You may find it difficult to go back and play Metal Gear Solid if you’re spoiled on high-definition graphics—unless a new MGS remake project gets off the ground.
Shadow Moses is the name of a fan development effort to recreate an updated, HD version of the original Metal Gear Solid, released in 1998 for the PlayStation 1, using Unreal Engine 4. Shadow Moses is named after the island on which Metal Gear Solid took place.
The idea of revisiting such a seminal game in video game history, presented in some of the best graphics modern gaming can offer, is extremely attractive. It’s also unclear whether Konami, which owns the rights to the Metal Gear IP, will allow such a project.
The first trailer for Shadow Moses was published Sunday on YouTube, and it looks fantastic.
Metal Gear Solid was played from a third-person isometric viewpoint like the original games in the series on the Nintendo Entertainment System, but it also featured 3D cutscenes that were a first for the series.
Metal Gear Solid established the series’s penchant for eccentric boss characters and laid the groundwork for the deep lore that developer Hideo Kojima built up for the next 17 years.
The messy dissolution of the relationship between Kojima and Konami, which included Konami stripping Kojima’s name from the title of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and also preventing Kojima from accepting an award for the game, doesn’t speak to a company that would be magnanimous about lending the Metal Gear license to anyone.
In August 2014, Konami shut down a fan effort to remake the original Metal Gear NES game. Konami also squashed the sequel to Metal Gear Philanthropy, a 2009 fan film that Kojima praised.
Metal Gear Philanthropy Part 2 was canceled when Giacomo Talamini, the Italian filmmaker who directed and starred as Solid Snake in the first film, reported that Konami would not officially authorize the second film.
The Daily Dot requested comment from the developer of the Shadow Moses project but did not hear back in time for publication.
Screengrab via iRam Gamer/YouTube