"Oh Hideo…" they said, but little did they realize that Metal Gear Solid 3 would become the best entry in the franchise. It was then that we learned once again that Solid Snake would be taking a back seat in this game to another character, and many just rolled their eyes at the thought. Ummm… when did Metal Gear Solid become a Cold War drama? And how old is Snake really? In this trailer though, we get glimpses of the Soviet Union's flag, and that can only mean one thing. Right away, we see that something is wrong with this game though… the setting! Metal Gear Solid takes place in 2005 and Metal Gear Solid 2 in 2009. Metal Gear Solid 2 might have been a sidestep in the progression of the franchise, but Hideo Kojima promised to get it right in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. It's so ridiculously over-the-top, but that's just how I like my Metal Gear Solid.
High point: That opening scene with Snake jumping onto the tanker is just a little too cool especially with the classic theme blaring in the background. It can make your game a huge success, but it can also break your reputation. Keep your noses clean, publishers! Honest trailers, please! However, this shows the power of a trailer.
Metal Gear Solid 2 has been reevaluated over the years, and people like it more than they used to now that emotions have settled. Wow! Metal Gear Solid 2 was ten times worse, and let's not forget that it was completely overshadowed by the biggest sleeper-hit of all time, Grand Theft Auto III, later that holiday season. This trailer was so huge, it led to major backlash aimed at Hideo Kojima and Konami when the actual game failed to live up to it. We assumed we would be playing as Snake throughout this whole action adventure thanks to this trailer and the demo that followed, but nope. No mention of the big shell, a far more boring action set piece, and of course, no mention of… ugh… Raiden. All of this footage was taken from the Tanker Level in Metal Gear Solid 2, aka, the opening 15 minutes. Of course, the downside of this trailer was that it turned out to be one big fat lie. Hanging from fences and ledges? Holding up guards and frisking them? Riot shields? First-person shooting?! What! It was on the gameplay front though that Metal Gear Solid 2 changed the most though. His model was fully articulate and could generate genuine human expressions. What changed between games? Well, for one thing, Snake's face was no longer reduced to boxes. 3D had evolved to a higher standard thanks to the PlayStation 2, and the cinematic possibilities of Hideo Kojima's imagination seemed like they could finally be fully realized. If Metal Gear Solid got universal praise for its trailer, then I don't know what to call the reaction to Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. This trailer is something of a legend in and of itself, and I actually can remember the hype on this one. I missed this trailer in 1997, but my mind would have been blown seeing that after being stuck in 2D platformers and JRPGs for the better part of my life. High point: Hands down Solid Snake battling it out with the Cyborg Ninja. It's hard to remember a time when this was cutting edge, but after E3 1997, there was no going back. This trailer made the game one of the most hotly anticipated titles on the market, and it dominated the competition when it launched the following year in 1998, rivaled only by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. No hints at Metal Gear Solid's groundbreaking localization anywhere! That's an element we would uncover through experience, not through hype. What's noticeably absent from the trailer though is any story or voice acting. Guards who react to suspicious sounds and sights, binoculars to look at the world through a first-person view, attaching to walls to get around security cameras, in-engine action and cutscenes. The rest of the trailer is just a look at how forward thinking the gameplay was. These models did not get left on the cutting floor, and the gaming world became a better place because of it. Of course, Metal Gear Solid is famous for telling its story almost entirely through in-engine graphics and has no such pre-rendered footage in the game. Before it jumps into the gameplay, Konami decided to show off a few pre-rendered CG models of the Gray Fox ninja, Revolver Ocelot, and the HIND helicopter.
It's very obvious this footage comes from an early build thanks to the first few seconds. I first heard about Metal Gear Solid through an older cousin who was talking about guards "noticing footsteps" and "reacting to sounds." I guess this would be the trailer he saw. In 1997, I was aboard the PlayStation train, but my twelve-year-old mind was too fascinated by Final Fantasy and Squaresoft to broaden my horizons. The first Metal Gear Solid turned up at E3 before I even knew what E3 was.
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