Metal Gear Solid V Was Going To Have An ’80s Filter

Metal Gear Solid V was going to have an “‘80s filter” that director Hideo Kojima wanted to include in the game. Kojima also referred to this as the “Apocalypse Now” filter, he said over Twitter.

The idea for the filter was largely dropped, but you can still see remnants of it in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, in the form of a burnt film effect on the screen when the player takes damage.

The reason for its removal was an issue that Kojima Productions actually encountered in Metal Gear Solid IV. In that game, they attempted to implement a glare effect that strengthened shadows. They dubbed this the “Munich filter”.

Unfortunately, the effect blackened out a number of the finer graphical details in the game, including those on character models. As a result, Kojima jokes that the idea of another such filter was met with strong opposition from his designers.