Lots of new information on MGSV Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain

For their March issue, Game Informer visited Kojima Productions in Japan, played Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and interviewed Kojima.

Here is a summary of the most important bits of information on Ground Zeroes:

• Binoculars are more useful than before thanks to the marking feature, which can also be switched off through the menu.
• Guard patrols are much wider and more unpredictable than in previous games.
• Line of sight is ‘especially impressive’, allowing players to aim through narrow jail cell bars and the like.
• Inventory is now accessible through the d-pad. Tapping the button once switches weapons and items quickly, while holding it opens the entire collection of weapons in that class.
• When spotted, the on screen indicator fills with color as the enemy becomes more suspicious.
• The second screen app lets players use their tablet or phone as a map, and can also be used to listen to audio files and view mission info, providing a tactical advantage.
• The countdown when spotted is gone, now the player has to listen to the enemies’ radio conversations to know when the coast is clear.
• According to Game Informer, the slow motion mechanic (Reflex Mode) will be useful even for long time fans, and ‘feels more like a nice bonus than an easy crutch’. It can only be successfully pulled off if Snake’s gun is loaded and there aren’t any obstacles in the way.
• When interrogating a soldier in choke hold, any information he tells on ammo or secret passages will automatically be marked on the map. Snake also collects the soldier’s ammo by doing this.
• Controlling vehicles such as jeeps and tanks ‘is a blast’.
• Adjusting to the voice of Snake takes some time, but according to Game Informer Sutherland does a wonderful job and adds a layer of emotion, having ‘the chops to convey the soldier’s shaky grip on his dramatic life’.
• Game Informer beat the story mission in under two hours, and Konami says testers could speed run it in 5 minutes. How long it takes to complete the story mission and explore the camp is up to the player, but the extra missions add some replay value to the game.
• The extra daytime missions show off ‘how impressive the Fox Engine looks when fully lit’, with the PS4 version being the most beautiful.
• Collecting the XOF patches Skull Face throws out of the helicopter will unlock the Deja / Jamais Vu missions.
• The Deja Vu mission changes Camp Omega into a landscape reminiscent of Shadow Moses, including the music, lighting and even Miller doing impersonations over the CODEC. Beating it will unlock the polygonal Solid Snake skin.
• In the Jamais Vu mission player control Raiden defeating Snatchers. He won’t have a sword but he is faster than Snake.
• While consumers might feel shortchanged by this new distribution method, Konami’s reason for doing this is to ‘prolong engagement of the next iteration of the series’.
• Game Informer concludes that with Ground Zeroes providing a ‘tantalizing taste of the beloved stealth franchise’s next evolution’, fans have ‘a lot to look forward to’.

And here is some new information on Metal Gear Solid V’s main portion, The Phantom Pain:

• When asked about Big Boss’s coma, Kojima replied: ‘There’s only once he’s in a coma, and to explain that you need to play toward the end of The Phantom Pain. There it will come together. You’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s what happened!”
• In The Phantom Pain, Kojima want to depict that you never come back from war unscratched. His characters losing limbs is one example.
• The Afghanistan level shows ‘incredible draw distance’.
• Creatures are present in the landscape, such as sheep and goats, and they all look very realistic.
• The Phantom Pain is not one big world, but rather a collection of different areas, in different parts of the world.
• Not every area in The Phantom Pain will have many enemies, so the player won’t have the constant stress that he feels playing Ground Zeroes.
• At the end of Ground Zeroes an underground nuclear testing facility, abandoned by South Africa in 1977 is mentioned, likely the new location of Mother Base (Outer Heaven).
• Unlike in Ground Zeroes, in The Phantom Pain you can recruit soldiers by Fulton Recovery.
• Bases will be more interactive than before. You can walk around your own base and do different things. In addition, you can also visit other people’s bases online.
• As stated before, progress made in Ground Zeroes is transferred to The Phantom Pain, giving people who played the prologue a ‘clear advantage’.

Source: Game Informer March 2014 Issue