Metal Gear Solid 5’s terrifying first mission is a glimpse into the Kojima Silent Hill game we never got

It’s been just over nine years since the release of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Painthe final game in the venerable stealth action franchise directed by its creator, Hideo Kojima. A lot has happened for Kojima in that time: he founded his own independent studio and released the films in 2019 Death strandingwatched a ton of movies and pretty much did whatever he wanted, not to mention all the celebrities he befriended who were digitally scanned into his fictional worlds along the way.

But there’s one more thing Kojima hasn’t quite gotten around to yet: making a real horror game. His upcoming match O.DAnnounced last year, it appears to be just that: a psychological horror game starring Hunter Schafer, with writing contributions from no less than Hollywood horror author Jordan Peele! However, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be seeing much of the game in the near future, or at least not sooner. Death Stranding 2: On the beach will be released sometime next year. But in the meantime, if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like as Kojima Real has applied his sensibilities as a game designer to the horror genre, I would highly recommend that you check out the opening mission of The phantom pain“Prologue: Awakening.”

If you’re reading this, you’re probably already familiar with the opening moments of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. It’s also likely that given the aforementioned time since the game’s release, you haven’t played the game in a while. So here’s some background for the premise of the level before I get into the reasons why I think you should play it.

The phantom pain Set after the events of 2014 Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeros. Players take on the role of Snake, a former CIA operative turned mercenary who wakes up in a hospital bed in Cyprus nine years after surviving a near-fatal helicopter crash. He’s lost his left arm and his body is littered with fragments of human bone and shrapnel, so it’s understandable that he’s a little worse for wear, not to mention that he’s suffering from a minor case of amnesia and that his muscles have deteriorated after almost ten years. of involuntary bed rest.

Things quickly go from bad to worse when the hospital is attacked by an army of soldiers who indiscriminately mow down staff and civilian patients, presumably as part of a mission to wipe out their real intended target: you. After being saved from the brink of death by Ishmael, a mysterious patient with a heavily bandaged face, the two of you are forced to work together to find a way to escape the hospital alive.

If you’re a hardcore Metal Gear fan, you know that is indeed the case way there is more to this whole situation than what meets the eye. As interesting – and frankly baffling – all those details are and how they fit into the larger Metal Gear universe as a whole, they completely ignore the question of why I think you’ll want to take on this particular mission of The phantom pain this Halloween. And that reason, pure and simple, is that it’s a damn terrifying experience that blurs the line between implicitly psychological and outright supernatural horror.

For starters, you start the mission extremely limited in your mobility, crawling on your stomach and dragging your limp right arm behind you as you prop yourself up against walls and objects, sliding off surfaces and crashing into the floor as your body betrays you. It’s a frustrating and demoralizing experience, deliberately designed to put the player in the role of a man practically fighting the inertia of his own body for survival. This isn’t the legendary soldier that fans of the series have come to know and love over the years. Or at least not yet.

As the mission progresses, Snake gradually regains control of his motor skills. As a result, the player slowly learns the basic mechanics of walking, running, crouching, and stealthily sneaking past roaming squads of heavily armed wet workers. As if that weren’t enough, you’re also chased by what appears to be a red-haired paranormal child wearing a straitjacket and a gas mask, as well as a terrifying man who is on fire and determined to find and kill you. , a la Resident Evil 3‘s Nemesis.

When you play it for the first time, in this situation it feels impossible to understand what is real and what is not. Did Snake really survive the helicopter crash, or is this hell? Does Ishmael really help you escape, or is he just a figment conjured from Snake’s fractured psyche? Then there’s the climactic horseback ride in which Snake and a mustached cowboy named Ocelot are chased by the Man on Fire atop a flaming horse. This may not be hell, but it sure feels like it.

Oh, and did I mention the scene where an attack helicopter is swallowed by a whale thrown by that psychic child? Again, it’s best not to worry too much about what this all means within the broader scope of the Metal Gear universe. Just enjoy the experience for what it is: a mind-boggling, terrifying and thrilling struggle for survival in a world that is both fantastic and macabre.

Even after describing what happens in the game’s opening mission, I still highly recommend that you play it firsthand for yourself, if only to experience what I continue to experience to this day one of the most memorable and gruesome levels Hideo Kojima has created in a game. until now. As someone who loves the Metal Gear franchise, who loves survival horror games and who loves Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom PainI wish there were more moments in it The phantom pain that resembled the tense survival horror atmosphere of the opening mission.

It’s important to mention that in mid-2014 The phantom painAfter Kojima’s production, Kojima announced that his then next project would be a Silent Hill game, Silent hillswith Norman Reedus as the game’s main character and Kojima’s friend, director Guillermo del Toro, who will co-direct with him. As part of that game, Kojima Productions released a widely well-received “Playable Teaser” game, aptly named PTwhich was dropped almost immediately afterwards Silent hills‘ cancellation in the wake of Kojima’s acrimonious, year-long departure from Konami following the release of The phantom pain.

A repeat of the first mission of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain in 2024, it almost feels like you’re peering into an alternate dimension, one where Kojima’s career took a completely different direction and Death stranding never happened. Would be the Bloober team Silent Hill 2 remake still exist in a world where Kojima got a chance to try his hand at the series? Would Kojima still have achieved even a fraction of what he has since the release of… The phantom pain if he hadn’t left Konami? The answer, of course, is: who knows? Silent hills never happened, and as a result, the course of the Silent Hill franchise and Kojima’s career diverged in completely different directions.

The opening moments of The phantom pain it feels like Kojima was testing ideas that he might have later honed in a horror game like Silent hillsif he had had the chance to finish that game. As bittersweet as that sounds, the fact remains that Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Painthe first mission in particular, is a lasting testament to what Kojima can achieve when he truly commits his mind and talents to the challenge of creating an interactive experience that prioritizes psychological tension and horror over mere action spectacle. For all these reasons and more, I think this is the perfect type of game to play during this year’s spookiest season.