Ever since Ground Zeroes dropped a few months ago, those of us thirsty for more Metal Gear Solid V action have been lapping up what few droplets of footage we can get here and there. Konami has kept us on a slow, slow drip when it comes to The Phantom Pain – which is what makes this new video all the sweeter.
What you see before you is a whole 17 glorious minutes of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain footage, running at 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second on the PS4, and it is glorious.
We’re presented with the same Afghanistani desert base we were shown by the team at E3. This time though, Big Boss is infiltrating it from the opposite side. We also get a generous look at the horseback riding dynamics, the day/night cycle, and just how intelligently enemies learn from your past behaviour.
The subtle differences between how you can go about your mission in daylight vs the cover of darkness are very intriguing, and certainly make the open-world dynamic feel like a lot less of a gimmick. Knowing that your freedom of choice is genuine is important.
Similarly, hearing about how the guards react to your actions is interesting. In the video, an attempt at putting a tranquilliser dart in the back of a guard’s head is denied by a helmet – a helmet which is only being worn because of your previous trigger-happy escapades.
The choice of escape routes that we first saw in Ground Zeroes is present, too. It’s nice to know that if you don’t feel like sneaking around a helicopter-guarded extraction point you can just blow it up and ride off on your horse. Less ‘Tactical Espionage’, more ‘Action.
Take a look at the video above and let us know what you think. A release date hasn’t been set yet, but it should be hitting shelves towards the end of the year.
