[b] Intro/Background/Controversy [/b]
Disclaimer: THIS IS NOT MGSV-II, do not go in expecting that. Unfortunately due to the drama surrounding it, I must share my insight on the situation to properly state why I recommend this game.
TLDR: MGSV engine (Fox) with the focus on survival elements, base building, human resources simulation and tower defense-esque missions... and zombies (I think zombies have horseshoed themselves back around somewhat now). You are not Snake, Big Boss, whoever. You are the weak recruit with E in every stat you ignored in MGSV. Now save the world.
I'm not gonna lie. I avoided this game initially because of Angry Joe's review. I learned long ago to take his reviews with a pinch of salt. Drama and negative emotions get more views/money as people are attracted to the intensity of negative emotions. This was part the "hate train" you saw with most popular youtube reviewers. While it does have its downfalls and really shouldn't have been called a "Metal Gear" game simply for the sake of expectation; It's still a good game worth trying.
It might help to think of this as a survival DLC/expansion pack for MGSV (which is rumored but not confirmed to be what it was initially). The drama of Hideo Kojima and Konami's horrible handling of their nasty breakup didn't help publicity for this game either.
With this review I intend to give adequate but vague enough info about the gameplay as I can because a lot of the fun for me was the mystery. This game isn't easy to google and thanks to that I rarely look up info on games now. The sad reason for this is that the disdain for this game was so large and the population is so small that there isn't a huge incentive to disect the mehcanics. Only very few of the initial tiny population would get satisfaction enough from helping the few that want it to continue caring. Most endgame min/max info is scarce and speculative at best sometimes. You can still see forum posts TO THIS DAY with sad people who just go onto MGSurvive forums to hate on the game and contribute nothing. So it is very much discouraged posting knowledge or asking about it because of the grandest and most idiotic human psychological phenomenons: mob mentality.
Now that I'm off my soapbox, I will be talking mostly about main campaign (~18-25hrs) not much endgame.
[b] E in combat: [/b]
The "feel" of movement, shooting, sneaking, sound, physics, all that stuff is simply MGSV. However, the combat has more of a focus on melee/avoiding direct combat initially which gradually turns into a crazy fun multi-tasking hectic action tower defense at the end. There are very few automated/damaging defenses so you will the the main source of damage throughout the game. The defenses are also pretty weak if you let them beat on it too long, so you have to pay attention.
Early on, you will be able to level your character up and put points into skills with a decent portion being about melee combat. Endgame you can unlock subclasses, which I felt was waaay too late and would have been great fun earlier but I understand as it would have also made it too easy.
[b] I'm a SURVIVOR!: [/b]
Hunger/thirst go down fast (honestly too fast) and you have visual and time restrictions while exploring the "dust" (where you progress the story). HOWEVER, I HIGHLY recommend not altering any of them unless you absolutely can't stand that aspect of the game as that is central to the gameplay itself. You wouldn't remove the survival aspect from Subnautica nor the fog from Silent Hill. MGSV this is not. Removing those would destroy the tension entirely and all of the mysterious exploration elements. It would become a walking sim with some combat and tower defense sometimes. Exploration and the risk of pushing further or returning is what makes this game fun. Think subnautica style mechanics of survival (oh yes, I just compared the two AND favorably).
You will also need to gather resources throughout the game, which is a looter's wet dream. I felt most resources were just scarce enough to not be ENTIRELY annoying but not too plentiful to be drowning in them and bored. There are a few mechanics that limit your ability to farm and to defend points (item placement and scarcity mechanics with weight and equip limitations) but I never found them annoying since they introduced an excellent risk/reward and preparation aspect.
[b] I think I've been here before: [/b]
Not a spoiler because EVERYONE talks about it. The world is taken from portions of MGSV but changed and made much more dense with things to do which made it felt new and unfamiliar. The visual limitations in the dust are vital the enjoyment. I enjoyed finding some landmarks from MGSV and seeing how they changed. The ingame map will also only reveal a small area around the path that you follow and only updates when you return to base which adds to the mystery. Avoid using interactive/revealed maps online if at all possible.
[b] The story: [/b]
I started skipping it after the first few hours. I'm not a story focused person and after MGSV I don't care for that type of overt storytelling. Sublety would do them well. I don't know if it's the English translation but I feel like they're telling a story to a 5 year old who doesn't understand social norms or have the ability to read context yet.
[b] 'MERICA [/b]
You don't get an AR-15 as a gift cheese (like in Texas) but you do get some guns early on. Surprisingly, they don't break the game entirely. Ammunition is hard to make initially unless you get "creative" and your reserve is low anyway. Guns are loud and the few suppressed ones aren't too powerful or completely safe. BUT I did chose to play stealthy. You can go in guns blazing but early on that can be dangerous as it depletes your scarce resources and get you killed later. Remember you're an E in combat you don't want everything in a mile radius coming for you. Melee is more tactical and pretty fun but you can get overwhelmed easily. Going loud also removed the fun tension being a sneakysnake to get a backstab, so I just didn't do it. Later in the game, however, I was popping heads with an unsuppressed AR to attract everything in a 10 mile radius to avoid the interruption when I screwed up yet another hard lockpick (late game/endgame farming).
[b] Base building/defense of objectives: [/b]
This is a majority, if not all, of the primary objectives. Defend this point from waves of baddies with stuff you make. It was fun and strategic but I enjoyed the survival/exploration aspects more. I do like how you use your own limited resources and must improvise defenses based on changing pathing and geography to the defense objective. Base defense is mostly endgame.
[b] The bad: [/b]
-Some will find this repetative and annoying which is kinda just the thing with survival game mechanics.
-Unlike Subnautica, MGS has a fairly linear path that is laid out before you. "Go over dere and ull get guder stuff." A MUCH more guided exploration feeling.
-The sounds of text while picking up tons of things drives me insane... as do the constant figeting of the NPCs at base. I had to build my crafting FAR away from the farms for sanity.
-There are mtx. The "save slot" is an avatar. Yes it's a different character with a different base but I never felt a need to buy it. It's not much different than FOBs from MGSV. You can't have two saves in MGSV, same here. "Time savers" and slots similar to combat deployments in MGSV for extra resources. These take time, up to 3d I've seen so far. You can pay to complete it but I saw no reason to worry about it unless you are hardcore into the endgame. While slower you can just farm them in game, annoying but not extreme.
-ONLINE ONLY - .... 'nuff said. If you dc while out and about, you revert to when you left the base. This includes when Steam dcs you. Hope you have stable internet. It does not save unless in the base.
-Enemy variety is quite lacking.
