User:The Corn Man/Metal Gear Solid 2

This page sucks. If you could make it suck less, that would be awesome. Specifically: Such an awesome game, with not too much info.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty
Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Platform: PlayStation 2 Released in JP: November 29, 2001 Released in US: November 12, 2001 Released in EU: March 8, 2002 This game has unused areas. This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused modes / minigames. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused abilities. This game has regional differences.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

Plot

“According to Hideo Kojima in the documentary Metal Gear Saga Vol. 1, the original plot of the game revolved around nuclear weapon inspections in Iraq and Iran and had Solid Snake trying to stop the Metal Gear while it was located on an aircraft carrier, in a certain time limit, while trying to stop Liquid Snake and his group. However about six months into the project the Middle East began to heat up again and they decided that they couldn’t make a game with such a plot. The tanker in the released game is based on this original beta plot.

City Of Glass

MGS2 was also intended to reference the novel City of Glass, notably in the naming of its characters.Raiden's support team originally featured a different field commander named Colonel Daniel Quinn; Maxine "Max" Work, an Asian woman who saves game data and quotes Shakespeare, and William "Doc" Wilson, the creator of GW. All take their names from key characters in the book, and all three would have turned out to be artificial intelligences. None of these characters survived to the final edition, their roles being absorbed by other characters, namely the "Colonel Campbell" simulation, Rose, and Emma Emmerich. Peter Stillman, however, takes his name from another City of Glass character. Kojima has also cited another novel, Kōbō Abe's Kangaroo Notebook, as an influence on the game.

Ending Changes

Significant changes to the game’s ending were made late in development following the September 11 attacks in New York, where the finale occurs. A sequence depicting Arsenal Gear’s displacement of the Statue of Liberty and crashing through half of Manhattan was removed, as was a short coda to appear after the credits, a breaking newscast showing the Statue of Liberty’s new resting place, Ellis Island. At the point where Solidus dies, Raiden was supposed to have cut the rope on Federal Hall’s flagpole, causing an American flag to fall over Solidus’ body, and American flags which were supposed to be on all the flagpoles in New York were removed from the title.

Some pictures of Snake in an early prototype for MGS2, showed a Cell Shaded graphic. It originally was going to have a radically different art style, more on tune with the style of the concept art. This may have been from the proposed idea of the middle east storyline.” – wikipedia

Removed Assets

The player must get away from the tanker as it sinks, but Hideo Kojima took this out of the final game because "it was not funny to play". Chinaman, first design of Solidus Snake and a female version of Vamp, were old concept art, later changed or removed. In another scene, Snake was attacked by the harrier in the city, but this never happens in the final version (Raiden kills the harrier on the Plant). This scene was likely cut because of 9 / 11.

Unused Content:

Numerous assets that were not features in the final game were included in the Documents of Metal Gear Solid 2 disk that was provided to those who preordered the game.

Weaponry:

The model of the FAMAS not used in MGS2 outside of flashback cutscenes was reused for MGS: The Twin Snakes for Nintendo Gamecube.

Locations:

Several beta plant locations, the downtown section of New York City that was cut due to 9/11. A recreation of the Heliport and the interior of the main building of Shadow Moses were also created, but went unfeatured.

Vehicles:

Metal Gear Rex, an Osprey Helicopter, and Abrams tank.

Codec Conversations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HtyOR7jmFs

Original Design Document

In 2006 Jesse Johnson & Marc Laidlaw from the MetalGearSolid.org community, shared and translated the original MGS2 Design Document that was written by Kojima / Konami as a guide to develop the final project. In this document (that you can download in here as a backup copy) there are a lot of interesting informations about removed scenes, unused gameplay elements and other stuff that was not revealed directly in the game. Here are some of the most interesting parts:

MGS2 was meant to be called Metal Gear Solid III: Instead of proceeding on to MGS2, as one might expect, we are making MGS3. The question in peoples’ minds, ‘Why is it 3 and not 2?’

In the previous game, only 4 to 5 enemies could be shown on-screen at a time. Now we will be able to display a maximum of around 300 enemies on-screen at a time.

We will create ways for the player to be able to control the brightness of their environment, making ‘light’ another strategy element that can be used in the game. All rooms have light switches that can be turned on and off. If you destroy a light, the area around it goes dark. If you equip the cigarette item while in the dark, it will emit a faint light

After an injured soldier has received treatment (lasting a set period of time) in a medical room, they will return to the game field. The area of the body where they were injured will be covered in a bandage texture. If you attack a medical facility, you can prevent this from happening again.

After Arsenal becomes active, the area with the hostages is cut loose. The bodies of the hostages (50 to 60) can be seen floating in the water, crimson from all the blood, and have attracted sharks. Raiden and Snake must proceed through the area.

A battle that takes place on Wall Street (at Federal Hall) – Snake versus Ocelot (controlled by Liquid’s right arm), and Raiden versus Solidus. Surrounding them are spectators and police officers, including mounted police.

It will be possible to deliver a type of attack with the hands while crouching or crawling whereby you grab an enemy’s legs and knock them over

In certain parts of the game, the game screen will be split up either horizontally or vertically, with one side of the screen showing a normal cut-scene. The other side will be the player’s game screen, so they will be able to continue playing while being able to see what is going on in the other screen. By doing this, we can display simultaneous sequences in real-time, showing what else is happening while a particular event is occurring. Split-screen scenes: The bomb disposal scenes where Raiden, Snake and the bomb disposal consultant are all working together. Emma’s rescue (the sniping scene)

A type of hidden mode. By equipping an item called ‘Mantis’s Mask’, obtainable in the main game, you will be able to read peoples’ (enemies’) minds. [This was somehow used as an easter egg if you press the R1 or R2 button while Snake or Raiden is listening to someone, you can hear their thoughts]

This will be a mode for split-screen two player battles in certain areas from the game. It will be compatible with system link-up as well. Players can either fight each other or play a hide-and-seek type game.

In addition, the player will be able to virtually explore the ocean floor through a remote-controlled minisub, and can also save pictures taken with its camera.

Bosses

Member of Dead Cell;A soldier over 100 years old. A legendary hero from the Second World War, he taught Big Boss and the world’s mercenaries everything they know about combat. As a Nazi, he was feared as the ‘Old Boy’, or the ‘devil’. He fights with weapons and equipment used during the war, such as the Panzerfaust. The concept was later reused in Metal Gear Solid 3 for the idea of "The End".

Chinaman; A swimmer with control over sealife. His fight was to feature great white sharks (which were also going to be featured in the underwater scene prior to his fight in the Filtration area, where the bodies of the hostages floating in the water would had attract sharks. His scenes were replaced with Vamp instead.)

The President’s security team.

Misc.

More recently, Kojima revealed that the name "Raiden" was spelled in kanji rather than katakana due to the latter form of the name resembling "Bin Laden" in Japanese.