Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes crosses over with Snatcher on Xbox One

Konami has announced an Xbox One exclusive for Ground Zeroes that’ll see the Snatchers from the 1988 Kojima-made game of the same name entering the Metal Gear universe to do battle with none other than cyber-ninja Raiden. Oh, and there’s also a video with 15 minutes of gameplay, but you wouldn’t be interested in that…

But let’s talk about Snatcher first because as a big, huge, monster-sized fan of that game; I’m excited about this addition to MGS: Ground Zeroes. Really, really excited. I mean, Snatcher hasn’t been seen in any form in the US since it was released on the Sega CD in 1994. That’s way too long to go without a sequel of any kind for the fantastic Blade Runner-inspired graphic adventure. And quite frankly, to see the evil bots that starred in Snatcher come back in Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is almost a dream come true.

Now, I realize this isn’t a real ‘sequel’ as you’d traditionally think of one, but it’s still cause for celebration for fans of the seemingly-forgotten Konami title. In this exclusive Xbox One side-mission (dubbed Jamais Vu) for Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, you’ll not only get some robotic villains to fight, but you’ll also get one robotic hero to play as.

Also revealed yesterday was a look at the nighttime missions in the main Ground Zeroes game. Last time around, Konami showed off what might happen when Big Boss doesn’t have the cover of night to operate in, but this time he’s right smack dab in his element.

In the previous “Day Mission” gameplay video, Big Boss embarked on a “Side Ops” mission to locate a high-value target and recover hidden intelligence. However, the daylight served as a disadvantage, and the mission ended in all-out battle and a blazing car chase. In the new “Night Mission” gameplay video, Big Boss tackles a side objective within the main “Ground Zeroes” mission using hardcore stealth, under the cloak of night, to infiltrate and extract a POW from the clandestine blacksite, “Camp Omega.”

Seeing the Fox Engine in action really is a thing of beauty. Metal Gear titles usually look pretty terrific, but Fox is a thing to behold with excellent-looking weather effects and characters, as well as an open world that doesn’t have that usual ‘good enough’ vibe that most sandbox games do.

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is the precursor to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and will set up the latter game’s storyline. Not to mention give a rabid fan base something to tide them over till the meat-and-potatoes of The Phantom Pain is released. Look for Ground Zeroes to hit retail on March 18th, 2014 in physical form for $39.99 USD and digitally for $29.99 USD for both the Xbox One (which’ll have the Snatcher expansion) and the PS4. The Xbox 360 and PS3 will also be getting the game and those editions will be available for a little less than their next-gen brethren and will cost you $29.99 as a boxed edition or $19.99 for a downloadable copy.