Metal Gear Solid Digital Comic
Konami finally eliminates interactivity from massively successful stealth action title
If you’re familiar with Metal Gear Solid, this won’t necessarily come as a shock. If you’re not, allow us to bring you up to speed: MGS is a hugely popular series which features Solid Snake, a one-man army special ops operative with an honours degree in stealth and who is usually happiest when waging war on a host of similarly improbably-named characters.
Known for pushing the graphical ability of the consoles it appears on, the franchise has also gained a reputation for linking its action set-pieces with increasingly lengthy cinematic sequences, albeit ones worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster.
Presumably in an effort to take this evolution to its logical conclusion, developer Kojima Productions has decided to entirely forgo direct player input for its latest PSP Metal Gear sortie. But that’s because Metal Gear Solid Digital Comic isn’t a game, you see.
The clue is in the (working) title.
Here, then, is the PSP’s first digital comic book. It’s based on the existing and stylish MGS comic detailing the full story behind the first game in the series but has been reworked into a three-dimensional medium, and so now features animation, sound effects and music to spice up the action. Strictly speaking, it’s not an entirely passive experience, as you’re able to zoom in and out of the images displayed or scan points of interest using the analogue stick. Scans are stored in a library that will apparently contain hundreds of significant elements relating to the MGS universe, which should please hardcore fans of the series.
A release date has yet to be announced but the concept certainly has our attention. If successful, expect it to encourage other developers to think beyond traditional gaming boundaries when considering their next project for Sony’s multimedia-loving handheld.
