The mastermind behind the Metal Gear series, Hideo Kojima is at it again. This time around, the action will mostly be taken in the ship near New York. This ship is carrying the Rex destroyer, Metal Gear Ray (presumably created by Fox Hounds), the new Metal Gear to end all the other Metal Gears the black market has produced from the leak of information about the Rex from Shadow Moses. While we don’t know any of the information whether Ray was transporting from or to New York, a group of special operatives invade the ship and kills everyone who was on board. However, one lone figure stands in between the operatives and their goal of kidnapping Metal Gear Ray: Solid Snake. According to Kojima, the operatives are not the only ones who are after Ray. The “others” include Revolver Ocelot, complete with his new right hand, and the third “Snake” brothers, besides Liquid (now what, is he going to be named Gas?). There is also a new mysterious female character who apparently attacks Snake. GP does not know who, and why she is on board, yet. Details will unfold when Kojima releases more details. 

Gameplay-wise, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty will not be completely different from its predecessors but expect many tweaks in style of gameplay. Now Snake can perform more complex actions. Such as opening a locker to protect himself from the flying bullets, or hide bodies so the enemies won’t detect the presence of our spy (Tenchu 2 replica). There is also the FPS shooting mode. By entering this, you can attempt to take out the enemies with a headshot, or shooting the enemies in the leg if they happen to have a bulletproof shield, saving the limited ammos through out the game. There are some tweaks to the AI (artificial intelligence) system. Now the soldiers have a Thermal Goggles (no more stealth camouflage?) and learned to cooperate with other soldiers, making the situation harder for Snake. They also learned to submit in the fight, dropping their weapons rather then participating in the fight that they have no chance of victory at all. According to Kojima, 30% of PS2’s emotional engine was spent on AI system. Now that’s something to be impressed at and you can tell them by noticing that most of the backgrounds in MGS 2 are fully reactive. You can shoot down the bottles in the bar, or shoot the gas tanks to let out the gas to blind the enemies. You can even hide in a locker or hide a dead enemy that you’ve just killed…or do both! Hideo Kojima has taken a new step on the graphical implement on the gaming. 

EGM recently spoke with Kojima himself and were told that the game can be completed without actual killing non-boss enemies, using a tranquilizer. When shot in the neck or head, the enemy falls asleep instantly. When shot in the heart, the target dies instantly. When shot on any other areas, they fall asleep in couple of seconds. This was Kojima's way of showing that violence is not the only answer in response to all the bashing the video game industry has received these last few years. According to some sources, MGS 2 will carry on some weapons from the predecessor. This includes FA-MAS and SOCOM pistol. There are also new weapons. What I can tell from now, it looks like AK-47 has been chose as the new enemy weapon. And be glad fans, the cardboard boxes are returning. Got to love that item! 

The game first opened its existence to the annual E3 event held in Los Angeles where companies have an opportunity to showcase their upcoming and current projects. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty blew away the crowd with amazing graphics that were thought to be FMV's when they were actual screenshots of the game, played by Hideo Kojima himself. With PS2, MGS2 can go to all new graphical levels. One indication is the close details acted out by Snake. One example is when he is standing next to a bag of flour and once it gets shot by a guard, the flour covers Snake and he begins to sneeze. The details in the graphics also and of course have improved, for example, you can see Snake’s hair and clothes getting wet in the rain, or the details on the lightening and the real-time dynamic shadows. No confirmed release date on this title but it is expected to be release sometime around 2001. Expect more on it in the coming months.