Despite its massive success, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain has received a fair amount of criticism from players, most notably because of the way the story wraps up. Interestingly, one of the game’s features that has many fans upset is the fact that one of Metal Gear Solid 5’s most popular characters, the sniper Quiet, leaves the game after mission 45, unless players fulfill a very specific set of requirements ahead of time. Now they don't have to.

In the latest patch for the open world stealth game, developer Konami made a small update that allows players to get the sniper Quiet back on their team for additional missions. However, Konami failed to make any mention of the update in their patch notes. Instead, the hidden gem was discovered by a gamer who shared the finding on Reddit.

Apparently, if Metal Gear Solid 5 players replay the “Cloaked in Silence” mission seven times, the tag for the mission changes from [Replay] to [Reunion], and players are able to bring Quiet back to the Diamond Dogs for support.

It’s intriguing that Konami would make such an adjustment, considering it takes a dedicated player replaying that one level numerous times in order to discover the hidden feature. Granted, the mission is the one where players first engage with Quiet and bring her back to Mother Base, but other than a desire to replay the mission out of enjoyment or for a high score, there’s really no reason for players to expect something like this would happen.

The decision on Konami’s part to allow players to reunite with Quiet is surprising, since the character's departure is supposed to feel meaningful. That being said, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is now in its third month, and is up against healthy competition going into the holiday buying season. As a result, we wouldn't be surprised to hear Konami made the move to swing attention back to Solid Snake and his crew in time for the holidays.

With that in mind, it’s quite possible Konami wanted to give players a chance to discover the change before making it known itself. What do you think about this discovery? Will you be replaying the mission to get Quiet back? Let us know in the comments.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is now available for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

Source: Reddit