Hideo Kojima’s main series, the saga about Snakes, hours and hours of cutscenes, giant nuclear mech-weapons and tactical espionage gameplay, the Metal Gear Solid will have a new episode in a few weeks, month or years (theres no official release date yet), so as a (metal) solid addict of the series, I’m gonna list some things, that I definitely want to be in it.
1. A great story
Essential in the series. The main issue here will be the transformation of the main protagonist from the good guy Naked Snake (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater) across the revolutionary Naked Snake (Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker) to the brutal „Venom” Snake with vengeance. Snake will no more be a peaceful guy, who doesn’t want to kill any enemy on the battlefield, he will be a really gritty and gruesome dictator – according to the beautifully directed trailers and infos. And we already knew that he will be the main boss from the first two Metal Gear games from MSX, and this game will tell the reason for everything. As a big fan of the game Peace Walker, I don’t like its story, I think it’s idolizing the character Boss and don’t really add anything to the saga’s plot. But with this predecessor (plus Ground Zeroes), there should be something better, emotionally greater in the new game.
2. A great cast
We already knew some of the characters from previous installments. Alongside Big Boss, Kazuhira Miller is a likeable guy from Peace Walker, he always has a good tip for the situations on the battlefield and has a great sense of humor. I think he was the best character in Peace Walker and he is really pissed off in the ending video of Ground Zeroes. If he only has a few great lines and moments, I will be thrilled. And then there’s the badass Ocelot, who is older now and not just a bishounen like in Snake Eater, he always has some great lines and cutscene-moments in the entire series. I don’t like Huey Emmerich much, he is just Otacon in the 70s, but he is crucial for the story. If we believe from the infos from Kojima Corp, Quiet will not just a big breasted eye-candy, and in gameplay videos we already saw that she can help us in action (as other squad members and the dog), so I really want to like her (previous games always had otaku-based eyecandy elements, and I think these little winks are not that sexist or chauvinist things as some might think on the internet).
3. Fluid gameplay and new elements in tactical espionage
In the infamously short Ground Zeroes we can already see and try some of the features from the Fox Engine and the new functions (such as easier CQC and interrogate or the iDroid) – and if Phantom Pain will be as fast, beautiful and intuitive in an open world sandbox jungle in Africa as in this short „demo” with the small Naval Base, this will be potentially the best episode in the series. When I played Ground Zeroes, I loved the tagging, the iDroid options, the return of the walkman, but I really missed the Fulton Recovery, which is the awesomest thing in Peace Walker – but that will be in Phantom Pain. I want to overfulton the Mother Base with animals.
4. Kojima’s cutscenes
As a movie geek, I love the long (and I mean LONG) cutscenes of Kojima. He adds a movie-like feeling, and not a bad movie feeling, but something like from Kubrick. In Ground Zeroes, the 10 minute length intro is a single take and the „camera” position is artistically placed, so we don’t see too many things (such us Skull Face’s face), just as many as the creators want to. This add a little found footage-feel to it, and this is amazing. In the Phantom Pain trailers we can saw some of the elements of the coming scenes, and wow… I wonder, will there be some hidden POV-shots, as in Snake Eater and Guns of the Patriots?
5. The weird easter eggs
In all the previous installments, I love the little mystical things, such as UFO subplots, ghost photography hunt, Moai sculptures, movie references and even the Monster Hunter crossover or Kojima sightings and the divine wind of Tanegashima. I always love when I find some references to future or past things, and these are not that crappy references as the Star Wars prequels have, these are beautifully placed and well balanced… I love it this way, the crew behind the Metal Gear series know how to do these.
What do you think? What are the components that you want to be in the next MGS game?
The Unlockist 