>>204
At the end of the tanker chapter. Ocelot/Ray tears up the the tanker hold and sinks it. Snake was in the hold as it went down and made it to the surface but he couldn't have survived. Huge tankers that displace thousands of tons kill sailors by dragging them down as they sink. As they go under, water is sucked into the empty spaces of the ship dragging down anything nearby. Even the strongest swimmers can't resist those forces. Theres also Otacon screaming at the end. Snake couldn't have survived. Remember, the Plant chapter is a simulation. The Snake in the Plant sequence could just be simulated.

>The characters he meets are simulations of the real ones we meet in MGS4?
I don't see why they'd do that though. It would make sense to simulate Snake because in previous Metal Gear games, Snake has always been helped by a mysterious insider whose legendary identity is revealed at the end. Raiden looks up to him the way Snake looked up to Big Boss/Grey Fox. There isn't really a reason to simulate anyone else. If Solidus or Vamp were real people and the whole thing is a training exercise, what happens if Raiden runs into them IRL? If Snake really died during the tanker incident than it wouldn't be a problem. There's no chance of Raiden meeting him outside the simulation and freaking out. But if Solidus is a real person and he's really the President then that would make Raiden dangerous to his own.

> 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.
MGS4 kinda does away with that. It gives you answers. There is a big master narrative that explains everything. Character arcs are resolved and there are clear conclusions and endings. Its a lot more traditional whereas the first three games were more postmodernist. They don't give you clear answers, everything is subjective, there are no simple fairytale endings, and its all left up to the player.