Loading Trick

Loading trick or load trick is a speedrun strategy used exclusively on the PlayStation 3 versions of Metal Gear Solid 2 HD Edition and Metal Gear Solid 3 HD Edition to make the game load faster. By playing the game up to a certain point, getting a game over, and selecting exit from the game over screen, any rooms and cutscenes loaded up to that point will remain in memory and, therefore, those rooms and cutscenes will load faster in any subsequent playthroughs. However, the entire game cannot be load tricked in a single-segment run because, if the player progresses too far in the game, the memory containing the load tricked sections will be cleared. Additionally, if the player soft resets using the soft reset code or selects return to main menu from a node in MGS2 HD or from the options screen in MGS3 HD, loading trick will be cleared entirely. Multi-segment runs can load trick every room and cutscene in both games because multi-segment runs are allowed to save and load as much as the runner likes.

It is unknown exactly why the loading trick works on the PlayStation 3 versions but not on any other versions of the games, or on any other games.

MGS2 HD has the most benefit from loading trick, as most of the game can be load tricked. If the player plays from the beginning of the tanker section to the end of twilight sniping with Emma, then causes a game over and selects exit from the game over screen, all rooms and cutscenes up to that point will load faster. It is not necessary to walk to the Shell 1 core after finishing sniping because all of the sections up to Arsenal Gear are already load tricked. Additionally, players should take care not to enter the elevator in the Shell 1 core leading to Arsenal Gear, as entering that elevator will progress far enough in the game to clear loading trick. If the runner prefers, it is possible to exit immediately upon starting twilight sniping, and the time loss from not having the cutscenes at the end of the sniping section will be relatively minimal, while saving several minutes of real-world setup time.

Traditionally, most MGS2 runners chose not to use loading trick in their runs for two primary reasons: the extensive setup time of approximately 50 minutes or more to set up a full loading trick, and the fact that many runners see loading trick as an arbitrary as arguably unsportsmanlike the time save, since it only affects how quickly a runner's console loads, rather than being influenced by runner skill.

Once loading trick is set up, the player can start a new run as normal, either from a new game or from a save file.