Resistance: Fall of Man
After the smoke cleared and the last of the trash bags were dumped at Sony Pictures Studios post-Sony press conference, one of the most talked about facets of the show besides the PS3 and its price point was the new trailer for director Hideo Kojima's update to the legendary Metal Gear Solid franchise. Laying out more of the overall picture of what players can expect from the next adventure of Solid Snake, the preview laid out a grimmer picture than fans of the series have likely been used to seeing.
Konami held a press conference early Tuesday in downtown L.A. in which they announced a variety of new titles for PSP, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii, and PlayStation 3. Kojima Productions closed out the festivities with an overview of their new titles. Taking on the theme "Kojima Productions' Next Revolt: The Battle for E3," Kojima Productions' American mouthpiece Ryan Payton showed off the future of the team's productions under an umbrella of themes, including Return, Rebirth, Respect, Regale, Refine, and Rearm. Different games represented each concept; for example, the upcoming Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel embodies Respect, as it pays tribute to the legacy of the classic PlayStation title. Of course, the team saved Rearm, which was Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for last and surprised the crowd with an extended cut of the trailer shown at Sony's event. While the Sony trailer showed off some of the plot basics, it was sparse in regard to certain details. This new cut shows off even more of both the polished graphics that have gotten gamers buzzing.
Opening with a war-torn Middle Eastern landscape, the trailer mentions that the events of MGS 2: Sons of Liberty have affected the global landscape. As a result, the world has become a war-torn place in which battlelines are drawn without regard to nationality or loyalty. War has become a scientifically calculated, rationalized experience. It's a battleground of mercenaries in which every soldier is ID-tagged. Every weapon is ID-tagged to that soldier. Genome soldiers gone wild? It's not clear yet. What is clear is that there are a lot of Metal Gear-like tanks running around mauling people indiscriminately before the action cuts to Snake firing up a death stick, and somehow, a revived Outer Heaven has something to do with it. As he elaborates on the state of affairs before we learn more about why he's old and exactly what's going on. It seems to have something to do with his genetics, but he's rapidly reaching his expiration date. That's right, our intrepid hero only has six months to live. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that he's planning to go out in a blaze of glory.
The action cuts to Snake in the bed of a pickup truck with other soldiers. He has an outfit that camouflages him as a Middle Eastern guerilla fighter, but after the truck stops in the middle of a firefight, his shrouds are torn to shreds to reveal his combat suit. He then takes on a few Metal Gear-like tanks as they attempt to take him out. As they blast through the building where he attempts to hide and turn walls to rubble, Snake flees them with more deftness and athleticism than an old man with a smoking habit should.
It turns out that just when he thinks he's escaped, one of them starts to climb along the side of the building to eliminate him. Upon reaching the rooftop, Snake's outfit starts to transform. The tanks finally reach and scour the roof for his location. Finding only a cigarette smoldering on the ground, they look around and find a cardboard box labeled "NO PLACE FOR HIDEO," which elicited laughs from the audience. The machines proceed to crush the box, which splatters red. The camera cuts to reveal that the tanks have destroyed a box of watermelons. As the machines give up and move off, Snake starts to reappear, having visually melded with the fruit through some sort of stealth camouflage.
The action then moves to the cast of characters shown, including Naomi Hunter, who briefly philosophizes, "We all must atone for our own sins. We must not pass them on to the next generation. We must not leave them to the future." We see Meryl, who seems to have re-formed Fox Hound. Col. Roy Campbell is shown mentioning some sort of threat, and the Patriots are involved. Otacon, shown crying, mentions that he wants it to be their final battle. Liquid Ocelot (perhaps some sort of questions from Sons of Liberty will get an answer, like Ocelot suddenly speaking like Liquid Snake?) criticizes Snake as being both immoral and fratricidal.
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After showing the cast of returning characters, the action moves back to Snake, who is smoking a cigarette in a room with a gun in his hand. The subtitles read, "I have to erase my genes. I have to wipe the MEME from the face of the earth. This is my final mission." He puts out the smoke, puts the gun in his mouth, and the screen turns red as the gunshot goes off, and the title appears onscreen. As the game's credits display onscreen like a movie preview, more subtitles appear. "Some stories can't be told by words. Some legentds must die. Some legends must come to an end."
But it's not over from there. Suddenly, the action cuts to a character that resembles the Ninja from MGS completely decimating three of the Metal Gear-like tanks. He slices through them, then balances a sword on his foot while hopping from tank to tank dismantling the parts. After he dismantles the machines, he hits a button, and the mask opens up to reveal Raiden, who says one simple phrase, "My turn to protect you, Snake." With that, the trailer ends with the text "Coming 2007," after some fudging with the last number on the year.
We're not sure how far along Kojima Productions is coming in the production cycle, but to say that the trailer looks stellar is an understatement. Hopefully, as E3 progresses, we'll get to see something else regarding Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, but if not, this extended trailer certainly stands to whet the appetites of MGS fans everywhere.
