Gadgetory

a scream Jimmy with Jim's preview broom snake is finally back well big boss technically now I won't go deep into the MGS history since it's very deep spending across two decades of story line if you have never played any Metal Gear Solid titles before as a standalone game phantom pain is still very enjoyable but I'll say the details once we get started here if you need updated pricing and how much it's going for today you can click on my link in the video description below just to see what it's going for on Amazon currently so without further ado welcome everyone to another review the core mechanics and feel of the Metal Gear franchise is still here the subtle humor of sneaking around in a box the emphasis on stealth and the out-of-this-world science fiction but phantom pain surprisingly makes a lot of changes that you wouldn't see at first glance unlike the previous titles wearing different camouflage does help in hiding of course but there isn't a percentage of how effective it is no more numbers are shown in the top right hand of the corner the degree of difficulty of enemies seeing you in various distances has dramatically increased and we as the player have no way of telling this in addition the open world around us has completely changed due to different elevations time of days changing over time and in lack of narrow hallways and corridors as older titles and all this is not a bad thing at all to be honest with you it really adds to the depth of the game now let me further illustrate what is different with phantom pain the open road kijima has created is rich with patrol members of walking along random roadways and convoy trucks are making random stops throughout the entire game now despite tagging everyone in your mission area when you're doing reconnaissance you never know when an unmarked soldier might drive up and find the bodies we left behind but on top of that and further into the game there's snipers to be wary about and soldiers with night-vision goggles and although it sounds much harder it's really not there's still a very good balance of being mindful of what you're doing but more so than other previous mgs titles just there clear that up but about that open-world it is vast it's huge you travel with your horse companion and other vehicles in the game like in many metal gears and Walker here and you can use your support helicopter to get from one place to the other navigating isn't too difficult of course but man the distance from one place to another can be daunting from time to time and you're just riding and riding if riding across the land here now the helicopter works but there's tons of loading screens that going by horse may have gotten you there in the same amount of time but it does add a sense of realism about traveling and whatnot but there's times you just want to get up and be dropped into the mission area but because of the open world the game is less linear offering multiple points of entry and execution that you'd need to be thoughtful about as well now besides the main 50 missions or so there's 157 side missions that will keep you busy for a very very long time as for gameplay mechanics like all mgs titles before that I played the controls are very fluid and moved with ease now once you start to master the quick select features you'll be switching weapons to flashbangs in no time again very fluid very dynamic and regarding weapons I think Metal Gear has outdone themselves here with a crazy amount to develop and choose over time the only area that I would take regarding the gameplay is sometimes the camera angles are just too close to Big Boss creating distractions from your main area of view but other than that graphics look appropriate with some Allison here and there though but it's really minut but the lighting in this game looked amazing from the floodlights to the Sun setting all beautifully done with a new Fox engine but what I wanted to do is move more into the game's progression and replay value no good first 10 to 15 hours I'll admit it was quite slow for me you're really just building up your army by knocking your enemies out then attaching what they called The Fault in balloon to extract your enemies and convert them to your troops in phantom pain you go at the length at collecting both enemies raw material scattered throughout the game and GMP basically Metal Gear Solid in-game currency now with the new recruitments and the rest that I just mentioned here only then can you further develop your headquarters and develop better weapons and gear in general completely ignoring the recruitment of new personnel and focusing on the story exclusively can be done but this does leave you to a big disadvantage later on when certain items would help greatly thankfully it doesn't seem tedious like a full-blown RPG yet it does add an additional dimension or element to the game now because of that foltyn balloon system I mentioned earlier I rarely hit a body I would extract nearly every one of them making at least this aspect of the game much easier unlike all previous mgs titles you had to be smart and hide bodies well that's a little disappointed or really exploited that feature that they offered in phantom pain an additional layer to mother base since these servers for online gameplay is down since the game launched I couldn't test this but you can false an extract turns and eventually vehicles offering defense free HQ once online returns once you reach a certain point in the game you can go into the multiplayer mode and invade other bases in attempt to destroy it and of course steal the items and recruit your own personnel so building up your base now in the single-player campaign can be a fun side game later on again once multiplayer is up and running but back to the main storyline here after Afghanistan which is the first open area that you would explore the second open world you explore is South Africa about 20 hours into the game it then starts to pick up security cameras are just introduced and from their enemy aiming abilities more water tanks and deadly combat choppers are in the air and of course the story starts to pick up with little bit of a twist and a turn around that marker around that point overall the tactical espionage of the game I think is amazing now to be answer to the best in the mgs franchise the replay value is tremendous with the ridiculous amount of side missions to do and surprisingly I didn't feel it was very repetitive most missions are at different locations in an open world so each brings a new dynamic or a style execution when you enter into the mission area and then there's the online element which should be coming back up very soon now as for the story not getting too deep since it's deep as hell it is very drawn-out and the boss battles didn't seem as iconic and as memorable as the previous titles unfortunately but when the story does headed twist or turn child soldiers defecting characters and seeing how this ties in with the whole future of Metal Gear Solid games makes up for anything that's lacking in phantom pain which I felt was very minimal but that's all I can say that is a real negative to be honest with you I know some sites were giving this a 10 out of 10 but if I had to give an informal ring I would still give this a 9 and a half out of 10 no question worth a purchase worth playing through all the way to the end and worth playing part of the Metal Gear Solid saga I won't spoil the story or its ending but I'm sure there's tons of other sources out there if you want that I just want to give you an idea of how this plays in general enjoyability so hope this review helped you in some way if you enjoyed my work be sure to add me on Twitter Instagram or Facebook and stop by to say hi again I'm Jimmy with jims review room you guys take care and I'll see in the next one