The game has loads of potential but it wastes most of it. Time taken to play missions plays a major role in which rank you'll get, so mowing down every enemy from the chopper before you even touch down will get you an S-rank while half an hour of careful sneaking, extracting and tranquilizing gets you an A at best. The game actively discourages stealth by nerfing the stealth weapons and providing a sheer endless arsenal of lethal guns, explosives, rocket launchers and whatnot. Most of the time, driving a tank around and blowing ♥♥♥♥ up is infinitely easier than sneaking. Enemies are either ridiculously overpowered or easy to the point of being boring. This is the game I have found myself ragequitting more than any other game in my library.

The online component is integrated into the singleplayer campaign which is just plain ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ - 90% of your GMP and ressources are stored online, the game forces you to construct an online base (Forward Operation Base or something) which rivals can AND WILL invade to steal your stuff, without it you can't progress or level up past a certain point. The platform economy simulation stuff is completely unnecessary - the amount of times I had to deploy using lethal weaponry because I FAILED TO PLUCK ENOUGH FLOWERS TO PRODUCE TRANQ AMMO? I've lost count. The later missions are just replays of the first 30 missions, with reflex mode or gear disabled for more difficulty - but having to live through the same dialogues, cutscenes etc AGAIN AND AGAIN. You even exfil the same people, meaning I now have three or four important VIPs with the same face, different name, same skills. It's ridiculous.

The plot is a matter of taste, I guess, and when you do get to play stealth, it's some of the best stealth gameplay I have seen, but the negative aspects outweigh the positive ones by far. The allies later in game are both either overpowered as heck - automatic marking of enemies, taking out entire outposts by themselves - or nerfed to hell. Half the time, I'm not busy playing missions but gathering enough cash to keep Mother Base afloat, Ocelot giving me THE SAME "our cash is in the red do something" talk every time - he just says the same line every time, was recording a few variations too much to ask?

You can send your soldiers on missions, most of which are online, take several days and reward you with a few 100k cash, a multitude of which you could have earned yourself in the meantime. You get an R&D tree to develop overpriced weaponry you don't need and later in the game have to wait hours or even days for it to develop - that is, in-game time, so you have to keep playing for an hour or so until your new rifle is completed. Or wait 5 days (real time, not in-game time) for your golden premium whatever gun to develop. It's just awful.

This game could have been an awesome game, with awesome stealth gameplay, a very cool "grow your own mercenary organisation" aspect, an interesting story - instead it's bloated to death trying to merge Transport Tycoon Deluxe, Tank Simulator 2019 and Metal Gear. AND the online stuff. I don't wanna start a game to be met with 4 pop-ups about online events, my online coins (yep there's an online premium currency and microtransactions) and whatnot.

Forced online content, microtransactions and a bloated game - 3/10 would not recommend.

The game has loads of potential but it wastes most of it. Time taken to play missions plays a major role in which rank you'll get, so mowing down every enemy from the chopper before you even touch down will get you an S-rank while half an hour of careful sneaking, extracting and tranquilizing gets you an A at best. The game actively discourages stealth by nerfing the stealth weapons and providing a sheer endless arsenal of lethal guns, explosives, rocket launchers and whatnot. Most of the time, driving a tank around and blowing shit up is infinitely easier than sneaking. Enemies are either ridiculously overpowered or easy to the point of being boring. This is the game I have found myself ragequitting more than any other game in my library. The online component is integrated into the singleplayer campaign which is just plain bullshit - 90% of your GMP and ressources are stored online, the game forces you to construct an online base (Forward Operation Base or something) which rivals can AND WILL invade to steal your stuff, without it you can't progress or level up past a certain point. The platform economy simulation stuff is completely unnecessary - the amount of times I had to deploy using lethal weaponry because I FAILED TO PLUCK ENOUGH FLOWERS TO PRODUCE TRANQ AMMO? I've lost count. The later missions are just replays of the first 30 missions, with reflex mode or gear disabled for more difficulty - but having to live through the same dialogues, cutscenes etc AGAIN AND AGAIN. You even exfil the same people, meaning I now have three or four important VIPs with the same face, different name, same skills. It's ridiculous. The plot is a matter of taste, I guess, and when you do get to play stealth, it's some of the best stealth gameplay I have seen, but the negative aspects outweigh the positive ones by far. The allies later in game are both either overpowered as heck - automatic marking of enemies, taking out entire outposts by themselves - or nerfed to hell. Half the time, I'm not busy playing missions but gathering enough cash to keep Mother Base afloat, Ocelot giving me THE SAME "our cash is in the red do something" talk every time - he just says the same line every time, was recording a few variations too much to ask? You can send your soldiers on missions, most of which are online, take several days and reward you with a few 100k cash, a multitude of which you could have earned yourself in the meantime. You get an R&D tree to develop overpriced weaponry you don't need and later in the game have to wait hours or even days for it to develop - that is, in-game time, so you have to keep playing for an hour or so until your new rifle is completed. Or wait 5 days (real time, not in-game time) for your golden premium whatever gun to develop. It's just awful. This game could have been an awesome game, with awesome stealth gameplay, a very cool "grow your own mercenary organisation" aspect, an interesting story - instead it's bloated to death trying to merge Transport Tycoon Deluxe, Tank Simulator 2019 and Metal Gear. AND the online stuff. I don't wanna start a game to be met with 4 pop-ups about online events, my online coins (yep there's an online premium currency and microtransactions) and whatnot. Forced online content, microtransactions and a bloated game - 3/10 would not recommend.