OK, let me clarify that this game is an absolute STEAL even when not on sale. Even if you're not familiar with the Metal Gear games, you'll definitely get your money's worth.

But in the context of other Metal Gear games, it has plenty of flaws. I've only played MGS4 but I've also seen people play MGS3, so I have a bit of experience.

Phantom Pain takes the classic Metal Gear formula and gives it a complete makeover. It's less point A-to-B and more "here is the objective, the rest is up to you". Imagine stealth with hints of Far Cry.

You're given access to a huge variety of weapons and gear to help you, and you can tailor your loadout toward whatever strategy you want. Later in the game you'll unlock top-tier gear that let you do even more ridiculous stuff and make missions a cakewalk (more on that later).

You can also free roam, and during this time you can undertake sidequests, sabotage enemy bases to make infiltration easier, or collect resources and recruits. Pretty neat.

The only complaint I have is that the game actively punishes you for killing enemies with the Demon Point system. It basically the game's way of telling you that you're a massive jerk.

New to the series, you basically get a sidekick with cool abilities. You start off with only a simple horse but later on you'll acquire even cooler buddies with broken abilities that, in my opinion, make the game kinda too easy.

This is how it should be. In MGS4 I almost never melee'd enemies because it always alerts the enemy and it was almost always easier to use a gun.

In this game, you're encouraged to use CQC because you won't get away with tranqulizing everything. It's 100% silent, ignores protective gear, and can be chained.

Also new to the series are melee counters, which MGS4 could DEFINITELY have used.

Here's the problem: there's little to no variety in these missions. Most of the time it's either one of the three:
-Rescue the prisoner
-Eliminate the target
-Stop the convoy of vehicles
There are 50 missions. A majority of them are like this, and some of them are just harder versions of previous missions.

And due to the open nature of the game there's no stopping you from heading toward the main objective from the start, so once you learn a mission its very easy to cheese them with little to no effort. This is worsened when you unlock high-level items later in the game that allow you to literally breeze through them.

Very rarely will they throw something new into the mix, such as the Metal Gear battle or the quarantine mission, but don't count on it.

Then there's mission tasks. Designed for completionists, each mission has optional objectives that give rewards. However, most of these are super tedious and a pain in the ass. Not to mention, some of them are bugged or have vague descriptions, which adds to the frustration. Most missions have 4-8 tasks, and there are 50 missions. Do the math.

The bosses also suck. Previous games had FOX, FOXHOUND, Dead Cell, and the B&B Corps, which were all interesting bosses with unique strategies. In this game, however, you get the Skulls, which are brain-dead bullet sponges with boring attacks.

You also have Side Ops, which are basically like the missions mentioned above but as sidequests. Once again, they are lazily implemented and are a chore to complete. They get harder as you go through them but that's about it.

In previous games, enemies won't go on a full-on combat alert unless they spot you, contact HQ, and then HQ radioes everyone else. Basically, you just have to silence the guy before he calls for support, which is plenty of time. In this game, once you're spotted, you'll have a mere second until the ENTIRE BASE TELEPTHICALLY KNOWS YOUR EXACT LOCATION. I have no idea how that makes sense. You have relfex mode (basically slow-motion quicktime) to counter this but this will limit your mission rank.

LUCKILY, in this game, only combat alerts will affect your mission rank, which means it is ok to be detected as long as you take out the guy fast. This is a huge improvement over previous games where if the (!) sign appears for even a nanosecond your perfect stealth run is over.

I also hate how the game treats caution phases. In older games, if the enemy got really suspicious of something, they would enter "caution mode" which would go away if you hid and waited it out.

In this game, once the enemy becomes suspicious, they stay that way FOREVER until you leave the map. They wil never stand down, and you'll have to deal with heightened security for the rest of the mission. It's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid, period.

Also, the enemies are just too sensitive in spotting you. It takes out a lot of fun from the game sometimes, and makes it really difficult to play in the daytime.

Here's the problem: Snake is too damn quiet. He barely speaks. While Keifer Sutherland definitely matches this rendition of Big Boss, I would have highly preferred a more vocal protagonist voiced by David Hayter. I loved his performance in MGS4 and would have loved to see it here. No more interesting codec calls and fourth-wall breaking, just a bunch of boring "casette tape" monologues that you can't be bothered to llisten to. You get a few very nicely done cutscenes, but that's about it. 99% of communication in this game is one-way and that's a shame.

Also, if you're unfamiliar with the Metal Gear timeline, you will be completely lost. This game doesn't do a good job of filling in the gaps either, because the story just abruptly ends with a bunch of unresolved plot points.

KB+M, specifically. Movement feels clunky and unresponsive, and several controls are unmappable. Vehicle physics are total whack. Aiming with a mouse is a huge relief, however. Gunplay, on the other had, feels restrictive and very unprecise, especially when using third-person.

I have to give credit to the backend devs. The game looks and runs phenomenally thanks to the cutting-edge FOX Engine. The game even runs at 60fps on consoles, which surprised me.

I haven't tried MGO but I have dabbled with the FOB gamemode and enjoyed it a lot. Basically, it allows you infiltrate other players' bases and steal stuff from them. Planning and building your own defenses is also pretty fun. Online is pretty much a wastelend so its fairly easy to win and rank up without retaliation.

PROS:
-Gameplay is fun and allows creativity
-New Buddy and CQC systems are very welcome
-Widest range of equipment in a Metal Gear game to date
-Looks and runs beatifully
-FOB mode is fun
-Excellent cinematic direction by Hideo Kojima
-Excellent value

♥♥♥♥:
-Plot and character interactions are very lacking
-Missions and SIde Ops all feel the same
-Many elements that made previous Metal Gear games great are absent
-Actively punishes killing of enemies and violent strategies in general
-PC controls could be better

OK, let me clarify that this game is an absolute STEAL even when not on sale. Even if you're not familiar with the Metal Gear games, you'll definitely get your money's worth. But in the context of other Metal Gear games, it has plenty of flaws. I've only played MGS4 but I've also seen people play MGS3, so I have a bit of experience. [h1]OPEN WORLD GAMEPLAY IS COOL[/h1] Phantom Pain takes the classic Metal Gear formula and gives it a complete makeover. It's less point A-to-B and more "here is the objective, the rest is up to you". Imagine stealth with hints of Far Cry. You're given access to a huge variety of weapons and gear to help you, and you can tailor your loadout toward whatever strategy you want. Later in the game you'll unlock top-tier gear that let you do even more ridiculous stuff and make missions a cakewalk (more on that later). You can also free roam, and during this time you can undertake sidequests, sabotage enemy bases to make infiltration easier, or collect resources and recruits. Pretty neat. The only complaint I have is that the game actively punishes you for killing enemies with the Demon Point system. It basically the game's way of telling you that you're a massive jerk. [h1]THE BUDDY SYSTEM IS AWESOME BUT OVERPOWERED[/h1] New to the series, you basically get a sidekick with cool abilities. You start off with only a simple horse but later on you'll acquire even cooler buddies with broken abilities that, in my opinion, make the game kinda too easy. [h1]CQC IS AWESOME[/h1] This is how it should be. In MGS4 I almost never melee'd enemies because it always alerts the enemy and it was almost always easier to use a gun. In this game, you're encouraged to use CQC because you won't get away with tranqulizing everything. It's 100% silent, ignores protective gear, and can be chained. Also new to the series are melee counters, which MGS4 could DEFINITELY have used. [h1]THE MISSIONS, THEY SUCK[/h1] Here's the problem: there's little to no variety in these missions. Most of the time it's either one of the three: -Rescue the prisoner -Eliminate the target -Stop the convoy of vehicles There are 50 missions. A majority of them are like this, and some of them are just harder versions of previous missions. And due to the open nature of the game there's no stopping you from heading toward the main objective from the start, so once you learn a mission its very easy to cheese them with little to no effort. This is worsened when you unlock high-level items later in the game that allow you to literally breeze through them. Very rarely will they throw something new into the mix, such as the Metal Gear battle or the quarantine mission, but don't count on it. Then there's mission tasks. Designed for completionists, each mission has optional objectives that give rewards. However, most of these are super tedious and a pain in the ass. Not to mention, some of them are bugged or have vague descriptions, which adds to the frustration. Most missions have 4-8 tasks, and there are 50 missions. Do the math. The bosses also suck. Previous games had FOX, FOXHOUND, Dead Cell, and the B&B Corps, which were all interesting bosses with unique strategies. In this game, however, you get the Skulls, which are brain-dead bullet sponges with boring attacks. You also have Side Ops, which are basically like the missions mentioned above but as sidequests. Once again, they are lazily implemented and are a chore to complete. They get harder as you go through them but that's about it. [h1]ENEMY DETECTION SYSTEM MOSTLY SUCKS[/h1] In previous games, enemies won't go on a full-on combat alert unless they spot you, contact HQ, and then HQ radioes everyone else. Basically, you just have to silence the guy before he calls for support, which is plenty of time. In this game, once you're spotted, you'll have a mere second until the ENTIRE BASE TELEPTHICALLY KNOWS YOUR EXACT LOCATION. I have no idea how that makes sense. You have relfex mode (basically slow-motion quicktime) to counter this but this will limit your mission rank. LUCKILY, in this game, only combat alerts will affect your mission rank, which means it is ok to be detected as long as you take out the guy fast. This is a huge improvement over previous games where if the (!) sign appears for even a nanosecond your perfect stealth run is over. I also hate how the game treats caution phases. In older games, if the enemy got really suspicious of something, they would enter "caution mode" which would go away if you hid and waited it out. In this game, once the enemy becomes suspicious, they stay that way FOREVER until you leave the map. They wil never stand down, and you'll have to deal with heightened security for the rest of the mission. It's fucking stupid, period. Also, the enemies are just too sensitive in spotting you. It takes out a lot of fun from the game sometimes, and makes it really difficult to play in the daytime. [h1]STORYTELLIING SUCKS[/h1] Here's the problem: Snake is too damn quiet. He barely speaks. While Keifer Sutherland definitely matches this rendition of Big Boss, I would have highly preferred a more vocal protagonist voiced by David Hayter. I loved his performance in MGS4 and would have loved to see it here. No more interesting codec calls and fourth-wall breaking, just a bunch of boring "casette tape" monologues that you can't be bothered to llisten to. You get a few very nicely done cutscenes, but that's about it. 99% of communication in this game is one-way and that's a shame. Also, if you're unfamiliar with the Metal Gear timeline, you will be completely lost. This game doesn't do a good job of filling in the gaps either, because the story just abruptly ends with a bunch of unresolved plot points. [h1]THE CONTROLS NEED IMPROVEMENT[/h1] KB+M, specifically. Movement feels clunky and unresponsive, and several controls are unmappable. Vehicle physics are total whack. Aiming with a mouse is a huge relief, however. Gunplay, on the other had, feels restrictive and very unprecise, especially when using third-person. [h1]GRAPHICS ARE GREAT AND RUNS PERFECTLY TOO[/h1] I have to give credit to the backend devs. The game looks and runs phenomenally thanks to the cutting-edge FOX Engine. The game even runs at 60fps on consoles, which surprised me. [h1]MULTIPLAYER IS COOL[/h1] I haven't tried MGO but I have dabbled with the FOB gamemode and enjoyed it a lot. Basically, it allows you infiltrate other players' bases and steal stuff from them. Planning and building your own defenses is also pretty fun. Online is pretty much a wastelend so its fairly easy to win and rank up without retaliation. [h1]FINAL VERDICT[/h1] PROS: -Gameplay is fun and allows creativity -New Buddy and CQC systems are very welcome -Widest range of equipment in a Metal Gear game to date -Looks and runs beatifully -FOB mode is fun -Excellent cinematic direction by Hideo Kojima -Excellent value CONS: -Plot and character interactions are very lacking -Missions and SIde Ops all feel the same -Many elements that made previous Metal Gear games great are absent -Actively punishes killing of enemies and violent strategies in general -PC controls could be better [h1]BY ITSELF: 4/5 STARS[/h1] [h1]AS A METAL GEAR GAME: 3/5 STARS[/h1]