Giving us a full look at their interview with Hideo Kojima, Game Informer asked the Metal Gear Solid creator about what the core gameplay differences may be in Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, while also narrowing down that TPP’s map is about 200 times bigger than GZ :
The basic controls and core controls won’t change. There will be more things that you will be able to do, but how the game feels might change a little bit. Ground Zeroes takes place on a small island, and when you think of it, you’re in an enemy base. Every step you take, you face the risk of finding an enemy.
The Phantom Pain will be a map that is roughly 200 times bigger than Ground Zeroes. You will have bases, forests, paths between them, fortresses, and all of these things. There are a lot of places that don’t have that many enemies. The player won’t have that constant stress. He will be able to control when he goes into stressful situations and places and when not to. There will be more control balance.
For example, in Ground Zeroes you’re in an enemy base and the design of the game doesn’t let you go outside of the base. You can’t just run away from the base. For TPP, you can go to an enemy base, they will chase you, but you can choose to go outside the base. The user will have this choice of whether to constantly have all this stress or walk away from it.
Also, in this game [Ground Zeroes] world you don’t have the Fulton Recovery System; you can rescue hostages, that’s all you can do. In Phantom Pain you will have hostages and you will be able to rescue scientists and whatnot. They will be transported to the base. While you’re not there the base will grow bigger. You will have some more gaming elements.
For some more details about your base, Kojima revealed that it will be an evolution of what was seen in Peace Walker. He didn’t go into full detail about how it works, just saying, “You will be able to go into the base, walk around your own base that you created, and will be able to do different things. It will be an evolution. You will also be able to walk into your friends’ bases, go to the base of people that you know online or whatnot and see their facilities.”
When it comes to Metal Gear Solid V as a whole, there will be some advantages in The Phantom Pain given to those who play Ground Zeroes (the Ground Zeroes box advertises it), with Hideo Kojima explaining:
If you rescue more hostages in Ground Zeroes, that will be reflected in TPP. I cannot dive into too much detail, but there will be several advantages and bonuses that people that are playing Ground Zeroes will be able to get in TPP.
For an extreme example, your game records, your scores will be inherited. People will start from the same place, but despite the fact that you’re starting from scratch altogether, people that have played Ground Zeroes will have clear advantages over people that didn’t. That’s just for example, but you should see those kind of advantages. In the mission you already played, there are other hostages that are escaping. If you listen closely to the soldiers’ conversations, you will realize these hostages could be scientists or something very relevant for the future.
Will you have a Ground Zeroes save file on your console by the time The Phantom Pain comes out? Let us know in the comments below.
