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(Just so we’re all on the same page, with apologies to series fans for the simplification: Metal Gear Solid V is a sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3, which was a prequel to Metal Gear Solid, which was a sequel to Metal Gear, a game in which Solid Snake, the character you play in Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, and 4, kills Big Boss, the protagonist of 3 and V. The sequence is as virtuoso as it is bizarre, combining wonderfully tense direction with flaming blue whales and gratuitous butt shots of a scrubs-wearing man named Ishmael. Your character, variously and inexplicably referred to as Big Boss or Punished "Venom" Snake, awakes from a nine-year coma and suddenly finds his hospital turned into a war zone by a shady group called Cipher and a man on fire called The Man on Fire. Things start off well enough with The Phantom Pain’s spectacular, semi-interactive introductory sequence.
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