Tactical Public Service Announcement Action
No newMetal Gear Solid Vspoilers or details here, I promise.
Earlier today, I put up my preview forMetal 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 forGround 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 thatThe Phantom Pain‘s trailer shamelessly displays some very crucial moments inGround 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 aboutGround 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 Zeroesis being presented asMetal Gear Solid V‘s prologue, and has been compared to the tanker mission fromMetal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, withThe Phantom Painmaking up the bulk of the experience. Part of what madeSons of Libertyso 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 ofMetal Gear Solid Vshown off already. I mean, how much does it suck that we know there are horses inThe Phantom Painbefore 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 bygradually trickling out screenshots and being stingy with the gameplay footage.
