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The Metal Gear Solid V mods you have to play
From Sexy Ocelot to 4K graphics, here’s how to play the new Metal Gear in style on PC.
Hideo Kojima's final Metal Gear game is now out in the wild, and the video gaming legend has certainly gone out with a bang. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a truly stunning achievement and arguably the best entry in the entire series – a franchise which may struggle to reach the same level of brilliance in the future thanks to the fact that Kojima is parting ways with publisher and brand holder Konami, and on what appears to be bad terms.
With that in mind, what better way to celebrate this amazing piece of work than by hacking the PC version apart and making it do all kinds of amazing things that even the developers never intended? Given Kojima's wicked sense of humour, we have a feeling he’d approve of the following insane mods.
Unlock super high settings
As powerful as modern home consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One undoubtedly are, they can't hold a candle to a cutting-edge, top-spec PC. With that in mind, it should come as no great shock to learn that hackers have unlocked "extra high" graphical settings which boost the visual performance way beyond the default level. Needless to say, you'll need a monster of a computer to use these settings, but the results are phenomenal: the resolution is bumped up so high that Snake's beard becomes even more frightening and the vapour trails on his Rocket Fist are so realistic you may well become hopelessly mesmerised by their beauty if you haven’t already been knocked out. Needless to say, you'll never look at the console versions in quite the same way again.
Send Big Boss back in time
A pretty simple hack – but one which can change the way a game looks and feels – is swapping out character models. One mod that has appeared allows you to revert to Big Boss nine years prior to the events of The Phantom Pain, during the MGSV: Ground Zeroes era. That means no robotic arm and no unsightly, Hellboy-esque pieces of shrapnel protruding from his skull. The catch is that he can't equip any of the robot arm modifications (no Rocket Punch for you), but on the upside, at least he doesn't have a massive piece of metal threatening to cause fatal damage to his brain at any given moment.
Get Jiggy with a rain-soaked Revolver Ocelot
Female sniper Quiet has to be one of the most divisive characters that Kojima has ever come up with – and as fans of the Metal Gear series will attest, that's certainly saying something. Scantily-clad and often seeming to be little more than eye candy for teenage boys, she's an attractive but sometimes bothersome addition to the cast – which is what makes this character-swap mod all the more amusing. It replaces Quiet with Revolver Ocelot in a pivotal – but cringe-worthy – scene where she frolics in the rain with Big Boss. With Ocelot doing the dancing, splashing and giggling, the awkward sequence is improved dramatically.
Play as the sniper Quiet
Of course, there are those Metal Gear fans who think that Quiet is the best thing since sliced bread and the iDroid, and those individuals will be happy to learn that you can use her character model in the main game via a clever hack. There are some catches to consider – you have to equip the Sneaking Suit and SP-Headgear on any female Mother Base member for the mod to work – but the end result is impressive enough. Just don't allow Quiet's penchant for revealing clothing put you off the mission. Ahem.
Crack the game wide open
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
© Konami
This mod has to rank as one of the most impressive PC hacks for Metal Gear Solid V so far, and allows you to quite literally uncover all of its content. You can unlock all of the items – even hidden ones which, via normal play, are incredibly tricky to obtain – as well as gain access to DLC files, including emo, shoelace gazing Raiden as a playable character model. For those of you who don't know, Raiden is a cyborg ninja who features in Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. He's one of the coolest cast members of the entire Metal Gear saga, not to mention one of the whiniest, and striding around Afghanistan as a powerful robotic killer is plenty of fun.
Take a sensual shower with Ocelot
Yes, we know we've already featured the old Quiet / Ocelot model swap and had a good old laugh about it, but we couldn't do a feature on the best Metal Gear Solid V mods without mentioning this gem. It's possible to unlock a particularly steamy shower scene with Quiet in the game when you fulfil certain criteria, and if you're a fan of the mute sniper then you'll consider it to be well worth the effort. However, make Quiet and Ocelot change places and the scene is taken to an entirely new level of hilarity. Not only does Ocelot tempt you into the shower with a sensual glance and a wiggle of his bottom, but Quiet – now playing the role of Ocelot – looks on disapprovingly as you follow. The resultant shower scene – complete with Mother Base soldiers looking on in desire – is laugh-out-loud funny, and helps to underline how awkward the original scene is in today’s more nuanced and progressive gaming culture. Who knew Ocelot had it in him?
