Metal Gear Solid 5: 10 Reasons Why Metal Gear Will Never Be The Same Again

After the events in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, people were worried that we may not see another Metal Gear for quite some time. Hideo Kojima had been expressing interest in working on other projects and the Sake we all knew and loved playing was old, really old. After a while, word got out that Konami and Kojima were working on a new Metal Gear, but information was as always, limited.

Then at E3 this year we were giving much more than a glimpse behind the vale and from what we’ve seen there is a whole lot to be excited for. There are more than just a few new things for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain as the series has undergone the biggest change we’ve seen since it came to the Sony PlayStation way back in 1998. With a new open world, voice actor and setting, the Metal Gear series won’t ever be the same again.

Episodic Narrative:

Hideo Kojima has described the latest installment of the Metal Gear series as a game that plays like a TV show, saying that the past titles played more like a movie and that the players were just along for the ride. He hopes that the new format will give players more freedom.

This change in the narratives direction gives the Kojima production team a bit more flexibility from section to section of the game. Metal Gear Solid 4 did feel like it was going in this direction, with major sections of the game disconnected from one another as the plot lead it along, but the game still had that cinematic, movie feel to it.

Kojima mentioned about these different segments which is Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, saying that they are both a part of Metal Gear Solid 5. However Ground Zeroes is a prologue that leads up to The Phantom Pain, which should be considered the “main” story of the game.

Missions:

The Metal Gear series has historically revolved around completing missions and objectives in order to succeed, leaving very little choice in how each is completed. While the player was relatively free to explore their environments, they were still stuck completing objectives in the same order to move the story forward each time they played the game. While you may find a few different items or weapons from previous playthroughs you may have missed, the story is still going to essentially be the same each time.

Kojima has said that this open-world format for MGS5 changes all that. Citing the Grand Theft Auto titles as some of his inspiration, we will now be able to do missions in just about any order we so choose. Whether the order of those missions alters the narrative of the game has yet to be mentioned, but with all this new talk about freedom, why would we not have those choices affect the story? Kojima and Konami have never been one to tell a shallow story in any of the MGS titles, and this would allow them to tell a much more complex and personal story.

Day and Night Cycle:

Other games have done this before, but it’s new to the Metal Gear series. Kojima has said that the day and night cycles will differ when moving through areas and travel time between those areas does affect what time of day it is when you get to another area of the game.

While it has not been confirmed, these day and night cycles probably require to player to use different stealth tactics. It may be easier to avoid detection at night, while visibility during the day is much better, but you’re more easily spotted, causing the player to move slower for instance. Compensating for travel time is just a nice, extra touch that helps the world feel more real.