Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will mark a significant departure for the franchise as it is the first entry to feature open-world gameplay for players to experience. Past Metal Gear Solid games offered players several slightly different ways to take out enemy soldiers, and in certain instances, even boss fights. But the series always contained a linear story driven experience. Series creator Hideo Kojima, and his team at Kojima Productions, plan on changing the formula with this fifth major Metal Gear Solid title.

“With MGS up to now, we could only build the interior of wherever you were infiltrating,” he told Famitsu (Via Polygon). “How you got there was shown in a cutscene, and the player would just suddenly be in front of the entrance. Once you finished the mission, there’d be another cutscene, a helicopter or whatever would come by, and you’d escape.

“It’s not that linear games are bad […] but really, it’d be fun if you were the one thinking about how and where to infiltrate, what sort of equipment to bring, and how to get out of there.”

But despite the open-ended approach Kojima is taking with Metal Gear Solid 5, he did admit that the term ‘open world’ has several different meanings. In this case, people might think his game might lean towards something more similar to an Elder Scrolls game, where Snake participates in several mundane tasks, which isn’t the case.

“I think the term ‘open world’ has taken on a life of its own and caused misunderstandings,” Kojima stated. “Of course it’s not going to be a game where Snake fishes all day or changes jobs and pursues a different life. The game map is an open world and you have freedom in that way, but in MGS5, it’s clear what you’re doing. That may be ‘I have to help someone’ or ‘Destroy this thing’ or ‘Go gather intelligence at this spot’. Some missions will have time limits, too.”

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is planned to release for PS and Xbox platforms, but the game has yet to haven an initial release date.