Kojima Explains Metal Gear Solid V's Open World

[Steven Bogos]

Kojima Explains Metal Gear Solid V's Open World

"[Metal Gear Solid V] won't be a game where you can spend an entire day fishing with Snake."

Metal Gear Solid V is the latest game to jump on the open world bandwagon, and series creator Hideo Kojima has recently detailed to Japanese magazine Famitsu about just how "open" MGS V's world will be, and the reason the dev team decided to go down this path. Basically, the developers are sick of being tied down into always making "infiltration" missions, and wanted to allow players more freedom to tackle missions as they saw fit.

"The term 'open world' is often misunderstood by people," says Kojima. "[Metal Gear Solid V] won't be a game where you can spend an entire day fishing with Snake, or one that allows him to change his career in order to start a new life, or anything like that." Bad news for those of us who were expecting some kind of secret mini-game where Snake opens up his own bait-and-tackle shop.

"Up until now, we've mainly only been able to make infiltration [missions] for Metal Gear Solid," continues Kojima. "There would be a demo scene that showed how to get there, and the players would start right in front of the entrance. If they safely cleared the mission, there'd be another cut-scene, where you'd see something like a helicopter appear, as you made your escape." He says that while being "on a rail" is fine, they wanted to mix things up for this game, both during and between missions.

"Not just during the missions, but we want the before and after to also be similar to an 'information-gathering style of play'," he emphasizes. "For this reason, we've come to the conclusion that having an open world would be most ideal. The maps are wide, and the time and weather will also be changing."

"You can compare it to making a survival game," Kojima cocludes. "While it is fun to shoot in survival games, it's also fun to split into teams and think about ways to overcome enemies and strategize."

Source: Famitsu via Siliconera [http://www.siliconera.com/2013/10/28/kojima-just-metal-gear-solid-v-open-world-game/]

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[Oly J]

sounds good, I could get on board with this. if they do it well

 

[The_Echo]

Change isn't always a bad thing, but, y'know... I kind of liked the "on a rail" style of play the previous games had. I'm a little afraid that MGSV is going to be too different from its predecessors, to the point where it'll stick out as a black sheep.

And I'm still very very cautious about the mission-based setup, considering how not-very-well that worked out in Peace Walker.

 

[josemlopes]

Change isn't always a bad thing, but, y'know... I kind of liked the "on a rail" style of play the previous games had. I'm a little afraid that MGSV is going to be too different from its predecessors, to the point where it'll stick out as a black sheep.

And I'm still very very cautious about the mission-based setup, considering how not-very-well that worked out in Peace Walker.

To be honest the Metal Gear games do vary their gameplay style quite a lot (1 to 2 not as much), for this game it really depends if the game mechanics suit that more open ended gameplay as the previous game mechanics suited the more "on a rail" gameplay that they had.

 

[ColaWarVeteran]

And I'm still very very cautious about the mission-based setup, considering how not-very-well that worked out in Peace Walker.

Speak for yourself. I really enjoyed Peace Walker. The only problem it really had in my mind was the over reliance on vehicles for the boss fights. Fighting nothing but tanks and helicopters got a little old after awhile.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Shame my favourite pass time in Snake Eater was fishing. Though I guess anything is more fun with a grenade launcher

On topic
I like this change. The more open ended areas in the series where always my favourite as it allowed more creativity when sneaking than following a more linear path.

 

[heroicbob]

The only problem it really had in my mind was the over reliance on vehicles for the boss fights. Fighting nothing but tanks and helicopters got a little old after awhile.

that got a little out of control if you played the side missions, but it didn't ruin it for me

my main problem with peace walker was that it did the dead rising thing of making you have play through missions over and over, in this case to level up weapons so they do more damage to the vehicles than flicking peanuts at them


I'm pretty excited for a new metal gear game and i think its about time it went open world messing around in mgs1 outside of missions was some of the most fun I had on the psone too bad most of the sequels had anti-backtracking checkpoints

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

Metal Gear Solid is my favorite game franchise of all time, and Kojima and his team seem to know exactly what they are doing with the open world. They've never steered me wrong before, so I have no reason to not trust them this time. We will only know once the game comes out. I heard it's also coming to PC, so that makes me even more happy since I've been moving away from consoles.

 

[Colt47]

I like it when open world means having the option to look for alternate ways to handle a specific objective. On the other hand, the big problem with open world is that it can lead to a loss of motivation to actually complete the said missions due to wanting to make sure all the possible side quests and secrets are found. This used to not be the case, but for some reason developers decided to start having side extras that are only available at one point in the game. x x;

 

[keiji_Maeda]

I support this new change of pace. Looking forward to embracing the tactical flexibility allowed to me by enhancing multiple paths and open world sneaking. I mean, i guess you can vaguely hand wave the lack of tactical flexibility in the previous games as "Snake has seen the optimal route for infiltration, you MAY NOT DEVIATE, and for safety, keep arms inside of the sneaky slide)

Also...i would totally buy into a Red dead revolver/Naked snake mix-up.

 

[keiji_Maeda]

And I'm still very very cautious about the mission-based setup, considering how not-very-well that worked out in Peace Walker.

Speak for yourself. I really enjoyed Peace Walker. The only problem it really had in my mind was the over reliance on vehicles for the boss fights. Fighting nothing but tanks and helicopters got a little old after awhile.

Yeah, i remember enjoying that a lot too. Particularly when you used the discman to mix in the Boktai theme while fighting tanks...

just....no...no more helicopter fight' grinds :'(

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

I'm genuinely surprised that the MSG guys have a reason for the change that makes complete and total sense. I figured it would be something like "because it makes money," or "now we can create even bigger robots." To be fair, I guess bigger robots is a good reason, too.

 

[Covarr]

Look at the stealth segments (all one of them) in Tomb Raider. It was a very open area, and it was not only the best part of the game, but some of the best stealth I've ever seen. Being able to approach a locked down compound from any side and angle with numerous possible methods of entry makes for far more compelling stealth than waiting behind a crate in a hallway until the guard moves and then running to the next crate. Open stealth works very well, so I'm glad Kojima's opening it up.

P.S. Thanks

 

[CriticalMiss]

the developers are sick of being tied down into always making "infiltration" missions

They could always make something new that isn't an MGS game. No need for infiltration missions then.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

So... they want to make something akin to Assassin's Creed, with a psuedo-open world?

Fine with me. Those are interesting enough. I'd like to see how Kojima goes about it.

 

[Lightknight]

I may really enjoy this. I'll just have to see. As the IP that fathered the steath genre in it's modern form I hope that element isn't significantly harmed.

 

[Foolery]

Could be quite good. I'm looking forward to it. Peacewalker ended up being my favourite in the series due to the mission format. Stealth is more enjoyable to me when you have a focused goal. Combine that with an open world approach and I think it would mesh incredibly well.