Previews
>> Metal Gear Solid 2

Publisher: Konami
Developer: KCEJ
Genre: Adventure
Origin: Japan
Number of Players: 1
Peripherals: Memory Card, Analog

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty will likely be one of the most cinematic experiences of our time -- in a videogame or on film. Everything from the camera work, to the music, the ambient background sounds, and the overall presentation just screamed big budget Hollywood movie. In fact, most Hollywood producers and directors probably could learn a thing or two from Mr. Kojima's work of art. The game's graphics are simply the best we've ever seen on the system. Even though the game does have some aliasing, it's not really a problem and nobody in his or her right mind would dare complain about it. The characters all move and animate in an extremely lifelike matter and many of the game's action scenes look straight out of an action movie. What's more, the facial expressions of the character models and overall detail of the faces have no equal in the world of videogaming.

The 3D environments are even more impressive. Not only are the background objects extremely, but the ambient weather effects and general lighting in the game are so amazing that they'll give you goose bumps when you see it. The rain, for instance, is the most realistic looking rain that has ever been included in a videogame.

Underneath all of the cinematic excellence appeared to be a lot of new features that should greatly affect and even enhance the gameplay. For one, the realtime lighting effects and shadows not only offer fantastic eye candy, but actually play a large role in the game's gameplay. You see, the enemies will detect you and realize your presence when if they notice your shadow. Moreover there could be instances in the game where as you're sneaking around a dark corner there a flash of lightning will create a shadow that alerts a guard to your being there. Another sweet 'lil effect that pushes the envelope in how realistic a game is is your interactivity with your surroundings. No, not just breaking bottles, this is much cooler. You've probably seen the pics with the steam coming out of the pipes near Snake and thought it was just graphical glitz. No, it's a bit deeper. You can use the first person mode to shoot at the pipe near an enemy and hurt him accordingly. If the steam goes to his leg, he can't run as fast. If it goes to his arm he can't aim as well, or at all. To his head he'll be disoriented for a few seconds. It's just a little effect that separates the goods from the greats. Something similar (in that it has to do with interacting with your environment) is how the environment effects Snake. Stay on the rocking boat for too long, for instance, and you'll get sea-sick. Shoot a bag of flour and you'll sneeze. If it's raining and you go into first person mode you can see the rain drizzle off his goggles and get inside of them, making it harder to see. I suppose the only way to fix this is to un-equip the goggles and re-equip them.

In another improvement over the original, there seems to be a greater importance to the aiming of your shots. Head shots can equate to instant kill and in some cases the player will be required to aim at specific body parts in order to take out the adversaries.

Metal Gear Sold 2's gameplay comes shining through in one of the game's new weapons, a tranquilizer dart. The dart is used to knock out enemies silently and without killing them. According to Kojima, skilled players will actually be able to play completely through the game without killing a single enemy. Not only will this please people who are against violence in videogames; it should also give the players a special incentive to play the game more than once.

As an unrelated side note, enemies don't just disappear once you kill them anymore. Their bodies stay. You gotta hide them. That might be a little bit of a challenge.