Hideo Kojima is known for many things—cheeky marketing campaigns, an unapologetic commitment to his artistic vision, and various other personal eccentricities—but perhaps the greatest marker of his legacy is the Metal Gear franchise, which has been dormant for quite some time. Now that Metal Gear is moving on without Kojima’s involvement, the father of the franchise himself is coming out of the woodwork with a cinematic espionage game for PlayStation, known only as Physint.
Virtually nothing has been revealed about the enigmatic Physint, but Kojima has admitted that one of his primary motivations for its development is the fan outcry for a new espionage game in the wake of Metal Gear. They may seem a bit dated now, at least graphically and in terms of production value, but when the first Metal Gear Solid game released in 1998, it was unlike anything that gaming audiences had ever seen: the notion that games could approach the level of film with their visuals and atmosphere was something that had rarely been attempted before, and coupled with innovative stealth gameplay, Metal Gear Solid wound up being something truly special. The franchise would go on to reinvent itself with each release, and while only time will tell what it will look like without Kojima at the helm, its spirit may very well live on through Physint.
Related
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1’s 2.0 Update Leaves One Platform High and Dry
Metal Gear Solid Master Collection: Volume 1 recently got a substantial performance update, but one platform has been left out in the cold.
Kojima’s Involvement Will Make Physint’s Similarities to Metal Gear Hard To Deny
Though one should never be too certain about what to expect from a Kojima game, an espionage game that is, at least in part, a response to the lack of a modern Metal Gear, is bound to feel a bit familiar for longtime fans. Even if it’s radically different, the mere fact that Physint is a cinematic stealth game means that it will be compared to Kojima’s previous body of work—after all, it happened with Death Stranding, and that game is a world apart from Metal Gear.
Kojima’s Portfolio Is Growing Increasingly Diverse
If another game director revisted their old genre, it could be seen as going backward, but Kojima is becoming more and more varied with his work as time goes on, which may allow him to duck these sorts of assumptions. OD is shaping up to be a nail-biting horror experience, and Death Stranding 2 seems to be doubling down on its predecessor’s bizarre gameplay and story premise, so it would be hard to argue that Kojima Productions is getting too narrow with its scope.
If anything, Physint should be seen as a return to form for Kojima Productions, allowing the famed studio to get back to its roots and play in the same genre space that put it on the map in the first place. As previously mentioned, Metal Gear Solid never feels the same between entries, with each new game leaping forward with new mechanics and absurd story developments, so there’s no reason to believe that Physint will be any different. Perhaps it will feel like another Metal Gear Solid game, in the sense that it will be an evolution of the concepts introduced in Metal Gear Solid 5, with a heavy dose of ingredient X.
One thing is for sure: Physint will be a thoroughly interesting project to watch unfold. Kojima isn’t just Metal Gear anymore—Death Stranding and OD will continue to shape his legacy as an artist, and perhaps Physint will be influenced by these newer titles. One can only hope that some Metal Gear DNA makes its way into the mix as well.
Metal Gear
The Metal Gear series was originally produced by Konami and features an iconic set of characters like Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, Sniper Wolf, Psycho Mantis, Raiden, and more. The franchise has seen a variety of spin-offs but the main series is a third-and-first-person stealth game that has players using a variety of characters across many complex and action-packed storylines.