Kiefer Sutherland is lending his voice and motion-captured acting to the lead role of Snake in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, game developer Konami said during a press conference ahead of the E3 show in Los Angeles.

“It’s an honor to be able to play this character, this character has an unbelievable legacy, there’s a real personal quality to the character that I’ve connected to,” Sutherland said in a video(Opens in a new window) played at Konami’s pre-E3 event.

“I’m not a gamer and I even knew about this game. I was certainly keenly aware of the legacy of these games, the unbelievable success of these games.”

Sutherland, who said he had never done facial capture acting before, replaces the long-time voice of Snake in the Metal Gear Solid series, David Hayter.

Metal Gear Solid V director Hideo Kojima said Sutherland was recommended to him for an older version of Snake by film producer Avi Arad.

“I felt he was a perfect fit in terms of age and performance … Kiefer immediately understood what I was looking for. I was very moved by his commitment to the project,” Kojima said.

“This time, with Metal Gear Solid V, the themes are a little different from previous games in the series. We’re taking on some very heavy subjects, such as race and revenge. This makes the tone very much darker,” he added.

“As a result, I wanted Snake to have a more subdued performance expressed through subtle facial movements and tone of voice, rather than words. Furthermore, the game takes place in 1984, when Snake is 49 old. Therefore, we needed someone who could genuinely convey both the facial and vocal qualities of a man in his late 40s. It’s different than anything we’ve done before.”

Kojima said Metal Gear Solid V showcases Konami’s new Fox game engine which is “one step closer to creating photorealistic experiences within the context of a game.” Instead of creating characters by hand, the game’s designers captured the facial expressions and movement of real-life actors in 3D in their quest to make a game that’s “closer to what you’d expect from live-action movies than from traditional video games,” he added.

“This role differs from any other video game that I’ve done. The technology has changed so vastly from the other games I’ve done and the other games are not that old,” Sutherland said.

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