>Solid Snake was killed off at the end of the tanker scenario in MGS2
I thought he survived, he's Pliskin in the Plant chapter? Which is a simulation, in the sense that a fire drill is a simulation, it's not just virtual reality. The characters he meets are simulations of the real ones we meet in MGS4? I really liked that about the MGS series, it makes you re-evaluate what you thought were “factual grounds”, and story is often told through the characters' own subjective interpretations.