QuickTake: Metal Gear Solid 2's source code leaked, and the surprises keep coming
Water? On a Tanker?
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is one of the best games of all time - it's why I bought a PlayStation 2 in 2001. I've played it countless times and bought it on as many systems where it's been available, but there may soon be new ways to play the game.
The game's source code leaked on April 30 via the 4Chan forums, a date which turns out to be pivotal if you've completed MGS 2 before. At first, I thought nothing of it - I figured owner Konami would shut down links to it, and that'd be it. But in the weeks since, we've seen surprises like the flood animation, which only appeared in an E3 2001 trailer, being uncovered, restoring the U.S. flag at the end, as well as early ideas for the third-person camera that would appear in both Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
A huge update to MGSHDFix, a tool that improves the PC versions of MGS 2 and 3, came out on May 24, using the leaked code to help restore the third-person camera, fix several graphical glitches, and more. It got me thinking about another aspect of game preservation that's also seemingly being squandered.
The source code is allegedly derived from the 2011 HD Collection, released by Bluepoint. However, all the original files from the 2001 PlayStation version are intact, allowing everything to be scrutinised, analysed, and changed, so it can be fully compiled to run on a PC. In addition, a debug mode has been found, with certain scenes, like the fight between Snake and Fortune in the E3 2001 trailer, can now be played.
We're already seeing fixes for certain textures and scenes that have not been fixed since the HD Collection, such as the sun when protecting Emma near the end of the game. But there are even more treats. An unannounced Wii version of 2003's Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance is referenced, as well as commented-out code referencing the deleted cutscenes due to the horrific September 11 attacks.
When they occurred in New York in 2001, some games had to be delayed and hurriedly changed so that level names or objects wouldn't reference the location out of respect. Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro is a good example here, but MGS 2 had some scenes of Arsenal Gear crashing into Manhattan that were commented out. With this newly found source code, the scenes can be restored for historical purposes, as well as objects like the American Flag.
In a video, a debug mode can be enabled, which can show how far enemies can see in certain difficulty modes, as well as being able to change the alert status, controls, or see your overall stats so far. There's a lot to play with here, and the Metal Gear community is working on more fixes.
We're not even a month into the source code being leaked, but the fact that we're seeing things like the flood effect and a debug mode with so many options is incredible. However, I can't help but think that, after the number of re-releases Metal Gear Solid 2 has had over the years, efforts like fixing the textures and lighting could have been easily done by Bluepoint and Konami.
Both have released updated versions of Metal Gear Solid games that have brought over the same bugs and oversights, whereas the community has solved some of these issues in days. With Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 2 coming later this year for PS5, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch 1 and Switch 2, as well as PC, it seems like it's been a mammoth undertaking to port Metal Gear Solid 4 over to modern systems. But I also hope that we don't get a repeat of Vol. 1's issues, such as low resolutions, glitches, and more.
Perhaps Konami can take note of what the community has already done with MGS2's source code by way of an official patch for Master Collection Vol. 1. Nevertheless, it's great to see one of the best games of all time still surprise its fans decades later.
