Credits go to the official Shadow Moses Facebook page for the image.
Amid recent legal tussles between Konami and Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, an independent Metal Gear Solid fan project has been lurking in the shadows. That project is Shadow Moses, a complete recreation of the first Metal Gear Solid game in Unreal Engine 4. Its sole creator, Airam Hernandez, released the project’s first trailer today.
Hernandez first posted the fruits of his labor back in October last year in a video that toured some of the mod’s environments and locales. This latest incarnation showcases some of Metal Gear Solid’s classic stealth gameplay rendered in UE4, which has delighted many fans of the series.
In addition, the game will receive voice acting. Hernandez released a sample of Solid Snake’s voice back in December last year.
Hernandez explains his reasoning for undertaking the project on Shadow Moses’ official Facebook page:
The first objective of this project was to recreate just the Shadow Moses environments and [to] make a ‘museum game’ to those who wanted to explore the base with current technology. My surprise was that [after] after a few weeks, everybody was talking about it! So many online magazines started writing articles and I received a lot of messages offering help and support. That’s the reason I decided to remake the entire game.
So far, neither Konami nor Kojima have taken any action against Hernandez. He explains on the Facebook page, though, that he is openly sharing Shadow Moses‘ development process online so that he can openly deal with any legal issues that might arise in the future.
We just need to clarify something:
Konami owns the MGS copyright and therefore sooner or later
we will need their full permission.We have therefore chosen to openly share this project from the beginning so that we can deal with any issues that may arise as they come.
We believe this is better than putting years of work into a project only
to get it shut down.Please, respect this decision.
Thanks for your attention,
Airam.
Though Konami hasn’t brought down the hammer of judgment on Shadow Moses just yet, there is no telling what kind of future lays in store for Hernandez’s faithful reimagining of the classic stealth-shooter. Fans can follow his progress through the mod’s Facebook page, which Hernandez updates regularly.