Ten Things Wrong With MGS: The Phantom Pain
The Phantom Pain was released in September 2015, its a game with some great graphics and some darn good game play but there are a few small details about it that suck. Here are Ten Things Wrong With The Phantom Pain.
#10, Demon Points: During the events of Phantom Pain Big Boss, or Punished Snaked, or Venom Snake, whatever he wants to be called gets called a Demon on many occasions. If Snake kills too many people his horn will soon grow a little too big and his demon points will begin to accumulate and when Snake gets too many he will be permanently covered in blood and being stealthy will become a problem. The issue with this is that you aren't told that this would happen and the way to get rid of it seems near impossible to do, in order to get rid of it your'e supposed to go the less blood shed route but even with that and saving hundreds of furry critters your points don't go down, least mine don't. It's dumb and ruins the game once you find out, it ruins alot of the cut scenes and the annoyance that the game gives you so many guns but then punishes you for using them is just plain dumb.
#9, Skull-Face: The main antagonist of the game is Skull-Face, a incredibly scarred man who intended to use parasites in order to kill large parts of the human race using the parasites to kill people who spoke certain languages. Skull-Face for the most part was a very cool character, he dressed much like a out wild west outlaw and came off as being a very smart and charismatic character. The problem was his death kinda came out of nowhere. After beating the giant mechanical monstrosity that was under his control we get to see the man half ways crushed under a fallen pillar. After shooting him a few times we leave him to die of his wounds, all the while he begs you to kill him. No boss battle, no final words Assassins Creed style, no nothing. Just shoot him a few times with his own gun and then leave him, really disappointing.
#8, The Ending: The ending of a game is supposed to make the player feel satisfied, to make them feel like it was a job well done. It isn't supposed to fly past the player unnoticed. After defeating the giant mech it gets taken to mother base where in secret a scientist who is secretly an enemy and a bunch of child soldiers fix the thing up and then leave with it. In my play through I though there was supposed to be more but it just ended and I had no idea that it did. The actual ending you have to buy separately from the actual game which to me just sounds like a money grab.
#7, The Skull Unit: The soldiers in Phantom Pain are kinda easy to best, they aren't exactly the smartest guys and can be picked off fairly easily. However when coming against the Skulls it is far different. The Skulls have super speed, can turn their skin rock hard, can teleport, earth bend and summon weapons from thin air. They usually come in groups of four which make them difficult to face. These guy can down you quickly, can chase you everywhere and can absorb alot of damage. Adding on the Sniper Skulls who can basically do the same thing but use snipers and can find you very easily these guys are a pain to fight on multiple occasions even with the battle vest.
#6, The Guns: In Phantom Pain you can unlock alot of guns, even though many of those guns are the same they are just slightly different at times. The guns in the game mainly damage opponents, you have some that can shoot tranquilizers or smoke grenades but the large majority of them kill people. the problem with that is that they focus too much on changing the guns themselves besides giving us more options. Maybe change how a gun shoots or what ammo it fires, instead of making me buy the same gun twice maybe just make me buy it once and then have me buy the attachments separately. It is a little dumb for me to just buy the same gun dozens of times instead of just buying the attachment.
#5, The Missions: Many of the missions you are tasked with doing can be very repetitive, the side missions I don't fully care if they are since they don't contribute to the story but the same old "Go Get this guy, go rescue this person, go destroy this vehicle or equipment" same old same old can get very boring. Also considering that many of the missions can be in the same place so if you go in there the first time and go guns a blazing then there shouldn't be anyone in there the second time or at the least they would be heavily on guard with alot more troops.
#4, The World: In the world of Phantom pain there isn't much, just empty land and some outposts and bases for the enemies. The world itself is very empty, not much in it besides the occasional animals and enemy patrols. The world simply feels empty, even when traveling the larger bases there isn't much in them. Sure the place looks big but there is nothing there. Skyrim is quite large itself but you will find the AI's walking around or animals and enemies. In Phantom Pain all you really have are the enemies, understandably it is a war zone but it still just feels so empty in both Afghanistan and Africa.
#3, The Story: Overall the story isn't too bad, it is basically just your usual revenge plot. After Cipher attacks the Mother Base and nearly kills Big Boss the world gets kinda weird. Miller gets captured and Ocelot informs you about what all happened. It is supposed to take place after Metal Gear Peace Walker but is also before Metal Gear Snake Eater, it is a little confusing. The problem with it though is that the revenge never really feels earned. You just happen to find Skull-face, the man who tried to kill you, basically already dead anyways. All you do is shoot him a few times. Then it also branches out into a love story with Quiet and a somewhat rivalry with the White Mamba. It is a little dull.
#2, Companions: During the course of the game you get several companions, some more helpful then others. D-Horse is your first companion and basically just helps you get from place to place, he doesn't do much besides that.
D-Dog is a specially trained war hound, you find him in the wild and take him back, eventually he becomes a great partner. He can mark enemies for you, even other animals and plants. He can inform you of hidden clay-mores. He can even help Fulton enemies, stun them or outright kill them. He can also attract enemies and stall them. He stays by your side unless you make him wait somewhere. Nothing really bad about him.
Quiet is a sniper so she stays back mostly. You can get her to scout out enemy bases or cover you, you can make her lethal or just have her tranquilize enemies. She does get a little worse to use when the enemies start wearing helmets because she will only aim for their head, not their face. She's great to look at though.
D-Walker is a fully functioning vehicle, it can be outfitted with many different weapons and tools. It can be used to scout ahead or to mark enemies, you can use it to drive around or run everywhere in it. The walker Gear is very helpful and can take some damage although it still needs to be controlled.
#1, Lack Of Boss Battles: In many games Boss Battles challenge the player, they force the player to use all the skills they have learned so far throughout the game to beat them. However there are none. The Man on Fire you don't really fight you just try to escape, Sahelanthropus is just a bullet sponge so overall there is a very big lack of boss battles. As stated with Skull-Face he was the main enemy but you don't even get to face him, overall very disappointing.
