Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (メタルギアソリッドV：ザ・ファントム・ペイン) is an upcoming canonical installment in the Metal Gear series. Being developed by Kojima Productions, it will be running on the Fox Engine and published by Konami. Noting The Phantom Pain being his last Metal Gear game, Hideo Kojima is writing, directing and doing the game design, as well as producing it.

This game is currently in development for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. A PC version, after some consideration,, was later confirmed to be in development for the Steam software for Microsoft Windows during Gamescom 2014.

Taking place after the events of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, The Phantom Pain serves as a prequel to Metal Gear. Punished/Venom Snake is the protagonist of the game. The Phantom Pain uses an open world gameplay structure.

Primary characters

 * Punished/Venom Snake
 * Ishmael
 * Kazuhira Miller
 * Dr. Emmerich
 * Shalashaska/Ocelot
 * Eli
 * Quiet
 * Code Talker
 * Skull Face

Other characters

 * Volgin
 * Unidentified doctor
 * Unidentified gas mask wearing child

Groups and organizations

 * Diamond Dogs
 * Cipher
 * XOF
 * Red Army
 * Child soldiers

Plot
After the events of Ground Zeroes, Big Boss fell into a coma. When he eventually awoke he found that his left arm had been replaced with a prosthetic hook. A nurse noticed him and quickly alerted the doctor who revealed that Big Boss had been in the coma for nine years.

Big Boss met a mysterious patient going by the name Ishmael. Ishmael claimed to be an acquaintance of Big Boss and attempted to help him to his feet. Ishmael injected Big Boss with Digoxin to give him some ability to regain his motor functions. During his nine year coma most of his muscles atrophied, and Big Boss was forced to slowly crawl. As he approached the elevator they encountered a child with a gas mask. The child immediately levitated and passed through the ceiling as the elevator exploded, violently throwing them to the floor (possibly indicating that the child is Psycho Mantis). A disoriented Big Boss witnessed a ghost-like figure out of the fire. He quickly retreated with Ishmael in another direction, attempting to escape the hospital as a military chopper was searching the area around the building. Big Boss and Ishmael manage to commandeer an ambulance but end up crashing it shortly thereafter. As Big Boss crawls from the crashed ambulance through its broken front window he is once again confronted by the gas mask wearing child who summons a huge flame in the shape of a killer whale which engulfs an attack chopper which is advancing toward them. Big Boss somehow managed to escape and was eventually picked up and rescued by his old acquaintance, Ocelot. The two then escape on horseback while being pursued by a fiery apparition of a demon riding a unicorn.

Afghanistan
Sometime after their escape, Ocelot and Big Boss traveled to Afghanistan. There they rode into a Soviet controlled area on horseback where it was believed Kazuhira Miller had been held captive for ten days. Ocelot believed that Miller only had about three days left to live so he tasked Big Boss with infiltrating the area and rescuing him so that they could have a chance at taking revenge on those responsible for putting Big Boss in a coma. After Ocelot provided Big Boss with his mission briefing the two parted ways and Big Boss went to rescue Miller with Ocelot lending him support from Motherbase via codec.

Themes
Hideo Kojima outlined the theme of the game as being "GENE”⇒”MEME”⇒”SCENE”⇒"SENSE"⇒”PEACE”⇒”RACE/REVENGE", with the story touching upon the misunderstanding, prejudice, hatred, and conflict caused by the difference of language, race, custom, culture, and preference.

Kojima set out to depict the damage present in all returning soldiers in The Phantom Pain. Physical injuries such as the loss of limbs, and emotional wounds created through the loss of comrades and loved ones will all be part of this theme of pain. Kojima said that having his characters lose limbs is one way to depict the pain they carry.

Gameplay
While the game has moved to an open world setting, it is not one massive, continuous world, but rather, a set of large, open areas set in different places. The overall size of the game has been described as being "200 times bigger than Ground Zeroes." The areas have bases and fortresses, forests, paths, and areas with very few enemies. While previous titles have always had players constantly within the enemy's territory, The Phantom Pain will allow them to choose when to enter enemy controlled areas, and will allow them to leave at any time. The game's story structure has been compared to a TV series. Small missions are completed individually, and all tie together to present the overall story. While past games have been set in stone, it is now up to the player to go to, and complete each mission, allowing them to "carry the game" themselves.

New methods of travel are present, including vehicles and horses. Enemy vehicles can be stolen and used as transportation, and a means to escape hostile areas. Crashing a vehicle in enemy territory will immediately alert nearby sentries. When riding a horse, players can hide by leaning over one side. The game also features dynamic weather that effects the entire game world and a realistic passage of time that can be manipulated with E-Cigar Snake has in his inventory called the Phantom Cigar.

Crawling makes a return after being absent in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, but the slow “Cautious advance” available in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will not return. Laying in grass works when hiding from enemies, but they will see Snake if they get too close. The enemy's line of sight means that, when far away, they may not notice Snake crawling slowly across flat areas, but will see him if he breaks into a sprint. When an enemy becomes suspicious, an indicator will appear, pointing the direction they are located, and filling with color as their suspicion increases. If a body or unconscious enemy is discovered by another enemy soldier or vehicle, the alert mode is triggered. When guards are alert and looking for Snake, there is no longer an onscreen meter or gauge to indicate how much longer they will stay in that state. Instead, players must listen to radio chatter, and watch the guards movements to figure out when they have calmed down. When spotted, the game will slow down, allowing the player to lock on to the guard and shoot or run at the enemy. This feature can be deactivated. Guards will always head for Snake's last known position.

As with Metal Gear Solid 4, the game features a third-person aiming view with the option of switching to first-person. Low-caliber weapons feature a bullet drop mechanic which causes projectiles to fall over longer distances. Distance notches have been added to the targeting reticule, allowing players to better judge their shots when outside optimal firing range. Weapons are now selected through the d-pad. Quickly pressing the buttons will quick select weapons, while holding them down will open a larger selection, with the weapon's class being tied to a specific direction. Unlike previous titles, weapons can now be stolen from enemies and used freely, as can any weapon found in the field.

The CQC in Metal Gear Solid V is more realistic than it was in Peace Walker. It was described as being "manga like" in Peace Walker in order to appeal to a younger audience. A button prompt will appear when approaching an enemy, that will allow Snake to take them into a chokehold and drag them out of sight from other guards. Three icons appear, allowing players to interrogate, knock out, or kill the guard. Interrogation causes Snake to pull his knife, which can result in the soldier giving information such as ammo and secret passage locations which are then marked on the map. Enemy ammunition is automatically acquired when taking hold of enemy soldiers. When behind low cover, enemies can be pulled into a chokehold. When near a group of enemies, CQC takedowns can be chained together like in Peace Walker. Enemy weapons are automatically taken when grabbed from the front, and can instantly be used against them.

Binoculars can be used to mark enemies, a feature which allows players to track enemy movements on the map and see them through walls. The Binoculars have a 3X variable zoom that lets Snake mark targets at long distances. The feature is active by default, but can be turned off by the player.

The enemy AI has been described as advanced and "unpredictable", and their paths cover wider areas. Enemy soldiers will guard areas, drive supply trucks, change shifts with other soldiers and will sleep from time to time depending on the time of day.

A returning element from Peace Walker is a base building mechanic, which once again allows the player to build up the base's staff through. While the Fulton Recovery System is absent in Ground Zeroes, it will return in The Phantom Pain. It can be used by activating the character the player wishes to extract. The Recovery system will  have a chance percentage on how successful the recovery will be depending on where the player is and what is going on in the senario that percentage will go up and down. For example; if the player tries to recover someone indoors the percentage will read 0% and if activated the Fulton Recovery Balloon will pop on the ceiling and the extraction will fail. However if the player takes the character outside they will have more success.

The base system has been expanded on and will now allow the player to walk around and take part in activities such as joining their men at the shooting range, joining in CQC with soldiers to increase Snake and his allies rank, interacting with soldiers and main characters and even participating in base defense when Mother Base is attacked.The player can improve security by adding guards, anti-aircraft guns, and Cypher UAVs. Players have the option to return to the base between missions by using a helicopter. Weapons, vehicles, and personel procured in the field will also appear at Mother Base once the player returns. Online functionality has also been added to the base, allowing players to visit and walk around each others bases.

Another element of previous games will make a new and improved return. The iconic cardboard box is a usable item in game that can be crafted from Mother Base's R&D unit. The box itself can be used as mobile cover just as in previous games, but now the player can use it to their advantage with two new fuctions. A pop-up fuction that lets the player spring out of the box to take on enemies stealthily and a discard fuction that is used when a guard spots the player. Snake can then slide out of the box and into cover while the guard investigates.

The use of an on screen mini-map has been removed, and replaced with the new iDroid device. The game continues when the iDroid is used, meaning enemies continue patrolling and searching for the player. While the iDroid's map usually takes up the screen when activated, it can instead be used in conjunction with Android and iOS mobile devices. The map can constantly be run on these devices, and waypoints can be set without interrupting the game. Support from Mother Base like supply drops, artillery, and airborne extraction will also be available to the player from this device. The secondscreen functionality can also be used to listen to audio files and check mission information. The game's tablet and smartphone integration will allow users to create their own missions.

After their base reached to a certain level, players will have the option to use nuke as a deterrence against enemies.

Pre-announcement
Metal Gear Solid V was developed under the codename Project Ogre. Kojima told Jeux Video Magazine, "at the time I could not even talk about the fifth episode Metal Gear, that's why I called [it] 'Project Ogre.' "This name was chosen to leave clues about what will happen in the game because it is a kind of 'ogres' in the game." Prior to its announcement, Kojima stated that his next game would support Transfarring, be multiplatform and be designed with a global audience in mind. The game was described as being set in an open world in which the players would find content even after 100 hours.  At some point in development the game had a visual filter described as an "80's filter." The idea was to much the game's visuals, to films from the era in which it is set. The filter slowed the system down and had to be removed.

In February 2012, Kojima Productions announced their presence at the Game Developers Conference through a site named Development Without Borders. They went to the conference to recruit staff for the next Metal Gear Solid. The positions they were hiring for were engineers to develop for high-end consoles and PCs and to develop engine technology for the Fox Engine, as well as a brand manager. In a Q&A held in March, Kojima stated that the game would deal with delicate and taboo issues, which caused some doubt over what would make it into the final version of the game. He also stated that he had to find a balance between the presentation of real issues, and creating enjoyable gameplay. Kojima mentioned a visit to a San Diego military base to test a shooting simulator, but could not go into detail.

On August 30, 2012, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes was announced. Kojima referred to Ground Zeroes as a "prologue" to the then unannounced Metal Gear Solid V, and would go on to talk about the open world gameplay he was designing.

The Phantom Pain
On December 7, 2012, a trailer for a game titled The Phantom Pain was revealed during the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards. The trailer claimed that the game was being developed by a Swedish company called Moby Dick Studio. Despite this, numerous clues suggested that the trailer was actually created by Kojima Productions to promote a new game in the Metal Gear series. This led to Kojima being questioned about The Phantom Pain. When asked about it, he laughed and said that while he saw the resemblance between Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, it was being made by Moby Dick Studio and that he had nothing to do with it. He also said he was working on Ground Zeroes and "a few other titles" in which he was involved in the script writing and the game design. In a later interview, however, he mentioned that he preferred deceiving the audience regarding promotional spots for upcoming games, and was disappointed with how Hollywood ended up showing stuff that was predictable to audiences.

On February 18, 2013, a job listing was posted by Kojima Productions to look for new recruits at the GDC Career Pavilion from March 25-27 for the new Metal Gear Solid title.

On March 12, 2013, video game journalist Geoff Keighley tweeted that he was headed off for the GDC 2013 session to interview Joakim Mogren, the supposed creator of The Phantom Pain, and claimed that it would be "interesting." A day later, Kojima made a post revealing that he was going to attend GDC 2013 to not only present a Fox Engine demo, but to make an announcement as well. During Keighley's interview, Mogren wore bandages on his face, claiming he had an "accident." Mogren stated that a new trailer would be revealed at GDC 2013 and showed screenshots and concept art of the game, in which the Fox Engine logo could clearly be seen. When questioned about this, Mogren expressed shock and the interview abruptly ended.

Metal Gear Solid V
On March 27, 2013, Kojima officially confirmed that The Phantom Pain was indeed a Metal Gear game titled Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain during GDC 2013. After the official announcement, it was widely believed that Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain had been combined into one game. However, it was later revealed that contrary to popular belief, they were still two separate games. Kojima's reason for presenting The Phantom Pain as an independent game was to assess the reception of the Fox Engine.

Kojima told GameTrailers TV that David Hayter wouldn't reprise his role as Big Boss. He explained: "What we're trying to accomplish is [to] recreate the Metal Gear series. It's a new Metal Gear game and we wanted to have this reflected in the voice actor as well." He also revealed that it will be his last Metal Gear game before retiring from active involvement in the series. He stated that he has absolutely every intention of carrying out his retirement when citing the prior times he stated he was retiring from the series. When commenting on the appearance of the giant burning in the game's trailers, he said that there will be realism to balance things out.

On May 14, 2013, GameSpot announced that they had partnered with Konami to stream their annual pre-E3 show on June 6, and revealed that an inside look of The Phanton Pain would be shown. The pre-E3 showcase came with the official announcement of Kiefer Sutherland providing the voice, and facial performance of Big Boss through motion capture. Kojima revealed that "Race" and "Revenge" were among some of the themes of The Phantom Pain. He confirmed that The Phantom Pain takes place in 1984 and that Big Boss at this time is 49 years old. The game's tagline was revealed "Tactical Espionage Operations" which had previously been the name of a trailer spot for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Four days later, Konami announced that The Phantom Pain would be released for the Xbox One. The following day, a PlayStation 4 version was announced as well.

On June 12, a Special E3 KP Alert podcast stated that together, Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain form Metal Gear Solid V. Kojima stated that they had not yet decided whether whether Ground Zeroes was to be released in conjunction with The Phantom Pain or if it was to be released separately. In an interview with GameTrailers, Kojima said that they hope to release a PC version in the future, but it was not a priority at that particular time.

On June 13, Kojima revealed that a new installment of Metal Gear Online will be included in The Phantom Pain. Kojima stated that they want to integrate other devices such as smartphones and tablets and use them to allow users to create their own missions, and that he aims to have Metal Gear Solid V run at 60 frames per second and at at least 1080p on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

On July 13, journalist and film actor, Jay Tavare posted a photo of himself performing motion capture for The Phantom Pain. In a comment on the photo, he confirmed that he is playing the part of Code Talker.

On the topic of the character Quiet, Kojima stated, "I've been ordering [art director Yoji Shinkawa] to make the character more erotic, and he did it well. Recently, I've been making characters this way. I create the setting thoroughly, how he/she spent early life, name style, favorite phrase, fashion, action to stand the character out. The initial target is to make [you] want to do cosplay or its figurine to sell well." The statement received a mixed reaction from fans, websites and other developers. Kojima clarified that "erotic" might not be the correct word, and instead, he was trying to make the characters unique. In regards to Quiet, Kojima said that he "wanted to add that sexiness to her." The "sexy" design concept was stated to be carried by everything in the game, including male characters, weapons, vehicles and mechs. When asked for her thoughts on the matter, Stefanie Joosten, Quiet's motion and voice actress, stated that although she was initially surprised by the character's design, there was a reason behind the outfit.

On September 5, 2013, Kojima stated “Game technology and hardware have always been evolving and becoming great, but we’re always fighting against aliens and shooting. I didn’t want to be like that,” Kojima told CVG during an interview at E3. “I wanted to make a game with a deep theme and change the industry.” “Distance is a very big factor,” claims Kojima. “In the trailer you saw Snake riding a horse, but you can also walk to a mission or take another mode of transport.” Watch and you’ll notice a lovely touch where your hero repositions his weight to lean against one side of his horse and avoid being spotted – a technique similar to a move in Shadow Of The Colossus. It’s a clever example of hardwiring the series’ stealth into the challenges open-world transport brings about, and continues the gloriously playful controls seen in Guns Of The Patriots. “All the freedom is up to you and there are no rules [like] the linear games in the past,” Kojima states. “You can use smartphones and tablets to interact with the world. That’s why we did an open world, because we thought about all these interactions on multiple devices.” Kojima has also confirmed The Phantom Pain will enable players to create their own missions saying that by “Using tablets and smartphones you can also enjoy MGS V and create user-generated missions within the world.”

On November 4, Konami announced that Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain will be released separately. Kojima later stated that while it would have been ideal to release Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain as one game, it was decided to release Ground Zeroes first so that players can enjoy the prologue and get used to the new open world feel before playing The Phantom Pain. This was in part due to The Phantom Pain ’s long development time.

On November 12, Kojima admitted that the story of The Phantom Pain will contain minor "inconsistencies" when compared to the canon established by previous games in the series. Via a translator, he stated, "When you try to write something that was supposed to be in the middle there will be some inconsistencies when you go into very small details."

In the March 2014 issue of Game Informer, The Phantom Pain was listed as only being confirmed for the PS4 and Xbox One, raising questions as to whether the game would still be released for the older systems. Konami representative ToraShiro responded to these concerns, stating that the report was erroneous and that the game would indeed be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in a forum post on NeoGAF.

On March 5, 2014, Kojima expressed his concern that The Phantom Pain may be too big to finish as it is 200 times bigger than Ground Zeroes. Kojima coundn't say how many missions there are in The Phantom Pain but said there will be a lot. Kojima also said that it is possible that the game might receive a PC version if fans really want it.

On March 8, a GameSpot interview implied that The Phantom Pain would be released in late 2015. However, a DLC order screen revealed that it was actually to be released in early 2015.

On June 5, 2014, Kojima revealed a short footage of gameplay. The footage confirmed that the cardboard box will return. A comparison map between The Phantom Pain 's map and the various maps in the series (excluding Portable Ops and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance) was also displayed on the site, with Kojima mentioning that the gray horizon was to hide the full extent of the map.

The Japanese and English E3 trailer for the game ended up being leaked a few days before its planned showing at E3 2014. This was apparently due to a screw up concerning the trans-pacific release dates. The song used for the trailer was "Nuclear" by Mike Oldfield from Mercury Records Limited. The trailer ends with "Coming Soon in 1984." The site was also updated to include additional comparison charts, one involving the progressions of the various Snakes (excluding Portable Ops Snake) and the comparisons of various Metal Gears (excluding the TX-55 Metal Gear, Metal Gear D, the Metal Gear Solid-era REX, the Arsenal Ray model, Arsenal Gear from Metal Gear Solid 2, RAXA, the ICBMG, Metal Gear ZEKE, Desperado RAY, and EXCELSUS), with the last one on the chart being blanked out.

Kojima in the aftermath tweeted that The Phantom Pain will include some comical elements from the series since Metal Gear Solid, including the ability to fulton sheep. In addition, Kojima also tweeted that the sales division of Konami didn't like the artwork used for the E3 2014 poster due to Snake and Ocelot's faces being covered as they were already exposed to the public. In response, Kojima pointed out that his intention for the artwork was to show their descent into evil. Kojima also confirmed that the line "V has come to," was in fact referring to Snake, specifically "Venom Snake."

On June 19, ToraShiro confirmed on NeoGAF that Konami is intending to upload more crisp footage of the demo onto YouTube and Facebook, and that although they don't have any plans for direct footage at the moment, they are considering it; He also addressed complaints about the Fulton system being overpowered by stating that these elements will probably be toned down in the final version and that the demo itself was meant to showcase gameplay elements without concern for gameplay balance.

On July 18, The Guardian gave some new information about The Phantom Pain. Namely, it confirmed that the usage of cassette tapes to give backgrounds into the story will be returning in the game, and that completing Mother Base to a certain level will result in the various nations viewing the Diamond Dogs as a threat and thus increase the frequency of the attacks. After that, the player is given the option of installing nukes to deter the other nations from attacking. It also briefly implied that it will be released on March 17, 2015, but after contacting Konami, it quickly changed the date to Early 2015. The news site VG247 also indicated that it will be released on the first quarter of 2015 on July 23.

On July 29, Konami confirmed that it will use its placement in the Gamescom conference at Cologne to unveil new development details about The Phantom Pain, as well as uncover some development about Pro Evolution Soccer 2015. On July 31, it was revealed that Geoff Keighley will be hosting the event. On August 1, it was revealed on NeoGAF that a live stream of the development announcements for The Phantom Pain will be shown on August 13 at 8:00 CMT on Konami's official Twitch channel. Ken-ichiro Imazumi indicated in a Twitter post that he was unfamiliar about any announcements.

On August 11, 2014, some gameplay was featured regarding new tricks to be used for the cardboard box, including having it stand and act as a decoy to distract a soldier into thinking it is an ally, an upright bikini model ensuring the soldier rushes over and leers at it, and a sideways bikini model with the same reaction. The ending of the gameplay demonstration also implied that another item, a "helmet" of sorts modeled after a PS4 bag, would be included in the game. A day later, a 25 minute demo was released featuring new gameplay features. Specifically, the player can tell their horse where to poop, and it would cause enemy vehicles to crash similar to running over a banana peel; the player can encounter wolves as threats; the player can use the fulton as an improvised weapon, such as lacing a Jeep with C4 and then fultoning it and detonating it near a searchlight-equipped chopper; lastly, the player can infiltrate other Mother Bases in multiplayer (which also feature different codenames such as Stubborn Sheep or Roughneck Raven), avoid guards as well as infrared laser grids, and fulton everything in the area, although they may risk encountering another Big Boss in the area. Kojima also stated on his Twitter account that the game will be released on the final quarter of 2014. Geoff Keighley also confirmed that an extended version of the 25 minute demo will be shown later the same night with material that wasn't shown initially, and also that he'll ask Kojima about the status of his Silent Hill project.

Popular culture
The game was referenced once in the "Black Friday" trilogy of South Park episodes in 2013.