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 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty System: PlayStation 2 (third quarter 2001) Konami unveiled Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty's first preview movie to journalists at a Universal Studios theater during E3 2000 in Los Angeles, and the next day the same footage began running before the general attendees of the convention. The roughly ten-minute presentation was cut, edited, and scored more like a movie trailer than a video game preview. In those ten minutes we were introduced to the new look of Metal Gear, powered by the PlayStation 2, and it was unlike anything we'd ever seen before. Months later, as the development cycle progresses, Metal Gear Solid 2 continues to stir us with stunningly realistic environments, especially in its use of lighting and weather effects. Character animation is also incredibly natural. The cinematic presentation in MGS was taken to new heights in the trailer, and although the action won't be presented from such a dynamic perspective in the finished game, MGS2 still advances by a huge leap the convergence of movie and game. In December 2000, Konami revealed more of Metal Gear Solid 2 to a hungry North American game press, in attendance at the company's Gamer's Day event in San Francisco. Members of the press weren't allowed to play the game, but company representatives walked the media through playable sequences, letting us see how actual gameplay footage fares next to the impressive cinematic sequences we saw earlier in the year at E3. The results were quite impressive. The actual gameplay sequences revealed spot-on graphics and highly detailed environments, from full-on explosions to the tiniest element such as the rippling of a puddle. And the option to switch in and out of first person perspective appears at this early stage to add quite a bit to the Metal Gear flavor.
Despite the pacifistic catharsis he reached at the end of MGS, Snake will indeed return for this sequel (as if we expected otherwise). During the recent demo, the game's intro movie revealed bits we've seen in previous trailers, and some new information as well. The camera focuses on a rainy night above the George Washington Bridge and then cuts to a solo figure slowly walking the bridge. He eventually breaks into a run; he then tosses aside his parka to reveal a stealth-suit silhouetted Solid Snake. Snake bungee-jumps from the bridge; then the camera slowly follows his decent onto the huge tanker that navigates the rough waters below. From here on out, the footage is completely original. Snake lands on the tanker and deactivates his suit in a flurry of electricity. The camera looks him dead in the face as he takes in his surroundings; he then quickly finds some cover. The buzz of spinning helicopter blades cuts into the audio; then the camera cuts to the helicopter that hovers some distance from the chopper. A man stares through a pair of binoculars at Snake, and as the binoculars lower, we see that it's Revolver Ocelot. Ocelot tells someone through a radio that "the boy has arrived" and that "he'll know soon enough" before the camera moves on. The sequence then shows Snake getting a call, and there's a sequence in which he discusses his situation with Otacon, who's communicating with him through Snake's codec. In this sequence, you actually see full-color 3D models of both Otacon's and Snake's faces, which is a sizable difference over the black-and-white animated sprites in last year's game. After Snake's done with dropping code words such as "Shadow Moses" and "the philanthropy group," the game gives you a little training session that helps you brush up on your skills. Back to the story, however, the Metal Gear Rex test data collected during the incident on Shadow Moses Island was later sold on the black market, and now every nuclear-capable country in the world has built its own Rex. To combat this problem, an unknown entity has constructed Metal Gear Ray (think stingray), a colossal mechanized beast whose sole purpose is to destroy the many variants of Rex. In the trailer, it appears that a terrorist group wants to hijack Ray for its own purposes, and Solid Snake is the only man who can stop them. According to the designers, the game takes place in New York City, although most of the trailer contains scenes on board a huge tanker (possibly containing Metal Gear Ray itself).
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