Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain served as Hideo Kojima’s swan song for the beloved franchise he created. There was a great deal of controversy surrounding the game, including production troubles during the buildup to release, culminating in Kojima parting ways with Konami to pursue new ideas at his own studio. However, before The Phantom Pain released, a statement from Konami said the company would be making new Metal Gear games even after Kojima was done with the series.
Earlier this summer, the trailer surfaced for a pachinko game based on Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Die-hard Metal Gear fans reacted negatively to the trailer, expressing that this was not the future they wanted to see for the franchise. A Konami employee took to Reddit after the backlash over the pachinko game to assure fans that Metal Gear would be properly supported on consoles moving forward. We were recently given our first glimpse of the post-Kojima Metal Gear world with the trailer for Metal Gear Survive. While zombie survival may not be the way many expected a new Metal Gear to look, there are still a number of great ideas for a proper spin-off. Here are just a few directions a new Metal Gear game could take the series in.
The Joy
Metal Gear Solid 3’s pachinko treatment has fans particularly upset because it teased a revamped version of what some consider the best entry in the series. While the updated graphics and cinematics for the game are exclusive to the machine, there is no reason certain aspects of the story can’t be revisited in a future Metal Gear game. The most intriguing story that can spin out of Metal Gear Solid 3 would explore the history of The Boss (also known as The Joy). Her actions in Snake Eater set the entire Metal Gear Solid storyline into action, but it is her exploits in World War II that made her a legend on the battlefield.
Players encounter The Boss through the eyes of Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3. By this time, she has served as a mentor and role model to the young soldier for a number of years. Players are told how adept The Boss is in battle, and see it demonstrated through CQC takedowns and her expert tactics. During World War II, The Boss led the Cobra Unit the beaches of Normandy under the codename; a game that follows these events could offer a grounded look at war for the Metal Gear series, and tell an intimate and personal story that explores how this talented leader became one of the most important characters in the entire series.
Diamond Dogs
War is ever-present in the Metal Gear series, and some of the best explorations of the consequences of war in games have come in the form of first-person shooters. A hypothetical first-person shooter spin-off could run parallel to the most recent entry, The Phantom Pain. During the story of that game, players built and managed a private army of soldiers known as the Diamond Dogs. They took part in missions, collected resources, and maintained the conditions of Mother Base. A game focusing on the lives of the Diamond Dogs would offer a gritty, realistic vision of war set in the typically over-the-top world of Metal Gear.
Tweaking the objectives and missions from Metal Gear Online, this kind of game could focus on squad-based missions and cooperation, in addition to standard multiplayer gameplay modes. Ideally, these missions would feel like Grand Theft Auto Online heists or Destiny’s raids, emphasizing coordination and communication between a team. The dramatic setting of the Metal Gear universe could benefit by granting players control of regular soldiers in the world of nanomachines and giant mechs.
Check out our ideas for strategy, adventure, and action games on the next page!