Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

Serving as a prologue to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain released the year after, two-hour long Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes introduced fresh stealth and traversal mechanics, manoeuvres that became staples in MGSV’s proper release. Set a few months after Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker in 1975, Ground Zeroes follows Snake’s infiltration of American black site Camp Omega as he attempts a daring rescue. Renowned for presenting newfound immersion to the series, the main complaint with Ground Zeroes is it was just too short.

The Bloody Baron – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Arguably the most morally bankrupt NPC Geralt encounters in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The Bloody Baron’s history as an abuser to wife Anna and daughter Tamara is revealed during Geralt’s attempts to locate The Baron’s estranged family in exchange for information on his own daughter’s whereabouts. Neither of The Baron’s conclusions are favourable for him (or, indeed, his wife Anna); should both The Baron and Anna survive, Anna will have succumbed to madness whilst a band of witches abscond with the orphans of whom she was residing. Should Anna die, the Baron will tragically hang himself due to a lifetime of grief and guilt.

As per Konami, as of the end of September, the Metal Gear series has collectively sold 62.1 million units. As of August last year, the series’ sales stood at 60 million units, which means it has sold an additional 2.1 million units since then. One would assume that the majority of those sales were for Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, which launched in October last year.

Metal Gear fans also have upcoming MGS3 remake Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, which is in development for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, but doesn’t yet have a release date. Additionally, Konami also seems to have plans for a second Master Collection. Read more on that through here.

It was a short experience, to say the least. Players could easily blow throw its main story in a couple of hours, and that, combined with the fact that it was sold at $30 at launch, meant that many felt there just wasn’t enough meat on the bone. And when The Phantom Pain launched a year later, the two-hour experience that preceded it became even hazier in everyone’s memory. But even though it was not what you would call a “full” game, looking back, it’s hard not to recognize Ground Zeroes as a stealth masterpiece in its own right, even now, a decade on from its launch.

It was, for starters, the first game to give us a taste not only of what the new (or new at the time) Fox Engine could enable Hideo Kojima and his team to do, but also of what an open world Metal Gear game would look like. In hindsight, many might argue that the potential of both those things ended up being wasted, with the Fox Engine spending years being underutilized before dying out, and The Phantom Pain’s “fully realized” open world experience coming with more than its fair share of caveats. Back in 2014, however, Ground Zeroes served as an excellent demonstration on both fronts nonetheless, painting an exciting future of a full-fledged open world Metal Gear experience powered by the fancy new Fox Engine. Even now, Ground Zeroes looks great, but back then, it looked nothing short of spectacular.

Beyond those buzzwords, however, Ground Zeroes’ biggest strength lay in its incredible level design, where it succeeded in ways that even The Phantom Pain couldn’t. One of the biggest complaints that even the most devoted Phantom Pain fans have with it is how little it uses indoor environments. Though it boasts some of the best stealth mechanics and gameplay you’ll ever see in a game, it ended up losing a lot of the tight, controlled design style of its predecessors when it almost entirely swapped out meticulously handcrafted indoor environments with large, open ones.

Ground Zeroes, on the other hand, struck the perfect balance between both styles. It was, of course, set in an open world map (albeit one much smaller than either of The Phantom Pain’s maps), with players being given the freedom to traverse and explore it at their leisure, but vast swathes of it were also characterized by structures and buildings that players would be weaving in and out of. Constantly having to study your environment was crucial, because stealth took on entirely different styles depending on whether you were out in the open or in one of Camp Omega’s more confined indoor locations.

To The Phantom Pain’s credit, it did have a handful of notable sections where players were tasked with infiltrating more tightly designed interior locations, but where Ground Zeroes delivered a much more concentrated dose of that across all of its offerings, in The Phantom Pain, that side of the experience felt significantly more diluted. Maybe that just goes to show how difficult it is to achieve that sort of perfect balance in a significantly larger open world setting, but in hindsight, it’s hard not to look back at Ground Zeroes wistfully and think about how much more fantastic The Phantom Pain could have been if its design philosophy had been more similar to the prologue that preceded it.

It’s also worth pointing out that though Ground Zeroes was by no means a full game, it was still one that players could get plenty of hours out of. Sticking to the critical path and doing nothing else, you could easily hit the credits in a couple of hours, if not less, but Ground Zeroes came with plenty of optional content for players to dive into. On top of seven main missions, the game featured a number of Side Ops, Extra Ops, unlockables, and more, all of which could keep you occupied for well over a dozen hours (and let’s be honest, at a time where every game seems hellbent on being a hundred hour behemoth, doesn’t a small, tightly designed, super polished experience sound like a much needed breath of fresh air?). On top of all that, camp Omega had no shortage of secrets for players to find either, and as the particularly rabid Metal Gear fans would tell you, the game was also hiding its fair share of surprisingly pivotal narrative tidbits, many that would turn out to be crucial pieces in the larger puzzle of Metal Gear Solid 5’s story.

And, of course, you also always had the option of just messing about in the open world to your heart’s content. Obviously, there were some restrictions in place here. Owing to its very nature, Ground Zeroes’ open world sandbox wasn’t quite as endlessly replayable as The Phantom Pain was, but even in its much smaller map, thanks to the strengths of its emergent gameplay mechanics, simply fiddling around with the systems and seeing how they would react was a constant blast. From traversing the map with vehicles to testing the limits of the enemy AI, from exploring areas at different times of day (courtesy of the aforementioned Side Ops) to experimenting with Snake’s toolset, there was an abundance of ways to make your own fun in Camp Omega.

Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes is now a decade old (which feels ridiculous to say- but that’s a different story), and the further away we get from its release, the more we appreciate what it did. Combining tight level design, a stellar open world sandbox filled with reactive emergent systems, and an excellent sampling of what an open world Metal Gear game could be, Ground Zeroes ended up a much better, stronger, and fuller game than a supposed two-hour prologue had any right to be.

Obviously, we’re not going to put it in the same bracket as the series’ mainline entries, because a game that’s been specifically designed as a prologue is never going to be able to hit the highs of a full, new release. But as a proof-of-concept, Ground Zeroes was nothing short of spectacular, to the extent that in some areas, it was even stronger than the full game that Kojima Productions went on to build on top of it. Looking back at Ground Zeroes, it’s hard not to wonder what could have been if Hideo Kojima and his team had been able to fully execute on their vision for Metal Gear Solid 5– but then again, “what if” is something we end up invariably wondering in most cases where MGS5 is concerned. If nothing else, we’ll at least always have Ground Zeroes to give us a glimpse of what the perfect open world Metal Gear Solid game could have looked like, had it been allowed to exist in the real world the way it does in our dreams.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Of course, the fact that it was called Vol. 1 was indication for many that the company had more similar collections planned for the future, and while that hasn’t yet been officially announced, it certainly seems like we’ll be hearing more about a second volume at some point in the future.

In a recently uploaded “production hotline” video uploaded by Konami, responding to a question about a second MGS collection, series producer Noriaki Okamura said (via Twitter user @HEITAIs) that Konami hasn’t decided “yet” which games will be included in Master Collection Vol. 2, or when it will be released, before adding, “please wait a little longer.”

Previous reports and datamining leaks have indicated that Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 will include Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes, and Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.

Konami is also working on a number of improvements for Master Collection Vol. 1, including support for higher resolutions, controller configuration options, and more.

Meanwhile, MGS3 remake Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is in development for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Set against the backdrop of Prague, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided presents a dense network of systems and gives players ample tools to bend those systems to their will. Missions take place in open-ended sandboxes with multiple paths to your objective, and depending on your character build – you can choose to sweet talk your way through guards, hack into security systems for a convenient backdoor entry, or just blow everything in your path with sheer brute force. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is arguably the series at its best both visually and mechanically, and it remains a joyous experience even after all these years.

In an update to its official corporate website, Konami has confirmed that as of June 30, the Metal Gear series has surpassed collective sales of over 60 million units worldwide across all platforms since its debut over three and a half decades ago. It has also generated over $1 billion in Konami across all of its releases.

Those numbers, of course, includes all mainline titles and spinoffs. Its sales are up from 59.8 million units as of March 31, which means the series sold an additional 200,000 units over the course of the previous quarter.

Metal Gear’s sales are certain to receive significant boosts in the coming months, with two major new releases lined up in Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 (which is due out in October) and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater (which doesn’t yet have an official release date). It also looks like Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 is in the pipeline as well, though that’s yet to be officially announced.

Its official website for Metal Gear Solid has added buttons for games in Vol. 1 on the History page. However, as noted by Twitter user Nitroid, inspecting the page reveals placeholder buttons for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Metal Gear Solid 5 and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. It could mean a potential Vol. 2 is coming with these titles. IGN said it “understands this lineup for Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 is accurate” and awaits comment from Konami.

While one could assume that the buttons for Vol. 1 link to generic listings for each game, they lead to new pages showcasing screenshots and images from the upcoming compilation. The old listings can still be found under “Lineup” on the official site, but if Vol. 2 does happen, this would be Konami laying the groundwork.

Interestingly, when Konami first announced Vol. 1, it listed all three titles, but also had a “?” and “Stay tuned for more information.” The section has since been updated to include Metal Gear 1 and 2, along with other goodies, but the existence of placeholders for other titles gives some hope. It’s especially noteworthy for fans of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, which has been stuck on PS3 since its 2008 release.

Stay tuned for further updates. Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 releases on October 24th for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC and Nintendo Switch.

The new Metal Gear Solid website added buttons to the timeline for the games in Master Collection Vol. 1, but if you inspect the page, there are placeholder buttons for MGS4, Peace Walker, and MGSV as well.

Very interesting. pic.twitter.com/V0ezMHdpcT

— Nitroid ❗ (@Nitroid) June 21, 2023

While this is hardly conclusive of anything, here's some additional context for why it's suspicious: pic.twitter.com/2zPbbKTL79

— Nitroid ❗ (@Nitroid) June 22, 2023

As of March 31, the Metal Gear franchise has sold a total of 59.8 million units worldwide across all platforms. That includes all the mainline games and all of the series’ spinoffs. As of the end of last year, the franchise’s total sales stood at 59.5 million, so it’s sold a decent amount since then.

Interestingly, if rumours are to be believed, the Metal Gear franchise preparing to make its long-awaited comeback. Allegedly, the long-rumoured Metal Gear Solid 3 remake, which is allegedly developed by Virtuos, will be announced at the upcoming PlayStation Showcase on May 24. It’s been claimed that the game is targeting a 2024 release.

“The development of a full game takes 4-5 years [and] times change during production,” Kojima explained. “So I thought of offering an episodic format, like a streamed drama, where one episode is produced and distributed. Ground Zeroes was meant to be an experiment.”

Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes also acted as a sort of prologue to Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, showing us the events that would lead Venom Snake down his dark path of vengeance against Skull Face. On his Japanese Twitter account, Kojima also spoke about the idea of releasing episodes 2 and 3 while getting feedback for the design of future episodes.

Players, however, expected Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes to be a ‘full game’ on release. “I have a feeling it was too early,” said Kojima.

In fact, it was my big intention to launch GZ. The development of a full game takes for 4-5 yrs. Times change during production. So I thought of offering an episodic format, like a streamed drama, where one episode is produced and distributed. GZ was meant to be an experiment. https://t.co/EeyJAs2HCR

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) March 20, 2023