Incredible game, one of those ones where I'm sad that it's over. I never played the original back in the day, have been playing through the series for the first time. While this is a prequel/the first game chronologically, I'm glad I played through MGS 1 & 2 before jumping into this and would recommend. They're good games, and this game does a good bit of foreshadowing/references to the events of those games.
Has all sorts of goofy little things you can do that they thought of and accounted for, in typical MGS fashion. The writing makes for an awesome spy thriller with a wacky and sometimes humorous plot that Kojima is known for. In particular calling "Para-medic" on the radio actually made me laugh many times (if you find new food items (wild animals) you can call her and she'll tell you about them).
Initially seemed like a game that might be *too* in depth/kind of a pain in the ass, with having to hunt animals for food to keep Snake's stamina up, but it's really not a big deal once you get into the swing of things. It also initially seemed a bit demanding on the stealth (the first area or two of the game I was going at a snail's pace to not be detected), but once you get good camo for a given area it helps a ton and guards won't instantly clock you from across the way. I was also initially worried about the fact that suppressors wear down over time, but that's not a big deal at all. I just made a passive effort to conserve them, and made sure to explore and loot areas, and I think I had 10+ spare suppressors for each pistol at the end of the game.
There are some little collectibles/100% achievements to go for, but if this is your first playthrough like me I'd advise not worrying about that stuff too much and just playing naturally/enjoying yourself. I also didn't worry about going for 'no kills', except non-lethally defeating bosses does grant you a unique camo for each one with special abilities. The 'secret theater' reels in particular, each one was kind of difficult to get for me and then after the game I watched the handful I bothered to get and it is not at all worth the trouble for a first playthrough (they're funny though).
The transition in this remaster to a modern 3rd person action game did seem to make a lot of the bosses pretty easy that I imagine were harder in the original, but I'm fine with it. None of them were terribly difficult (make sure to grab the thermal goggles they help a ton on one boss in particular). Almost all of them were easy enough to figure out just by calling your handlers on the radio for advice, with the exception of one boss where you're walking through a river. That one I had to google what to do and said 'how the hell was I supposed to figure that out'.
In terms of performance I did have the occasional crash, but I think that's due to my system (14900K & 4090). I seem to suffer crashing issues a lot on any modern/demanding game like this, if you have a similar setup the solution is (get that microcode update from Intel if you haven't, but then) to keep the room cool so it can cool itself properly.
Theme song is an absolute banger as well.
Strong recommend if you're into stealth action, I see now why this game is so legendary.
