International man of mystery and game designer/prankster Hideo Kojima held a Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain event at Gamescom, to show off more of the next instalment of Big Boss' epic (and at times ridiculous) saga.
Hosted by the ubiquitous Geoff Keighley, Kojima san and his accompanying translator introduced the first video clip. The idea was to show how flexible and adaptive the missions in The Phantom Pain are, particularly with regard to the past actions of the player.
The gameplay video took place on the same Afghanistan stage that was first presented at E3 two months ago, the rescue Kaz mission. After the lengthy opening cutscene (a loved/hated Metal Gear staple) we're watching Big Boss ride his white stallion across the Afghanistan desert, in search of the location of his mentor and friend Kazuhira Miller.
Upon reaching a collection of huts, where guards were posted in the E3 demo, there's now nobody to be seen. Curious. We're told that the guards routines aren't static, and they change according to the time of day, and other factors. One of these factors is how you last played the same mission/area and what previous routes you'd taken; you'll find guards will populate your frequently used routes in greater numbers.
Here's where things get really interesting though; you can command your horse to poo on command. I'll type that again - you can actually command your horse to defecate at a moment's notice. Aside from being downright bizarre and hilarious in that daft Kojima way, the manure is a useful tool - in the gameplay video, Big Boss gets the horse to poo in the middle of the road, and then retreats to the side of the road. An enemy jeep passes by, only to skid hopelessly out of control, as if it's hit a patch of black ice (or in this case probably brown) when it runs over the dung. The passengers are stunned, allowing Big Boss to creep up and Fulton the jeep and the soldiers inside it.
By Fulton, I mean using the Fulton Recovery System - a daft but useful mechanic from previous game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which lets you attach powerful balloons to pacified enemies, causing them to hurtle uncontrollably into the air and be collected by helicopter (I know, it's absolutely mad). Any soldiers you capture using these balloons are then yours to staff your home base with, and then send out on missions, or complete other tasks for you.
We even see Big Boss attach a balloon to a lone goat a bit later on (who the hell knows why), but this conveniently saves it from some wolves that had been stalking it. Out of the frying pan and into the fire perhaps? We don't know what happens to that poor skyward goat, but the local wildlife seems to play a bigger part in The Phantom Pain than any of the previous Metal Gear games. It looks like you'll need to exercise caution then when exploring the environment, lest you want to end up stalked by wolves yourself. Not exactly what you want trying to infiltrate enemy bases.
Further on in the video, Big Boss gets out the binoculars to scout out the camp, and point out the different route taken this time; a big E3 themed billboard can be seen off in the distance pointing out where the E3 demonstration took place in the previous gameplay video. It really gave a sense of scale to the environments, and how there are significantly different routes throughout each area.
On the topic of differences, we see that the enemy security presence has been boosted around the camp compared to when we last saw it in the E3 demo. Big Boss gets his phantom cigar out, which let's you while away the hours (just imagine the state of the poor guy's lungs), in order to wait until night time to begin sneaking into the camp. With the time in the very dark early hours of the morning, there will be fewer guards on duty, making it easier to sneak in.
One of the key things that was stressed was that variety in your playstyle is very important. Rely too much on one technique, or keep exploiting a certain tactic, and the enemy will learn from your patterns and adapt. This is shown in the video when Big Boss attempts to headshot an unaware guard, only to have the tranquillizer dart ping uselessly off the soldier's helmet. Soldiers will wear helmets if you tend to overuse headshots, and will wear heavier body armour if you overuse body shots. Hmm, looks like you'll have to mix up your tactics whilst you're playing to prevent the enemy being able to predict your modus operandi.
We get a bit of cardboard box action, as shown off in the cardboard box video at the Sony Press conference (and which was given a repeated airing in this conference as well, showing an Xbox One cardboard box to be fair to Microsoft), as well as some hiding in bins to get out of sight. After shooting out a generator, an attack helicopter is called in to search the area for the offending miscreant who took out the power. Again, it looks like the enemy AI can react promptly and intelligently to your every move, so some quick thinking is needed to remain undetected.
Infiltrating the camp, and finding the necessary documents that tell of Miller's location, it's time for Big Boss to escape. Spotting an empty enemy jeep, Big Boss creeps over to it to make a rudimentary (but creatively impressive) bomb. First attaching some C4 plastic explosive to the jeep, and then a Fulton balloon, Big Boss sends the jeep up into the air as the helicopter passes overhead, before detonating it in a fantastic explosion. Whistling for his loyal (and presumably very smelly) horse, he rides off over the hill and into a waiting helicopter to finish the mission.
As a final treat, it was announced via yet another daft video, this time showing a steaming box with a red valve on it, that (you guessed it) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Ground Zeroes (the prequel teaser game, released in March) will both be coming to Steam, Valve's digital games network, at an undisclosed date in the future. No release date was given for any version of the game in fact, despite Geoff's diligent badgering.
The Everybody Plays team is at Gamescom all this week for hands on impressions of many of the games on offer from all the conferences, so don't forget to check back for regular news posts, and follow us on Twitter at @everybody_plays for updates from the show floor.
