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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

None

Arbiter
Joined
Sep 5, 2019
Messages
2,055
Btw D-Walker sucks, something tells me it's unfinished and rushed due to Konami pressure. Otherwise I can't explain the uselessness.
It offers high mobility while being relatively stealthy at the same time. Watch some speedrun videos and you'll see what I mean.
 

Blaine

Cis-Het Oppressor
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Grab the Codex by the pussy
Btw D-Walker sucks, something tells me it's unfinished and rushed due to Konami pressure. Otherwise I can't explain the uselessness.
It's about as fast as D-Horse, is more maneuverable, is much more resistant to fall damage, has interchangeable manipulators, and also has interchangeable heads (one of which allows you to detect enemies hundreds of meters away). You can't "side hide" on D-Walker, though, and that's a big deal. It exchanges inconspicuousness for, well, everything else.

I think the real problem with D-Walker for most people is that they wish to use the tools it offers as though they aren't aboard a large and somewhat noisy (not hugely noisy, but also not silent; slower speeds are quieter, though) robot, but in fact they are. It also is generally a better fit for non-ghost approaches, and is fun to play around with.

I agree though, if you're ghostmaxxing it tends to be more of a liability than an asset, and encourages risky behavior, unlike the horse. I had some success with it, but you must know the mission well.
 

Üstad

Arcane
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Messages
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Türkiye
Btw D-Walker sucks, something tells me it's unfinished and rushed due to Konami pressure. Otherwise I can't explain the uselessness.
It's about as fast as D-Horse, is more maneuverable, is much more resistant to fall damage, has interchangeable manipulators, and also has interchangeable heads (one of which allows you to detect enemies hundreds of meters away). You can't "side hide" on D-Walker, though, and that's a big deal. It exchanges inconspicuousness for, well, everything else.

I think the real problem with D-Walker for most people is that they wish to use the tools it offers as though they aren't aboard a large and somewhat noisy (not hugely noisy, but also not silent; slower speeds are quieter, though) robot, but in fact they are. It also is generally a better fit for non-ghost approaches, and is fun to play around with.

I agree though, if you're ghostmaxxing it tends to be more of a liability than an asset, and encourages risky behavior, unlike the horse. I had some success with it, but you must know the mission well.
I'm at mission 31 realized the rest of the missions are just older missions harder version. I'm saying this I think the search mode for d-walker was avaible only like 6 missions ago. It's acquired late, becomes useful very late and expensive. I would tolerate it maybe chapter 2 was actually finished, as I wouldd have more reasons to use it.

By the way the game shouldn't have been an open world game, it should have been like MGS 3 with fixed amount of points to invest in things like intel (tagging enemies should have been unlocked at higher level if at all), better camo, combat team to ambush enemy equipment, Snake's combat skills (reflex should be unlocked at higher level) etc. This would make the game more replayable and fixed amount of points would make the gameplay better and discourage grinding. Boss battles felt too rushed and boring. I really wish there was a sniper duel in Afghanistan like in MGS 3, except without thermal googles cheesing, atleast there would be fun and memorable boss battle in the game. Konami really ruined a potential masterpiece.
 
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Silva

Arcane
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Messages
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Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
By the way the game shouldn't have been an open world game, it should have been like MGS 3 with fixed amount of points to invest in things like intel (tagging enemies should have been unlocked at higher level if at all), better camo, combat team to ambush enemy equipment, Snake's combat skills (reflex should be unlocked at higher level) etc. This would make the game more replayable and fixed amount of points would make the gameplay better and discourage grinding. Boss battles felt too rushed and boring. I really wish there was a sniper duel in Afghanistan like in MGS 3, except without thermal googles cheesing, atleast there would be fun and memorable boss battle in the game. Konami really ruined a potential masterpiece.
I disagree soundly. The open-world is what made the game so refreshing and worth playing, with it's tight simulation mechanisms that put the average AAA open-world to shame.

The problem of Phantom Pain is not it's premise, but the fact it was never finished and the story being complete ass.
 

Üstad

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
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Türkiye
By the way the game shouldn't have been an open world game, it should have been like MGS 3 with fixed amount of points to invest in things like intel (tagging enemies should have been unlocked at higher level if at all), better camo, combat team to ambush enemy equipment, Snake's combat skills (reflex should be unlocked at higher level) etc. This would make the game more replayable and fixed amount of points would make the gameplay better and discourage grinding. Boss battles felt too rushed and boring. I really wish there was a sniper duel in Afghanistan like in MGS 3, except without thermal googles cheesing, atleast there would be fun and memorable boss battle in the game. Konami really ruined a potential masterpiece.
I disagree soundly. The open-world is what made the game so refreshing and worth playing, with it's tight simulation mechanisms that put the average AAA open-world to shame.

The problem of Phantom Pain is not it's premise, but the fact it was never finished and the story being complete ass.
When open world meets with East Asian devs you get a grindfest, MGSV is all about fultoning it's tedious and boring. Also I would rather have a finished linear action/stealth game rather than unfinished open world game. The open world didn't even mostly contribute enough to different tactical approaches. Most places were open enviroment and straightforward, I wish there were more urbanish places and encourage different tactical approaches thanks to the open world design. In MGS 3 there were shit tons of tunnels fit for crawling, encouraging you to use different methods despite the linear progression. MGSV despite being an open world design doesn't has this.
 

kites

samsung verizon hitachi
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I like “open” worlds because they give an easy sense of scope, but they often are an excuse for copy+paste or procedural generation. I think it worked here for me because most of the time you could just airlift into the zones you needed to be in and pick your point of entry.. the Infinite Heaven mod also let you up things like NPC commuting across the map which let it feel more busy and lived-in
 

Machocruz

Arcane
Joined
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Hyperborea
All the real action happened in the mission areas anyway. They were large enough to accomodate numerous infil- and exfiltration points. I don't think the connective tissue in between amounted to much, but that's a personal taste. I'm sure there are many who enjoyed driving trucks around taking out outposts, etc.
 

Nifft Batuff

Prophet
Joined
Nov 14, 2018
Messages
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For me, the (almost) empty and relatively safe areas you need to traverse to reach the missions are nice to build tension due to the sense of expectation they provide. They improve the pacing by adding breath moments.
 

ERYFKRAD

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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
In MGS 3 there were shit tons of tunnels fit for crawling, encouraging you to use different methods despite the linear progression. MGSV despite being an open world design doesn't has this.
Mgsv has plenty of alternate routing and all that yeehaw.
 

Silva

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Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
When open world meets with East Asian devs you get a grindfest, MGSV is all about fultoning it's tedious and boring. Also I would rather have a finished linear action/stealth game rather than unfinished open world game. The open world didn't even mostly contribute enough to different tactical approaches. Most places were open enviroment and straightforward, I wish there were more urbanish places and encourage different tactical approaches thanks to the open world design. In MGS 3 there were shit tons of tunnels fit for crawling, encouraging you to use different methods despite the linear progression. MGSV despite being an open world design doesn't has this.
I never felt the need to grind-fulton enemies since they were always conveniently placed on my way during missions. But I agree the mechanic gets old by midgame. They should've created some unlockable tech allowing you to just mark enemies for your support personel to hijack offscreen (with different success chances based on tech level or something).

About different ways to execute missions, again I must disagree. Always found the missions pretty sandboxy and accomodating of various routes/tactics.

All the real action happened in the mission areas anyway. They were large enough to accomodate numerous infil- and exfiltration points. I don't think the connective tissue in between amounted to much, but that's a personal taste. I'm sure there are many who enjoyed driving trucks around taking out outposts, etc.
I see where you're coming from, but then this connective tissue is the most alive I've seen in an open-world game. You got different kind of patrols in them that communicate with the outposts to trigger different alert states and ask for reinforcements, the outposts themselves communicate and reinforce each other, choppers around outposts go out of their way to pursue you, etc. And you can interact with all this by cutting comms, creating diversionary tactics, hitting them by day or night which changes the "board state", etc. Contrast this to say, Elden Ring where the connective tissue doesn't even feel alive or connected to anything.

Besides, as Nifft Batuff said above, this connective tissue makes for a good relief moment (specially with the 80s music on the background) as well as building tension before key missions, besides being just the right size to never feel boring to traverse. It's the kind of "fruitful void" in design that don't serve gameplay directly but enriches the experience.

Ultimately, I'm not sure Phantom Pain is a better stealth game than Chaos Theory or Snake Eater or Thief 2, but I'm 100% sure it's the entry the genre needed to refresh/reinvent itself. At this point I played this genre so much that if a new Splinter Cell comes out following the same old formula I'll probably pass it as I just did with the last Hitman game. I have The Dark Mod if I want the old formula, if you'll invest billions on a new game at least make it really new.
 
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ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I see where you're coming from, but then this connective tissue is the most alive I've seen in an open-world game. You got different kind of patrols in them that communicate with the outposts to trigger different alert states and ask for reinforcements, the outposts themselves communicate and reinforce each other, choppers around outposts go out of their way to pursue you, etc. And you can interact with all this by cutting comms, creating diversionary tactics, hitting them by day or night which changes the "board state", etc. Contrast this to say, Elden Ring where the connective tissue doesn't even feel alive or connected to anything
I think my biggest problem with the AO zones is that they're 100% hostile to you. Everyone you meet is either a prisoner to be extracted or an enemy to be knocked out and then extracted. Couple of friendlies would have broken that monotony somewhat.
 

Machocruz

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Hyperborea

Ultimately, I'm not sure Phantom Pain is a better stealth game than Chaos Theory or Snake Eater or Thief 2,
Nothing is better than Thief 1 or 2 when it comes to pure, concentrated stealth design imo, but in the military-themed category, it's the only game giving CT some comp. CT edges it out for me because I love it's shadowy world and grounded, if boilerplate, spy fiction.

If there is one thing you can't take away from Kojima, it's that he's forward thinking when it comes to this medium. There is a state-of-the-art, avant garde feel to his games when they drop, even if only superficial. Forward thinking for most others is 'how can we "honor the past" (i.e. exploit fan nostalgia, not have to come up with something new)while dumbing everything down for today's lowest common denominator audience.'
 

Priest

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https://youtu.be/O1grcfYk-qg

I was just wondering if anyone can explain this? I know PythonSelkan get bad rep in some circles but they raised a genuine question here. In fact, it's nothing new and people were discussing it back in the day but I've never seen a satisfying answer. Another plot hole? If so, Kojima should get called out for his bad writing more often
 

Egosphere

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Hibernia
https://youtu.be/O1grcfYk-qg

I was just wondering if anyone can explain this? I know PythonSelkan get bad rep in some circles but they raised a genuine question here. In fact, it's nothing new and people were discussing it back in the day but I've never seen a satisfying answer. Another plot hole? If so, Kojima should get called out for his bad writing more often
Don't tell me you take any of Kojima's writing seriously
 

Priest

Novice
Joined
Dec 18, 2021
Messages
18
Location
Russia
https://youtu.be/O1grcfYk-qg

I was just wondering if anyone can explain this? I know PythonSelkan get bad rep in some circles but they raised a genuine question here. In fact, it's nothing new and people were discussing it back in the day but I've never seen a satisfying answer. Another plot hole? If so, Kojima should get called out for his bad writing more often
Don't tell me you take any of Kojima's writing seriously
When it's not about diarrhea or lolis, I do
 

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