The Metal Gear Solid 2 Instruction Manga is a manga that is included in the instruction manual for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. As its name suggests, it is a manga that covers gameplay elements in the form of a short narrative. In this case, it contains a portion of the Tanker Chapter.
Plot summary[]
Solid Snake arrives on the USS Discovery. After confirming that he made a safe landing, Snake and Otacon cover the basics for the final time as Snake progresses through the tanker. Spotting an enemy soldier, Snake quickly ducked underneath one of the decks. Upon entering one of the deck halls of the ship, he then briefly entered corner mode and acknowledged that not relying too much on the radar or corner view is one of the first things he had learned as a soldier. Snake then briefly tranquilized a soldier from behind via first person view. Upon passing the tranquilized soldier, Snake pondered if the soldier was Johnny Sasaki. Snake eventually ended up being caught by one of the patrolling soldiers while he was distracted and was forced to hide in one of the vents. The soldier then tried to check the vents, but Snake ducked behind a corner just in time. He then managed to escape in caution mode, with Otacon warning him that his infiltration is just getting started as it ends ominously.
Differences[]
Although overall faithful to the Tanker Chapter's storyline, there are several differences:
- Otacon gives Snake information on how to proceed with Snake actually going through the motions, while in-game, Snake doesn't actually start his mission until after he was recapped on the basics of a Sneaking mission.
- The tanker was already under the control of the Gurlukovich Mercenaries (unnamed in the story) by the time Snake arrived, while in the actual game, Snake bore witness to the Gurlukovich Mercenaries' hostile takeover before he could conduct the mission, and even briefly photographed their leader for identification.
- Exactly why Snake was infiltrating the tanker was not explained in the manga, while the game explained he was trying to gain photographic evidence on a new type of Metal Gear and expose its development.
- The scene on the bridge was not present in the manga.
- Snake speculated that the soldier he tranquilized was Johnny Sasaki, who never actually appears in the Tanker Chapter in-game, although he did have two voice-only cameos in the Plant Chapter of the same game.