Fulton and Chill

One of the biggest game release this year is going to get even more bigger with the upcoming release of Metal Gear Online. During the Tokyo Game Show 2015, Konami showcased hands-on with the new online component with the game mode ‘Bounty Hunter’ being made available.

If you are currently playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain or have finished the game then jumping into Metal Gear Online is pretty much an easy transition. Everything about this segment is almost identical to the single-player game except you have access to more equipment in an online competitive mode.

We were told you can customize your own character to the max but the booth had preset characters already selected for us. Funny enough, my character happened to be Ocelot himself from the game. Some of the other players had unique soldiers and one person even had a swimsuit girl. Yep…

As I was still progressing through Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain to the day I had to fly out for Tokyo Game Show, jumping into Metal Gear Online felt second nature. The game flows exactly the same both mechanically and visually. There was no difference in anything at all.

Metal Gear Online gives you access to three different classes depending on your style of gameplay. For my playthrough, I selected the Assault class which focuses on firepower. There were classes focused on stealth and range which you can swap during the match. The Assault class gave me access to Ocelot’s dual pistols but if you’re playing a normal character- you’ll get access to an assault rifle and shield. The shield works great if you’re moving out and about on open ground.

The mix bag of gameplay styles really made the matches we played interesting as we often had to look out for cloaked enemies lurking around. They’re not totally invisible but often easy to miss if you’re focusing on something else. Stealth works great and despite having a classes with heavy firepower running around the map – you can easily set traps and walk up to unsuspecting enemies to execute some CQC on them.

Bounty Hunter is one of several modes coming to Metal Gear Online and upfront feels like your standard Team Deathmatch but with a slight twist. Teams of 8 will fight each other to burn out their respawn tickets (similar to Battlefield) but if you fulton an enemy, you gain their tickets back. Enemies with more tickets above their head (corresponding to their kills in that life) you can flip the balance of the match in an instant which creates a tense battle to fulton the highest bounty enemy.

So far we’ve played on a LAN setup using PlayStation 4s so we’re not too sure how real-world gameplay will go down on servers over the internet as Konami servers during MGS V launch has been quite questionable. Hopefully it won’t be the case as Metal Gear Online has really got me interested. For a single-player game that’s already jam packed with content, the game of the year contender is going to get even more bigger.

Metal Gear Online will be available for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain owners on October 10, 2015. PC players will have to wait till January 2016.