still almost legally blind and it sucks that a guard all by himself in the middle of nothing yelling "contact" puts the whole base on alert.

If this happens next to other soldiers, only they should enter the alert phase and if the threat is confirmed, then the whole base does the same. If the soldier is by himself, he should have to radio someone instead of just screaming.

I thought the implication of that was that they were on radio at all times.
 

jett

D-Member
I feel so silly for only recently realizing that this:

metal-gear-solid-ground-zeroes-1024x5511.jpeg

Is mimicking this:

 

Loxley

Member
Metagearsolid.org is doing a series of articles on Ground Zeroes. The first examines the marketing and confusion of Ground Zeroes:

http://metagearsolid.org/2014/03/metal-gear-solid-v-ground-zeroes/

I certainly hope the rest of the articles are just as needlessly melodramatic.

"A part of me feels like Ground Zeroes is a tax for loving the series. Part of me feels like The Phantom Pain is sort of being held hostage, and Ground Zeroes is the ransom. Part of me feels like KONAMI is a greedy, desperate, and yet arrogant company who thinks this is somehow a great deal. We all know Metal Gear is their biggest cash cow, and times have changed since the old 2000′s. Everything will be multi-platform, feature paid DLC, and be monetized as much as we can tolerate. They’ll chop $10 off the price tag if we complain loudly enough, because even they realize what assholes they’re being right now.

"Expectations decide half of how much we enjoy anything. Ground Zeroes stumbled and fell over its attempts to manipulate and exploit our expectations, and now it’s the one paying the price."

Yeah bro, fight the power. Despite the fact that GZ is reviewing well, has good word of mouth amongst MGS fans, and is (apparently) selling well - this whole thing sure blew-up in Konami's face.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
97%.
Need to S rank Ground Zeroes and Intel Operative on Hard but I don't think I can do it.

Ground Zeroes is easy. You can use Reflex so long as you're fast and
save three or 7 hostages
you're fine.

Intel Operative seems hard to me. Mostly because I'm not sure if the truck slamming into the barrel near the heliport and killing themselves counts as me killing them or not. You kinda need to do VERY minimal retries on that one. :/ Even doing 4 gives you an A.
 

Zen

Banned
This made me put reflex mode back on to try it, and wow I hadn't realized how much easier the game is with it on. Its like night and day. You can just run around the map and if you get spotted it's not really a big deal because you just pop them in the head. I think I much prefer the game with it off.

I would not mind some sort of limit on reflex mode, like it regens over time to represent Snakes something.
 

Linconan

Member
Well i think i might be crazy..

Ok, long Story short. I have two copies of Metal Gear Solid V:GZ.
One Digital PSN DL (AU) and one on Disc (Import)

I swear the Disc copy looks better.......

I've spent all arvo starting/switching up each one, while they both look like the run the same (eg:pop ups,etc), the Disc version looks more realistic and motion seems better (eg: camera movement/frames).

..strange
*wipes eyes
 

Sojgat

Member
Well i think i might be crazy..

Ok, long Story short. I have two copies of Metal Gear Solid V:GZ.
One Digital PSN DL (AU) and one on Disc (Import)

I swear the Disc copy looks better.......

I've spent all arvo starting/switching up each one, while they both look like the run the same (eg:pop ups,etc), the Disc version looks more realistic and motion seems better (eg: camera movement/frames).

..strange
*wipes eyes

Is import version NTSC?
 

Crimmy

Member
Opened GZ for the first time tonight after beating PW several days ago and getting the "final" ending.

Despite knowing how short it was before hand, I'm really upset at how quickly I was able to finish the main mission. What was most heart breaking was Sutherland. I suppose it makes sense to switch actors if at some point, Snake and Big Boss may have to speak to one another in a Metal Gear remake but gosh....

With that being said, I'm still looking forward to Phantom Pain since I'm so attached to Metal Gear (MGS4 was the only reason I bought a PS3) but I'm more tempted to replay Peace Walker than play through GZ again. Least at the moment.
 

Linconan

Member
Is import version NTSC?

(Region 3) is the only info on the back, i can see in this regard.
Made in Japan,
Printed in Hong Kong

I dunno, i think i'm going crazy,lol
Might delete the DL version and just keep the Disc version installed.

And yes, they install sep. There's two MGSV icons on Ps4 Dashboard. I'll have to start everything all over again,lol
 

Zen

Banned
Opened GZ for the first time tonight after beating PW several days ago and getting the "final" ending.

Despite knowing how short it was before hand, I'm really upset at how quickly I was able to finish the main mission. What was most heart breaking was Sutherland. I suppose it makes sense to switch actors if at some point, Snake and Big Boss may have to speak to one another in a Metal Gear remake but gosh....

With that being said, I'm still looking forward to Phantom Pain since I'm so attached to Metal Gear (MGS4 was the only reason I bought a PS3) but I'm more tempted to replay Peace Walker than play through GZ again. Least at the moment.

Now try to collect all the cassette tapes, play on hard, unlock the console exclusive mission. You do not even need to care about S ranking the missions, there is a lot of meat to the experience.
 
Only 1 mission away from completing the "Like a Boss" challenge on X1. Even though it's just replaying the same map in different ways, there is a lot to do in this game.

Does anyone know how the prisoners carrying over to TPP works? I can't see it being too sophisticated but I'm really looking forward to the mother base/Outer Heaven aspect in TPP.
 

VulpX

Member
Only 1 mission away from completing the "Like a Boss" challenge on X1. Even though it's just replaying the same map in different ways, there is a lot to do in this game.

Does anyone know how the prisoners carrying over to TPP works? I can't see it being too sophisticated but I'm really looking forward to the mother base/Outer Heaven aspect in TPP.
There han't been any official announcement about that, only that players of GZ would have some benefits for their Mother Base in TPP. I doubt you'll transfer the actual POW's from GZ, I expect it to just be the unlocking of some specific soldiers or extra's for your base.
 

Kajiba

Member
I'm ranked 48 on the Jamais Vu(Hard) for the fastest to beat it. Also Stealth, no kill.

People beating it at 8 to 7 minutes is pretty crazy

Only 1 mission away from completing the "Like a Boss" challenge on X1. Even though it's just replaying the same map in different ways, there is a lot to do in this game.

Does anyone know how the prisoners carrying over to TPP works? I can't see it being too sophisticated but I'm really looking forward to the mother base/Outer Heaven aspect in TPP.

I'm going after that too. Going to try and get it his week if I have the time.
 

Sojgat

Member
(Region 3) is the only info on the back, i can see in this regard.
Made in Japan,
Printed in Hong Kong

I dunno, i think i'm going crazy,lol
Might delete the DL version and just keep the Disc version installed.

And yes, they install sep. There's two MGSV icons on Ps4 Dashboard. I'll have to start everything all over again,lol

Yeah region 3 is NTSC, while the AU PSN version would probably be PAL. There may very well be a noticeable difference. You aren't crazy.
 
There han't been any official announcement about that, only that players of GZ would have some benefits for their Mother Base in TPP. I doubt you'll transfer the actual POW's from GZ, I expect it to just be the unlocking of some specific soldiers or extra's for your base.

Yeah that's what I was thinking also. What I'm really curious about is how the missions will be laid out in Phantom Pain. Will there be random side missions like there were in GZ? Will you have to select all your missions from a menu while in a chopper or can you just free roam and find a new mission? Will there be a large number of different bases that you can revisit for new missions(similar to GZ). Gah so many questions!
 

BadAss2961

Member
This game makes the wait for TPP so hard. Ground Zeroes alone has so much content and replayability, it's insane. I love it a lot more than I thought I would. Totes worth the money of you ask me. Kojima, you're on the right track with this one, stay the course my man.
If TPP has good length, and hovers around the quality of Ground Zeroes, i'll call it the greatest game of all time.
 
Yeah that's what I was thinking also. What I'm really curious about is how the missions will be laid out in Phantom Pain. Will there be random side missions like there were in GZ? Will you have to select all your missions from a menu while in a chopper or can you just free roam and find a new mission? Will there be a large number of different bases that you can revisit for new missions(similar to GZ). Gah so many questions!


I think it will work the same as it does in GZ, although some missions might not finish by leaving the map, especially story missions.

Actually, thinking about it, the main story could be separated off more from extra ops/mission replays a bit like how mission select works in other recent open world games. So the story could be designed with two consecutive missions on the same map, where you could choose to leave half way or do both at once.
 
A buddy came over today and brought over his copy. Played through the whole thing. I have to say, it's a meticulously put together game and there's no denying the polish and quality here, but I definitely would not pay $30 for it.

Length isn't even my issue here. (At least not directly.) It's the fact that the whole experience felt devoid of Kojima's signature batshit insanity and humor. (At least if there was, I missed it.) It all felt like it played things too straight. I really hope Phantom Pain makes up for this.


Aside from that, it was pretty damn spectacular. But it just isn't Metal Gear without the wackiness.


I feel so silly for only recently realizing that this:



Is mimicking this:

That's awesome.
 

-Stranger-

Junior Member
How does this run on XB1? Is it worth getting for that platform?
I'm a huge MGS fan but probably won't be getting a PS4 until later in the year.
 

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
Reflex mode makes things easier for sure, but it's fun to turn on and do things you can't really do without it.

Also can't play any more GZ. Sick of this area!
 

Griss

Member
I have like 93% completion. What do I need to do to get 100%? I've been doing trials but they don't seem to affect it. Do ranks affect it? I think there's a couple of ops I haven't S'ed on hard.

1st thing I did when I got the game was turn reflex off

Was I the only one?

I was going to, but then I realised:
a) The game is built around in, in that guards are far more aware than ever before and can spot you from 60m away, and reflex doesn't always save your ass, and
b) It's actually crazy fun

I'll do some 'no-reflex' runs later.
 

Nibel

Member
So, I've played the game for a while know and must say that The Phantom Pain has jumped on the top spot of my most wanted games after experiencing all the nuanced gameplay changes. I was one of those people who thought MGS was going into a more action-focused direction, but boy was I wrong: from marking enemies to the new reflex system, everything makes total sense as it is to me.

Marking enemies in a open 3D world makes much more sense than using a 2D radar. I also love how it shows what the enemy is doing at the moment, wether he's asleep, knocked out or suspicious. The enemies are pretty great: the way they behave, wether they're smoking, talking or yawning, seems very human to me. Some of them try to follow you instantly when they think they saw you, others call for support and others just don't give a damn. Add the open-world-setting and the excellent pathfinding and you have a very dynamic experience.

The reflex system is better than expected, since there are often times where you might have overlooked a enemy right next to you and then slow-mo kicks in to correct that mistake. It's a welcome feature and much more handy than I expected it to be.

Also, I just love this game's overall stealth approach: no more switching to menus like in MGS3, no more costume choosing before the mission like in Peace Walker - the only thing that saves your ass is the darkness and the level structure, that's it. It feels really pure and makes the gameplay a lot more tense. The new controls and Snake's moveset feel so natural and fit with these stealth mechanics really well.

I can live with the missing LIFE bar; the barebones-HUD is pretty great and functional. Also, needles to say: 1080p and 60FPS was a real 'wow' moment to me. The GZ mission looks spectacular, from the rain in the dark to the countless animations of Snake and the soldiers; Kojima Productions have outdone themselves.

The worst thing I can say about GZ is that it makes me want to play a game that is probably still one year away from release. Otherwise, I love this new MGS and think that the new open-world-gameplay is the biggest and best step the franchise has ever taken. I predict that TPP might become the best MGS of all time if Kojima plays his cards right.
 

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
How "open world" is it really, though? If TPP was split up as a bunch of separate areas that were GZ camp in size, or bigger, is that different than the areas in MGS4, for example?

The enemies are pretty great: the way they behave, wether they're smoking, talking or yawning, seems very human to me. Some of them try to follow you instantly when they think they saw you, others call for support and others just don't give a damn.

Oh, is this supposed to be humanistic behaviour per guard? I thought it was based on movement and distance, like if you were kind of close and moved a lot or if you disturbed them repeatedly they'd commit to checking it out. If it was a slight movement from far away and you didn't alert them again they wouldn't care.
 
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