"Metal Gear Solid V": 10 Things We Learned From the First Ever Live Demo

Kojima made it. We saw it. Here's what we learned.

September 6, 2013

Image via Complex Original

Just like a Metal Gear Solid game, the road toMetal Gear Solid V has been long and convoluted. But if the glimpse Complex just caught of the game's prologue, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, is anything to go by, the wait may be worth it.

It's still unclear whether Ground Zeroes really is a simple prologue to the full game, its own standalone title, or something else. At Konami's new Kojima Productions studio in Los Angeles, series creator Hideo Kojima wouldn't say. But he did walk us through the first ever live gameplay demo and answer some questions.

We still have plenty more, but we learned a lot about Metal Gear Solid V nonetheless.

It looks good.

Kojima prefaced the gameplay demo by admitting that this demo was only running at 30 frames per second. He added that the demo was being played on PC with graphical settings tuned to the equivalent of PS3 or Xbox 360 graphics.

But when the game fired up it was clear that Kojima was either lying or had simply forgotten what current gen graphics look like after working on MGS V for so long. The rain-soaked, sporadically lit compound that Snake (Big Boss, in this case) infiltrated seemed surprisingly alive, considering what little was going on at the mostly sleeping Cuban base. Rain drops splattered realistically off of Snake's back and the ground, and textures looked great even up close.

Of course, that's liable to change depending on your system and settings.

Skull Face is cold.

The game's new villain, Skull Face, gets a great introduction in Ground Zeroes. His horribly disfigured face is the last part of him to come into view, and it does so several minutes into the game. Up to that point you see him mostly from behind or the side, catching glimpses that make the tension rise.

His first dialogue comes when he's speaking to a young boy locked in a cage at a high security compound. That sounds bad, but it didn't seem to sinister—not in that way at least. The boy is strange enough, with a pair of headphones plugged into his chest. Skull Face gives him a cassette tape to listen to, but it's what he says that makes him cold: "You're a real man now, soldier." Hardly!

Kiefer Sutherland sounds nothing like David Hayter.

Kiefer Sutherland's Snake gets his introduction shortly after, and from the get-go it's clear that this is a different Snake we're dealing with here. Previous Snake actor David Hayter's signature gravely growl is gone, replaced by Sutherland's version, which is slightly less exaggerated.

Snake's face is different too, changed to look more like Sutherland. Kojima knows that it's a big change for players, and gives Snake a suitable introduction when he pulls his night vision goggles up and says, "Kept you waiting, huh?" It remains to be seen whether fans will accept this new version of the character.

The first mission is to rescue Paz.

From what we've seen it seems like Metal Gear Solid V may have something in common with MGS 2, in that the beginning of the game is nothing like the rest of it. MGS V is an open world game, but the prologue, Ground Zeroes, is relatively linear. It centers around one mission: to rescue Paz, who Snake learns at the beginning is still alive.

Paz is being held at a secret base in Cuba, and Snake has to go in alone to get her out. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the full mission this time; instead, Kojima built a special version specifically for this demo in which Snake is actually looking for a patch with the new LA studio's logo on it.

The cinematography has evolved.

One thing that becomes apparent in the opening cut scene is that the cinematography has evolved once again from past games. Kojima said he wants the game to be more personal, and that the cut scenes often take a single camera approach in MGS V. There's ample use of shaky cam, though in the relatively brief (compared to MGS IV at least) scene we saw it didn't get irritating.

Kojima often tweets about movies, and in response to a question after this demo he said watching films is like eating to him. But when asked about specific influences for MGS V, he wouldn't cite any movies in particular.

Lens flares have a purpose.

Lens flares are one graphical effect that players like to deride endlessly, but in Metal Gear Solid V they serve a purpose—at least that's what Kojima said during the demo.

Granted, it took place at night, so there was no way to tell how extensively the effect will be used in the daylight. But it came into play when Snake entered a search light's beam or was noticed by a soldier with a flashlight. Kojima said the lens flare is used as a visual cue to players that an enemy is about to notice them and enter alert phase. When you see a lens flare in Metal Gear Solid V, dive for the shadows or take out whoever's looking your way.

HUD? What HUD?

Lots of games are going the minimalist route when it comes to the HUD and what's displayed on the screen, and MGS V is no different. Kojima said he's still working on it, but during the demo we saw there was nothing displayed at all unless you had an active objective.

Those objectives can be triggered on a map that you bring up with the press of a button, but other than that there was no indication of what gun you were using, how much (regenerating) health you had left, or how low you were on ammo.

Look and listen

Speaking of active objectives—when Snake snuck into the mission area he had none. His goal was to find the logo patch (presumably in the proper game it will be to rescue Paz), but there was no mission marker or indicator to show where that could be accomplished.

Instead Snake skulked around listening to soldiers' conversations and even interrogating them himself. He grabbed one enemy and dragged him behind a wall, where button prompts allowed players to choose between interrogating or killing him.

Eventually Snake overheard two soldiers discussing something important being kept in the back of a truck, and then and only then did an objective marker appear.

Slow it down

This is a big change. Now when enemies see Snake and enter alert phase the game is thrown into slow motion for a few crucial seconds. During that time Snake can look around and find the soldier who spotted him, then take that soldier out with some well-placed bullets.

Kojima said he implemented this change because he felt the open world nature of the game, which provides players with more freedom, also made it more difficult. The slow-mo feature counteracts that, but it almost looked like cheating, considering MGS has always been a hardcore and unforgiving stealth game.

It's less cinematic.

And by that we mean it will have less cut scenes than past Metal Gear Solid games. Kojima didn't give any specifics, but he said that the open world nature of the game caused him to reconsider the amount of non-gameplay moments he wanted to include. The result is that there are less cut scenes than in MGS 4, which you've got to admit had way too many.

So there you have it. Will you learn to love Kiefer Sutherland's Snake? Will you get used to the slow motion? Are you going to miss those two hour long cut scenes? Let us know!