Feature By

Dale Weir

To call Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty (MGS2) a highly anticipated game would be the understatement of understatements. To date, our original preview of the game is one of the most popular features on our entire site. A day hardly goes by that we don't get a question about the game, its availability or whether it will be released on the PC or PlayStation at a later date [for the record MGS2 will be PlayStation 2 (PS2) exclusive and will likely remain so until Konami confirms that a version is in the works for Microsoft's Xbox and/or Nintendo GameCube]. Not ones to pass up on a golden opportunity though, we have compiled newly released screenshots of MGS2 and thrown together an update to our last preview. It's not lost on us that the entire gaming industry has been deluged with screens of Konami's potential masterpiece, but new information has emerged since the last time we covered Konami's uber-release.

For one thing, the state of the PS2 has taken a turn for the worse. Sony's next-generation machine was preordained to herald in a new gaming age once it hit store shelves. As many of us have already learned, that has not been the case. The first wave of software has been anything but innovative. You'd be accurate in calling these releases 128-Bit graphical updates to 32-Bit games and genres. This has brought a great deal of criticism against Sony and its new machine for not living up to its own grandiose promises. In short, the console lacks a killer app to justify its existence—a bill that MGS2 clearly fills.

This, in turn, raises the stakes for all parties involved. Onlookers hoping for hints of what the PS2 could really do are looking to Kojima and his development team. Ironically, Hideo Kojima himself has been increasingly critical when asked his opinion of the PS2's development environment. This could explain why Konami has yet to present a firm Japanese release date and the US and European release (which will be simultaneous in both territories) has been up in the air. That aside, what Kojima has managed to get out of this machine until now is truly inspiring. Even a passing glance at the next-generation Metal Gear will reveil something previously unseen in games. It's hard to argue that whenever it is released, MGS2 could be the game to not only save the PS2, but perhaps even usher in a videogame renaissance.

Over the following nineteen pages, we'll take another look at one of the PS2's reasons for existing.