

"So you go from point A to point B, you get story elements, you get information, you get whatever. let's say you have to rescue someone that is in this corner," the translator says, pointing to the bottled water sitting on the table in front of him.

Unlike other games that sport the open-world title, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain isn't about laying a single, sprawling map in front of players and letting them go wherever they wish. How you achieve the mission - what time of the day, what mood, what method you choose. You have to go somewhere, discover something, rescue someone, kill someone, get back something. The time, the weather changes and the missions are really clear. "There's a big map, and you can go wherever you want to go within this map. "It's a sandbox, but it's not a sandbox where you can do whatever you want," Kojima says through his translator. It's a way to explain how The Phantom Pain is open, but not like Grand Theft Auto. He's explaining what open-world gameplay means in the context of the Metal Gear universe, and Kojima uses the water bottle as an anchor. Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear franchise, is talking to his translator when he points to a water bottle and laughs. The other anachronistic device, which made its debut in Ground Zeroes, serves as a radio, a holographic map, an audio player and - perhaps most importantly - a way to call in for help from the Diamond Dogs, the paramilitary organization that Venom Snake's other title alludes to. He's connected to the central command of his headquarters, Mother Base, with an iDroid. Big Boss - once known as Naked Snake and just Snake, and now also Venom Snake - is alone. Instead, there is a valley that seems to stretch for miles, and players' options are as vast as the expanse in front of the Snake and Ocelot. There are no load screens, no individual rooms here.

Instead of discrete, relatively small areas like rooms that, when combined, constitute a playable area, the upcoming entry gives players everything, all at once. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is a logistical departure from the long-running stealth series. The mission - infiltrate and extract - is straightforward. In front of them, in a valley ringed by mountains, is Snake's destination: a base where his comrade-in-arms Master Miller is being held prisoner. The storm subsides, and among half-standing Afghani ruins, the warriors stop to survey the landscape. Our anti-hero, sporting what looks like shrapnel jutting out of his skull, is not, it seems, in peak form. Ocelot hands Snake a canteen, which he struggles to grasp.

He and his sole companion, Ocelot, mosey along on their horses as a sandstorm envelops the cracked desert.
