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Watch the massive Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain gameplay demo

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain demo

We’ve seen a lot of trailers and demos over the last few days, but this 40 minute playthrough of a Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain mission has proved to be one of the most impressive. It touches on most aspects of the open world Stealth game, from companions to customisation, and damn does it do it in style, even including a helicopter extraction straight out of an ‘80s action flick.

We all know, by now, to take demos, especially E3 demos, with a grain of salt, but it’s hard not to be impressed with what Konami showed off, and optimistic about the finished game. I do wonder if it’s going to make people question the purity of the stealth, though.

The backup, companions, all these weapons and, especially, the robot buddy make loud, explosive, action packed conflicts more viable. By the end of the demo, everything’s blowing up, it’s a warzone, and it ceases to really look like a stealth game. I loved it. It’s what happens when you fuck up – instead of being punished, the game just changes, and you end up fighting to survive against a bloody army. It doesn’t look like it stops being tactical, even for a second, but I’m not sure it’s going to be every fan’s cup of tea.

Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain launches on September 15th for PC.

Cheers, IGN.