Stealth:
Snake’s approach to stealth is going to change in this game. In previous titles there were limits to where Snake could sneak off to. In Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, the open world should certainly give the players more options. Instead of having to sneak by all your enemies or face a bloody firefight, the map should be large enough, at least in a majority of instances where you could avoid them altogether.
Kojima is certainly not going to do away with the stealth options and from the trailers that we’ve seen he’s most likely going to strengthen it. He’s never been one to let a game mechanic sit gathering dust and everything he uses in his games seems to get updated pretty drastically from game-to-game. The stealth feature should be no different.
On this flip side there will be many more patrols and soldiers wandering around this new and vast environment. Player’s may not have the luxury of clearing an area and hanging out until it is safe anymore.
Story:
Kojima sounds like he’s trying to make a harder hitting story with a mature theme this time around. With shots of child soldiers being trained to kill, he may have hit the nail on the head. Snake’s motivations for revenge also look like they are taking players down a very dark path and may help explain what happens in the earlier games. We don’t know why Snake has began a quest for revenge or what purpose it has yet but it is promising to see the development team not sacrificing any in-depth storytelling because the game is moving to a more open environment. While other sandbox titles may just use a main character as a vehicle to tell the story, Snake is being given choices and options that have not been seen in a Metal Gear title yet.
Kojima is trying to successfully marry a large open-world game that thrives on choices with the deeply personal narrative that the Metal Gear series is known for. Having Keifer Sutherland playing the main character also means we’re going to seeing a whole lot of cutscenes, hopefully the episodic format will help breaking these up a bit since previous complaints about the MGS series was the there were too many cutscenes. Even if there are a lot, having such an accomplished actor as Snake is certainly going to make for a great viewing experience.
Combat:
Snake is going to have even more combat options at his disposal. A new-and-improved Dynamic Close Quarters Combat system, (CQC) has been introduced and looks like it gives the player plenty of flexibility when dealing with enemies. It will be great when we can get to see more of this in action, and the variety of stealth kills and takedowns that are always a real treat.
We’ve seen Snake driving an Armored Personnel Carrier, and at one point in the E3 trailer a large tank can been seen in the background. It would be shocking to not be able to hijack, drive and even use the tank in a fight. We also see a small biped walker armed with what appears to be a modular weapons attachment carrying an SMG on it. It will be exciting to get our hands on that vehicle and if we can even swap weapons out on it, that’s even better.
In Closing:
There is a lot to be excited about and we really haven’t seen all that much about the game yet. While some major plot points have already been revealed to us, it kind of makes you wonder what we don’t know yet. As obvious, these changes can cause some concerns though.
The strong departure from previous titles may make longtime fans nervous, but it’s got some real promise from what we’ve seen. Whether you end up loving it or hating it, there is no doubt that after the release of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, the franchise will be changed forever.
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