Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - Everything We Know So Far

11. It's Open-World

We're going to tackle these details in order of consequence, as although the really juicy stuff is the new multiplayer mode, we need to cover some ground on the basics first. Yes this is the first Metal Gear to go fully open-world - in as much as giving you extremely large Hitman/Sniper Elite-style areas with which to faff around in for every mission, choosing exactly how to infiltrate and complete your objectives. It was something MGS 4 essentially did in a couple of its warzone-styled missions too, albeit laid out in a much more straightforward manner, but you could still have great fun exploring and luring enemies out into any number of scenarios. Or you could opt to just watch them shoot it out with each other. You can even dive into vehicles now too, something that seems pretty opposed to the 'feel' of Metal Gear, but for those moments when your plans have gone down the toilet and you need to book it across the map to an extraction point, it's just what's needed. This open world nature seems to have been included for the sake of replayabilty, as Kojima wants you to dive back into some areas at different stages, to see how enemies have recovered from your previous attacks or strategies. One such instance was during last week's demo at Gamescom, where the presenter remarked that as they had taken out many guards with headshots on a previous run, now patrols were wearing helmets. It's a small touch - and something that Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow actually already did similarly two generations ago when guards would armour-up following alerts - but it's still a great way to show how your actions are affecting the world.