1. New Snake
The conspiracy theories seemed to begin the instant that the name Punished Snake appeared on the E3 trailer. As I mentioned earlier, conspiracy theorists were quick to jump to the conclusion that this Snake was not actually Big Boss in the Phantom Pain portion of the title. The actual identity for Snake was theorised to be Gray Fox, or Decoy Octopus, or a previously unknown clone of Big Boss, or Solidus Snake, or the incredibly ridiculous theory that it could actually be Major Zero in disguise. That last entry is so crazy and nonsensical, that I don't even think Kojima would come up with it. I personally think these theories are completely off-base as I can't fathom why Kojima would release a game that will chronicle the descent of Big Boss into villainy, without allowing us to actually play as Big Boss through the entirety of the game. This game doesn't require any tricks or misdirections like this; the content of the story to be told is more than compelling enough all by itself. But what if I'm wrong? What if this character really is someone other than Big Boss? What if Kojima thinks it has been way too long since he completely screwed with the gaming world when Raiden was revealed in MGS 2? For me personally, this would be the biggest letdown that I could ever remember related to video games. We as fans have gone on such a journey with the Metal Gear series of games. Our journey with Big Boss started with his time as a young and inexperienced soldier who was seemingly betrayed by the one person who meant more to him than any other. We witnessed his utter despair and hopelessness when the truth about The Boss was revealed to him by EVA. We saw him eventually accept the title of Big Boss when he concluded, at the end of Peace Walker, that The Boss really did betray him when she laid down her gun. And now, with The Phantom Pain, we are to take the final steps of his journey that will show the events that turned him into the monster we met in the original Metal Gear. If all that is thrown out the window, and we are instead controlling another character while Big Boss continues to recover from his coma or something to that effect, that will really end up being the nail in the coffin for this game. I really do hope that everything mentioned here will not come to pass, and that we will end up with the ultimate Metal Gear experience from this title. If not, Hideo Kojima may completely isolate the fan-base of one of the best series of all time. What do you think? Should we be worried about Metal Gear Solid V? Let me know in the comments below.