In the great tradition of track games with puzzles so dear to Hideo Kojima, give me… Konami! They dared! Through a newly opened tweeter account responding to a guy named Tom Olsen, we have to expect something related to—
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty? It is to this unanswered question intended to torture our mind that this mysterious Tom Olsen invites us to wait until next week for a proper lifting of the veil.
It all started on April 8, 2021. This aptly named Tom Olsen (Oslo? Revolver Oslo?) opens an account subscribed to the sons of Konami, KojiProd, MetalGear and the NY Mets baseball team. The latter is described briefly as “a Service Engineer on secondment to the Big Shell”, which is the main framework of MGS2: SoL. He claims to be married to a certain Karen (Karen Hojo anyone? Yes! This character from MGS2 who was the victim of a self-censorship after the attacks of September 11). Each of his enigmatic messages is accompanied by screenshots representative of the game such as a canteen, lockers.
The next day, another equivocal tweet: Every morning, we have to log into the security desk and enter our personal information. It’s painful. Good news though, my birthday is coming!” One of his latest tweets suggests that a special event is being prepared, “Grease the wheels in Strut E., the “Hardware Distribution Service” (we call it “Parcel Room” preferably). Strangely enough, the number of boxes to ship is unusual. Management sees things big!”
What do you think? Is this the work of a lonely MGS fan left orphaned by the smashing divorce between Konami and Hideo Kojima? Or is it the publisher who finally comes out of his lethargy? The second option seems to be the most plausible. Indeed, the official account of the franchise MetalGear took a few days ago one of the nebulous tweets of this elusive Tom Oslo to order him to “check your codec each morning to ensure updates to meetings and keep an eye on the evacuation program in the event of a MCP incursion.” And while awaiting the reception of “visitors next week”, this Tom Oslo has the task of “cleaning the vents and ensuring the proper holding of the flags”, while taking care “not to touch the C4 this time!”.
This official response adds credit to the relaunch of the MGS series, damaged by the internal team hastily dispatched by Konami, pressed to show that this juicy license was able to survive the departure of the creative who embodied it for thirty years, Hideo Kojima. This war of nerves that has been going on for several months, telling the future of MGS in the hands of Konami, crystallizes even more with this complicated and untenable puzzle…