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Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain is an open-world Peace Walker sequel with heavy RPG elements, and I couldn’t be happier. The demo shown at E3 featured a very brief cinematic introducing Snake’s mission to infiltrate an Afghan village and obtain information regarding the imprisonment of Master Miller, and from there it was pure open-world gameplay.
Phantom Pain is an immediately stunning game. The scope of the mountainous landscape littered with canyons, livestock, villages, and creeks is staggering. Riding your horse across the plains brought shades of Red Dead Redemption, even down to the way the music would swell as you neared a dangerous area.The first big surprise of the demo was the ability for Venom Snake (evidently that’s what he’s called now?) to use Peace Walker’s infinitely rad Fulton System to transport stunned enemies back to Mother Base and recruit them as your own personal Diamond Dog army. But humans are just the tip of this iceberg – everything from crates, to vehicles, to sheep can be skyhook-ed out of the world and brought back to your Big Shell-esque base of operations.
What’s even better is that you can chopper your way back to your fully-customizable Mother Base at any point in the game and wander around your creation. Seeing the spoils of my actions wandering about your base brought to mind shades of Skies of Arcadia and Suikoden, and I couldn’t be happier about that. Troops were practicing at shooting ranges, Snake could spare with his men to raise their levels, and we even spotted a young Revolver Ocelot gazing off longingly into the sunset.
Back on solid ground in Afghanistan, I was really impressed by the emphasis placed on approaching encounters in a non-lethal manner. If you want to build up your base, you can’t be John Rambo. Luckily Snake has a load of new tricks to help complete his mission without getting blood on his hand(s). Thanks to his prosthetic arm, you can attract guards by knocking wherever you are in the world, no wall needed. An active weather system brought a blinding sandstorm through the valley, and while it definitely obstructed the player’s vision, it also allowed Snake to move about under the cover of sand.
At one point in the demo, the Kojima Productions representative leading it accidental called the game Peace Walker. It was the best kind of Freudian slip imaginable.
