[quote]If I've never played a MGS game before will I enjoy the phantom pain? I'm on the fence about buying it. It looks great, but I watched like the first hour of gameplay and I'm so lost as to what is happening.[/quote] This should get you up to speed, friend. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OAmzPI53EV8

Yes as mgs v is better in terms of mechanics etc. should be able to get a cheap copy. It's a great game, but I've grown up playing those types of games. May not be for everyone so good to try that first as its effectively a pay for demo.

If you watched the first hour you should have had your answer about the story at "flaming whale." Overall, I like it. The open world can feel a bit dead or unnecessarily hostile since there isn't a single real civilian(only soldiers and occasionally the prisoners they hold who aren't exactly uninvolved in everything because they're prisoners) but it feels almost like a much bigger Splinter Cell and it's really entertaining. My advice on the world and story would be not to try too hard to wrap your head around things; they're pretty liberal about when they choose to enforce historical realism and when they want to give you a rocket punch or make a man with napalm for skin. It's a good game and definitely worth playing, though I'm not sure the fun will last long enough to get GOTY in the face of things like Fallout 4; it certainly feels like one of those games that's fun until it isn't and makes that transition abruptly when it finally happens.

Yes I'd recommend it and no, it's not hard to follow. It sorta catches you up to speed but I would recommend playing the prologue to it first which is ground zeroes. It's like 30 minutes of gameplay