I've done a lot of thinking on this myself and came to the conclusion that Raiden has always been a cyborg, for at least the time we knew him. I know it sounds crazy right now but before you go on to the next post please read this.

I just went back and played MGS2 a couple of days ago. I didn't catch it immediately but Vamp lets you know that Raiden is different than a normal human. This happens in the cutscene of the first boss fight with Vamp. After Vamp dodges a couple of shots from Raiden and gets nicked on the face, he notices that he's not normal. quote,

"I thought so. Human muscels are quite eloquent. They speak out clearly what a person's next move will be. They even tell me which way a gun is going to be pointed before the trigger is pulled. But you're muscles, they're different. This should be fun." Vamp MGS2.

Okay, Vamp knows for a fact that he can read human muscles with no problem. He's been using this ability to dodge and kill people left and right. Raiden sure looks human, he acts human, but for some reason Vamp can't read his muscle movements like he can a normal human's. Why?, well Raiden doesn't have human muscles, he has cyborg muscles.

Here's the clip of the cutscene, copy paste. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAHjpdGNZpA&feature=related

Now here is where I believe Raiden became a cyborg. I caught this after Olga knocked Raiden out and he wakes up in front of Ocelot and Solidus on the torture table. Solidus, the antagonist of MGS2, raised Raiden in Africa. Solidus talks about their past together and tells Raiden he was the best child soldier in his battalion. After the war was over Solidus told Raiden that he went searching for him in refugee camps but couldn't find him. Solidus later said, "I should have know that they would recruit you". When Solidus said "they" I'm pretty sure he was talking about the patriots. Because Raiden was so close to Solidus, the patriots kidnapped him and got as much infromation as they could. I imagine things like Solidu's activites and bases of operations. Since Raiden was such an excellent solider the patriots may have wanted to expand on his abilities. They may have done experiments which eventually lead to Raiden becoming a full cyborg save his head and spinal cord.

I imagine Kojima is going to shed more light on Raiden's story in later installements. I for one hope so, because you can't have something that big and not explain.

Evo700

No, thats not it. I don't remember exactly what happened but it is explained in the MGS Database

I'm still getting the game for sure but it wasn't quite what I expected. You know being on the Playstation 3 and what not? Where are those textures and graphical things only capable of being done on the PS3 (now 360 as well I suppose). The game didn't look as good as the very first screens shown. Where Dante was in the street slashing the TV.

The Devil Bringer doesn't bring me, pun intended, much more enjoyment than before. I suppose its fun to have an attack and is almost always unblockable. I've read some preview sites calling it a new inventive welcome. But it was lame to get an orb that allows you to fly across the room. As if there were any other way to progress through the level?

I really never use the memory card readers besides for putting say your card from your digital camera and view the cool slide show, whats the purpose of them?