“Metal Gear Solid V” was originally announced as two separate projects, with one titled “Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes”, and the other known as “The Phantom Pain”, the latter of which was announced by a fictional company called “Moby Dick Studio”. At the 2013 Game Developers Conference, Konami and Kojima Productions announced that both projects were to make up the entirety of “Metal Gear Solid V”, with “Ground Zeroes” acting as a prologue to “The Phantom Pain”. As in Peace Walker, “The Phantom Pain” will offer a base-building feature that allows player to develop weapons and items from their virtual motherbase. The player is also given the ability to access the motherbase from their real-life smartphones. Series director Hideo Kojima revealed that the game has a new day and night cycle that runs in real-time, and that “depending on how you travel between one stage to the next, travel time will affect the time of day when you arrive at your destination”.
A new gameplay direction will allow the player to choose in what order the story events take place by selecting missions in any order they like, and yet still “understand the encompassing message by the end”. The game will follow “Big Boss” and “McDonnell Miller” after the demise of Militaires Sans Frontieres. Together, they form “The Diamond Dogs”, a brand-new splinter faction for the express purposes of investigating a mysterious organization only known as XOF.
“Metal Gear Solid V” also acts as a showreel for a new game engine, the FOX Engine, which is to power not only “Metal Gear Solid V” but the upcoming “Pro Evolution Soccer 2014” as well. As such, it seems likely that “MGS V” or its linked counterpart, “Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes,” will be appearing on PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s next gen machine, though it may take until an official reveal of the next Xbox for confirmation to emerge.
No timescale for release has been given.
