20 Mind-Blowing Things You Didn't Know About Metal Gear Solid 2
3. It Was Originally About Solid Hunting Liquid In The Middle East
Though the final game is set in New York, Kojima originally intended to set it in the Middle East, with Liquid Snake somehow surviving the events of the first game and Solid heading to the region to track him down.
With Liquid again commandeering some nukes and preparing to launch a new Metal Gear on an aircraft carrier, Snake would have to infiltrate the warship and stop him.
But roughly six months into development this plan was scrapped due to increasing tensions in the Middle East, with Kojima reworking some of his ideas for the Tanker prologue instead, while reconfiguring the main Big Shell portion of the game.
Kojima of course finally got to the Middle East in the fourth game, though presumably for political reasons decided not to specify precisely which country. Metal Gear Solid V, however, unambiguously takes place in Afghanistan.