Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (メタルギアソリッドV：幻肢痛) is an upcoming canonical installment in the Metal Gear series. Being developed by Kojima Productions, this is the first game running on the Fox Engine and will be published by Konami. Hideo Kojima is writing, directing and doing the game design, as well as producing it.

The game was officially announced to be in development in late 2011 and was privately revealed at the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary and made its public debut at PAX Prime 2012 under the title of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes (メタルギアソリッドグラウンド：ゼロ), while another game titled as The Phantom Pain was revealed by Kojima at 2012 Spike Video Game Awards under the fake pseudonym of Moby Dick Studio. The two games were believed (mostly by the press) to be separate until they were officially announced to be one during the 2013 Game Developers Conference.

This game is currently in development for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. However, job listings for the game suggest that it would be developed for the PC as well, but it hasn't been officially confirmed yet. Also, Kojima has hinted that the game could have the chance of getting a next-gen consoles release.

Taking place soon after the events of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, The Phantom Pain serves as a prequel to Metal Gear with several characters and gameplay mechanics from Peace Walker being back in this game. Big Boss is the protagonist of the game. Contrary to the previous Metal Gear titles being more cinematic, The Phantom Pain has open world gameplay structure.

Characters

 * Big Boss
 * Kazuhira Miller
 * Ishmael
 * Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin (apparition)

Groups and organizations

 * Diamond Dogs
 * Cipher

Plot
Nine years after the events of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, Big Boss awakens from his coma caused by injuries sustained by the attack on Mother Base. The nurse notices Big Boss awakening, and quickly alerts the doctor that "V has come to". The doctor cautiously explains to Big Boss about his difficult ordeal, and duration of his coma. He then ends up in the hospital wing where the mysterious patient Ishmael, claiming to be an acquaintance, attempts to help Big Boss to his feet. Ishmael injects Big Boss with a shot to give him some ability to regain his motor functions. During Big Boss's nine years in a coma, his left arm was replaced with a prosthetic hook, and most of his muscles atrophied. Big Boss is forced to slowly crawl due to his state. Heading to the elevator to escape from the hospital, they encounter a child with a gas mask in their path, immediately after levitating through the ceiling, the lifts explode, throwing Big Boss and Ishmael against the wall. A disoriented Big Boss witnesses an apparition materialize in the fire resembling Colonel Volgin, then quickly retreats with Ishmael in another direction through the hospital.

Gameplay
Like the previous Metal Gear Solid titles, MGSV is in the stealth action genre. It features a massive open world for the player to interact with, as well as stealing vehicles at various points. The game has no loading screens to slow the player down. Loading always is done in the background, except for instances when traveling by helicopter. The helicopter transport is used to travel between open world areas, but once in an area, there's no loading. The player can use a flare to call in a helicopter at any time to travel to different missions and countries, and he/she even is able to listen to some tunes ("Ride of the Valkyries" by default). The music that plays in the helicopter is customizable and louder music would give up the player's location a lot easier and gives enemy the chance to take down the chopper. The game includes loading screens as the player sneaks about its open world map. The game also offers a day and night cycle, something that boosts replayability. The player will see differences throughout the world depending on the time of day, such as changes in enemy troop patterns. Also depending on how the player travels between one stage to the next, the travel time affects the time of day when he/she arrives at the destination.

In MGSV, the player now has the freedom to do what he/she wants and get the story events in the order he/she wants based on how he/she has chosen the missions. At the end however, the player will receive the message as the director originally designed and intended it, without change. The game features much shorter cutscenes. The player can be equipped with a real-time holographic map (similar to Soliton Radar) which provides information about the enemy and mission locations. Also the item/weapon equipping system has been particularly changed in this game.

The Mother Base gameplay mechanic is back in MGSV, and it also has a new interactive element. Big Boss has a home base in the open world that can be fortified and managed, and there is option for the player to manage bases from smartphones. Changes made will be updated in the core game, and the player will be able to walk around the base in realtime, upgrade it and more. Also back for the game is weapon R&D from Peace Walker. The concept of developing weapons at Mother Base is also back.

Development
Hideo Kojima announced his new game by tweeting a screenshot of an in-development Metal Gear in late 2011. He told CNN that his new game will be running on Fox Engine and would support Transfarring, be multiplatform and be designed with a global audience in mind. Kojima went on to describe the game as set in an open world in which the players would find content even after 100 hours.

On February 21, 2012, a site named Development Without Borders owned by Kojima Productions was uploaded promoting a new MGS for recruiting staff at the Game Developers Conference pavilion between March 6 and March 9 including "Project engineers for the latest Metal Gear Solid targeted for high-end consoles and PC", "Engineers to help develop next-gen engine technology for use with the FOX Engine" and "Kojima Productions Brand Manager."

On March 19, 2012, speaking at a Q&A to mark the inclusion of Metal Gear Solid in the Smithsonian's "Art of Video Games" exhibit, Kojima stated that “This year, next year, I am working on something that I think will become the shining moment” for his career and the Metal Gear series. He also said that he’ll be 50 next year and that he wants to create that moment now. Kojima also stated "The game I'm working on right now is dealing with quite a few issues that are pretty delicate and taboo." Kojima added "I'm not sure if they'll end up being in the final product or not, but that's something that I want to continue to strive for" and it's his goal to "bring those real-life issues to the forefront," but he has to temper that with making the game fun to play. He said that as a creator who constantly sees the flaws in his own work after it's finished, he always feels that "what I'm making right now, in my mind, is the best -- though I can't really talk about that right now." Kojima also mentioned visiting a military base in San Diego to test a shooting simulator, but again mentioned that he couldn't talk about the trip in detail. Although the GDC trailer and announcement implied that Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain were one and the same, Konami's director of public relations Jay Boor revealed that Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain were still two different games, with the former being the prologue to the latter.

As Ground Zeroes
A trailer of the game (which is actually the opening cutscene of the game) plus a few minutes of gameplay was shown at the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary and then at PAX Prime 2012, demonstrating Fox Engine's abilities. There, the title of the game was revealed to be Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes The demo was running on a PC and played using an Xbox 360 controller. Kojima stated while the game and engine are designed with both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in mind, the engine will cater to next-gen consoles. Kojima called the Ground Zeroes "a beginning" rather than an end for the series. He later stated that the open world nature of this game has taken a toll on the visuals, but the lighting has not been impacted.

Speaking at BAFTA on October 1, 2012, Kojima talked about his interest in open world gameplay for his new game: "First of all if you give somebody a mission, and say your mission is to go and rescue this person, already you create some drama there. However if you take that a step further and say give the person the power to decide how they get there, what time they arrive, what kind of path they use to sneak into the base then it creates even more drama and gives them more freedom. So it’s not so much that I’ve been aiming to create an open world game so much as I just want to give players the freedom to do things in a way that feels natural to them. Up until this point, if you had a hundred people and you made them play a game, they’d all basically arrive at the same time, take the same route, use the same equipment to get the job done. But what I want to do from this point on is give people the freedom, so if you have a hundred people and you give them this mission then they’ll all come back with a hundred different stories. They may arrive at a different time, use a different route to get into the base, use different weapons and equipment. So rather than having one great, dramatic story you have a hundred. That’s really what I want to accomplish. So it’s not necessarily that I’m aiming for open world, that’s not the [be all and] end all, what I want to do is give people the freedom to create their own stories and create something that’s very personal to them. That’s what I want to accomplish."

On November 29, 2012, Kojima told EGM that "I’ve always said that I want to work on original properties, but Metal Gear offers plenty of benefits. The Fox Engine, for example, took a lot of time and money [to create]; we were only able to develop it because it was intended for the next Metal Gear. In the next game, I’m introducing concepts intended for entirely new intellectual properties using the Metal Gear brand." He also dropped more hints about his motives for using the open world genre in his new Metal Gear game: "Grand Theft Auto III came out the same year as Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and it seemed the thought processes behind the two games were completely different. It was beyond game design; the area a player could explore was so vast that not even the game designer could predict all possible outcomes. That title definitely opened my eyes."

On January 20, 2013, during a trip to Dubai, Kojima said he believes storytelling through cinematics has become a bit outdated, and therefore he used a new method of storytelling for his new game.

On February 18, another job listing was posted by Kojima Productions to look for new recruits at the GDC Career Pavilion from March 25-27.

On February 22, 2013, Kojima told Videogamer that "Video games as a medium haven't matured very much at all in the last 25 years. It's always about killing aliens and zombies. Not that I don't like those kinds of games... they are fun, but I think games have a long way to go before they can mature. Over the past 25 year I have tried to work with the Metal Gear series to introduce more mature themes, but really it hasn't gotten there yet. Compared to movies and books it still has a long way to go. That's precisely what I want to try to tackle with Ground Zeroes. Honestly I'm going to be targeting a lot of taboos, a lot of mature themes that really are quite risky. I'm not even sure if I'm going to be able to release the game, and even if I did release the game then maybe it wouldn't sell because it's too much. As a creator I want to take that risk. I'm approaching the project as a creator and prioritizing creativity over sales."

On March 16, 2013, in an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine, Kojima said “My ultimate goal is to give players even more freedom, not only to figure out how they’re going to get there but really have everything factor into it. So, do you want to get there by helicopter, or do you want to get there by plane, are you going to ride in a vehicle, or are you going to take a bike? Basically have all of these options available to the player,”. He stated “Up until now Metal Gear has more or less been set on one path. Like you’re set on one rail to get from point A to point B, with a certain amount of freedom between. What I want to do is create a true open world experience. Where the player has all these options available to them and really limitless gameplay. That’s what I’m trying to accomplish with my next project, Ground Zeroes.”

As The Phantom Pain
The Phantom Pain was revealed during the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards on December 7, 2012.

During his trip to Dubai, Kojima was asked about The Phantom Pain. He laughed and said that while he saw the resemblance between Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, it was being made by Moby Dick Studios 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 decieving the audience regarding promotional spots for upcoming games, and was disappointed with how Hollywood ended up showing stuff that was predictable to audiences.

On March 12, 2013, video game journalist Geoff Keighley tweeted that he was headed off for the GDC 2013 session to interview Joakim Mogren, and claimed that it would be "interesting." A day later, Kojima made a twitlonger 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 said interview, which was shown on the March 14, 2013 episode of GameTrailers TV, the supposed Mogren (who had a large amount of bandages on his face due to an "accident") stated that a new trailer will be revealed at GDC 2013. Later in the interview, Mogren showed several new screenshots and concept art of the game, in which the Fox Engine logo could clearly be seen. When questioned about this, Mogran expressed shock and the interview abruptly ended.