Eyes On With 'Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain'

LOS ANGELES—Konami held closed door, 30-minute briefing sessions here at E3 to showcase previously unseen gameplay features from its highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

Much like The Phantom Pain E3 2013 trailer, this new gameplay footage (below) featured Ocelot prepping Big Boss on his latest mission: rescuing Master Miller from a camp buried deep in Afghanistan. It was the now-familiar horseback sequence, but this video highlighted new gameplay and story elements.

First off: Snake's metal arm. He's still hasn't adjusted to losing a limb and struggles to grasp a canteen that Ocelot hands to him. There is an upside, though. The stronger, artificial arm lets you unleash new, devastating CQC moves that weren't present in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. There are also situational and environmental CQC moves, too. For example, if you're hiding in a dumpster you can pop out, choke out a guard, and pull the unconscious soldier into the bin.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker's slick enemy recruiting feature makes a return, but it benefits from appearing on far more powerful platforms. You have the option to avoid, kill, and interrogate enemy combatants, but the Fulton Recovery System lets you affix an airlift to a soldier and watch the foe get yanked off the screen in comical fashion. Not only is this feature a slick way to avoid leaving bodies scattered across the terrain, which would alert guards to Snake's presence, but it lets you add those warriors to the army you're amassing. You can also use Fulton Recovery System jeeps, tanks, and other equipment. Big Boss needs those troops and weapons to populate his new Mother Base.

Mother Base, Snake's place of operations, is now a customizable location that you build, visit, and explore. Konami didn't go into great detail about the Mother Base construction process, but it stated that no two Mother Bases will be similarly built. Recruited troops use Mother Base to train in firearms and hand-to-hand combat. Komani's demo showed that Mother Base can be attacked by rival CPU enemies that you meet in combat, as well as other players. Yes, other players. Konami didn't touch on the multiplayer aspect.

The Master Miller rescue mission also highlighted diamond collecting (used to upgrade your weapons), dynamic real-time weather effects (such as visibility-reducing sandstorms), e-cigs (that speed up the passage of time so you can watch troop movement at very high speed), and the series trademark cardboard box (you can now pop out, buck a shot, and dip back in). The game is absolutely gorgeous, too. The transitions between cutscenes and gameplay is near seamless.

Konami stated that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be more than 200 times larger than Ground Zeroes, so there will be lots of stealth-based action when the game eventually hits store shelves. Unfortunately, the game still lacks a release date.

For more, check out How to Make Snake Sneakier in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes.