Metal Gear Solid creator and director Hideo Kojima has confirmed that his upcoming open-world stealth title Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will contain several Easter eggs hidden throughout the course of the game.
Easter eggs are inside jokes used by developers to refer to other forms of media or specific gaming titles, and Hideo Kojima’s franchise has been renowned for including them in each title (from Psycho Mantis breaking the fourth wall in Metal Gear Solid and reading the players’ memory card to the handshake between Otacon and Solid Snake based on the well-known Konami Code in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty).
According to Metal Gear Informer, a viewer reminisced about his failed attempt at defeating the legendary sniper The End in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater on Kojima Station, and when he came back to the title after a week, he found that the Cobra Unit member had died of old age — one of the many hidden Easter eggs in the title, and one of the methods that can be used to defeat him.
The viewer also added he was looking forward to the different types of Easter eggs Kojima is including in The Phantom Pain, with the director confirming on his webcast there will be several of them scattered in the title’s open-world setting.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, which was released earlier this year and has now been reduced to a retail price of $19.99 by publisher Konami, had an interesting feature tying in with The Phantom Pain revealed this week, as users who visited Ground Zeroes’ Camp Omega setting will be able to revisit the location in Kojima’s upcoming title.
Running on Kojima Productions’ Fox Engine, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is rumoured to launch in Q1 of 2015 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.