Repeatedly call in air support, and they'll start wielding missile launchers. Land enough headshots, and they'll wear bullet-proof helmets. In an attempt to prevent you from employing the same tactics in every mission, enemies will equip themselves with gear to counter your play style. It's a far cry (ahem) from certain other open world games that frequently see machine-gun-toting technicals revving their engines to pursue you along their own open roads.Įnemy threats don't escalate significantly enough With enemies found mainly within their own outposts, it's too easy to flee and remain confident that you won't run headfirst into another threat as you hot-foot it out of there. This lack of open world activity also limits the frequency with which a situation that has gone to hell can snowball into something worse. Part of this comes down to the design of each outpost: they feel like silos planted down on entirely separate areas of the map, often with so many points of ingress that the effort to get in the back of a truck undetected isn't worth it. Sure, I saw the occasional truck or four-wheel drive, but I never felt that they would provide opportunities that were otherwise unavailable to me.

I never once did something similar in The Phantom Pain, because enemy encounters on the open roads were so rare. As the truck drives through Camp Omega, you can choose when to disembark and begin your usual sneaking, or see where the truck takes you. There is a particular Side Op in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes that begins with Snake in the back of an enemy's flatbed truck, incognito. Consider the following, then, as an exploration of The Phantom Pain's own phantom pains - without plot spoilers. The game's massive scope, and the surprising amount of detail in each interaction within that massive playpen, is impressive - however, that scope is precisely why certain aspects feel like they have something missing.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain may be the best stealth-action game ever made, but it's not flawless.

Mgsv:tpp time pass while not in game