Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain - 10 Huge Problems Nobody Wants To Admit

9. The Cassettes Are A Blessing & A Curse

As covered in my Essential Tips & Tricks article, the idea to reconcile the vast majority of the game's story to a huge amount of audio recordings works both positively and negatively. You can tell gameplay was pushed to the front of the experience (thankfully, after the seven-plus hour cutscene-fest that was MGS 4), but to revamp and modify the age-old Codec calls of yore, now you can continue on your mission with dialogue exchanges happening along the way. The problem, is these aren't balanced or accountable for any changes in your mission dialogue. So say you're listening to Boss and Ocelot talk about what it's like recovering his memory after the coma, if you come across a mission objective in the world, real-time Ocelot or Kaz will talk over the recording, without it stopping, meaning you've got to jump back into the iDroid to pause or rewind to where you were. In addition (as in the past we got a chunk of plot through the radio), almost all of the game's biggest reveals are resigned to this format, so you'll find yourself simply sitting in the ACC to take it all in, the fear of having something cut off preventing you from deploying in the field. That brings me onto my next point...