Metal Gear Solid V Launch Trailer Is Blast From The Past

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will finally arrive in just one week and, to help prepare gamers for the tactical espionage action to come, director Hideo Kojima and company have prepared a launch trailer that recalls nearly 20 years of gaming history.

There's no need to rehash all of the drama that took place between Kojima and publisher Konami leading up to next week's launch of Metal Gear Solid V. Suffice it to say that they didn't see eye to eye and, as a result, have parted ways. While it was originally thought that Kojima was all but finished with the project, however, it was recently announced that he'd be directing one more trailer for the game.

Well, here's that trailer. If you have any kind of emotional attachment to the series, get ready to experience some feels, as we're about to go on a whirlwind tour of Metal Gear's past.

Honestly, I can't think of a better way to both celebrate Metal Gear's past and prepare everyone for one final romp with Big Boss. Sure, there are likely to be more Metal Gear games in the future but, given the lack of involvement from Kojima, many consider The Phantom Pain to be the end of the line.

No matter which camp you fall into, though, the above trailer promises that you're in for one wild ride come Sept. 1. That's a fact that started to settle in over the weekend, as review embargos for the game lifted on Sunday, Aug. 23. Depending on how much stock you put in aggregate sites like Metacritic, the folks who have actually played the game seem to be plenty impressed. As of this writing, The Phantom Pain rests comfortably at a score of 95 with 20 reviews counted.

Critics have so far praised the game's open world and emergent gameplay, as well as the sense of freedom its mission style affords. While props are being given to the story and performances, the consensus seems to be that this is the least street-rat-insane tale in Metal Gear history, which can be taken as a positive or a negative depending on how you feel about lengthy cutscenes and long-winded monologues; which are all but absent this time around. Apparently the boss encounters are a bit more grounded in reality, too, with The Phantom Pain lacking the motley crew of powered mercenaries you typically go toe-to-toe with in Metal Gear games. Despite that fact, reviewers seem to agree that Kojima's last outing with the Snake family is different, but decidedly excellent.

Of course, we won't have to wait much longer to find out for ourselves, as Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain launches for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC next Tuesday, Sept. 1. According to the launch trailer, we can expect “The ultimate thrill. The ultimate story. The ultimate scale. The ultimate evolution. The ultimate Metal Gear.”