Daniel Melville interview: What it feels like to have a Metal Gear Solid bionic arm

Daniel Melville was born without a right hand. But the 29-year-old man from Reading in the United Kingdom is ready to do some high-fives now that he has a new bionic arm. And it’s not just any bionic arm. It’s a real 3D-printed prosthetic based on the Metal Gear Solid video game series.

Open Bionics and Metal Gear Solid publisher Konami teamed up to create a Venom Snake bionic arm for Melville, who has served as an ambassador for Open Bionics for a few years. I talked with Melville back in 2018. The company had created an artificial limb that was based on the character Adam Jensen from the sci-fi game Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. But that are wasn’t all that functional. It did look cool. The new prosthetic is different — it enables Melville to use is arm muscles to activate the bionic arm. He can get it to do things like pick up a Lego brick and place it. And Melville can use the new arm to play some PC games.