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On September 3, 1998, Metal Gear Solid was released for the Sony Playstation, and games changed forever. Though an early 3D title, MGS was not the first third-person game influenced by cinema, nor was it Hideo Kojima's first time as director, and it wasn't even the first game in the series. It was a direct sequel to Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, 8-bit top-down games which had pioneered stealth mechanics, but also a fresh start - the moment when technology could realise these ideas anew. 1998 was a great year for games - kicking off with Resident Evil 2 and ending with Half-Life - but even among such company Metal Gear Solid stands apart. Kojima's techniques have contradiction at their core: an action game about avoiding action, for example, or fusing cinematic techniques to an interactive medium.
Press start and Metal Gear Solid begins with an FPS view from underwater, looking across the opening dock area. After codec introductions the first screen to use the game's standard camera angle shows a 'hidden' ration in the water below - but when Snake goes in to retrieve it the angle switches from top-down to side-on, 'hiding' the item behind some barrels. You know the ration's there, so run Snake in anyway and get the reward. Minor as it is, this is Kojima's first 3D trick.
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