(Subtract 2 points if you need a coherent story. Add 5 points if you love fultoning sheep.)

More importantly, this patch fixes the glaring early issues: The online resource drain has been rebalanced, the FOB (Forward Operating Base) infiltration lag is reduced, and you can finally skip the helicopter ride cutscenes.

The competitive base invasions are still active but niche. High-level players have laser-guided rocket hands and sleeping gas mines. If you ignore FOBs, you'll miss some high-tier gear but can finish the whole single-player just fine. The resource grind is much kinder in v1.15 than at launch.

With all patches, the infamous "Mission 51" (the true finale, set on a snowy island with Eli/Liquid Snake) is still missing . You can watch it as unfinished storyboard footage on the collector's Blu-ray. In-game, the narrative just... stops. That emptiness? That’s the phantom pain Kojima was talking about. Whether that's genius or a cynical mess depends on your tolerance for artistic frustration.

But if you want a tactical espionage —a game where a plan comes together, falls apart, and you improvise by throwing a smoke grenade, grabbing a guard, and using his own grenade to blow up a comms tower—there is nothing better.

Every base in Afghanistan or Africa is a playground. Need to extract a prisoner? You can snipe guards from 300m, call in a sleeping gas airstrike, fulton a supply container with yourself hanging off it, or simply drive a tank through the front gate.

The Opening Hour You wake up in a hospital. Bandaged, broken, and confused. Flames roar. A floating boy in a gas mask stares at you. A man made of fire walks through bullets. Within 20 minutes, you’ve crawled past dying patients, witnessed supernatural horror, and ridden a horse while a burning whale leaps over a helicopter.