One of the top games next to Final Fantasy X, I've been waiting for on Playstation 2 was Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. With the recent released of Zone of Enders, a good game in it's own right, came the demo of this greatly anticipated masterpiece of "tactical espionage action" created by Hideo Kojima. Metal Gear Solid originally appeared on the Playstation a little over 2 years ago. It was one hell of a game, with a captivating action based plotline, excellent graphics even by playstation standards. a well portrayed cast of characters, and intense gameplay. Who can forget hiding in the cardboard box! In all the game magazines that reviewed the game, it received a maximum score of all 10's from what I remember. Indeed this wasn't a fantasy based RPG, or an adventure like Zelda, but nevertheless I have to admit that I really enjoyed Metal Gear Solid, and considering amongst the top 10 games of all times.

Rumors about Metal Gear Solid 2 were just that rumors, Hideo Kojima said that he wouldn't make another Metal Gear game after this one, however time and the yearning hearts of gamers everywhere have brought to fruition ultimate answer to what Metal Gear Solid started. The Playstation 2 has proven to be far in advance of it's predecessor, however it's title killer ap lineup has been somewhat feeble. Metal Gear Solid 2 promises to be that game that will take it to the next level, a game that will be just as much of an experience as Shenmue was on the Dreamcast. Konami recently released a game Zone of Enders and with it came the Metal Gear Solid 2 Demo. I of course got Z.O.E., honestly, just for the MGS demo.

Once I opened ZOE, I put the Metal Gear Solid Demo into the PS2. Once I selected the Difficulty Level and the Radar Type, it brought me to what would seem to be a FMV, it might not be, but it probably was. SPOILER ALERT!!! (Don't say I didn't warn you) You will see a scene of the Brooklin Bridge in NY with it pouring rain, the wind and rain are pelting everything. A man in a rain slicker smoking a cigarette is walking down the road. He is being pelted by the rain. Rain droplets distort the image of the camera as it pans to the street with the cars and their lights blurring in the rain. The man tosses the cigarette aside, and starts running, the slicker flies off, and he turns tranparent, donning some kind of cloaking device. It's Solid Snake! He runs and jumps off the side of the bridge on a Bungie Cord and lands on the deck of a naval freighter. Flashes of electricity blast from his body (a la Terminator Arrival, looked exactly the same) and the cloak wears off. He is on the ship. We then get to see him talking to Otacon about Metal Gear and how Revolver Oscelot sold the plans to foriegn agencies. On the Demo everything is spoken in Japanese. We discover that he Russians are involved in the plot to hijack the freighter. I do believe Revolver Oscelot is watching from a helicopter nearby.

Once you get past the cinematics and the dialogue on his radio you get to start playing the game. From the start you are equiped with a Tranquilizer gun to stun the enemy soldiers, his special issue binoculars and his pack of smokes. You will be outside on the deck of the freighter. The rain effects here are just awesome, I've never seen this done this well in a video game. You can switch to first person view and have a look around. You can see the laser dot point of the gun on the wall and the beam appearing in the rain. If you look into the rain you will get water in your eyes and can see the droplets hitting your eyes, burring your vision. There were some guys around here that I found and stunned. One time I did let him get shot several times, and he bleeds realistically and leaves behind a blood trail if he's hurt pretty bad. I ended up finding a ration, a wet cardboard box, and some bandages. Once you stun this guy to the left side of the ship, you will be prompted to open the pressure door and go inside. You don't have to, if you want you can explore more areas.

When you go inside you will be in a hallway, you'll notice that your wet shoes are making wet footprints when you enter, and droplets will be coming off of him onto the ground. I ended up going into the first door on my right when I turned the corner and it was a locker room. I found some items in here, like bullets, and I think some other item. If you open one of the lockers you will notice a pretty high res picture of an asian girl in a bakini. You can also hide yourself in the lockers. If you do so the view will change to First Person and you will be able to see out of the grating in the locker door. I out of curiousity shot the fire extinguisher in this room, and sure enough it released CO2 like the real thing all over the place. It even left behind a stain like it really would.

When I left the locker room I stunned the guard around the corner and walked up to the area where the lounge is. You will encounter a stairwell that goes down near here and I think there were stun grenades in there. In the lounge there were 2 or three guys. Everything in here is really detailed. I shot up the place a little and the glass shattered like real glass would shatter. You know, it's the little things that count, and you can tell attention was paid to detail just in the ribbon that snake wears, I would move like a real light piece of cloth would move, showing how realistic the physics model was for this game. Furthermore, the ribbon doesn't pass through Snake's body. It's never really bothered me, but in Soul Calibur you'll notices that parts of their armor, hair or their own weapon may pass through their body occasionally. This ribbon doesn't do that. Even the damn ribbon has collision detection and that's just plain amazing. I quickly discovered the quality of dynamic camera angling, and the ability to adjust the camera to suit your needs especially when you need to look around the corner, view things in first person, or get an over the top view, truly this team has figured out the problems with the camera angles in many other video games and have mastered it as not only a asset to the player but a way of adding dramatic cinematic effect to real time gameplay. As you progress through the various areas, and crew quarters you will eventually arrive at the bridge of the ship. From here you will encounter a Russian woman, and stuff gets real cool here. I saw stuff that reminded me of the Matrix here, and once a battle with her ensues it's just intense, and includes more of that "real time cinematic" approach. It's not like they cut away from active gameplay, you are playing, yet the scene changes to suit the placement of the characters and active time events. You will be firing at the Russian girl who is firing at you and throwing grenades from behind a stack of boxes and crates, and it's outside, in the rain, and there is this tarp blowing in the wind very realistically. She will even shoot the tarp and use it for cover! Once you defeat her, the demo is basically over. I have to say, this is the ultimate gaming experience, realism, great gameplay, everything is perfect about this. I just can't wait for the game when it comes out, it will certainly be one of those milestone occurrances in gaming history.