The story will heavily influence the events of The Phantom Pain

Nov 20, 2013 12:46 GMT  ·  By

Some fans are disappointed by the decision to split the coming Metal Gear Solid V into two components, Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, but series creator Hideo Kojima believes it offers his team more space to create a huge experience that takes advantage of the next-gen hardware.

The developer tells the PS Blog that he wants to offer a freer and more open game with the two titles, designed to give players a chance to explore the world at their own pace.

He says, “Within a mission you can do whatever you want, freely. There are a lot of interactive elements, there’s scattered information within each mission, and if you put all of these elements together, and from there the player will put a story together. That’s the way I’ve intended to tell it this time.”

Despite the changes in the core idea, the fundamental mechanics of Metal Gear Solid, including stealth and the ability to mislead enemies, will remain central to Ground Zeroes and to the way Snake is controlled.

Kojima has also admitted that he initially wanted to launch the prologue and the main campaign in The Phantom Pain in one unified package, but decided to split them up in order to make sure that fans had something new to play.

The developer adds, “PS4 is launching now and it’s big. A lot of people have been asking for a new Metal Gear Solid experience, so we at least wanted to release a prologue so that people get to know what people will be, experience a chunk of the story. So that guided our decision to move forward at this time.”

Story details for Ground Zeroes were posted on the official site and gamers who buy both titles will see how the decisions that they make influence the state of the world in The Phantom Pain.