[E3 2013] Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - "Tactical Espionage Redefined"

Snake is back!
And this time, prettier than ever!
Please welcome Metal Gear Solid V - The Phantom Pain!

Likes it's every predecessor since Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Konami once again push the current available technology to the limit. Who can forget the stunning graphic of Metal Gear Ray on PS2 early days. It's not for several couple years until that level of graphic can be finally surpassed. And Konami answer that with MGS3: Snake Eater. When PS3 come out, I was surprised how beautiful MGS4: Guns of The Patriot is. It's graphic still impressed me when I finally able to play it for the first time last year (no budget to play it early). This is the proof that Konami and Hideo Kojima will never disappoint us with Metal Gear Solid, at least on art, story, and innovation department. And that's the expectation we have for MGS V.

We already heard about MGS: Ground Zeroes. What happen to that? Nothing. Nothing bad happen to it. Ground Zeroes will still released and MGS V will follow probably a year or two later. Using their brand new FOX Engine, the team behind MGS V able to deliver the most stunning graphic video games history ever seen yet. If that's how the final game will be, then I will not exaggerating when I said it is, "The most realistic looking video game" to date.

I will warn you, this is the only screenshot taken from Cinematic (ie. cutscene/movie)

MGS V will have bunch of new feature. One that has the most impact to gaming experience and the game overall will be the open world environment. Yup, Metal Gear Solid goes open world baby! With open world, the games will not be divided into several area like before. They probably have different open world map from the trailer that I've seen, but each is huge. We're talking Red Dead Redemption Huge here people.

Adding to the illusion of reality, MGS V will feature real time weather which I understand as unscripted change of weather. The demo shows Snake get attacked by a sudden sandstorm, which is common in desert area. They also boast realistic passage of time. the demo shows Day and Night cycle, but how realistic this will be is not yet clear. They could mean that day-night cycle is enough or they could take it another level with "Real World Time = Game Time" system. That's maybe too much, but we'll see.

Look at that ass! Err, I mean Grass!

Another addition is transportation. Remember how we use cardboard and hide in the truck to change area quickly on Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid? That's old school, man! Next gen MGS give Snake his own Driving License! Or maybe Riding License in horse case. To help us traverse the vast open world environment, Snake will be able to drive many vehicle. The demo only show us Jeep and Armored Vehicle. We have to wait for further news to know what are the limits. I mean, could we ride a tank? Or maybe a Hind-D? Oh, wait. That's Liquid's part, not Snake.

We used to destroy and captured these on MGS: PW. Now's the time to ride it!

 With this open world, tactical espionage will indeed be very tactical. You will arrive outside of enemy base and figure out how to get in undetected. The enemy seems to have constant delivery truck going in and out. Hmm... We could use that. Lure a pack of sheep and goat to the middle of the road and block it. When the driver stop to clear the road, sneak around to the back of the truck and hop in! You will arrive inside the base in no time. There are probably more than one options for this. I mean, if the way to get inside is very limited, isn't that will be boring? Somehow, this aspect of the new MGS reminds me of Hitman series.

Crawling is Snake's signature move. Or maybe 'slithering'?

For close combat, we will see the return of CQC. The demo dubbed this CQC as Dynamic CQC, though how dynamic it will be still not clear. The demo only shows one CQC action for Christ sake! How do we know whether it's dynamic or not?

This AK is for you, bro. Take it I say.

 All these new features looks really great! But, I hope these don't make the feeling of Metal Gear Solid game disappear. We love Metal Gear Solid. We love the new improvements and features. And we also love it very much if you guys at Konami able to make this still a true Metal Gear Solid game, not some other game with Snake in it and set in MGS universe with MGS character but doesn't feel like MGS at all. Well, remembering their past success on introducing new elements but still maintaining the MGS feel before (Portable Ops and Peace Walker), we all have high expectation on them, aren't we? Let's see how great this MGS will be.

Ah, remember my warning before? I will remind you again, on this post, the only screenshot taken from a cutscene is the one on the most top. Others are taken from gameplay. Surprised at how pretty it is? That's probably because of the lighting technique they implement on Fox Engine. Lighting is the most important thing that define how a 3D object will looks like. Watch the beauty of it on the demo below.


Trailer courtesy of IGN.

Ah, bad news for this MGS. No David Hayter, I repeat, No DAVID HAYTER. Sadly, this is true and was confirmed. Good bye David Hayter. For us, there will be no better voice actor for Snake other than you. The new Voice Actor for Snake will be Kiefer Sutherland who is best known as Jack Bauer from '24' TV series. I hope he can capture that voice that make Snake... Snake.

Don't forget to check my other posts about E3 games here!

This is Benz reporting, see you on the next post!!
AAAAAANNNNNNNNNDDDDDD CUT!!!!!!