A ton of new information on Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, may contain slight spoilers
In their latest issues, both the Official Xbox Magazine and the Official PlayStation Magazine talk about their experiences playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain during May’s Preview Event. Here is a summary of all the new information, most of it gameplay related. Some of it may be considered a spoiler to some, so proceed at your own risk. Otherwise, you may want to skip the first part about the opening sequence, starting right after the image below. There are no ‘real’ spoilers though, so enjoy!
The Hospital Scene (Prologue)
- OPM absolutely adores the opening sequence
- The coma is a result of Paz’ bomb
- The hospital is indeed on Cyprus
- Snake has 108 foreign bodies in his body, including bone and teeth. Too risky to remove shrapnel close to his brain and heart. Blows to the head can cause him to hallucinate
- The hospital scene lasts for about half an hour according to OXM, about an hour according to OPM, and contains interactive cutscenes, thriller and Japanese horror elements
- OPM: “Kojima‘s direction and unflinching commitment to challenging expectations and conventions make it the most tense experience ever hosted on PlayStation.”
Open World, Buddies & Gameplay
- There are key missions that must be completed, followed by side missions. Completing enough of them will unlock the next key mission. But there are also important side-ops that ‘spring a surprise story when you least expect it’
- Northern Kabul and the Angola-Zairo border seem to be areas in the game. Mother Base is ‘near the Seychelles’
- There are around 14 major bases in Afghanistan and over a dozen smaller outposts
- Missions start at the Air Command Centre, where you can select your buddies
- The horse is referred to as D-Horse, the dog as D-Dog, and the bipedal mech as D-Walker. Those three and Quiet seem to be your four buddies to choose from
- You can call the horse while sprinting and it’ll run by your side, allowing you to climb on without losing speed
- OPM says the horse cannot die, despite earlier reports saying it could, so maybe that has changed since then
- The dog can sniff out guards and herbs, sit and bark or attack. You can also give him clothes, as implied by the recently revealed action figure. If you don’t rescue him as a puppy you’ll never unlock him
- The D-Walker (aka Walker Gear) can fold its legs and roll on a pair of wheels. You can shoot guards while inside, and it can also carry people (captured soldiers probably)
- Enemies will have their own Walker Gears which you’ll be able to hijack
- First mission is to rescue Kaz from the town of Da Ghwandai Khar, requiring intel obtained in the village of Da Wialo Kallai
- You can slalom off a slope inside a cardboard box
- Small animals are carried in Snake’s pockets instead of fultonned back to Mother Base
- It seems like you can play as the regular soldier characters as well (those you’ve recruited)
- Near photorealism and gorgeous skies
- The enemies referred to in the trailer as ‘Those Who Don’t Exist’ seem to be part of the so called ‘Parasite Unit’. They travel in sandstorms, can jump over canyons, turn into smoke and run at high speeds
- If you call in air support you’ll lose your potential S-rank. However, you can also use the helicopter to distract enemy patrols
- The Chicken Hat allows Big Boss to be spotted up to three times before going into alert phase
- The extraction chopper is called Peqoud, a reference to Moby Dick, of which there are many more
- You can find boomboxes that will give you new cassette tapes containing 80s classics and other types of music, featuring artists like Billy Idol, David Bowie and Richard Wagner
- One mission has you scale a dam while you search for a Mujahideen hideout
- You can hear radio chatter talking about Quiet and her ‘bloody trail’
- Rescuing her makes for ‘a classic scene’
- Reinforcements don’t just appear out of nowhere when alert is raised, they have to travel from nearby bases. This means you can anticipate and lay out traps
- Among the Side Ops are objectives like hunting a legendary bear or capturing former base members gone mad in the wilderness
- There are no more long cutscenes, but you can listen to hours of interviews and briefings on your iDroid
- Reloading a checkpoint keeps enemies marked
- When Big Boss receives a crate with a new item from Mother Base, his animation has him ‘hungrily dive in’
- Big Boss can deploy an inflatable doll of himself (replacing the Lisa doll?)
- You can let yourself be carried around to outposts inside cardboard boxes, like in previous Metal Gear games
- Each mission has multiple side objectives that are revealed once the mission ends
- When you steal enemy goods (vehicles, mortars, etc), they will not return, so you cannot grind at the same place
- If you try to lift stuff that’s too heavy for your current Fulton, it’ll come crashing down, alerting guards
- You can destroy satellite dishes to gain new landing zones and the ability to call in air support
Mother Base
- Much like in Peace Walker, every recruitable soldier has a set of skills and grades. There are negative skills as well, such as ‘troublemaker’ and ‘boaster’
- Mother Base has a Support Unit, a Combat Unit, an R&D Unit, and an Intel Unit
- The Mother Base Invasion is compared to Dark Souls. You can choose to activate this mode or not
- Quiet’s presence lowers morale. Morale also decreases if Big Boss is absent for too long
- OPM states you cannot explore Mother Base’s interior, but they only had a fraction complete
Metal Gear Online
- Three classes will be available at launch
- Some old modes will return
Character Quotes
“Good news is you’re in the land of the living. The bad news is the whole world wants you dead.” – Ishmael
“You will fight like a real soldier fights. You will forget what Hollywood taught you.” – Ocelot
“Heaven’s not my kind of place anyway.” – Big Boss
