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Frogger on 09 September 2015
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Hiku said:

Yeah, exactly. And even though you've only played one game in the series (MGS3), that one is no different than the ones that came before it in regards to how gameplay and story were structured and presented. And you should still be able to get a sense of how that story would be either meaningful by itself, or relevant in the grand scheme of things. Naked Snake is the father of the other Snakes, so you can imagine that it's important to learn his backstory. Shagohod was the origin of the Metal Gear model, which is a prominent theme throughout the series. Ocelot turns out to be an interesting character, and foreshadowed to appear in future games. And the Philosophers/Patriots/Cipher seem like they'll be an important part of the series. Etc.
Since you went at this series in a chonological order, the things you miss out on is viewing certain characters and events in a preconcieved way. But nearly every character you encounter in MGS3 are interesting and important in some way. And if not in that game, then they will be in future games as they get further development. In this game, there's hardly any of that. And for the few characters who have been in other games such as Ocelot, their appearance or development in this game feels almost unnecesary. But even if it was meant to be more of a stand alone chapter, that would be perfectly fine, as long as it was done in a good and interesting way. But it just doesn't feel like a complete story, nor a particularly good one.
And after everything Skullface did, this felt like one of the least satisfying confrontations I've had with a villain.

When I'll think back at MGS5, I'll think of the excellent gameplay, but also a chapter of the story that didn't feel particualrly interesting or neccesary. And something that leaves a bad aftertaste is the brutality and gore. In particular treatment of Paz (revealed in the cassette tapes in Ground Zeroes). An event I'd rather not remember, because the conclusion to it felt utterly unsatisfying.


So I just finished the mission where you rescue... This is probably spoilers, actually. The person at the end of Afganistan and that whole thing. I've been playing for at least 15 hours, and this is the first bit of significant and extended storytelling I've experienced since the prologue. And while the whole thing was presented well, it literally came out of nowhere, which was annoying to me. To the point where I think I actually sequence broke the game at one point and found a "you're not supposed to be here yet" glitch. Allow me to explain.

***SPOILERS***

So I had just finished mission 10, and at that point, there were no more core missions to do, which was annoying to me, because up to that point, I'd been only doing core missions (aside from the first side op with the Russian translator) because I just wanted to move the story along be only doing what I needed to. Locking me out by not allowing me to progress without doing the side ops makes no sense, because now they're making the side ops mandatory.

Anyway, I decided to do the Contact Emmeric(k?) side op since it was highlighted yellow, so I assumed it was important. (boy, was I right) Now at this point, you might be thinking "oh, this is when that cool, unexpected event happens on the way there," right? The run in with Quiet, right? Nope. Not this time. I was riding on my horse, and when I was riding on my way to the area that I would later discover to be the area where you're supposed to run into her and have that boss fight, a sandstorm hit me. Which means she never saw me to trigger that cutscene, which means I went into the base not knowing any of this was supposed to happen.

Now, for some more context, this was also the first time I got D-Dog. I mentioned in my other posts that I haven't been playing the game very stealthily. Not in this mission. I ghosted through the whole base, fultoning literally every soldier in the area. D-Dog = The OG OP. All hail god D-Dog. Anyway, suffice to say I was smitten. That was better than I had ever performed on any mission, and I was ready to claim my reward. Only, I had no idea where Emmerich was. I looked through every single building and unlocked every door. Long story short, after about 45 minutes of scowering this empty base, I finally folded and went online. That door I unlocked? It was supposed to trigger a cutscene. I went to the door again, opened it, went through, and that entire area was completely glitched out. Invisible platforms, floating platforms, the works. So I was pretty pissed.

I had my hellicopter land at the base to I wouldn't loose all the guys I recruited and did the whole thing over again. For some reason, I couldn't land at the base I had literally just secured, so I landed in the closest area instead. Only this time, on my way there a sand storm didn't happen, meaning Quiet did see me, meaning this time, I didn't break sequence at all. And everything cliqued when, during that boss fight, Ocelot (or Miller, I can't tell), kept telling me to forget about her and just focus on contacting Emmerick.

So I beat Quiet pretty easily (fun fight, though) and picked her up and left. After a bunch of cutscenes, I had do do the Contact Emmerick mission again since taking Quiet automatically brings you back to mother base. Exept now, all of a sudden, I could land on the base even though the danger level was high. And hell, I did. And instead of that beautiful, stealthy approach I did before, I just slaughtered the place this time, because I just wanted the whole thing done. And after killing everything breathing, I noticed that the yellow marker was on the door this time. -_- So I walked up to it, the cutscene triggered, and I sighed.

You know what happens after that. I'm pretty sure that guy is pretty important to the franchise, as I recognise him, but I don't know how. Pretty sure he invented the Metal Gears or something maybe.

***END SPOILERS***

The problem with presenting such a significant ammount of story like this, aside from the isolated chance that someone like me could accidentally sequence break it, is that when it happens, it feels flippin' random. I'm building MB for what probably adds up to months and then, all of a sudden, a chance run in with Quiet triggers this giant waterfall of story progression. All from of a not-so-optional side op. Like, contextually, it makes no sense. You're playing story missions for hours where nothing happens, and then this side op is what progresses the story to the next stage and, I assume, the next "chapter." I was hoping that every episode would start and stop with story progression, but now I have the feeling that it's just each chapter that will instead, which is way too far apart.

It took like 15 hours for me to get Quiet, (maybe less. I haven't actually checked) and literally nothing of significance happened between then. The story so far has literally just been "Escape from the hospital. Go to Afgahnistan. Fulton a wolf-dog. Wait 6 hours. Run away from "The Skulls." Wait 6 hours. Wolf-dog grows up. Run randomly into Quiet. Everything involving Emmerich and the first metal gear." And I cannot overstate the "wait a combined 12 hours" bit enough.