It took years, nearly an entire other console generation, in fact. But the PlayStation 3 player base – or whatever’s left of it – forMetal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Painappears to have achieved the game’s highly cooperative and long elusive milestone: global nuclear disarmament.
On Monday, YouTube user Steff uploaded the secret ending fromThe Phantom Pain’sPS3 version that unlocks once the last nuclear warhead has been deactivated, a gift “brought to you by anti nuke gang.”
It’s been a long time sinceThe Phantom Painreleased, so here’s a quick refresher on what exactly is going on here:
Metal Gear Solid Vwas developed with an online component where players have the ability to construct one or multiple Forward Operating Bases (F.O.B.s) for resource gathering and production. You can use these bases to develop new equipment, with one of the eventual options being the ability to develop nuclear weapons.
Players have ability to dismantle the nukes they create on their own terms, but there’s a catch: other players can infiltrate your base (and vice versa) at any moment to disarm or even steal them, unless you can put a stop to it in time.
The real-world political parallels are obvious, but yeah, possession of nuclear arms inThe Phantom Painis extremely hazardous territory, and one that, in the long run,doesn’t reflect too kindly on Snake for keeping them around.
However, the game did come with a reward for players who banded together to rid its world of every last nuke, only unlocked if they all met the following conditions on their respective platformas laid out by Konami in November 2015:
So to sum it up: get through the game, work together, and get your region down to zero.
The secret ending isn’t exactly new information. It was discovered shortly afterThe Phantom Painlaunched in September 2015 when players dug through the game’s files, and the endingactually triggered for PC players three years later, despite the nuke count havingnever reached zero.
Still, on the PS3 at least, it looks like the mission has finally been accomplished.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Review – Tactical Espionage Open World
