Length and Difficulty? Worth Playing?

[AJ_Radio]

Stealth is a genre I never had the opportunity to play much. Well I take that back, I *could* have played, but just haven’t gotten around to it. 
 

The other night I played Ground Zeroes and I was quite impressed with the opening cutscene. I was pretty pleased with Metal Gear Solid 3, somehow, the story has aged like fine wine. Voice acting was hit or miss, but the set pieces and cutscenes were brilliant. The opening for that game was simply awesome. 
 

If anything, I want to at least experience a couple more games in the MGS series and Ground Zeroes looks like a good place to start. MGS 3 is definitely the easiest, but most of the titles trophy wise are no joke. The Phantom Pain is very time consuming, and both MGS2 and MGS4 are difficult on top of requiring several playthroughs. Peace Walker is also up there in the challenge department. 
 

Quite a few trophies are rare in Ground Zeroes although that might be due to the vast number of people only playing the one mission. There’s a whole bunch of stuff that sounds like it’s tedious, but I simply don’t want to miss out on some of Hideo Kojima’s work. 
 

So what can I expect out of this?

[da-Noob123]

Ground Zeroes is like a bite size sample of MGSV. You might say it is the pure distillation of V.  You don't need to explore the 2 giant open world maps looking for animals and doing a million side quests. I think there are like 25 missions and they are pretty short.

 

GZ and V probably have the best controls in the entire series so it's very easy to pick up and playthrough. It's got some great Easter eggs too like recreating moments from MGS1. Getting S ranks is more about time than stealth, even more so for V.

 

You'll play through the missions a few times to get all the collectibles and S Ranks but none were too difficult that I recall. You'll know that camp like the back of your hand by the time you are done and there are plenty of guides. I think it took between 20 and 30 hours to 100% it but that was spread out over a few months so relearning the controls probably affected that.

 

The real question is which one to play after. MGS3 can be done on Easy in one playthrough if you get all the necessary collectibles. MGSV is a grind through and through but storywise is the natural progression. If you don't like the 100% for GZ you'll probably loathe V. Peace Walker I bounced off of, it truly was meant to be played on the go with very short missions and I only made it to the first boss which was a bullet sponge tank. I wanted to embrace it but couldn't get into it no matter how hard I tried; I look at it as the prototype for V as both games have hundreds of side quests to go through and you will be replaying the main missions multiple times. Plus you'll need to spend a lot of time in coop and there is MP as well. MGS2 requires, 4 or 5 playthroughs to get the necessary amount of Dog Tags and then there's the dang VR missions which are just endless. You have got some tough games under your belt so you could undoubtedly manage the VR missions.

MGS4 needs 8 playthroughs minimum but getting that Big Boss Emblem still ranks as one my proudest achievements in gaming but I still think 2 is harder than 4.

 

I apologize for rambling, it's late but I hope this helps you decide what to play next in the series. 

 

[Deceptrox]

Completely worty playing. While the main mission is short, you have a bunch of side missions with different objectives. For 100% completion trophy wise, you need to complete all missions except "Jamais Vu" on Normal and Hard difficulties with and S rank, you can kill or get spotted since time is the most important factor but being stealthly is the best bet, also reflex isn't allowed for earning an S rank.

 

Everything should take about 10 hours, maybe less, maybe more depending on your skill.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Deceptrox

[Lonemankane]

1 hour ago, AJ_Radio said:

Stealth is a genre I never had the opportunity to play much. Well I take that back, I *could* have played, but just haven’t gotten around to it. 
 

The other night I played Ground Zeroes and I was quite impressed with the opening cutscene. I was pretty pleased with Metal Gear Solid 3, somehow, the story has aged like fine wine. Voice acting was hit or miss, but the set pieces and cutscenes were brilliant. The opening for that game was simply awesome. 
 

If anything, I want to at least experience a couple more games in the MGS series and Ground Zeroes looks like a good place to start. MGS 3 is definitely the easiest, but most of the titles trophy wise are no joke. The Phantom Pain is very time consuming, and both MGS2 and MGS4 are difficult on top of requiring several playthroughs. Peace Walker is also up there in the challenge department. 
 

Quite a few trophies are rare in Ground Zeroes although that might be due to the vast number of people only playing the one mission. There’s a whole bunch of stuff that sounds like it’s tedious, but I simply don’t want to miss out on some of Hideo Kojima’s work. 
 

So what can I expect out of this?

I own this and thought of going back but last time I played it I remember a few bugs that happen making the guards see me through walls. it was annoying as it always stopped me from doing a complete ghost run of it and yeah it is buggy from what I remember.

[zizimonster]

On 17/12/2021 at 10:18 AM, da-Noob123 said:

I think it took between 20 and 30 hours to 100% it but that was spread out over a few months so relearning the controls probably affected that.

The game can be 100%-ed in 16 to 20 hours if one uses a guide, especially for S-ranking missions.

 

On 17/12/2021 at 10:52 AM, Lonemankane said:

I own this and thought of going back but last time I played it I remember a few bugs that happen making the guards see me through walls.

I have no idea about bugs, but when I 100%-ed it a few years ago, there wasn't a hindrance that I could remember.