Konami did not let my man breathe. That would have been amazing though if they called it 3 in all the marketing without explaining why. He probably had a kooky idea to make a sequel to a game that never got made, or mess with the idea of sequels in general. MGS2 is already like that. It subverts the player's expectations by suddenly introducing Raiden, and purposefully reiterates the plot beats of the first game.
Konami did not let my man breathe. That would have been amazing though if they called it 3 in all the marketing without explaining why. He probably had a kooky idea to make a sequel to a game that never got made, or mess with the idea of sequels in general. MGS2 is already like that. It subverts the player's expectations by suddenly introducing Raiden, and purposefully reiterates the plot beats of the first game.