To say that the PC version of Metal Gear Online was heavily delayed is a bit of an understatement as months have passed since the consoles got their taste of MGS V multiplayer action.
And now, after a rather short beta that lasted slightly over a week Metal Gear Online is finally available for the PC crowd to experience. Here's the announcement message from the MGO developers:
"Given the right platform, the right game, any player can be shaped into an online player. The Beta has officially concluded and the game is now available for launch.
We took in a lot of feedback and made a few key adjustments. After some initial hiccups we’re going forward guns at the ready. However that doesn’t mean we’ve stopped development, quite the contrary. Just like the previously released console versions of MGO, we’ll be integrating new updates to the game to improve the experience and add content.
Building the future and keeping MGO alive are one and the same thing. If you didn’t get a chance to check out the MGO beta last week, we have a little extra incentive planned. Check out the game and jump into minimum one (1) match between 1/19-1/26 and we’ll reward you with a bonus 3000 GEAR POINTS (GP) to help you customize your brand new characters’ gear style.
We’re excited to see a brand new burgeoning pvp community on PC with Metal Gear Online. It’s likewise thrilling to add another community of players to our upcoming MGO DLC and update plans. 2016 is shaping up to be an exciting year for MGO, and with your continued support we’ll take it even further!"
From what I've gathered browsing various forums it seems that the MGO gameplay is solid enough but the "mandatory" PC features are either missing, such as text chat, or constantly turned on in the case of microphones. Also worth noting is that performance and server stability are all over the place right now with many reporting that they can't even find a match though I'd imagine this problem will solve itself once enough people move on.
As I said in the title MGO has been long overdue on the PC but its better to have late than never. I just hope that the large delay since the original MGS V launch doesn't result in the PC MGO having too small of a population to have quality matches.
Right now I would suggest you hold back because MGO has quite a few annoying bugs that need to be caught and stability that needs... stabilizing. Waiting for a patch that is supposed to come in a couple of days seems like a smart bet as you'll be able to avoid the initial rush and server issues as well. Just make sure you play a match before January 26th in order to get the free 3000 GP.