Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes is now behind us and the release of The Phantom Pain is still pending. After the prologue nature of Ground Zeroes, it’s expected that The Phantom Pain will have a larger, more traditional MGS approach to its gameplay.
Director Hideo Kojima has more or less confirmed the same. Speaking to SpazioGames, Kojima addressed the open world nature of the game and explained that while it was a concern at the first, “the missions are still very clear, and the player is free to choose how to approach them. In this sense, I don’t think it’s that different from the previous installments.”
As for why Ground Zeroes/The Phantom Pain are much darker in tone than previous games, Kojima stated that, “This episode is the story of how Snake became Big Boss. It is important for me to explain to the players how this hero became an evil threatening the entire world. That’s why it needed to become a very dramatic story.”
The Phantom Pain will also break series’ tradition and offer Ocelot as a radio contact in The Phantom Pain. In conversation with 4Gamer, Kojima confirmed that both Kaz and Ocelot are contacts in The Phantom Pain but there could be more persons of interest yet to be revealed. He also said there will be other functions with the radio in The Phantom Pain.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is currently rumoured to be releasing in early 2015 for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PS4.