[mjn.mixael]

So, long story short... I was a big MGS fan. But when MGS4 was to be released on PS3 7 years ago... I just didn't have that kind of cash to spend on a PS3 + game. So I, more or less, wrote off ever getting to experience the rest of the MGS story. Which kinda sucked given the cliffhangers from MGS2 and how MGS3 was NOT A SEQUEL.

So here I am, 7 years later. I picked up a PS3 off Woot.com for $100 and grabbed the MGS Legacy Collection for $20. Hey! I finally get to finish the story, and I didn't pay $600 to do so!

And so I did... And... Wat? So, basically other than the bosses of MGS3, nanomachines are the default explanation for anything weird. Immortal vampire? Nanos. Psychic powers? Nanos. Man dying and taking over someone else's body through a grafted limb? Nanos. Lame. And all this because the Patriots became a thing, there was some falling out.. enter Snake who "kills" Grey Fox, and then Naomi wants revenge. There. Nanos. I was very underwhelmed by the whole thing.

Not to mention that I mostly watched MGS4 instead of played... but I read the reviews and knew that going in. Still.. I was surprised by how little play there actually was. Though, the boss fight against Liquid was way cool in it's seamless transition from Gameplay to Cinematic. And Act 4 was a sweet nostalgia trip if it weren't for all those weird stupid Triple-Hand-Surveilance-Bots that never gave me a chance to stand there and just look at the place.

But then I was sitting there watching the credits and I got to thinking about the series as a whole... and I just feel played a little bit. I'm sure that's exactly what Hideo wants. I mean, after the fantastic game that was MGS1, all we fans wanted was to play as Solid GotDamn Snake sneaking around and killing bad guys. We -never- got that sequel. Yeah yeah.. MGS2 was a bait-n-switch and Hideo planned that from the start. Then we got Naked Snake. Neat. MGS3 was cool.. but still not what we were wanting. I guess after MGS2 we'll take whatever Hideo will give us. Finally in MGS4 we play as Solid Snake... except nope. It's Old Snake who freaking seizures up in every scene and coughs when trying to smoke. I mean, I guess it's not sooo bad because the games are still fun. Now that I'm caught up on the series, I'm planning on taking MGS5 for a spin sometime soon. It's open-world style looks intriguing. I don't know what my complaint really is other than I somehow wish Hideo didn't try to get all fancy pants with MGS2 and caused the story to become this massive cluster**** of plot-twists and nanomachines to the point where there really was no other way to end it all.

Oh.. and the other big complaint. The misogyny... Good GRIEF the misogyny. Why the hell is Naomi working in the lab with her shirt unbuttoned down to her navel? Why does every cutscene have to focus on some chick's boobs or butt? OF COURSE the bosses are hot chicks under the armor and OF COURSE they'll writhe sexually and then try to kill you by sexy walking to you and grabbing you. Not even Mei Ling escapes this crap. It's distracting and completely kills the tone of most of the scenes it occurs in. From what I've read about MGS5, they continue this trend, but worse. I'm willing to bet a good portion of the MGS player-base are 20-somethings or older. We are grown ass men. We don't need aliased booby polygons with jiggle physics to titillate us into buying a game... especially in the age of Internet. We all know where the porn is, should we need that sort of thing.

But in regards to actual MGS4 gameplay, the first two acts were probably the best. Sneaking around in the warzone was actually pretty fun. Act 3 was really lame... just following some dude around the city streets for a while, a mediocre boss fight, and an on-rails shooter. Act 4 was cool if only for the nostalgia trip and the Metal Gear Ray fight. What was Act 5 again? Oh yeah.. on the boat for a little bit and then ****ing mashing Triangle while snake crawls through a microwave because it wouldn't be MGS without a button mashing segment shoehorned in. I guess they get props for it not being a torture chamber scene this time. After I beat Liquid, I had to save and quit and be dad for a while. After the kids were in bed, I booted back up to "play" MGS4 and finish. What I actually did was Watch it for two hours then saved and turned the console off after the credits. Crazy.

I dunno, I guess I'm curious what you all thought of the game/series and what you think of MGS5 if you've played it. Also, what's the deal with there being like an MGS5 prequel thing and then like the full game?

[Scotty]

Phantom Pain is Solid Venom GotDamn Snake sneaking around and killing bad guys (and stealing all of their **** [and sometimes them too]).  If that's what you want PP is exactly your speed.

[The E]

Yeah, MGS 5 is much more of a game than any other MGS game. It's pretty brilliant that way.

The thing with Ground Zeroes is that it's the prologue to MGS5 which they spun out into its own thing. If you want to know whether you'll like TPP, you can get GZ and check its gameplay out. It's more or less identical to TPPs', except that in TPP you can abduct and brainwash recruit enemy soldiers and steal acquire their ****.

[General Battuta]

Another hilarious thing about MGS4: the engine is such a house of cards that if they ever tried to move it off the PS3 (where it baarrrrely works) it would probably explode. I doubt we'll ever see a MGS4 rerelease/remaster.

[Snarks]

I never played it myself because I couldn't justify buying a PS4, so I watched a LP of it.  In retrospect, I'm pretty thankful that I did because there was indeed a lot of just watching and not as much playing. That said, MGS5 plays like a very different game, but ends up losing a lot of the cinematic flair that the series had become renown for.

[General Battuta]

MGS5 is cool because it's actually a video game. I like a lot of the ideas in 4 but after Act 2 you barely get to explore the game systems.

[mjn.mixael]

From a story perspective, do I need to play Ground Zeroes before Phantom Pain?

[Snarks]

From a story perspective, do I need to play Ground Zeroes before Phantom Pain?

Yes, but the plot of GZ is short enough that TPP will probably summarize it pretty well as is.

[Scotty]

From a story perspective, do I need to play Ground Zeroes before Phantom Pain?

No.  I jumped right into PP, and the story of Ground Zeroes was summarized well enough that I wasn't in the dark literally before I was allowed to move under my own power, and explained thoroughly enough that I had very few remaining questions before the end of the first level.

[mjn.mixael]

I ended up picking up Ground Zeroes anyway. I like the gameplay elements. Rescued the chick and was kinda trapped... so I stuck her in the truck and drove on out! No one suspected a thing. Way cool.

Phantom Pain is Solid Venom GotDamn Snake sneaking around and killing bad guys (and stealing all of their **** [and sometimes them too]).  If that's what you want PP is exactly your speed.

Wait.. I thought you played as Big Boss in the Phantom Pain? Who the hell is Venom Snake? We have to have ANOTHER Snake? Solid, Liquid, Solidus, Naked, Old, and now Veno... oh screw it. I don't think I care enough about this MGS story anymore. I'll just play in my own headcanon. It's clearly Jack GotDamn Bauer.

 

[Scotty]

Venom "Punished" Snake is Big Boss's name.

[AdmiralRalwood]

Spoiler:

Punished Snake and Venom Snake are two separate people.

[Scotty]

All of the game so far has referred to him as Venom "Punished" Snake, so I'm gonna stick by that as far as selling the game to mjn goes.