Healing has always been interesting in the Metal Gear Solid games, with Snake Eater’s jungle survival take on the age old video game trope perhaps being the most interesting and memorable interpretation of what is otherwise such a banal action in most other video games, till date. With The Phantom Pain, the upcoming fifth installment in the Metal Gear Solid saga, it sounds like healing will once again be a mechanic that is different from all other games on the market, and that requires the player to put in some thought.
The new information came from a series of tweets made by Kojima, revealed alongside some new screenshots, and showing Snake’s artificial arm being healed, as well. Kojima’s comments, specifically, “Has the artificial arm healed?! No, it’s just a bug,” seem to imply at a brand new healing mechanism for Snake in the game, hinting at some kind of computerized process (possibly with nanomachines), which might or might not run into bugs (or hitches) along the way.
Whatever it is, it sounds like it will be different. Let’s hope it doesn’t break flow and get in the way, though with Kojima, one hardly needs to worry about that.