Metal Gear Solid V's torture scene to be non-playable

Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima has said that a torture scene in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will not be controllable by the player.

At the Tokyo Game Show, and speaking to Eurogamer, Kojima discussed whether such scenes were necessary.

"It's something that needs to be done," said Kojima.

Kojima reemphasized that one of the main topics of Metal Gear Solid V is revenge, and that violence in a game narrative is something he wanted to put in if it "will give new emotions that are important to the game."

"As the expressiveness of video games goes up, if you want to go beyond that it's not something you can avoid. Of course not all video games have to do this, and in my case it's not something that I want to go through. If the violence will give new emotions that are important to the game, I want to put it in there, especially with this game where one of the main topics is revenge. I don't want to walk around that."

However, Kojima didn't want to go so far as to make the player take control over the scene. "I didn't want to go as far as having playable torture," he said. "The part of Metal Gear Solid 5 that has torture is non-playable."

The Metal Gear Solid series has often featured Snake being tortured as part of their plot, including notable scenes in the original Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

"So far the player's been tortured by Ocelot so much that I'm thinking that I might be the one that introduced torture to games," Kojima quipped. "So I'm sorry about that!"