While I do think this is overall a good game, it's not great and that's a really big let down to the franchise name. There's of course all the issues of the unfinished plot, which I thought would be somewhat noticeable but I didn't realise would be blatantly obvious and genuinely jarring.

Overall I do like the core gameplay loop of the open world, as well as base management, since I enjoyed Peacewalker a lot. However, I do feel like doing the side content alongside the story really hurts the pacing of the narrative. What makes this doubly bad is that once the plot actually starts getting interesting with the addition of Eli, Quiet's story coming to the forefront, and Skull-face out of the picture, the game just comes to an end. I feel like a lot of this game could have been trimmed, and the story could have been more focused and actually finished within the same development time. Truthfully (and I felt this way with Peacewalker too), I don't see how this telling of Big Boss' story serves well as a prequel. With Peacewalker and this game, I come out of it feeling like Big Boss is still ultimately a force for good, but then Metal Gear's plot suddenly makes him a villain. Both this game and Peacewalker serve more to muddle Big Boss' villainy unlike MGS3 providing clear context for the man he would become. I almost wish you were playing a more obviously villainous PMC group instead of one distinguished from the others in the game (with the exception for their penchant for torture).

This game has a weird sensation of being both undercooked and overcooked at the same time, with a few parts of it being just right. I think one of it's biggest sins is simply being a mainline entry. The plot of Metal Gear Solid wrapped up in MGS4, and after that I think all that this franchise had room for was spin offs (with even that being overdone).

The game is definitely not bad, but it pales in comparison to a franchise with multiple titans of narrative in the gaming industry.