So recently I came across a translated document that outlines all the initial ideas that Kojima had for MGS2. The broad strokes and most of the general basic ideas made it into the final product, but a lot of stuff did not. For example:

-A two player split-screen versus mode, where players could either battle each other, or play hide and seek.

-An item called the "Mantis Mask", which would allow the player to hear the thoughts of, not only of enemies in gameplay, but character's minds in cutscenes.

-Split-screen cutscenes; one screen is the cutscene, the other screen allows the player to keep playing. (This happens in MGS4 one time in the last half of the game).

-Rose was initially going to be a character called "Maxine Work", and went by "Max". She would have saved your game and quoted Shakespeare.

-Two additional members of Dead Cell. "Chinaman", who would have controlled "his body weight at will through qigong". And "Old Boy", who was a Nazi war veteran and used WWII weapons and equipment.

I would've liked more members of Dead Cell, the few they have just don't compete with Fox Hound

There was also a bunch of stuff cut because of 9/11. Some of that stuff made it into trailers some of it didn't.

Split screen cutscenes are a terrible idea. You can't pay attention to them because you are too busy playing. I didn't notice any of the extremely ridiculous shit in the Raiden Vamp fight in MGS4 until I watched an LP of the game.

The versus mode made it into MGS3 as Metal Gear Online.

Split screen co-op missions would've been cool.

I could see versus being fun, since the simple versus mode in ZOE 2 was harder to put down than I would've imagined. But MGS would rely on the honor system a whole lot.

Weren't some of Vamp's powers originally meant for Chinaman as well? Eg: walking on water

You could argue that still made it into the final game too.

Chinamen is not the preferred nomenclature, dude.

Chinaman is what the character was called, dude.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

@csl316 said:

Hell, the versus in ZOE 1 was really fun despite basically being a weird afterthought.

I remember watching the making-of DVD that came with MGS2 and Kojima mentioned Chinaman. You would have fought him in the chamber where you fight Vamp in the final game. Parts of the battle would have taken place underwater where Chinaman would send sharks after you. He also had a dragon tattoo on his chest that would come to life when he was underwater and it would attack Raiden.

Sometimes I like to ponder the game that MGS2 could have been if it hadn't been so rushed to completion. It would have been something quite different, I think...

Also makes it harder to be sympathetic to Solidus when he's working with a straight up Nazi.

@kasaioni: Chinaman and Old Boy sound fucking cool. All the other stuff, eh.

Kinda glad Chinaman was cut, then. I *hate* the swimming section in that game. Fighting a boss while swimming sounds like the worst.

My favorite bit of cut content was the boss fight against a shark while Raiden and Snake swim through the ocean to infiltrate Arsenal.

@crazybagman:

Throwin' rocks tonight, boys

They also pondered an actual chase sequence on the sinking tanker which was teaser in one of the trailers but didn't make much sense from a gameplay perspective.

@kung_fu_viking: I don't think it would be that different. It just seems like that game would have a lot more in it.

The ending apparently had much more content. Arsenal Gear would have been shown barreling through Manhattan, Raiden was to cut an American flag from a pole having it wrap around Solidus' body.

The making of MGS2 videos out there have some pretty fascinating stuff. Was there anything similar put out for 3 and 4?