Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s Multiplayer Is All About Storming Mother Bases

The multiplayer portion of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has finally been revealed, thanks to an extended Gamescom demo video posted by IGN early this morning.

Remember the E3 demo, where Big Boss' Mother Base was being attacked by an unknown force? Turns out that was a major tease for the multiplayer component and that was another player's force invading Snake's base. Obviously he can't let that attack go unpunished, so the extended Gamescom video picks up with Boss standing on the other player's base, ready for retaliation.

The first thing we notice is the emblem on the base, not that of Diamond Dogs but instead the "Roughneck Ravens," which means we're probably going to be allowed to customize our factions. Boss then scouts the base, marking targets and watching enemy movements before making his move.

As Boss makes this way through the base, the demo shows off all of the different types of security players can install on their bases, including gun-mounted cameras, airborne UAVs that look like the Cypher cameras from Metal Gear Solid 2, and infrared sensors. Snake almost walks right into the video of a gun camera before diving back and avoiding detection.

Everything Snake sees can be claimed for the player's base via the Fulton Recovery System we've seen before. These resources can then be used to build more platforms and buildings on the player's base, making it harder for competing players to reclaim stolen wares. This also lends to one of the cooler moments in the demo, where Snake attaches a Fulton to a giant storage crate, climbs on top of it as it flies away, and uses it to jump to the top of a building without climbing up. That's some pretty savvy spying. The demo ends with Snake trying to cross a bridge but suddenly coming under missile fire... from another Snake! The dev talking about the demo describes this as the other player who has detected the demo player, possibly teasing some PvP multiplayer for the future.

This was a brief but impressive demo for the multiplayer aspect, as it looks like you're playing normal MGSV but on another player's base instead of in Afghanistan or another campaign mission. We can already see the "friendly" competition between players online, but we hope that continuous base invasions don't distract us from the main game.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will launch in 2015 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. You can check out the full demo video below.