The government-trained specialist Solid Snake returns as the protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2, and from all the footage shown, it's evident that Snake looks and moves more realistically than his younger self. He bolts through high-risk areas, dives out of range of enemy fire, lies in ambush around corners, shimmies across catwalks, and more. ut Snake's done most of that already in Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation - as such, it's not that Metal Gear Solid 2 seems like it'll have a radically different concept than its predecessor. [images]Instead, even as Metal Gear Solid helped set new standards for cinematic quality in games, so too does the sequel stand poised to pioneer a change in the expectations for quality of game graphics and gameplay realism. Solid Snake himself looks extremely realistic in the sequel, and the game's environment is equally impressive. Most of the action actually takes place off the coast of New York, in a gigantic ship that looks like an oil tanker. The outdoor sequences aboard the ship take place in heavy rain at night, and you could see the rain drenching Snake's hair and clothing. Characters casted real-time and dynamic shadows, and in one sequence Snake waited around the corner for a guard whose elongated shadow first gave away his presence.But though everyone was impressed with the preview footage, fans of Metal Gear Solid seemed especially excited:In addition to Snake, Metal Gear characters like the young professor Hal "Otacon" Emmerich and the deadly gunslinger Revolver Ocelot would return with major roles in the sequel. The blueprints of Metal Gear Rex were eventually leaked out of the deserted Alaskan base in the PlayStation game, and have since become available for sale on the black market. As a result, a number of countries and private organizations have come into possession of their own Metal Gears. [images]To combat this proliferation of Rexes, an unknown organization, FoxHound? Developed a Rex-killer, dubbed Metal Gear Ray. Metal Gear Ray is supposedly being moved by ship either from or to New York, when a group of special operatives invade the oil tanker. In a matter of seconds, all of the crew and hands on deck are killed. However, one lone figure stands in between the operatives and their goal of kidnapping Metal Gear Ray: Solid Snake. It appears, however, that these mysterious operatives aren't the only people after Ray. Bosses under the command of Solidus, the third "Snake" brother revealed after the final credits of Metal Gear Solid have been seen in the footage involved in combat with Snake. [images]Kojima (the designer) said that Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty will raise the alarm about the digitization of society. "What kind of liberty will we have in a completely digital society?" asked Kojima. Once the game is released in the fall of 2001 we will know the answer.