#METAL GEAR SOLID PS1 RIP MOVIE#

Granted, Solid’s moody, low-resolution visuals lacked actual facial animation, but Kojima’s chops as a wannabe filmmaker made up for the PlayStation’s graphical limitations by affecting an air of sophistication. It introduced a more visually consistent approach to in-game storytelling than had been seen in video games to that point. Solid contained roughly an hour of meticulously composed and directed cinematic sequences defined by dynamic camera angles, cuts, convincing character animation and film-like staging. Konami’s in-engine approach to cutscenes worked for a wider range of formats and genres, however - and, fittingly for notorious micromanager Kojima, it gave directors greater creative control over the player’s experience. It presented real-time story events that took advantage of the immersive nature of first-person shooters. Only Half-Life, which debuted alongside Solid, attempted something similar. Solid presented sequences every bit as flashy and movie-like as Parasite Eve’s without ever shifting away from the chunky polygonal character models the player controlled the rest of the game. Games with greater cinematic aspirations leaned on Final Fantasy 7-style full-motion video interludes, as seen in Parasite Eve. Real-time cutscenes in 1998 rarely pushed beyond simple reaction shots and static character dialogue, even in something as artful as Ocarina of Time.

Compare the elaborate multi-angle cutscenes present in Solid with what passed for cinematic sequences in its contemporaries, like Spyro or Tenchu. Solid established a new standard for game tech, breaking down the divisions between game action and story sequence. What made Solid’s military drama so striking was the way it was presented (in all its ludicrous glory) through a near-seamless graphical engine. Solid contained roughly an hour of meticulously ‘shot’ and directed cinematic sequences but the thing also roared like a dinosaur for no reason beyond the fact that it looked cool in cutscenes. The eponymous Metal Gear super-weapon featured a tactical rail gun delivery system based on real science. Ripped-from-the-headlines political anxieties like gene therapy and black-market nuclear sales sat side-by-side with conspiracy theory fodder, like mind-reading and customized killer viruses. Heavy on scripted cutscenes, Solid presented a hard-boiled military adventure crammed with obsessively researched technical details, ominous political themes, and a cheerful willingness to embrace the fantastic in service of a rollicking tale.

#METAL GEAR SOLID PS1 RIP MOVIE#

Director Hideo Kojima essentially put together an interactive Tom Clancy movie for PlayStation. This is not to diminish the very real and impressive forward strides Solid took to advance the state of the art in video games. Rather, they were concrete references to the MSX/2 computer game upon which Solid based its entire design, 1990’s Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Most players didn’t realize that the script’s references to things like “Zanzibar Land” weren’t merely exercises in world-building. Metal Gear on the MSX Screen by Oleg Roschin, KonamiĪs a result, fans who had graduated from NES to PlayStation felt occasional flashes of deja vu while playing Solid - so many tank hangars, cardboard boxes and cigarettes! - yet only a handful of import enthusiasts understood how much Solid truly owed to what had come before. and European audiences only saw the NES port of the game, which had reshuffled and even removed key elements from its initial release on the MSX home computer. Though Solid was the third entry in the Metal Gear franchise, only the very first game (which was titled simply Metal Gear) had been localized for release outside Japan.

It’s worth noting that at the time, few players-or at least, few American and European players-realized how much of Metal Gear Solid’s cutting edge design actually amounted to 8-bit concepts that had been tarted up with stylish, 32-bit trappings. Somehow, it carried a torch of innovation that helped shine a light for the medium’s future while simultaneously locking the Metal Gear franchise itself into a recursive, backward-facing loop from which it never fully managed to escape. Half-Life! Xenogears! Ocarina of Time! Spyro the Dragon! Thief! Parasite Eve! Pokémon! And, of course, Metal Gear Solid.Įvery one of the big games of 1998 deserves to be enshrined as a legend, but Konami’s Metal Gear Solid stands out from the rest for the seemingly impossible contradiction it embodied. In the annals of video game history, the tail end of 1998 went down as what we colloquially refer to as “a real humdinger.” Rarely have so many landmark video games appeared within a few turns of the calendar page.

Metal gear solid ps1 rip