Konami releases new details on Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain

Hideo Kojima, the famous game designer behind the Metal Gear Solid series, could be accused of many things, but a lack of ambition is certainly not one of them. And Metal Gear Solid V is shaping up to be his most ambitious game yet. So ambitious, in fact, that it’s actually two games.

As you may know, MGSV is being split into two games. Konami has announced that the first of these, Ground Zeroes, will be coming to PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One sometime in spring 2014 and its price has been set at $29.99 for a physical disc or $19.99 for a digital copy.

Why so cheap? Because Ground Zeroes is essentially just a tutorial for The Phantom Pain, which will be the next full-length installment of MGS. The Phantom Pain features an open world with linear time and dynamic weather that affects gameplay, and Kojima told Weekly Famitsu a couple of weeks ago that Ground Zeroes is designed to help teach people about the new gameplay features and controls so that they don’t feel totally lost when they start playing The Phantom Pain (which doesn’t yet have a release date).

Ground Zeroes is also a prologue that informs The Phantom Pain‘s story. According to Konami:

[Ground Zeroes] follows the series’ hero, Big Boss, as he infiltrates a remote Cuban prison camp on a rescue mission, all while trying to remain undetected. Explosive plot lines develop quickly as he finds himself on behind enemy lines with little options for help.

Kojima has also said publicly that Ground Zeroes ends with something bad happening and that one of the main themes of The Phantom Pain is revenge, so whatever happens in Cuba, it probably isn’t good. Here’s the trailer for it (in typical Metal Gear Solid fashion, it’s ten minutes long):