Hideo Kojima tries to balance open world and gripping story with Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (interview)

LOS ANGELES — Hideo Kojima has been making Metal Gear video games for decades (some more movie-like than others), but now he wants to give players more choice. In his latest Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, his team at Kojima Productions has created a kind of limited open world.

The player goes on missions and makes choices. But they can also complete those missions in any way. For instance, in a demo at the giant Electronic Entertainment Expo tradeshow, we saw that you could approach a village from any direction, day or night, and figure out how to rescue a hostage without drawing too many enemies. You can enlist the support of a lot of tech gear, but the outcome of the mission is linear.