The Phantom Pain developer ‘Joakim Mogren’ has uploaded what appears to be an unsettling trailer for the mysterious project, containing some hidden clues that smell like Metal Gear Solid 5.

Creepy no?

UPDATE:

I’ve decided to add a rumour tag to this piece because the GameTrailers member ‘Joakim Mogren’ has uploaded the above clip to the users section, rather than the official channels. It may mean that the video is unofficial.

We’ve emailed Konami for confirmation but as with most virals, if it’s true they won’t confirm it, so we’ll get back to you with more when we can. Stay tuned.

Also the morse code in the clip has been cracked by YouTuber AesopsEpisoden.

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It reads:

“GENERATING IMAGE HOLD SCENARIO LOADING HOLD ACTIVATE PHANTOM PAIN DOT MEME HOLD ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ”

Does this mean the men in the video are configuring the world’s first VR simulation? Is Snake inside the simulation to help him combat post-traumatic stress after his car crash? It would explain all of the freaky stuff we’ve seen in the initial Phantom Pain trailer.

Read on for more clues from the trailer.

ORIGINAL STORY:

About halfway through there is a subliminal blip, that VG247 reader Dragon246 has kindly transcribed for us.

It reads:

PROJECT OMEGA

AI MATRIX: SECTOR07-A942

VR PROGRAM: PHANTOM_PAIN.MME

CONTRACTOR: MOBY DICK STUDIOS

SUBJECT: REDACTED

PURPOSE-

TREATMENT OF NEUROLOGICAL DAMAGE SUSTAINED IN COMBAT SITUATIONS

TREATMENT OF COMBAT RELATED PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS

ENHANCEMENT OF COMBAT ABILITIES FOLLOWING IMPAIRMENT

IMPLEMENTATION OF ..::.|>..::.:

Now then, what does this all mean?

Well, as Dragon quite rightly points out, the military base seen in the first Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes trailer was called Camp Omega, so there’s your first common thread. The morse code at the end of the text simply reads “?” when translated.

Second, note the medical and psychological report at the end. In the first Phantom Pain trailer, we see what looks like Snake suffering a car crash, which presumably leaves him badly injured, hence the clip largely taking place in a hospital.

There’s also talk of “Psychological stress”, which would explain all the mad images in the hospital, of white petals – a nod to The Boss in MGS3 – images of giant flaming whales, the bosses horse, Volgin on fire, and what appears to be The Sorrow or Psycho Mantis floating in the background.

The text also says, “VR PROGRAM: PHANTOM_PAIN.MME”, so could the events in The Phantom pain trailer just be a VR training exercise to help Snake battle the post-traumatic stress suffered in battle? The rumoured 1970s-80s setting may render that technically impossible, but with Kojima – sorry, Joakim – anything’s possible, right?

For every rumour, screen, clip, photo, tweet and whisper on Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, check out our all access feed here.

What do you think?