As of five days after this writing, possibly the greatest game ever will be released. I’m not one to usually follow the hype, but after playing the demo of this game, its hard not to. Not only were the graphics utterly stunning and the controls top notch, but also the sound, detail, and story were nearly perfect. Of course my judgment is based upon the demo, but if Konami has stuck with this formula there is no doubt in my mind, or in the mind of anyone that this game will be a classic. MGS2:SOL is going to be great.

Hideo Kojima is truly amazing. The style of his games makes the perfect blend of cut scenes and gameplay. His attention to detail is incredible. While playing the demo, I took out a guard, and dragged him to the side of the ship, where I tossed him off of the boat and made a splash in the water, which was waving up and down like my heart rate was at the time. Then I moved up on a balcony where I proceeded to find a box, which I recognized instantly as the infamous cardboard box. When putting on though, I realized that it was a WET cardboard box and the sides looked frail and certain parts limp. Since I had to go to the bathroom, and knew there weren’t any guards around, I left my game unattended, and upon arrival back to my game I noticed that the box had wore away in the rain. After this it was onward into the ship. Sneaking along quietly I saw the shadow of a guard, so as quickly as I could I pinned myself against a wall. The guard proceeded to turn around and I as fast as a lightning bolt, peeked around the corner took aim and pumped him full of tranquilization drugs. From there I dragged his limp body into a room and stuffed him in a locker, one of which there was a girly poster. After noticing that I began to search the other lockers and came across a pistol, which I took with great pleasure. In the locker right beside that I found another girly poster. I pressed my back against the open door and then accidentally preformed what I’d like to call a “love tap”. After a slight knock on the pelvic region of the lady in the poster, the infamous (!) popped above the head of Snake. So I immediately hid inside of one of the lockers, the same one as the girly poster was in. When in there the view changed to first person mode and I tapped the crouch button, and then for no reason at all the first person view mode button, and of all things to hear at a time like that, Snake making a kissing noise towards the poster. I waited as two guards tactically searched for me and lucky for me they didn’t search the complete room. After they left I started messing around and went to the locker with the sleeping goon and started to kick it and punch it. The door fell off and his limp self fell out onto the floor beneath me. I took out my newly acquired pistol and gave him a bullet to the cranium and saw his head jerk and that was the end of him. As his body was lying in the pool of draining blood I decided to see what other details had been implemented into the game, so I for no particular reason, decided to shoot the fire extinguisher, and sure enough, white powder everywhere. From this point I left the room and began to turn the corner when I noticed another guard in the position as the dead guard had previously been before I murdered him. So I almost instinctively whipped out my trusty tranquilizer gun and fired a projectile towards the end of the hall in is direction. Which I’m sad to say, I missed. Luckily for me the projectile zipped by his head and straight into a pipe, when then began to spew out hot steam directly in his face, from that point I just fired another round and let him hit the floor. Being the nosey little person I am though, I decided to see what would happen if hot steam got on him while in his sleep, so I dragged him as close to the wall as possible. His head was propped up on the wall a little and I stepped back and took aim at the pipe, shot, and out came the steam. Nothing happened really the first time, so I continually tried and then after a little while the hot steam had killed him. From here I proceeded into the next area, which was, like the rest of the entire demo, gorgeous. I peeked around a corner and saw two guards, so decided to run and dive past the doorway so they wouldn’t see me. From there I went, slowly, down a flight of stairs and came up behind a guard. I quickly snatched him in a headlock and dragged him up the stairs, as he tried to fight away I gave a few quick jerks and back to helpless he went. His continuous squirming only helped me as it drew the attention of the other guards. They slowly came closer and closer, as one fired I jerked and he hit his comrade in the head, and they continued to fire, and when they had to reload I quickly dropped the other guard and popped out my trusty tranquilizer gun and fired two rounds into one guards abdomen and one into the others neck. As they went down without much of a fuss I began to explore the area. Walking past a glass window I noticed a rack of magazines and a flat screen TV over on the side of the room. First I proceeded to the magazine rack to which I, again, took out my trusty tranquilizer gun and began to shoot the magazines, and not to my surprise, paper shreds went everywhere like confetti at a New Years Eve party. I went over to watch the TV. Nothing interesting, so I turned around, and directly in front of me I saw a liquor bar. I figured well I’ve been through quite a bit already, so might as well head on over and check it out. After making it over to there I noticed lots of liquor bottles and nice wine glasses, and I figured, since the guards were sleeping, I didn’t think they’d be needing a drink, so I decided to bust a cap and pulled out my tranquilizer gun and began to shoot the bottles. Tons of nicely colored wine and glass shards went everywhere. I noticed that the bottles broke at the exact point of the collision of the projectile, so when I shot the bottom of the bottle off and it became unstable, it would fall over. It was gorgeous. From that point I went back to the big glass structure and shot it a few times. Nothing. So I went back and shot it more and finally the glass saw a cascade of cracking, and then fell down. This is the only part I think where this game could have borrowed from another. That game that it could borrow from is Red Faction, but the glass effect is the only aspect of the game I would change, and it is only one part, so I think I can live without. Anyway, on with my story, after this I went up a flight of small steps and to another door and then into an area where a guard was watching his area around the corner. So I slowly snuck along the wall and got near the edge, and to my surprise, the AI was smart enough that the guard saw a little sliver of my foot and came barreling around the corner, lucky for me I was able to get in a few quick punches and kicks that sent him to the ground and stunned him long enough for me to put him to sleep. Onward I went, the next area was the kitchen. Going into the kitchen I noticed tables and a few dead ship faculty members. So I went up toward the cooking area of the kitchen, where I noticed plates, which I cheerfully shot and watched as they one by one, began descending. From there I decided to have a little fun with the ice bucket. First shooting it and tipping it over and watching the ice spill onto the wooden counter and watching the ice, slowly but definitely melting away. Then I decided to have a little target practice with the pans and shot one with a ping, which sent it swaying hitting the others in a domino type fashion. From there I went to the tables and decided to have a little fun blowing away the ketchup bottles and napkin holders. After they were nice and gone, I crawled under the tables to discover more ammo. Then when getting out I noticed a nice little spy camera that I gladly, took out of the mix by sending a few darts in its direction, then out the door I noticed another guard which I took care of without the slightest hint of a problem. Then just screwing around, I shot a fire extinguisher which revealed to me a laser system that had bombs attached to it, so I crawled under this and made my way to a small storage room and decided to have a little fun with the items in there, but before I could someone had burst my bubble and came in the room. I was near the back so I crawled under a shelf type structure stacked with fruit and wine. I, this time, pulled out my pistol and decided to rid him of the pleasure of being in my presence. I shot him about three times in the leg, and blood poured out and he was on his way to the ground. From that point another guard quickly came in searching for the other, and he began to kick the cardboard box in which I had found in the room and was currently hiding in and once he found nothing he started to turn around, and then he was dead because he quickly met the point of another one of my many darts. I then, rather quickly, disposed of him by putting a bullet from my pistol in his head. At that point I figured I had enough time to play around in the room a little bit. So I started to fire at a few flour sacks and sure enough, out came the powdery goodness. From there I shot the fruit, which instinctively broke apart and then I decided enough was enough and went to head up the stairwell that I saw by the laser trigger system. When getting up it I found myself in the ships main control room. Seeing the dead captain and the rain on the out side of the ship I searched the room for a just a little and discovered a ration. Then I made my way outside, turning the big watertight seal on the door. Once out side I encountered a woman who which then told about her family in a cut scene in which there was spoken dialogue, but since it was in Japanese I couldn’t tell what it meant so I actually had to read it. After that she began fire upon me, I quickly ducked behind a crate, and then, a small smoke trail came from her area to mine and then a big explosion, to which I’m glad to say didn’t really hurt me. Then at that point I raised up and just as I did a cut-scene and she fired at a small string and the crates she hid behind had a tarp flapping in the wind so I couldn’t get a good shot at her, so I decided to shoot the other string that was holding it down and that brought me to another cut scene where the tarp completely flew off of the ship. From that point on there were many shots fired and needless to say I came out victorious with half of my life still in tact. That brought me to the close of the demo.

Now if this isn’t enough to stir your blood about the game just a little then I don’t know what is. I definitely want to get this game and I would have paid the price for just the demo alone had I had known that it would be that breathtaking. If you’re looking to be in preparation for some tactical espionage this game should strike your fancy. If not try this out anyway, because it is sure to be a game for the ages.