An extended version of the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain trailer that aired during Sony’s E3 press conference has been made public. Before the airing of this trailer, we knew that The Phantom Pain would be set 9 years after the closing events of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. Ground Zeroes closed with Snake’s army Militaires Sans Frontières being forcibly dismantled by XOF, an organization led by the mysterious Skull Face.
We wholly expected The Phantom Pain to go over Snake reassembling his army in the form of Diamond Dogs to take down XOF and the organization pulling XOF’s strings, Cipher. But if this trailer is anything to go by, Snake’s plan to enact revenge won’t go as smoothly as he might have hoped.
The trailer opens with a quote from Mark Twain warning against the destructive potential of bottled up anger: “Anger is an acid which can do more harm to a vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured”. This is likely a reference to theme of revenge running through The Phantom Pain. Series creator Hideo Kojima has stated that Snake will cross lines he shouldn’t to get revenge, a process which will turn him figuratively from man to devil and setting him up for his villainous role in the original Metal Gear.
The trailer then cuts to Snake walking solemnly through a smoke-filled battlefield. A vulture tugs at the remains of the dead. Another cut, and we see Snake standing despondently in front of rows of coffins draped with the Diamond Dog’s logo, suggesting that even after establishing the group Snake will shoulder many losses. In front of Snake, a trio of coffins smolder - Diamond Dogs cremate their war dead. In the next shot, Snake’s men line up to scatter the ashes of the dead out to sea. Snake stops them, takes the ashes in hand and then… smears them over his face.
After this, we see soldiers training and fighting in a distinctly bright orange facility. Fans will recognize the facility as the offshore decontamination plant “Big Shell” from Metal Gear Solid 2. We also see Huey being prepped for torture, and Snake engaging the character known as Eli in close-quarters combat. For whatever reason knives appear several times during these scenes. The blades glimmer making it clear that they are the focus of the scene, suggesting that knives may play a symbolic or narrative role in The Phantom Pain.
Before the logo reveal, we get some glimpses of Quiet being tortured and athletically taking soldiers out. Finally, as the trailer wraps up we get a new question and an answer to an old one. Snake suggests creating diamonds from the ashes of their dead instead of burying them at sea - answering why his military outfit goes by the name “Diamond Dogs”. The next shot turns what we know about The Phantom Pain on it’s head; Snake is seen working alongside a man that should be his sworn enemy, Skull Face.
A text splash tell us that the game is coming in “1985″ - the year the game’s events take place.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be out for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 sometime in 2015. Check back with for more details as we get them.
Shehzaan Abdulla
Latest posts by Shehzaan Abdulla (see all)
- Path of Exile: Forsaken Masters expansion detailed - 4 August 2024
- 5 things that SEGA need to do with the next Yakuza game - 3 August 2024
- Final Fantasy 13 Retrospective Review - 2 August 2024
