Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain - 12 Crucial Tips & Tricks You Need To Know

11. NEVER Listen To Cassettes On A Main Mission

One of the only criticisms of PP has been resigning a huge chunk of the story's delivery to the cassettes you load into your iDroid, rather than have lengthy cutscenes as were the norm in past games. It works and it doesn't, as on the one hand you've got tons of Kiefer-Snake proving he can bring a totally different perspective to the character than David Hayter ever could, but on the flip-side you'll almost never have a good time to soak all of it in. Basically, between Ocelot, Kaz and your iDroid's automated voice chiming in to update you on everything from troop movements to incoming weather storms, it's nigh-impossible to take notice of what's being said. After slotting a tape on and realising whatever contextual dialogue you're triggering ("Snake, stay out the spotlight!") will go over what you're listening to without pausing, I've taken to only listening to the tapes on Side-Ops or in between waypoints. Better yet, if you're wanting to get as much of the story as possible, you're better off literally retreating to the chopper and using that stasis screen of Snake sitting there as quality listening time. Outside of the cassettes (or knowing your real-world history) the game does a terrible job of telling you why the Soviets are in Afghanistan, how Mother Base came to be, what Ocelot's been up to and essentially what Snake's mindset post-coma is. Many things covered in the tapes reappear in some mission dialogue anyway, but to get the full picture you really need to take the time - like you did in past games with the codec calls - to indulge in the audible portion of the experience.