For years, the Metal Gear Solid series has had a reputation for being a little bit... different. While at its heart, it's a game that sees you sneaking around bases, silently disabling baddies, and foiling super-villain plots (usually involving giant robots known as Metal Gears), it's also always been a game with a sense of humour. From being able to hide in a cardboard box and totally confuse the enemies who were chasing you, to the game's numerous one liners (and occasional double entendres - let's face it, with a main character called Snake, it was going to happen), it's a game that's always known how to raise a smile - and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain looks set to take that further than ever.
A series with history, Metal Gear Solid or MGS is an iconic stealth action-adventure game that has dominated the market since way back in the olden days of the 80's. If you're unfamiliar with the 80's (and that includes you, writer, seeing as you weren't even born yet! - Ed), it's a time where we all wore overly colourful shirts and worshipped The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Debuting in 1987, the world was introduced to the rugged, mysterious and brooding figure known as Snake, Solid Snake.
Since then, Snake and his special ops crew have returned again and again to defeat gangsters, terrorists, corporate corruption and much, much more. Now, with a heaping collection of instalments under his belt Snake is set to return in Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain - a game that debuted with one of the best trailers we've ever seen (seriously, you've got to watch it) - and one that's only looked better ever since.
Get to de chopper!!
Phantom Pain is set in 1984, right after the events of the previous game, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, as sort of a Part Two on the narrative. In the last game, Snake infiltrated a high security base known as Camp Omega in an attempt to rescue his colleague Paz, who has information regarding the location of Cipher, the game's mysterious antagonist. [SPOILERS AHEAD] Things of course don't go as planned, and Paz is blown up by a bomb implanted in her body, with poor old Snake ending up in a coma after being caught in the blast. Nine years later, he awakes - seemingly with a robot arm - and the Phantom Pain begins. [/SPOILERS]
After nine years of sleepy time, the world is a very different place. His crew, the MSF have been destroyed and disbanded, and the Soviet War has begun. Snake, livid at the defeat of his friends and his helplessness to save them, forms his own crew of mercenaries with the purpose of revenge, the Diamond Dogs. A rag-tag yet lovable bunch of misfits, the Diamond Dogs follow Snake on his quest to find those who had destroyed MSF, with many an adventure and battle to be had on the way.
As an open world adventure game, the Phantom Pain will come with no shortage of things to see and do, and places to explore. With a vast and artfully designed open plain of environments, dotted with cities, towns and landscapes for you to explore at your leisure - not to mention a white horse to ride around on, it's a game that promises to hold as much appeal to casual explorers as it does to hardcore stealth fans. And, in a world as unique and war-torn as the world of Metal Gear, exploring is sure to guarantee some awesome story development and world-building immersion, not to mention some essential back story to the oh-so enigmatic Snake. Kojima, the creator of the game, will have developed the open world with the intention of it being worthwhile to explore, so those who stray off the beaten path will no doubt be rewarded. With puppies. No, really.
Because cars are too mainstream
Yes, that's right - Diamond Dogs may be the name of Snake's new crew, but as with many things in the world of Metal Gear, it has something of a double meaning. At some point in the game, Snake finds a stray puppy in the wild - and, being the helpful kind of guy he is, he straps a Fulton recovery balloon to it, and whisks it back off to base.
There, after giving Snake the beard licking of a lifetime and having their own little Lion King moment, he grows to become a full blown husky/wolf-type creature known as DD (Diamond Dog), complete with matching eye patch, ready to help Snake out on his adventures. On the flip side, DD is actually only a side character in the game, and an entirely optional sub-quest - you don't have to find him, and you don't have to use him in your missions - but we bet most of you will. If you do, be careful though - because much like your co-soldier Quiet, and your horse, DD can die. And once he's dead, he won't come back.
As you'll have likely guessed, the Phantom Pain is set to be heavily story driven, continuing a complex, in depth narrative that has now spanned for almost 30 years. It has huge cast of individual and unique characters you can love or love to hate, and a universe so diverse and eerily real that one cannot play without getting a little lost within it. In fact, the only big question mark that dangles over the game is whether the story will be easy for newcomers to get into, without the previous games' context and story to fill them in. Hopefully Kojima will know this and provide an informative prologue, or at least keep unnecessary histories to a minimum.
But, while it may build heavily on story, the Phantom Pain's gameplay looks every bit as exciting. A stealth game, Metal Gear is fairly open ended, in that there's often no set way to approach an objective. While some routes rely on your ability to sneak unseen through levels, hiding in shadow and in shelter and performing awesome yet silent take down, before hiding away the evidence in lockers, on others, you can run in all guns blazing, and take everyone out. While some would argue the stealth route provides the most fun - you're never as absorbed in a game as when you whisper in real life, worried that the game NPC will hear you - it's nice to know that even stealth novices can shoot their way out of a situation.
...I think they saw me...
Because of its stealthy origins, Snake has numerous items and abilities that help him sneak past enemies without being spotted. For starters, rather than just a bog standard pair of binoculars, Snake's set have all sorts of extra features, letting you mark enemies and track their locations, to minimise any unwanted surprises. There's also the new "Reflex Mode", should you get spotted by an enemy, where the world will briefly slow down, giving you time to make a split second decision for how to deal with it, by either running and hiding, or eliminating them. You can also interact with the environment, shooting out lights to provide more shadow, or cutting wires to disable alarms.
But being a Metal Gear game, it also has a lot of room for messing around - and the Fulton recovery balloons are one such option. Sneak up behind an enemy, and you can point your gun at them to make them surrender - but it's so much more fun to strap a balloon to them, and carry them back off to your base. Conscious or unconscious, big or small, human or not - everything can have a balloon strapped to it, and end up back in your Mother Base HQ. Jeep blocking your path into a town? Fine - all you have to do is sneak up behind it, and strap a balloon to it, and it'll get taken straight back to your base. Want to hide a knocked out soldier's body? Your HQ's the last place they'll look! Goat look at you funny? Well...
See ya!
Speaking of bases, the Phantom Pain is set to include a base-like building mode, in which Snake can customise and modify his (or, rather, your) very own base. Here, you'll be able to alter and enhance your weaponry, or buy new ones, and you'll also be able to hire more men for your Diamond Dogs crew, making your life a whole lot easier should the proverbial hit the fan, as you can rely on a veritable army as back-up.
Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain has an as of yet unconfirmed release date for some time in 2015, releasing for PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4. With all we have seen so far, with the awesome story premise, expansive open world, incredible graphics, fantastic gameplay and sense of humour, it seems to have ticked all the boxes. So hide under your cardboard boxes and get ready - we could be in for something special!
