Metal Gear Online 3

Metal Gear Online 3 is the third installment of Metal Gear Online available for free to people who purchased Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

The game was initially supposed to release alongside The Phantom Pain on September 1st, 2015, but ultimately was delayed until October 6th for consoles and January 2016 for PC.

Gameplay
Metal Gear Online 3 supports 16-player online battles for PS4, Xbox One and PC and supports 12-player online battles for PS3 and Xbox 360. The core gameplay is heavily based on the mechanics present in Metal Gear Solid V with much the same equipment from the single-player game making its way in to Online.

Players can utilize the same tagging feature introduced in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and operates identically to the single-player feature. Players stay marked until they are either Fulton extracted or killed, and marking is shared between all team members. Players have the ability to use CQC in the same way it is used in the base game, and interrogating enemy team members also automatically marks other enemy combatants.

New to this iteration of Metal Gear Online is the "buddy" system which allows two players to salute each other in order to pair up. This allows players to assist their buddy, as whenever the buddy is aiming at an enemy that enemy is temporarily marked on the screen. Furthermore, buddies share a gauge that when at 50% allows one buddy to spawn on another and when at 100% allows the use of the E-RB WORMHOLE GEN. which permits one buddy to teleport directly to another.

MGO3 opted for the inclusion of a class-based system of gameplay. The game offers three classes; Scout, Enforcer and Infiltrator each of which have their own specialties and weaknesses. The inclusion of different classes is intended to balance gameplay, make MGO accessible to newcomers, and ensure that every member of a team has a vital role in a match.

Skills (now termed Abilities) make a return in MGO3, where they enhance the performance of a character or weapon. Abilities can be upgraded, and each one has three levels.

Similar to earlier MGO installments, the player is able to customize a soldier to be either male or female. The default character slot's appearance is derived from the facial features of the player avatar created during The Phantom Pain 's story, however once players unlock additional character slots (to a maximum of 3), the new characters are fully customizable. Players will be given the option to choose from preset camouflage patterns for their fatigues in order to create a unique appearance for their MGO avatars, and headwear such as the Croc Hat, a fish hat and a squid hat.

Confirmed only for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles, players will be able to form a party in order to enter matchmaking with the same team members across multiple games.

The in-game lobby is set to take place in an open world area, giving players the capacity to walk around while waiting for a session to start.

Scout
The Scout class is specifically designed for long range tactical support. Scouts generally use weapons such as sniper rifles, and when using the INT. SCOPE, enemies will be tagged faster than other classes.

Enforcer
The Enforcer class is designed for closer-quarters combat. Enforcers utilize heavy armor and weaponry in order to engage enemies from a close distance.

Infiltrator
The Infiltrator class specializes in stealth and CQC. Infiltrators are equipped with active stealth camo which they can use to engage enemies silently.

Equipment
Equipment can be purchased with in-game currency known as Gear Points (GP). GP is earned at the end of every match and can also be used to buy different colors for equipment pieces, however come colors require the expenditure of Mother Base Coins instead.

Abilities
Each character has four ability slots with each ability having three levels of upgrade. Level 1 abilities take up one ability slot, Level 2 abilities take up two ability slots, and so on.

Unique Characters
Unique Character appears as a mission setting prior to beginning a game. If the setting is selected, one player from each team at random are picked and spawn as a unique character such as Snake or Ocelot. Unique characters have higher abilities, as well as unique weapons and actions.

Release
Metal Gear Online 3 launched on October 6th, 2015 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. It will launch in January 2016 for PC users.

Development
Metal Gear Online 3 was announced on June 13, 2013 and was developed by the newly formed Kojima Productions Los Angeles studio with some assistance from the main studio in Japan. On September 8, 2013 at 4:37 PM, Hideo Kojima tweeted that the Los Angeles studio had just showed him the progress of MGO3, and commented that it "looked promising." He later tweeted at 5:53 PM the same day that KoreP and the original designers of Metal Gear Online are checking in frequently with the development while also displaying a photograph of the LA studio. The next day between 9:51 AM and 1:09 PM, various Konami social media outlets on both Twitter and Facebook posted both Kojima's messages regarding Metal Gear Online. It was unveiled at the Game Awards 2014, with Kojima and Kiefer Sutherland personally attending.

On August 3, 2015, Konami announced that the release date for Metal Gear Online 3 has been pushed back. The console versions will be released on October 6, while the PC version will be released sometime in January 2016.

Metal Gear Online was revealed to be part of the TGS 2015 lineup for Konami, alongside Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (despite the latter already being released). These included four livestreams. The MGO3 Official Twitter account also implied that a new mode will be unveiled during the event. During TGS 2015, the three character classes (Scout, Enforcer, Infiltrator) were announced as well as three game modes and five maps.

Features
Metal Gear Online 3 will likely take advantage of the large maps the Fox Engine is capable of and feature vehicles, which are known to include Jeeps, Trucks, APCs and Tanks, in addition to other usable rides like horses. This will take combat in a large-scale direction in maps that will support them - although it was confirmed that the maps featured in Metal Gear Online do not utilize the same open world map of The Phantom Pain. Kojima has described the multiplayer experience as "vast." The official Twitter account for Metal Gear Online confirmed that Team Sneaking (TSNE) will return. In addition to weapons and equipment previously demonstrated in MGSV, there will also be new weapons and equipment: Specifically, a plush husky pup that is programmed to yip, serving a similar function to the Magazines from previous games, including the previous iteration of Metal Gear Online, as well as a turret that uses Fulton balloons as ammo to remove players unless the balloons are shot down in time. The player can also select which soldier they'll play as via the iDroid. Players can also deploy a device that allows them to teleport in a fashion similar to Quiet's ability as seen in the TGS 2014 trailer for The Phantom Pain.

In a Japanese language interview with 4Gamer that was later translated by the official Twitter account of Metal Gear Online, Creative Director Kotaru Oki elaborated on some features of Metal Gear Online 3. Namely, the service will begin when The Phantom Pain is released, as it was the game's multiplayer mode; It will have an estimate of between 12 and 16 players, although they are still working out the numbers to make sure not too many players are used; The multiplayer (ie, MGO3) will be developed by the Los Angeles branch, while the single player mode (ie, The Phantom Pain itself) will be developed by the main Kojima Productions branch in Japan, with the core system (ie, the Fox Engine) being the same each region; The pre-set radio from the Metal Gear Solid 4 version of Metal Gear Online was also confirmed to be making a reappearance, with pre-set radio dialogue; Instead of SOP from the second iteration, MGO3 will use the tagging system that was used in the main game of both Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain; Independent maps for MGO with variations are also confirmed to be used; There will be dynamic weather conditions like in The Phantom Pain, although as the matches aren't intended to last as long, the players will be able to select the time of day before starting a match; Various modes from standard favorites will be used for the game, including Team Sneak; Selfies, as shown in the reveal trailer, are planned to be implemented via a camera feature; It is also confirmed that the fulton turrets and tagging weapons match up with how Metal Gear Online was intended to be played; It is also confirmed that there is sharing of content between MGO3 and MGSV, although not to the extent of it requiring one mode before receiving it in another. It is also confirmed that additional equipment, or at least hats, can be used to customize the characters, although whether it would be purchased DLC or done in a similar manner to the second MGO via a rewards zone is yet to be said.

Pre-order vouchers
Preordering The Phantom Pain via certain outlets will net the player with a certain amount of bonuses: For the physical and digital Day-One Edition, the player will get an XP boost, while preordering the Collector's Edition will net the player with the XP boost as well as gold-color skin options for both the Wu Silent Pistol and the AM-MRS-4, as well as a hat modeled after Metal Gear REX. The European versions of the Collector's Edition released both codes on a slip of paper, but the North American versions necessitated email via the store the item was preordered from to get the codes due to a production error. In addition, although Konami's US customer support implied that the TPP voucher code would act as the same code as the MGO code, this did not occur. MGO's official Twitter account was notified of the problem and has resolved to get to the bottom of the situation. The REX Hat, Gold Wu Silent Pistol, and the Gold AM-MRS-4 were later released as free DLC via the PSN on October 9, 2015 for those who had bought the Collector's Edition.