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MGS V: TPP is easily my favourite stealth game of all time. It’s a type of gameplay we don’t see much nowadays. Most blockbuster AAA games have stealth mechanics, but they’re almost always optional and not very fleshed out. The Phantom Pain is a game that’s all about stealth, and I wish I could play it for the first time again, and then again, and then again.
Let’s get the bad out of the way first. To start with, it’s not the best PC port. The Metal Gear games started on console, and it’s clear Konami didn’t quite have PC in mind when developing this game. Prompts showing the controls show controller inputs by default, which is partially fixed by changing a key binding, but some prompts still show controller inputs. The controls screen always shows controller inputs, which was very confusing when you first got to use the walker gear.
There’s also an issue where under-hand throwing grenades is extremely difficult with keyboard and mouse. You have to hold left click for a second – not too short and not too long – or Snake will throw that sucker way farther than you expected.
Another issue I had with the game is the inability to skip through certain parts. For instance, every time you start a mission, you have to sit in the helicopter for about a minute without being able to do anything. It’d be nice to be able to skip that part, especially if you’re replaying the game.
There are also a few strange mechanics that don’t feel necessary. For example, the virtual PF battles and PF points feel totally pointless. Combat deployments aren’t very interesting either and could’ve been implemented in a much better way.

Most of my gripes with the game are, thankfully, not huge deals. However, there are notable aspects of the game that I wish were designed differently. The AI in this game is absolutely fantastic, but it definitely feels like it’s too easy not to get spotted. Despite the AI being intelligent and conforming to your behaviour, all the enemies still seem to really need glasses. You can go prone a couple metres in front of an enemy in broad daylight and they won’t see you.
It would be great if the game had an optional, harder difficulty that made enemies more perceptive, as well as stronger in combat. That brings me onto my next issue: going in ‘guns blazing’ is far too easy. For a game that is all about stealth, it’s not at all difficult to just shoot everyone like you’re Rambo once you get spotted. Snake shouldn’t be as powerful in combat as he is, when he’s up against five, ten, or more enemies. He can easily survive plenty of gunshots, grenades, and missiles. I wish being spotted was more of a threat than it is.
MGS V: TPP has a very interesting mechanic where enemies learn and adapt to your behaviour. If you often headshot enemies, they’ll start wearing helmets. If you often infiltrate at night, they’ll start using flashlights and night vision goggles. Some enemies will also start using heavy armour, shields, and rocket launchers later in the game.
While this is a unique mechanic that adds a lot to the game, it doesn’t entirely fulfil its purpose. The intended effect is to disincentivize the player from using the same strategies without ever trying something new, but it doesn’t have as big of an impact as you’d want it to. Enemies with helmets can still be headshot if you just aim at their eyes or necks, and they can lose helmets from headshots. And enemies using flashlights or NVG barely has an impact.
I found myself using mostly the same loadout and strategies for the entire game: a silenced assault rifle with a silenced tranquilizer gun – and, once I obtained it, a silenced tranquilizer sniper rifle. I never felt like I had to change my strategy aside from the few missions that require you to use heavy weapons.
Now, I want to discuss what I consider to be my biggest gripe with the game, and that is the fulton. The fulton device lets you extract enemies immediately, making it all too easy to get rid of bodies. The game world has lots of toilets and dumpsters you can hide bodies in, and part of previous MGS games was hiding bodies in bushes or whatnot, but in this game, once you obtain the fulton (early in the game), you can simply just fulton every enemy, and they’re gone. I would’ve much preferred the fulton to have fewer uses, giving more importance to upgrades, or some other downside to prevent constant fultoning of enemies. There’s no negative to fultoning an enemy or prisoner other than other enemies potentially hearing or seeing it, but they have to be very close for that.
I also want to mention that I think this game shouldn’t have been open world. The two maps you get to explore are mostly empty, with small to medium-sized enemy outposts scattered about. There’s not much to find and explore outside of side-ops to do, flowers, and resources within outposts. While Kojima always wanted to make an open world Metal Gear game, I think the game would’ve benefited from being a traditional, less open game.
Another negative I have with the game is certain missions and enemies. Some missions have ‘the Skulls’, which are unique enemies that can’t simply be one-hit tranquilized or stunned, and you have to use heavy weapons, such as a light machine gun, to take them out. I never found these to be very interesting. In one mission, where you are surrounded with Skulls, I just stood on a rooftop the whole mission and shot at them. There’s no way to Skulls missions stealthily, so it feels weird for the game to take away the stealth aspect and force you to use heavy weapons.
The last issue I’d like to discuss isn’t something that pertains to gameplay. Rather, it’s the sexualization of female characters. It doesn’t ruin the game, and not everyone has an issue with it, but it did make me a bit uncomfortable seeing Quiet and the other female Skulls be so sexualized. For example, when the female Skulls are first introduced, the camera pans up, showing their asses and cleavage. And Quiet is sexualized throughout the entire game. Out of all the games I’ve played, this game definitely has the most sexualization. Do with that information as you will.

Despite my numerous gripes with this game, I still love it. It is by far the best stealth game I’ve ever played. You can go about almost any mission in any way you wish. I have 101 hours in this game, and I want to go back to it someday. While the story was quite confusing, the gameplay is like no other. If you enjoy stealth gameplay, I highly recommend this game!
Infiltrating enemy outposts, setting traps, taking out their communications equipment, secretly neutralizing soldiers and extracting prisoners – it never gets old. The amount of content in this game is, frankly, absurd. If you love stealth games, you’ll absolutely love The Phantom Pain. Just play Ground Zeroes first!