As far as I'm concerned, Solid and Liquid are the only Snakes that matter.
Solidus was Big Boss 2.0 with a Dr. Octopus exoskeleton, and Naked Snake was a way for them to pander to insecure fanboys who couldn't deal with playing as a girly man in MGS2, giving us this entire sub-series of MGS sequels that ultimately lead to nothing. Big Boss' arc was not a story worth telling, his original backstory was fine and his character only became more confusing as Kojima tried make him more sympathetic... you know, the guy who stole the world's nukes for himself, betrayed his unit, became a warmonger and left a young Solid Snake with PTSD. Oh but he killed his mentor figure, you should feel sorry for him!
@mgalchemist: There's this one melody that plays throughout the game, when you're first on the streets of Racoon City, the main hall of the R.P.D., and the various encounters with Birkin. It took me a while to realize it was being repeated throughout the game, since while it was memorable, I didn't associate it with any one moment. It's kind of the unofficial theme of the game for me, I hope we get to hear it in the remake.
Leon swears A LOT in this remake, it's kind of hilarious in hindsight that the first words we heard him say were "Jesus Christ" because so far it seems like 50% of his dialogue is exactly that. I foresee plenty of memes exploiting this in the near future.
Browsing Twitter, it seems that other similarities between the remake and 1.5 have been found, some surprisingly deep cuts from concept art in fact. I had already noticed the knife one myself but forgot to mention it, with the way the it is mounted on Leon's back. If they had mounted it on his hip that would have been a more obvious reference, as the knife was originally going to be featured more prominently, with the ability to quick-select it at will. Sadly, they scrapped this concept for the final release but it seems to have returned in some form for the remake, with it no longer taking up an inventory slot.
We also have the new outfits for Ada and Claire (though I suspect Claire might be a stretch), we'll have to see Ada in proper lighting before we can judge but that definitely looks like a trench coat of some kind, and of course, the stairs in the R.P.D.
Mr X's new headwear also appears to have been lifted from 1.5's concept art.
One of the most exciting things about this remake for me is how it seems to be carrying the spirit of not just RE 1.5, but RE 3.5 as well. If you're not familliar with RE 1.5, it was the original scenario for Resident Evil 2 which took place in a much more conventional looking police station than the schizophrenic art gallery we know today. The basic plotline was similar enough, but there are many subtle differences, such as Claire being called Elza Walker with a completely different appearance. The team ended up scrapping the original scenario after getting an actual screenwriter on board who wasn't impressed with Kamiya's original script, resulting in them rebooting the project, eager to get it right this time.
Here's a video showcasing this scrapped build if you're interested:
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Elza Walker
The most obvious nod to RE 1.5 is the Elza Walker skin that's being included in the special edition, which would be exciting enough by itself, but after watching various gameplay recordings I've noticed a few other potential homages as well.
Atmospherically, the remake seems a lot closer to RE 1.5 with it's dark, moonlit hallways. There's a scene early on where you see a police officer get torn in half under a shutter door, which immediately reminded me of the scene at 0:37 in the video above. I'd like to think this is their way of paying homage to the scrapped project, there has after all been a lot of demand from fans for them to release it in some form. If you notice any other similarities, feel free to chime in.
Now, moving onto 3.5... I won't bother trying to explain because I'm honestly not as familliar with this one, but basically it's the early build of Resident Evil 4, when it had a more supernatural flavor with Leon suffering from hallucinations. The way Leon walks around with his torch immediately reminded me of this demo, and even the way he holds his gun is identical to the point where I don't think this is merely coincidental. It's possible that Capcom had been wanting to do something like this for a while, but simply didn't have the technology until now.
It's nice to hear someone is still having a good time with MGSV nearly three years on, there's often so much negative buzz surrounding the game that I question if I'm crazy for loving it as much as I do. I still have my own share of hang-ups (not even related to the story) but overall there's so much to love about The Phantom Pain that I just don't get how anyone could dislike it outright.
Don't write the FOB mode off completely, since Mother Base is actually the not so secret third map of the game, and it's just as well designed as any of the outposts. In fact, I'd liken it to Camp Omega more than anything since it's a lot more closed-in. The good news is you don't have to invade other players, instead every week there's a new event FOB you can take part in against non-player soldiers, which is honestly way more fun than PVP anyway, and you can also unlock new camos, base colors and emblems through it. It's kind of odd how tucked away it is in the FOB menu, I wouldn't be surprised if some people aren't even aware of it. They even patched in the ability to play as Ocelot if that's your thing.
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