If there's one thing Metal Gear Solid developers Kojima Productions know how to do, it's put together a good trailer. With the last lengthy teaser leaving players impressed, but raising more questions that it answered about the next instalment in the long running stealth opus, Microsoft's conference at giant games show E3 opened with a bang, by demoing the very first footage of Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain's gameplay.
The Metal Gear Solid games have always been about stealth - creeping and sneaking past enemies to avoid detection, lurking in the shadows, and doing your best to get around without being seen, with The Phantom pain set to turn it up to eleven. Combining an emphasis on skulking with an open world set in Afghanistan, you're presented with more options and possibilities than ever before as you try to infiltrate your objectives. This leads to some truly clever moments, as shown in the trailer, when Snake, the protagonist, rides across a desert/mountain on a horse, only to come across an outpost where a number of enemies are positioned. With nowhere to hide - after all, he's in the middle of a barren landscape, so he'd surely be spotted if he dismounts - luckily, he has another option. At the press of a button, Snake slides down onto the side of the horse, positioning himself just out of site of the enemies, as the the horse innocently trots by without raising any suspicion. It's a stroke of genius, and one that's repeated elsewhere in the brief trailer, too - you can also hop into a truck and hide in it's cargo, but have to alter how low you crouch as enemies come into view - or, you can just throw any idea of stealth out the window, and storm around in a tank.
Snake eyes up his next ride
A full-fledged day and night system will also be in play in the game, giving you the option of waiting until nightfall to try and sneak into a particularly tricky base, and there's even a dynamic weather system, too; as Snake travels across the desert, at one point a sandstorm occurs that causes him wave dust clouds out of his eyes. And as with every Metal Gear Solid game, a cast of eclectic characters has been unveiled for the story, including an elderly wise man called Code Talker, a mute female sniper by the name of Quiet and also the return of fan favourite Ocelot, Snake's long time nemesis. Heavily story driven games, that usually manage to tell a dramatic opus without taking themselves too seriously, the Metal Gear Solid games stand above other, more serious stealth games thanks to their personality - and Metal Gear Solid V is looking no different.
Set to release on the PS3, Xbox 360, and the "next generation" of consoles, the Xbox One and Playstation 4, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is set to sneak into a 2014 release. Expect plenty more on this as the year moves on.
