Just a little retrospective I wrote.
It is super interesting to me that there was a time when you could have a giant twist like this: a hugely successful prior game setting the stage for Solid Snake being a main character, then the ‘rug pull’ of making the following sequel feature someone else.
As I’ve read elsewhere in some comments, this kind of twist couldn’t really work today, with the immediacy of social media covering every facet of everything.
From the typical action star Snake to the over-confident Raiden, the shift was a big one for Metal Gear Solid 2.
But good lord was that leap in graphics a giant one for just a few short years!
I just wrote up a little look back at how/why it was done, and since I’ve got a terrible cold/sore throat, it was an effort. If you’ve got some nostalgia for MGS2, you might enjoy this one. And my question to you here, is were you there for this? Playing the intro on the tanker as Snake, settling in to what you thought would be a Snake-filled game, then finding out Raiden was the focus? Was it a shock?
Anyway, as ever:
I stayed up half the night playing it when it came out and my brain couldn’t figure out if it was the game glitching or me going crazy from sleep deprivation when Raiden takes over.
That shit was amazing back in the day. Twists like that just don’t happen anymore.
You’re lucky you weren’t at the late game when that happened. I was sleep deprived when I got to the “shut the console off NOW” and “I need scissors! 61!” Codec calls. i was genuinely questioning my sanity a bit.