14

Add to My News

Story by Dave Cook

Fri, Aug 31, 2012 | 14:40 BST

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes gameplay detailed in podcast

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes was unveiled at a 25th anniversary event in Japan yesterday. Although the press weren’t allowed to capture footage or go into too much detail about what they saw, a new podcast has done just that.

The podcast – created by 8-4 Play – can be heard here.

The Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeros chatter begins at 07:40, but here’s a rundown of what the 8-4 Play team talk about.

The demo begins at night and it’s raining. The lighting effects look incredible and all of the camera angles are very tight, close up and fixated on characters and texture effects. It shows a group of men pulling up to a military bases called Camp Omega. The fences and walls are plastered with Spanish writing.

There are Doberman dogs barking at the fence, the compound is heavily guarded by soldiers. The group are let in and appear to be led by a man wearing a trench coat and hat – which looks like a cowboy, almost militaristic hat. His face isn’t really shown much at all.

The group approaches a kid in a cage as men are being hogtied and have bags forced over their heads by soldiers. The compound has many cages within it, and inside is a blonde boy of about ten years old wearing torn clothes that almost look like medical fatigues.

The boy has a vacant look and is wearing earphones connected to a headphone jack that has been surgically implanted in his chest. He seems like he’s being mentally conditioned, which is similar to Raiden’s back story. He was mentally conditioned at a young age by Solidus Snake to be a child soldier.

The man in the hat talks to the boy, saying, ‘The girl told us everything. We gave her a good ending.’ He then gives the boy a treat, as promised – which is a Walkman cassette player – implying the time period of the game as late 70s / early 80s.

He then says to the boy, ‘now you’re a real soldier’ and adds, ‘say hello to the boss’. All signs are definitely hinting that this boy is a young Raiden and that the ‘Boss’ in this instance is Solidus.

The men then get into jeeps and leave, driving up to an airfield, where a helicopter is preparing to take off. You then see the man;s burned face which is scarred and devoid of hair. The jury is still out on his identity.

He then brings out a black light and swipes it over a ‘XOF’ logo on the side of the helicopter, which causes it to disappear. Once in the helicopter the man’s soldiers tear FOXHOUND patches with the text ‘XOF’ off their uniforms and he gathers them up before tossing them overboard. They flutter in the wind and fall by the feet of Big Boss, who is hunched up against the rocky face of a mountain.

The camera then pans up across Snake before revealing a massive military base that stretches as far as the eye can see. He is wearing an MSF patch.

Gameplay

Live gameplay then begins as Snake checks a prototype device on his arm. Similar to the Dead Space HUDs, the device projects a map of the area in front of Snake that highlights him as a red triangle, and also shows patrolling guards.

The player then makes Snake crouch and crawl along the ground, dodging dynamic spotlights. As he crawls, rats burrow from the ground and trigger his motion radar, turning it red.

Snake then enters first-person binocular view and spies a spotlight tower guard. He then aims in third-person and takes him out with a tranquiliser gun. Spotting a nearby Jeep, Snake hops in and goes for a ride up a road.

Suddenly an APC emerges and starts driving down the same road towards him, causing him to reverse and hide in some tall grass. Outnumbered, Snake pops a yellow flare and tossed it to the ground.

A few seconds later a helicopter flies in for extraction, causing the smoke and scenery to billow and shake in real-time. Helicopters can be shot down if you call them in to an area that is too busy with enemies, Kojima says. Snake gets in, strokes his beard nervously and the demo ends.

For our All Access rundown of every single Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes fact, rumour, screen and trailer from now until release. Hit the link here.

Thanks GAF.