Tactical Public Service Announcement Action
No new Metal Gear Solid V spoilers or details here, I promise.
Earlier today, I put up my preview for Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and in it, I wrote a lot about the game. I was careful to steer clear of any spoilers, both out of courtesy to readers, and since I was under embargo, and there were certain details I was forbidden from mentioning at all.
After my time with the game I decided to go back and re-watch last year’s E3 trailer for Ground Zeroes’ follow-up, The Phantom Pain, since I now have a much better grasp of the story. Instead of having newfound understanding of some minuscule clue, I was stunned and rather shocked to find that The Phantom Pain‘s trailer shamelessly displays some very crucial moments in Ground Zeroes, front and center.
As far as embargoes go, I’m treading a fine line, and I’m picking my words very carefully. I’m sure there are plenty of eager young cyber-sleuths scrubbing through every available piece of media looking for plot hints based on what new information is out today about Ground Zeroes, and my writing this shouldn’t give them any more insight. However, if you’re one of those individuals who likes surprises, you might want to avoid even revisiting what was shown off at E3 back in June, at least until you’ve finished the latest game first.
Ground Zeroes is being presented as Metal Gear Solid V‘s prologue, and has been compared to the tanker mission from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, with The Phantom Pain making up the bulk of the experience. Part of what made Sons of Liberty so crazy was its incredible twist, made possible by how shrewdly it was promoted. I’m sure Kojima’s still got plenty in store for us, but it’s frustrating to see so much of both halves of Metal Gear Solid V shown off already. I mean, how much does it suck that we know there are horses in The Phantom Pain before we have a release date? That’s just cruel. I make Big Boss ride a Big Hoss.
But hey, it’s 2014. Everybody knows that you can’t successfully promote a game by gradually trickling out screenshots and being stingy with the gameplay footage.
