Today happens to be Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty’s 20th anniversary. Hailed by some as one of the greatest stealth-action games of all time, MGS2 released to critical acclaim on November 13, 2001, despite some controversies such as fan-favorite protagonist Solid Snake only being playable in the opening Tanker episode. Hideo Kojima, who wrote and directed the game, has shared a series of tweets reminiscing over its development and how he can’t believe it’s already been 20 years.
1/2
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) November 13, 2021
MGS2 was a special title that expanded on many things: on-the-ground coverage of New York and tanker ships, full-scale military training including classroom clearing, the challenge of 60 frames per second, full-scale mo-cap with props and wires, https://t.co/CAcvzfgI6J
From Eurogamer, whose sub-outlet Digital Foundry shared a 4K, AI-upscaled version of MGS2’s classic E3 2000 trailer back in August:
[…] a new protagonist called Raiden was the playable character for the bulk of the game. Some players who had expected Snake to be the main character based on marketing pre-release material reacted negatively to this switch.
Metal Gear Solid 2 did include Kojima’s trademark lengthy cutscenes, of course, with extensive dialogue delivering a philosophical takedown of modern warfare. Some called it genius. Others, gibberish.
Various versions of MGS2 have been released following the original from 2001. They include Substance, an expanded version of the game, as well as an HD Edition with updated resolution and aspect ratio.
Source: Hideo Kojima (via Eurogamer)