Editing Metal Gear (section)

==== The Phantom Pain ====
Big Boss manages to survive the crash but falls into a coma for nine years. A pretty cool opening scene of Big Boss waking up to ''The Man Who Sold the World'' in a hospital bed in Cyprus. The doctors show Big Boss after the explosion that not only did he get shrapnel sticking out of his head and the inside of his body, but he also lost his left forearm in the process. The following night an assassin kills the doctors who took care of Big Boss and nearly kills Big Boss himself. That is until another patient stops the assassin and sets her on fire causing her to jump out the window. The patient reveals himself as 'Ishmael' and helps Big Boss escape (This isn't the only reference to the book Moby Dick, Ishmael calls Big Boss 'Ahab' while Big Boss is equipped with a hook hand prosthetic). As they both approach the elevator, they encounter a child wearing a gas mask and a straight jacket floating in the air (we know what you're thinking and yes, that is Psycho Mantis as a little kid) and a man covered in fire. Since gunfire is useless against him his only weakness is water. They both see that XOF units start killing the patients and hospital staff to ensure there are no witnesses. It becomes clear that they were sent in to eliminate Big Boss after finding out he had just woken up. After facing certain death against XOF soldiers and the Man of Fire, Big Boss and Ishmael escape the hospital using an ambulance. Unfortunately, the ambulance gets attacked by XOF forces and crashes. Big Boss survives, but Ishmael has disappeared leaving Big Boss to fend for himself. Just as an XOF helicopter is hovering over Big Boss, Psycho Mantis shows up then suddenly a giant fucking whale covered in fire swallows the helicopter and destroys it. To make things even more ridiculous, the Man of Fire shows up again riding a fucking winged unicorn made of fire. Luckily, a man riding a horse shows up to Big Boss' aid and that man is none other than Revolver Ocelot (now voiced by Troy Baker). After a chase ensues between the Man of Fire and Big Boss and Ocelot, they both manage to escape. Ocelot reminds Big Boss of what has happened before he fell into a coma and wants to help him and Miller rebuild their private army. It turns out Miller was captured by the Soviets and is being held for interrogation in Afghanistan. Big Boss joins up with Ocelot and sets out for Afghanistan. And that's all just the prologue.

Unfortunately, the rest of the story isn't nearly as awesome or cinematic, partly due to Konami's budget cuts forcing the game to be left in an unfinished state. Here's the gist; Big Boss slowly starts rebuilding his army by recruiting (read: kidnapping) Soviet and African soldiers, stealing tanks with balloons, and completing various contracts for money. However, its not long before he runs back into XOF forces, this time using mutant supersoldiers called the "Skulls" who use modified versions of the superpowered parasites used by the Cobra Unit, giving them freaky abilities like mind-controlling nearby soldiers or turning rock-solid. XOF is working on a new Metal Gear in Afghanistan, while working on a brand new superweapon on the Angola-Zaire border to eliminate entire languages through vocal-cord parasites, which are actually related to the Cobra Unit parasites. Actually these parasites have a lot of strange and unexplained abilities, like somehow being able to refine uranium ore or being used in the walking mechanisms for metal gears, or destroying metal. Whatever the case, Big Boss captures and falls in love with XOF sniper Quiet (who he learns is the same assassin who tried to kill him in the hospital), who is in turn won over by him because he's the motherfucking Big Boss. He also accidentally unleashes a parasite outbreak in Angola, which infects his own men, until he gets to the bottom of the infection. Finally after a big showdown in Afghanistan, Big Boss finally corners and kills Skull Face and his Metal Gear. 

So, story over, right? HA no. Huey causes a second outbreak to try to bribe his way back into Cypher's hands, Quiet is forced to speak to rescue Big Boss (and thus runs away so she doesn't infect anyone, presumably to kill herself to avoid a slow and painful death), and baby Liquid runs away with all the child soldiers and steals the Metal Gear with him. And... that's pretty much it. The entire final battle was cut from the game, which according to plans would have been ''far'' more challenging and climactic than the two previous Metal Gear encounters, but unfortunately it never came to pass and likely never will. The only real ending we got was the reveal that Venom Snake was never Big Boss to begin with, just a brain-washed body double who would distract Cypher while the real Big Boss fucked off to do who-knows-what. We did get a decent epilogue, however, when several years after the game released, an Easter Egg was activated after every player-owned nuclear warhead was successfully deactivated in the PvP section of the game.

Phantom Pain is Skub incarnate; and is either considered one of the best game's in the series (thanks to it's ''amazing'' open stealth infiltration system and detailed mercenary management) or the ''worst'' mainline Metal Gear's (for it's often times sparse story, and undeveloped aspects) However, all will agree it ''is'' a Metal Gear game, which leads too...