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For a series once so keen on long-winded exposition, it's amazing that the reveal of a new Metal Gear Solid still manages to maintain so much enigma. The extended unfurling of Metal Gear Solid 5 has has been a masterpiece of misdirection and drawn-out teases, with a fictional Swede thrown in for good measure. It's been a campaign that's born the mark of Kojima Production's own love of twists, turns and deft wrong-footing of its audience, but it feels like one of the final, biggest shocks was saved for last. Sitting down to watch a demo within Konami's Tokyo headquarters, it's soon clear that this isn't the Metal Gear Solid you've become familiar with over the past 15 years: this feels like something that shares the shadows with Ubisoft's Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed games.That much shouldn't come as a surprise, really. As much as Metal Gear Solid has walked a singular path, Hideo Kojima's series has often reflected his wider tastes as it's evolved slowly from a top-down 8-bit action game to an operatic sprawl of messy melodrama. At its heart there's been the familiar soft beat of linear stealth, but Metal Gear Solid 5 sees it breaking away from that formula for the first time to join the rank and file of the genre. This is no longer a series isolated from the wider world; it's now one that bears the smudged fingerprints of other games.
Kojima's never been shy about communicating an affection for western games and western culture, a passion made explicit with the recent opening of a Los Angeles arm of Kojima Productions. That new perspective and workforce brings something else, too. Metal Gear Solid 5 is shooting for global superstardom, and for its place on the main stage alongside Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto and Elder Scrolls.
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