Hideo Kojima's career is fascinating, and it's not something you can hope to find out about from "The Official Version". You kind of have to dig into old interviews, and have first-hand memories of long-delisted websites and discarded promotional material. GW has erased the ugly details, but I can't say goodbye to yesterday, my friend. Kojima thrived on the sidelines. He was originally hired as a project planner on Konami's MSX team, in the offices that the management didn't pay much attention to. The high-stakes positions were all working on Famicom and arcade games, and Kojima spent the first decade of his career in the shadows, catering to a small, enthusiast market with Japanese home computer releases and text-heavy adventure games. It's easy to over-romanticise this era. It wasn't easy. There was a lot of mismanagement and the expectation for relentless crunch, with many members of staff spending days on end in the office without leaving, but the games that came from those teams were pretty special. They were purposefully constructed, delivering a clear worldview and commenting on the ethical dangers of scientific developments in a politically unstable world. Then MGS1 was a huge international success, and all eyes were on Kojima.
From the early days, it was clear that Kojima had a unique confidence and self-belief. Some may call it ego or even narcissism, but it's what gave him the drive and ambition to attempt blending dense, socially relevant stories with traditional videogame action. When the bulk of the Japanese games industry was still hiding behind publisher-insisted pen names, Kojima opened Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake with an introductory credits sequence, naming each member of staff, saving himself for the biggest credit. It made sense. MSX2 owners who'd played Metal Gear and Snatcher knew that there was a rare quality to Hideo Kojima's games, and Metal Gear 2 was the promise of the Kojimiest game yet. Policenauts would similarly promote itself on the name of its director, delving into the production process with behind the scenes books and bonus discs that were fairly uncommon forms of game merchandise in the mid-90s. Before MGS1 had made the west aware of him, Kojima was putting his face on soundtrack CDs. He wanted the spotlight, but he didn't know how demanding it would be of him.
Metal Gear Solid 2 was announced, and was propped up as the game for the new millennium. The one thing that would chrysalise the medium into a new form. In tandem with the growing interest in the internet, the significance of home computer ownership was really taking hold. DVD players and digital TV services were selling themselves on "Interactive" features, reportedly blurring the line between audience and participant (we didn't know at the time that the peak of this technology would be Beehive Bedlam). Sony were convinced that Windows PCs were too technical and business-focused for mainstream adoption. There would be no overlap between the computer and the living room. The word at the time was that the PlayStation 2 was going to be the thing to take people into this new, interconnected era, and traditional forms of entertainment would become a memory of the 20th Century. The promise of the "interactive movie" that had been dangled towards early adopters of CD-ROM, finally coming to fruition. From Final Fantasy X to Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, and perhaps most ridiculously of all, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, many new titles were selling themselves on the promise to bridge the gap between these mediums, but for many, MGS2 seemed like the best bet to accomplish it. That's a lot of pressure for a game where you navigate boxy rooms, avoiding blue vision cones.
Metal Gear Solid 2 trailers were bold. Not only were they promising a game with unforeseen levels of interactivity, but wild narrative swings. We were told Solid Snake was dead. We were told he was the leader of the terrorist organisation putting the world at ransom. We'd anticipated a game that would radically shift our perception of the prior one. When we eventually bought the game, we swallowed the bitter truth when a mysterious Navy SEAL popped up with David Hayter's voice, taking fire at a horny vampire.
Reading pre-release interviews with Kojima, it's clear that he was as convinced by the potential as anyone else. He talks about character movement being impacted by changing wind direction, the integration of voice-recognition and online support. The end results are so compromised that you might not even notice them in the game. The network support got nipped and tucked at so much that in the end, it became an online competition for the opportunity to have your name appear on an in-game dog tag, and a browser-only leaderboard system where you could post your completion stats after you finished. The voice support, adding user-expression to the long, dense CODEC calls? That's the ability to press R2 to have your character audibly think a weird retort. "WHATEVER!" These are the limitations of not only the PlayStation 2 in 2001, but the ability of a Japanese development studio to deliver an action game on new hardware in a three-year project.
MGS2 couldn't live up to those initial ambitions. It didn't fully satisfy those dreaming of something new and transcendent. It was MGS1 again with extra buttons. But oh, what buttons!
MGS2 has so many cool little stealth moves to play around with. You get a real sense of your own ingenuity as you figure your way through each section. VR Missions was everything that MGS1 gameplay could offer. The developers knocked their heads against the walls, spinning its systems off down every conceivable avenue. The frustration of these limitations directly inspired the techniques players could make use of in Sons of Liberty. Players would be able to interact with guards much more intricately, threatening them at gunpoint, disabling walkie-talkies, injuring specific limbs, and shaking them down for extra supplies. Snake and Raiden could roll (or cartwheel), hang from railings, and pop out of cover, ready to fire. Most crucially, you could now aim from a first-person perspective, allowing for much more deliberate action in shoot-outs, or just fuck about with the set dressing to see how many clips KCEJ recorded for the sound of shooting a frying pan with different guns. Shenmue had set a new precedent for how interactive a 3D world could be in a game, and MGS2 picked up the baton to explore how that degree of tangibility could benefit Metal Gear. Hardcore fans who had bought Zone of the Enders solely for the opportunity to play a small section of this game would become intimately familiar with all the quirks and potential of its gameplay, hungry to see how they would be explored in the full campaign. I'm not convinced the Big Shell was the best possible pay-off for these hopes.
It isn't just the fact that players got to spend more time with their favourite muscle man that makes the Tanker section so beloved. It's very purposefully designed to explore MGS2's mechanics, and refreshingly, it borrows little from the structure of the MSX games. Metal Gear had already spent multiple generations reworking and refining the same, familiar setup, and it was exciting to see the series do something different. There's no hostages, no NIKITA puzzle, no underwater facility entrance. It was doing new things, taking out security cameras, shaking down guards for supplies, and sneaking past an audience of a hundred soldiers during a speech. It was exciting. But those old tropes were waiting for us, just around the corner. Justifying themselves via a metatextual reflection upon the previous game.
MGS2 is discussed in hushed, reverential tones these days. If something seemed weird or stupid, you obviously didn't get it. It had been relatively easy to understand a story about genetic inheritance, but memetic inheritance seemed far more abstract. Snake was a son of genetic inheritance, being a clone of the world's most prized soldier, and Raiden, the son of ideological inheritance, with Solidus killing his parents and fostering him as his own brainwashed soldier. Every action he takes is accompanied by a question of how he's being manipulated, and by whom. There's an awkward balance in the game being both radically incisive and incredibly schlocky videogame trash. Whenever it did something too absurd or outright crap, we took faith in the notion that nothing was quite what it seemed. Like there was a hidden truth that would make it all cohesive and brilliant. It was up to us to find it, and if we couldn't figure it out, we could always just pester Kojima and Konami to produce a much more pandering sequel. Full of retcons, underwhelming reveals, and relentless goalpost shifting. Was there ever value in MGS2's outlandish paranormal activity? Did Kojima ever have an answer before his arm was twisted enough to yell "nanomachines" in response to every question? Are we ashamed of our words and deeds for ever thinking the whole of Shell 2 was agonisingly tedious?
Discussing MGS2's story is a sticking your hand in a can of worms and finding a worm-filled rabbit hole at the bottom. A dense, purposefully confusing, and often prescient script. It also has roots in Kojima's 80s action game design, where storybeats are mainly included to intrigue its audience enough to continue playing. Kojima's handwritten script is filled with footnotes, explicitly referencing the Hollywood blockbusters he ripped each idea from. MGS2 was the point where much of Kojima's games became dictated by the promises he'd made in press interviews and pre-release trailers. MGS4 staff have talked about spending months solely working on moments to include in trailers, and then retroactively having to build the game around those moments. That approach started here. Shallow instances of mindblowing spectacle, engineered to shift product with little concern for the long-term impact. Ocelot's arm, Vamp's superhuman abilities, basically everything to do with Dead Cell - they're weird twists, and typically just for the sake of having a weird twist. Vamp's gay relationship with US Marine Corp commander, Scott Dolph, appears to be entirely a sophomoric in-joke targetted at Kojima's then-personal interpreter. MGS2 is simultaneously an earnest musing on the nature of propaganda in the digital age, and a very stupid videogame with absurd arcade game bosses. I don't want to make out like all the silliness is purely problematic or mishandled. There's moments of fun and whimsy I enjoy. Slipping on birdshit and the guard taking a leak off the side of the Strut L. Fatman. It's not the focus, but the old frivolous MSX personality is still here. Just muffled by all the pretension surrounding it. On your first playthrough, you don't know whether you can just enjoy something as a daft joke, or if it's hiding some deeper layer of significance. MGS1 had one foot in gaming's history and another in its future, and MGS2 attempts the same, with messier results in either respect.
The game's English writer, Agness Kaku, has discussed the thankless job of attempting to make MGS2's weird, convoluted script sound engaging through its translation. A lack of reference material, character limits, and heavy rewrites from Konami resulted in the game we have today. It's also clear that she doesn't have much regard for Kojima's script, and attempted to inject it with a richer sense of character and more entertaining dialogue. Many gamers would feel take strong objection to someone, particularly a woman, tinkering with the script from a visionary of Kojima's status, but the bulk of MGS2's most beloved English lines are embellishments on Kaku's part, and her political and literary knowledge lined her up well for the subject matter. However, Konami's insistence on literal translations of certain lines, paired with her personal distaste for Kojima's writing, made the final script fairly patchy and inconsistent. As talented a voice director as Kris Zimmerman is, there are lines of dialogue that are delivered in very odd ways, suggesting the cast didn't really understand the intention behind them. By contrast, Kaku's work on Katamari Damacy presents quite an interesting dynamic. That was a similarly text-rich game, but one with a much more playful tone, and a less demanding writer. She was allowed to completely rewrite the game with very little direction, and the final result was a delight. Katamari writer/director, Keita Takahashi has gone on to learn English at a high level and now lives in San Francisco, where he's expected to speak it as his main language. I wonder if he's ever gone back to look at the English version of his PS2 game.
Metatextually, MGS2 benefits from a constant feeling of distrust. To know whether or not you're seeing the real version. There's an additional distrust of censorship thanks to the game's Q4 2001 release date, the story of terrorists causing destruction and political instability off the coast of New York City, and public sensitivity to the subject matter at the time. Following September 2001, there had been late-stage edits to the game, and as an audience, we can't be sure how compromised the final release is, but even without the real-world parallels, the game is filled with themes of how lies spread and ideas take hold. From the once-tortured child soldier, Raiden, to Peter Stillman's faked disability, to Otacon's disturbing family history, every character in the game has an uneasy relationship with the truth, denying their personal trauma to the world. By the Big Shell portion of the game, there's a question over whether they're real at all, or merely a projection of an elaborate AI construct. Sections of the game that are teased - boss fights with Fortune and Ocelot, as well as the bulk of Shell 2 - go unfulfilled. Raiden breaks through enemy security by lying about his identity, pretending to be one of them, adopting their uniform, and manipulating their body to trick a retinal scanner. Raiden's first quest in the game - disabling a series of explosives - turns out to be an elaborate decoy, while Snake discovers the real bomb off-screen. Snake is playing the real game, and Raiden is still in the VR replica. The Solid Snake game that had been heavily promoted at trade shows and plastered on magazine covers for years beforehand didn't exist. It was all just part of the simulation. This is the dynamic of MGS1 and 2.
The truth of the situation only comes through in the ending.
"It doesn't matter if they were real or not, that's never the point."
"Don't obsess over words so much."
"Everything you felt, thought about during this mission is yours. And what you decide to do with them is your choice..."
Kojima couldn't make something that transcended the medium of videogames. The Emotion Engine was merely a new CPU, comprised of silicon soldered to a circuit board, and shipped to millions of homes within SCE's new electronic toy. When the PS2 became something people could touch and own, the best it could do was play rushed versions of TimeSplitters and SSX that would soon be rendered obsolete by their immediate sequels. The dream was over. The boundaries were brought into stark focus. Metal Gear Solid 2 would be little more than The New Metal Gear Solid, despite the discussion, obsession, interpretation and reinterpretation it would provoke. With the constant focus from fans, it became more than it was. Value was seen in it, and thus, it was there.
Metal Gear Solid 2 changed my relationship with videogames, and not in ways that either its developers, or I, may have hoped. It made me aware of the inherent limitations. Before it, the future of videogames seemed like a boundless, infinite expanse. They could be anything. They could transcend physical limits. They were another dimension. A world of pure imagination. Afterwards, I became aware of just how tethered they were to reality. They were the result of project plans, processing speeds, staff sizes, managerial oversight, limited talent and budgets. They became infinitely smaller. Less significant. Cute. They didn't reflect the limitations of their creators' imaginations, but their ability to deliver a project with realistic expectations. It levelled the playing field. Now, MMOs, which promised entirely new worlds for players to live in, were dragged back to the same context as Pong. It made me realise what a game was. I came to the other side of that, and still loved it. To call it a disappointment is denying the growth that we needed to take. As fans, creators, and an industry. We're currently living through the investor class catching up with PS2 gamers, getting hyped for Final Fantasy XI, kidding on like we're going to spend all our free time in the fucking Metaverse. We all need to accept reality, and learn how to live in it. To appraise videogames with maturity. Let's all calm down and see how big a score we can get on Dig Dug today.
From the early days, it was clear that Kojima had a unique confidence and self-belief. Some may call it ego or even narcissism, but it's what gave him the drive and ambition to attempt blending dense, socially relevant stories with traditional videogame action. When the bulk of the Japanese games industry was still hiding behind publisher-insisted pen names, Kojima opened Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake with an introductory credits sequence, naming each member of staff, saving himself for the biggest credit. It made sense. MSX2 owners who'd played Metal Gear and Snatcher knew that there was a rare quality to Hideo Kojima's games, and Metal Gear 2 was the promise of the Kojimiest game yet. Policenauts would similarly promote itself on the name of its director, delving into the production process with behind the scenes books and bonus discs that were fairly uncommon forms of game merchandise in the mid-90s. Before MGS1 had made the west aware of him, Kojima was putting his face on soundtrack CDs. He wanted the spotlight, but he didn't know how demanding it would be of him.
Metal Gear Solid 2 was announced, and was propped up as the game for the new millennium. The one thing that would chrysalise the medium into a new form. In tandem with the growing interest in the internet, the significance of home computer ownership was really taking hold. DVD players and digital TV services were selling themselves on "Interactive" features, reportedly blurring the line between audience and participant (we didn't know at the time that the peak of this technology would be Beehive Bedlam). Sony were convinced that Windows PCs were too technical and business-focused for mainstream adoption. There would be no overlap between the computer and the living room. The word at the time was that the PlayStation 2 was going to be the thing to take people into this new, interconnected era, and traditional forms of entertainment would become a memory of the 20th Century. The promise of the "interactive movie" that had been dangled towards early adopters of CD-ROM, finally coming to fruition. From Final Fantasy X to Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, and perhaps most ridiculously of all, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, many new titles were selling themselves on the promise to bridge the gap between these mediums, but for many, MGS2 seemed like the best bet to accomplish it. That's a lot of pressure for a game where you navigate boxy rooms, avoiding blue vision cones.
Metal Gear Solid 2 trailers were bold. Not only were they promising a game with unforeseen levels of interactivity, but wild narrative swings. We were told Solid Snake was dead. We were told he was the leader of the terrorist organisation putting the world at ransom. We'd anticipated a game that would radically shift our perception of the prior one. When we eventually bought the game, we swallowed the bitter truth when a mysterious Navy SEAL popped up with David Hayter's voice, taking fire at a horny vampire.
Reading pre-release interviews with Kojima, it's clear that he was as convinced by the potential as anyone else. He talks about character movement being impacted by changing wind direction, the integration of voice-recognition and online support. The end results are so compromised that you might not even notice them in the game. The network support got nipped and tucked at so much that in the end, it became an online competition for the opportunity to have your name appear on an in-game dog tag, and a browser-only leaderboard system where you could post your completion stats after you finished. The voice support, adding user-expression to the long, dense CODEC calls? That's the ability to press R2 to have your character audibly think a weird retort. "WHATEVER!" These are the limitations of not only the PlayStation 2 in 2001, but the ability of a Japanese development studio to deliver an action game on new hardware in a three-year project.
MGS2 couldn't live up to those initial ambitions. It didn't fully satisfy those dreaming of something new and transcendent. It was MGS1 again with extra buttons. But oh, what buttons!
MGS2 has so many cool little stealth moves to play around with. You get a real sense of your own ingenuity as you figure your way through each section. VR Missions was everything that MGS1 gameplay could offer. The developers knocked their heads against the walls, spinning its systems off down every conceivable avenue. The frustration of these limitations directly inspired the techniques players could make use of in Sons of Liberty. Players would be able to interact with guards much more intricately, threatening them at gunpoint, disabling walkie-talkies, injuring specific limbs, and shaking them down for extra supplies. Snake and Raiden could roll (or cartwheel), hang from railings, and pop out of cover, ready to fire. Most crucially, you could now aim from a first-person perspective, allowing for much more deliberate action in shoot-outs, or just fuck about with the set dressing to see how many clips KCEJ recorded for the sound of shooting a frying pan with different guns. Shenmue had set a new precedent for how interactive a 3D world could be in a game, and MGS2 picked up the baton to explore how that degree of tangibility could benefit Metal Gear. Hardcore fans who had bought Zone of the Enders solely for the opportunity to play a small section of this game would become intimately familiar with all the quirks and potential of its gameplay, hungry to see how they would be explored in the full campaign. I'm not convinced the Big Shell was the best possible pay-off for these hopes.
It isn't just the fact that players got to spend more time with their favourite muscle man that makes the Tanker section so beloved. It's very purposefully designed to explore MGS2's mechanics, and refreshingly, it borrows little from the structure of the MSX games. Metal Gear had already spent multiple generations reworking and refining the same, familiar setup, and it was exciting to see the series do something different. There's no hostages, no NIKITA puzzle, no underwater facility entrance. It was doing new things, taking out security cameras, shaking down guards for supplies, and sneaking past an audience of a hundred soldiers during a speech. It was exciting. But those old tropes were waiting for us, just around the corner. Justifying themselves via a metatextual reflection upon the previous game.
MGS2 is discussed in hushed, reverential tones these days. If something seemed weird or stupid, you obviously didn't get it. It had been relatively easy to understand a story about genetic inheritance, but memetic inheritance seemed far more abstract. Snake was a son of genetic inheritance, being a clone of the world's most prized soldier, and Raiden, the son of ideological inheritance, with Solidus killing his parents and fostering him as his own brainwashed soldier. Every action he takes is accompanied by a question of how he's being manipulated, and by whom. There's an awkward balance in the game being both radically incisive and incredibly schlocky videogame trash. Whenever it did something too absurd or outright crap, we took faith in the notion that nothing was quite what it seemed. Like there was a hidden truth that would make it all cohesive and brilliant. It was up to us to find it, and if we couldn't figure it out, we could always just pester Kojima and Konami to produce a much more pandering sequel. Full of retcons, underwhelming reveals, and relentless goalpost shifting. Was there ever value in MGS2's outlandish paranormal activity? Did Kojima ever have an answer before his arm was twisted enough to yell "nanomachines" in response to every question? Are we ashamed of our words and deeds for ever thinking the whole of Shell 2 was agonisingly tedious?
Discussing MGS2's story is a sticking your hand in a can of worms and finding a worm-filled rabbit hole at the bottom. A dense, purposefully confusing, and often prescient script. It also has roots in Kojima's 80s action game design, where storybeats are mainly included to intrigue its audience enough to continue playing. Kojima's handwritten script is filled with footnotes, explicitly referencing the Hollywood blockbusters he ripped each idea from. MGS2 was the point where much of Kojima's games became dictated by the promises he'd made in press interviews and pre-release trailers. MGS4 staff have talked about spending months solely working on moments to include in trailers, and then retroactively having to build the game around those moments. That approach started here. Shallow instances of mindblowing spectacle, engineered to shift product with little concern for the long-term impact. Ocelot's arm, Vamp's superhuman abilities, basically everything to do with Dead Cell - they're weird twists, and typically just for the sake of having a weird twist. Vamp's gay relationship with US Marine Corp commander, Scott Dolph, appears to be entirely a sophomoric in-joke targetted at Kojima's then-personal interpreter. MGS2 is simultaneously an earnest musing on the nature of propaganda in the digital age, and a very stupid videogame with absurd arcade game bosses. I don't want to make out like all the silliness is purely problematic or mishandled. There's moments of fun and whimsy I enjoy. Slipping on birdshit and the guard taking a leak off the side of the Strut L. Fatman. It's not the focus, but the old frivolous MSX personality is still here. Just muffled by all the pretension surrounding it. On your first playthrough, you don't know whether you can just enjoy something as a daft joke, or if it's hiding some deeper layer of significance. MGS1 had one foot in gaming's history and another in its future, and MGS2 attempts the same, with messier results in either respect.
The game's English writer, Agness Kaku, has discussed the thankless job of attempting to make MGS2's weird, convoluted script sound engaging through its translation. A lack of reference material, character limits, and heavy rewrites from Konami resulted in the game we have today. It's also clear that she doesn't have much regard for Kojima's script, and attempted to inject it with a richer sense of character and more entertaining dialogue. Many gamers would feel take strong objection to someone, particularly a woman, tinkering with the script from a visionary of Kojima's status, but the bulk of MGS2's most beloved English lines are embellishments on Kaku's part, and her political and literary knowledge lined her up well for the subject matter. However, Konami's insistence on literal translations of certain lines, paired with her personal distaste for Kojima's writing, made the final script fairly patchy and inconsistent. As talented a voice director as Kris Zimmerman is, there are lines of dialogue that are delivered in very odd ways, suggesting the cast didn't really understand the intention behind them. By contrast, Kaku's work on Katamari Damacy presents quite an interesting dynamic. That was a similarly text-rich game, but one with a much more playful tone, and a less demanding writer. She was allowed to completely rewrite the game with very little direction, and the final result was a delight. Katamari writer/director, Keita Takahashi has gone on to learn English at a high level and now lives in San Francisco, where he's expected to speak it as his main language. I wonder if he's ever gone back to look at the English version of his PS2 game.
Metatextually, MGS2 benefits from a constant feeling of distrust. To know whether or not you're seeing the real version. There's an additional distrust of censorship thanks to the game's Q4 2001 release date, the story of terrorists causing destruction and political instability off the coast of New York City, and public sensitivity to the subject matter at the time. Following September 2001, there had been late-stage edits to the game, and as an audience, we can't be sure how compromised the final release is, but even without the real-world parallels, the game is filled with themes of how lies spread and ideas take hold. From the once-tortured child soldier, Raiden, to Peter Stillman's faked disability, to Otacon's disturbing family history, every character in the game has an uneasy relationship with the truth, denying their personal trauma to the world. By the Big Shell portion of the game, there's a question over whether they're real at all, or merely a projection of an elaborate AI construct. Sections of the game that are teased - boss fights with Fortune and Ocelot, as well as the bulk of Shell 2 - go unfulfilled. Raiden breaks through enemy security by lying about his identity, pretending to be one of them, adopting their uniform, and manipulating their body to trick a retinal scanner. Raiden's first quest in the game - disabling a series of explosives - turns out to be an elaborate decoy, while Snake discovers the real bomb off-screen. Snake is playing the real game, and Raiden is still in the VR replica. The Solid Snake game that had been heavily promoted at trade shows and plastered on magazine covers for years beforehand didn't exist. It was all just part of the simulation. This is the dynamic of MGS1 and 2.
The truth of the situation only comes through in the ending.
"It doesn't matter if they were real or not, that's never the point."
"Don't obsess over words so much."
"Everything you felt, thought about during this mission is yours. And what you decide to do with them is your choice..."
Kojima couldn't make something that transcended the medium of videogames. The Emotion Engine was merely a new CPU, comprised of silicon soldered to a circuit board, and shipped to millions of homes within SCE's new electronic toy. When the PS2 became something people could touch and own, the best it could do was play rushed versions of TimeSplitters and SSX that would soon be rendered obsolete by their immediate sequels. The dream was over. The boundaries were brought into stark focus. Metal Gear Solid 2 would be little more than The New Metal Gear Solid, despite the discussion, obsession, interpretation and reinterpretation it would provoke. With the constant focus from fans, it became more than it was. Value was seen in it, and thus, it was there.
Metal Gear Solid 2 changed my relationship with videogames, and not in ways that either its developers, or I, may have hoped. It made me aware of the inherent limitations. Before it, the future of videogames seemed like a boundless, infinite expanse. They could be anything. They could transcend physical limits. They were another dimension. A world of pure imagination. Afterwards, I became aware of just how tethered they were to reality. They were the result of project plans, processing speeds, staff sizes, managerial oversight, limited talent and budgets. They became infinitely smaller. Less significant. Cute. They didn't reflect the limitations of their creators' imaginations, but their ability to deliver a project with realistic expectations. It levelled the playing field. Now, MMOs, which promised entirely new worlds for players to live in, were dragged back to the same context as Pong. It made me realise what a game was. I came to the other side of that, and still loved it. To call it a disappointment is denying the growth that we needed to take. As fans, creators, and an industry. We're currently living through the investor class catching up with PS2 gamers, getting hyped for Final Fantasy XI, kidding on like we're going to spend all our free time in the fucking Metaverse. We all need to accept reality, and learn how to live in it. To appraise videogames with maturity. Let's all calm down and see how big a score we can get on Dig Dug today.
(Third Playthrough)
...April 30th?
Calling this work of art my favorite video game ever made doesn't do it justice. A lot of people say video games change their lives, but this game actually changed my life. This game isn't just my favorite video game ever, It's my favorite piece of art ever, It's my favorite piece of storytelling ever. It's been about 2 years since I played it for the first time and cemented it as my favorite. This game will always be the most personal piece of art ever created for me and I will continue to cherish this fantastic work of fiction for the rest of my life.
anyway im gonna go play as raiden in fortnite now
...April 30th?
Calling this work of art my favorite video game ever made doesn't do it justice. A lot of people say video games change their lives, but this game actually changed my life. This game isn't just my favorite video game ever, It's my favorite piece of art ever, It's my favorite piece of storytelling ever. It's been about 2 years since I played it for the first time and cemented it as my favorite. This game will always be the most personal piece of art ever created for me and I will continue to cherish this fantastic work of fiction for the rest of my life.
anyway im gonna go play as raiden in fortnite now
"Life isn’t just about passing on your genes. We can leave behind much more than just DNA. Through speech, music, literature and movies... what we’ve seen, heard, felt anger, joy and sorrow, these are the things I will pass on. That’s what I live for. We need to pass the torch, and let our children read our messy and sad history by its light. We have the magic of the digital age to do that with. The human race will probably come to an end some time, and new species may rule over this planet. Earth may not be forever, but we still have the responsibility to leave what trace of life we can. Building the future and keeping the past alive are one in the same thing."
I played this game at the perfect time in my life. Having trouble finding the words to explain how I feel about this but i’m hoping i’ll be able to whenever I decide to replay it down the line, which probably won’t take long. I don’t think i’ve fell in love with a game quite as fast as I have with this though.
I played this game at the perfect time in my life. Having trouble finding the words to explain how I feel about this but i’m hoping i’ll be able to whenever I decide to replay it down the line, which probably won’t take long. I don’t think i’ve fell in love with a game quite as fast as I have with this though.
Keeping the past alive and building the future do be the same thing though
I don't even know where to begin with this.
This was one of the most batshit crazy gaming experiences I've ever had. Every time I thought the story couldn't possibly get any more unhinged, Hideo Kojima surprised me by making this shit even more insane. And I absolutely loved every minute of it.
MGS2 really improved the gameplay for me in a lot of ways. The controls felt smoother compared to MGS1, and I appreciated the myriad of ways you could approach each encounter that didn't rely on strictly stealth or combat. Despite the fact that MGS2 has a limited setting(s), I really enjoyed the environmental design of the levels, and found the AI this time to be much more of a challenge.
And holy shit, this story. I love how it gradually unspools itself into this complex interwoven clusterfuck that doesn't let up until the credits roll. I've read a lot about how this game predicted a lot of the shit we deal with now in 2023, and I do have to say that it is eerily prescient. Kojima is a genius, plain and simple, and the fact that he created this story in 2001 (and more likely before that since 2001 is when it was released) is mind blowing.
MGS2 has catapulted itself into my all-time favorite games, and I can't believe I'm just now getting around to this series as a whole. This was such a masterpiece, and I'm so hyped to continue with MGS3.
This was one of the most batshit crazy gaming experiences I've ever had. Every time I thought the story couldn't possibly get any more unhinged, Hideo Kojima surprised me by making this shit even more insane. And I absolutely loved every minute of it.
MGS2 really improved the gameplay for me in a lot of ways. The controls felt smoother compared to MGS1, and I appreciated the myriad of ways you could approach each encounter that didn't rely on strictly stealth or combat. Despite the fact that MGS2 has a limited setting(s), I really enjoyed the environmental design of the levels, and found the AI this time to be much more of a challenge.
And holy shit, this story. I love how it gradually unspools itself into this complex interwoven clusterfuck that doesn't let up until the credits roll. I've read a lot about how this game predicted a lot of the shit we deal with now in 2023, and I do have to say that it is eerily prescient. Kojima is a genius, plain and simple, and the fact that he created this story in 2001 (and more likely before that since 2001 is when it was released) is mind blowing.
MGS2 has catapulted itself into my all-time favorite games, and I can't believe I'm just now getting around to this series as a whole. This was such a masterpiece, and I'm so hyped to continue with MGS3.
Just like the first Metal Gear Solid, this game was a very profound experience, and whilst it can get very confusing at times, the overall story is always engaging and I loved seeing all the new ways the game managed to completely change the way I looked at the events of the game, with the ending cutscenes being a lot to take in at once, especially since they go on for like half an hour, but still make me satisfied with what I played.
Gameplay is also a massive improvement with pretty much anything that made the first game feel outdated being gone, so the game as a whole feels as good as any modern game to play, and older features like the fixed-camera aren't even noticeable due to how well it controls.
Whilst I would've preferred to play as Solid Snake for longer than the prologue, I actually really enjoyed playing as Raiden, he feels like his own character and the more the story progressed the more he fit into this bizarre world of Snake-clones and vampires, and I look forward to seeing him again in MGS4.
Overall, Metal Gear Solid 2 is a really great game which has aged amazingly, and whilst the games are getting progressively more confusing with their stories and long cutscenes, I still really love playing them, and I look forward to making my way through the rest of the Metal Gear games.
Gameplay is also a massive improvement with pretty much anything that made the first game feel outdated being gone, so the game as a whole feels as good as any modern game to play, and older features like the fixed-camera aren't even noticeable due to how well it controls.
Whilst I would've preferred to play as Solid Snake for longer than the prologue, I actually really enjoyed playing as Raiden, he feels like his own character and the more the story progressed the more he fit into this bizarre world of Snake-clones and vampires, and I look forward to seeing him again in MGS4.
Overall, Metal Gear Solid 2 is a really great game which has aged amazingly, and whilst the games are getting progressively more confusing with their stories and long cutscenes, I still really love playing them, and I look forward to making my way through the rest of the Metal Gear games.
This review contains spoilers
I need scissors! 61?
This review contains spoilers
I beat this game on election day 2020 which is really fitting for the themes it develops. MGS2 perfectly subverts your expectations and people are now starting to realize its genius. The hidden messages in this game are downright scary in a modern context. To see how much this game predicted about censorship and media today is truly jarring.
Su altı kontrolleri niye ters la bu oyunda koyam size koyam yoji shinkawa koyam kojima koyam yu suzuki
“Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing.”
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty in hindsight, one of the best Single Player story games of the PlayStation 2. Many people that haven’t played it in years always say how this game was ahead of it’s time in 2001, certainly predicted the future with A.I & misinformation it’s really delicate themes of passing accurate history goes way beyond genetics, finding freedom and individuality. I can safely say after playing it since 2011, I am pretty much convinced once more. This story has aged like a fine wine. Kojima does it again and with it creates a literal movie feeling type game.
I will say from the get go, I am certainly not very nostalgic for this game. When I was originally playing it for the PlayStation 2, I was a Raiden hater I will admit. I just couldn’t grasp the idea of playing someone else other than the legendary solid snake. Many years later how I was proven so wrong and I have never felt so connected to Raiden on a personal level.
Gameplay I would say is great. They fixed a lot of what was missing in MGS1 and gave it some quality of life improvements. It felt right at home and I really appreciated that my skill in MGS1 could transfer over to MGS2. Swimming I would say needs a lot of improvements cause it was very clunky. Overall, Very interesting level design all things considered when you visit the plant. It feels very complex but when you dissect it, it’s a rather small map with a lot of narrow hallways which can be a detriment in playing the game stealthily.
Music is an absolute banger. Never felt dull in filler sections or when you are facing enemies/bosses. Great soundtrack!
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is a great sequel, that is usually overshadowed by its twist early on in the game. If you look past that you are gonna have an absolute BANGER of a time playing it. I was playing this on the HD collection on the PS3 and to my surprise today (Nov 13) was the original date of when it came out in 2001 which is timed perfectly. Do yourself a favor and replay this masterpiece of a game. It’s crazy for me to think this was my least favorite Metal Gear solid game for a long time. I managed to log in 8hr 45m 27s on my run. Not a short game by any means.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty in hindsight, one of the best Single Player story games of the PlayStation 2. Many people that haven’t played it in years always say how this game was ahead of it’s time in 2001, certainly predicted the future with A.I & misinformation it’s really delicate themes of passing accurate history goes way beyond genetics, finding freedom and individuality. I can safely say after playing it since 2011, I am pretty much convinced once more. This story has aged like a fine wine. Kojima does it again and with it creates a literal movie feeling type game.
I will say from the get go, I am certainly not very nostalgic for this game. When I was originally playing it for the PlayStation 2, I was a Raiden hater I will admit. I just couldn’t grasp the idea of playing someone else other than the legendary solid snake. Many years later how I was proven so wrong and I have never felt so connected to Raiden on a personal level.
Gameplay I would say is great. They fixed a lot of what was missing in MGS1 and gave it some quality of life improvements. It felt right at home and I really appreciated that my skill in MGS1 could transfer over to MGS2. Swimming I would say needs a lot of improvements cause it was very clunky. Overall, Very interesting level design all things considered when you visit the plant. It feels very complex but when you dissect it, it’s a rather small map with a lot of narrow hallways which can be a detriment in playing the game stealthily.
Music is an absolute banger. Never felt dull in filler sections or when you are facing enemies/bosses. Great soundtrack!
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is a great sequel, that is usually overshadowed by its twist early on in the game. If you look past that you are gonna have an absolute BANGER of a time playing it. I was playing this on the HD collection on the PS3 and to my surprise today (Nov 13) was the original date of when it came out in 2001 which is timed perfectly. Do yourself a favor and replay this masterpiece of a game. It’s crazy for me to think this was my least favorite Metal Gear solid game for a long time. I managed to log in 8hr 45m 27s on my run. Not a short game by any means.
In the third act of every Kojima game (that I've played) a spark goes off and a fire starts burning, and it never stops until the credits roll. Everything gets revealed in some loud, over the top way. It's all nonsense you can make some sense of, and can't help being entranced by. When it is done burning, the game looks you in the eyes, embers of absurdity still in the air, and trusts in you a shockingly human and hopeful message about our nature, our world and what we ought to do about it. All of its corniness and rough aspects stick with you, yet coalesce into something that feels more human because of that.
Playing through his repertoire, it's hard not to think of all the grandiosity we impart onto his authorship and all the harm that's caused. However, it's easy to understand why it exists: his artistry is so technically impressive yet his dialogue and gameplay have so many obvious flaws. You feel a human soul throughout his art, like you do a great movie or book, in a way that the corporate art of high budget video gaming never allows for anybody else. It's important not to reduce a large team effort to that of a single person, but it's hard not to picture the passion that so clearly flows through his games commanding so many creatives to achieve a singular vision.
In Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid 2, that human voice is heard perfectly, and guides you so convincingly. It pokes at a possible future, and preaches to us what we should do for it: to use our single, individual future in the hope of a better future, and better society for us all. Almost like a dad who is a bit too full of himself. And like a child to a dad, you say: "Sure, whatever you say old man", and take from all the pomp and circumstance a single nugget of truth.
Perhaps that's what he wanted us to do after all. It's hard to tell.
Playing through his repertoire, it's hard not to think of all the grandiosity we impart onto his authorship and all the harm that's caused. However, it's easy to understand why it exists: his artistry is so technically impressive yet his dialogue and gameplay have so many obvious flaws. You feel a human soul throughout his art, like you do a great movie or book, in a way that the corporate art of high budget video gaming never allows for anybody else. It's important not to reduce a large team effort to that of a single person, but it's hard not to picture the passion that so clearly flows through his games commanding so many creatives to achieve a singular vision.
In Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid 2, that human voice is heard perfectly, and guides you so convincingly. It pokes at a possible future, and preaches to us what we should do for it: to use our single, individual future in the hope of a better future, and better society for us all. Almost like a dad who is a bit too full of himself. And like a child to a dad, you say: "Sure, whatever you say old man", and take from all the pomp and circumstance a single nugget of truth.
Perhaps that's what he wanted us to do after all. It's hard to tell.
This review contains spoilers
"Building the future and keeping the past alive are one in the same thing."
(Some spoilers ahead)
Seeing how the game came out in 2001, I was expecting a lot of headaches from the gameplay but I thought it was great. The game genuinely felt good to play and the amount of attention to details for a game that came out 20+ years ago is just lunacy. Actual fights and shootouts do feel uncomfortable to play but it's a MGS game, the point is that you don't get seen.
Speaking of MGS 2 being ahead of its time, the story. Snake not being the protagonist was polarizing af when the game came out but Raiden was such a great character. Kojima did something very unique when it came to his relationship with the player. Raiden is a stand-in for the player in the game’s world, the fact that most of his training came from imitating Snake in virtual reality (like how our “training” came from the first game where we were also mimicking/playing as Snake) and how the Big Shell Incident is the Patriots forcing Raiden to play out what happened at Shadow Moses (which is why this game and the first one share so many similarities). His lack of experience makes it so he’s finding everything out along with us, making him more relatable.
Despite that, Raiden is also a character in a story. His arc is all about starting to live for himself instead of just following someone else's orders. This applies to the Patriots (who were manipulating him throughout the whole game) but on a more meta level, this also applies to us the players. In the end, we stop playing as Raiden because he no longer has to do what we tell him. He’s free
The final stretch of this game was so thought-provoking, Kojima is a brilliant writer I swear. The way it dives into AI and the “digital age” more than 20 YEARS AGO is just amazing. The ethical dilemma that the Patriots AI provokes in the player had me mesmerized. Is the AI wrong for trying to preserve only the information necessary for humanity’s development, filtering out the rest? Is Raiden wrong for thinking humanity deserves the right to decide what information is worth preserving or not, even if we are wrong? Is our advancement and prosperity as a species worth it at the expense of our freedom? Arghhhh this game
Phenomenal game all around. Everything from the gameplay to the narrative was handled with such care and attention. I think it’s never been more appropriate to say that something is “ahead of its time” than with this game. The themes that MGS 2 dives into are more relevant and poignant now than they were when it came out. Kojima made a game for people living in the 2010s and 2020s back when the world was still in 2001, that is what being ahead of his time means.
(Some spoilers ahead)
Seeing how the game came out in 2001, I was expecting a lot of headaches from the gameplay but I thought it was great. The game genuinely felt good to play and the amount of attention to details for a game that came out 20+ years ago is just lunacy. Actual fights and shootouts do feel uncomfortable to play but it's a MGS game, the point is that you don't get seen.
Speaking of MGS 2 being ahead of its time, the story. Snake not being the protagonist was polarizing af when the game came out but Raiden was such a great character. Kojima did something very unique when it came to his relationship with the player. Raiden is a stand-in for the player in the game’s world, the fact that most of his training came from imitating Snake in virtual reality (like how our “training” came from the first game where we were also mimicking/playing as Snake) and how the Big Shell Incident is the Patriots forcing Raiden to play out what happened at Shadow Moses (which is why this game and the first one share so many similarities). His lack of experience makes it so he’s finding everything out along with us, making him more relatable.
Despite that, Raiden is also a character in a story. His arc is all about starting to live for himself instead of just following someone else's orders. This applies to the Patriots (who were manipulating him throughout the whole game) but on a more meta level, this also applies to us the players. In the end, we stop playing as Raiden because he no longer has to do what we tell him. He’s free
The final stretch of this game was so thought-provoking, Kojima is a brilliant writer I swear. The way it dives into AI and the “digital age” more than 20 YEARS AGO is just amazing. The ethical dilemma that the Patriots AI provokes in the player had me mesmerized. Is the AI wrong for trying to preserve only the information necessary for humanity’s development, filtering out the rest? Is Raiden wrong for thinking humanity deserves the right to decide what information is worth preserving or not, even if we are wrong? Is our advancement and prosperity as a species worth it at the expense of our freedom? Arghhhh this game
Phenomenal game all around. Everything from the gameplay to the narrative was handled with such care and attention. I think it’s never been more appropriate to say that something is “ahead of its time” than with this game. The themes that MGS 2 dives into are more relevant and poignant now than they were when it came out. Kojima made a game for people living in the 2010s and 2020s back when the world was still in 2001, that is what being ahead of his time means.
This review contains spoilers
I just submitted an honors paper today that I've been working on for a good chunk of the semester (fingers crossed that it's good enough). The opening and ending of it both use quotes from the end of MGS2, which makes it kind of ironic that I submitted it on April 30th. Although, more than anything, I think it's a sign of how much this game has stuck in my mind since I completed it.
There are so many incredible twists scattered throughout and so many brilliant themes that it's impossible for me to describe them all. But the thing that sticks out to me the most is one of Snake's lines from the end: "Everything you felt, thought about during this mission is yours, and what you decide to do with them is your choice."
I think that's something everyone should hear, at some point in their lives.
There are so many incredible twists scattered throughout and so many brilliant themes that it's impossible for me to describe them all. But the thing that sticks out to me the most is one of Snake's lines from the end: "Everything you felt, thought about during this mission is yours, and what you decide to do with them is your choice."
I think that's something everyone should hear, at some point in their lives.
Raiden, turn off the game review right now!
its a masterpiece and all but still clunky asf, i kept struggling with the controls and doing the wrong thing (my fault), and smaller things that i just think were designed poorly/should have had some settings to adjust (sensitivity of the sniper, swimming controls, the entire solidus fight) okay maybe the last one isnt entirely the games fault but its strange that the story and message have aged so incredibly well for the modern day, while the gameplay itself is starting to feel its age. if i ever replay this game ill probably use third person mod on pc, probably alongside others
Ah, Sons of Liberty. One of the most noteworthy titles of the sixth console generation, a top contender for the majority of the fanbase’s favorite entry in the entire series, and nigh universally considered to rank among the best games ever made. Oddly enough, it might also be the perfect litmus test to determine whether the larger scope of what the Metal Gear franchise has to offer is for you or not. Y’see, there’s a small group of people out there who, despite loving the first Solid, found this to be the point where the property as a whole simply stopped being for them. Their reasoning? The writing.
While critically acclaimed and its most direct predecessor not exactly shying away from going over the top itself, the storytelling does take a turn for the excessively gonzo in this follow-up and it’s not like the plotting in subsequent releases got any less polarizing from here on that front. You fight immortal vampires who can walk on water, people get possessed by ghosts lingering in transplanted limbs, and there’s a subplot involving a certain otaku hacker that feels like something out of a bad stepson/bro porno. Really reveals how ridiculous all those complaints about the Matrix-style antics in the cutscenes of The Twin Snakes are. I mean, this literally opens with Snake doing a backflip somersault off of the George Washington Bridge to land on a tanker passing underneath. So yeah, that remake isn’t exactly the tonal anomaly its detractors claim it to be…
The tale is ultimately redeemed for many by the strength of its deep, poignant thematic material, which covers topics such as censorship, misinformation, and governmental attempts to use both to control public opinion in the digital age. Stuff that has only gotten more relevant as the years have gone by, but personally aren’t enough to keep me from counting myself among the portion of players who view SoL as the point where the narrative first seriously jumped the shark. And this is coming from someone who is more forgiving of the most heavily criticized elements than the majority of others typically are. The disdain for Raiden as the protagonist because he’s “weak” and “whiny,” for example? I totally don’t buy into it all. The guy is pretty likable and it’s hard to think of him as a wimp just because he’s inexperienced when he still manages to kick an insane amount of butt by the time the credits roll. Not to mention his inclusion makes the overall world of Metal Gear feel more expansive in a cool way. Honestly, I imagine part of the hate (outside of the general anger at a lack of Snake) is simply misplaced frustration at his girlfriend. Don’t get me wrong, I actually understand why she’s having trouble with aspects of their relationship, but could she legit have not found a better opportunity to constantly pester him about it than right when he’s in the middle of trying to rescue the President from a group of terrorists?
It’s a shame that the utterly outlandish qualities and willingness of the characters to dive into every little detail of their personal dramas at inappropriate moments causes the plot to come up short considering what a huge element of the brand that is. It’s not enough for me to turn my back on the title as a whole however, as it’s hard to fault the actual gameplay much. I’m someone who prefers to play stealth games aggressively taking out guards before they’re aware of my presence rather than waiting around to memorize the blind spots in their patrol patterns, particularly in offerings like this one where you’re regularly required to revisit prior locations, so additions such as first-person aiming are a godsend! Kojima even managed to give you the tools for an effective offense without compromising the underlying motif introduced in this outing of pacifism that encourages the player to resolve situations non-lethally and would become a staple moving forward. A variety of systems and items were created here that make it completely possible to avoid killing anyone, including the bosses (not that it has any affect on their fate already predetermined by the script though).
I also just love the new setting! It may not have the personality or atmosphere of Shadow Moses, but its layout is a massive improvement. Admittedly, that is because they sort of took the easy route of making it basically one big circle. Yet, I’ll accept that as it severely reduces the tedium of backtracking and the sheer variety of one-off scenarios you’ll encounter prevent the surroundings of the adventure from ever coming off as simplistic or repetitive. If you look back at prior Metal Gears up to this point, you’ll notice a cycle of Kojima taking previous set pieces and recreating them with refinements and at a grander scale. Something he does in Solid 2 to a degree as well, but evidently the gaming auteur realized there wasn’t much else he could do differently with those old ideas so he started finally cooking up fresh concepts à la underwater swimming areas and thrilling sniper sections where you provide cover for a moving ally that kept me enthralled in the moment-to-moment action.
This captures almost perfectly how I’ve always wanted a Metal Gear to play, right down to little touches like the map that pops up on the pause screen. You may find the overall yarn encapsulating the highly enjoyable interactive portion of the package to be exasperating to the degree that it effectively dashes your enthusiasm for the rest of experience entirely the way a minority of players have. Especially since it becomes borderline unintelligible in the final act and it director’s penchant for lengthy cinematics/codec calls mean you’ll be sitting through extended stretches of it. I’m not saying there aren’t still those classic MG segments that will leave you wondering whether or not their creator is some kind of sadist either (that darn shell 1-2 connecting bridge…). Those otherwise serious faults end up turning into quibbles when faced with the fine tuning of the mechanics and plethora of excellent QoL features though. Earning Sons of Liberty a well-deserved seat alongside the crème de la crème of thestealth-action tactical espionage action genre. In my eyes at least.
9/10
While critically acclaimed and its most direct predecessor not exactly shying away from going over the top itself, the storytelling does take a turn for the excessively gonzo in this follow-up and it’s not like the plotting in subsequent releases got any less polarizing from here on that front. You fight immortal vampires who can walk on water, people get possessed by ghosts lingering in transplanted limbs, and there’s a subplot involving a certain otaku hacker that feels like something out of a bad stepson/bro porno. Really reveals how ridiculous all those complaints about the Matrix-style antics in the cutscenes of The Twin Snakes are. I mean, this literally opens with Snake doing a backflip somersault off of the George Washington Bridge to land on a tanker passing underneath. So yeah, that remake isn’t exactly the tonal anomaly its detractors claim it to be…
The tale is ultimately redeemed for many by the strength of its deep, poignant thematic material, which covers topics such as censorship, misinformation, and governmental attempts to use both to control public opinion in the digital age. Stuff that has only gotten more relevant as the years have gone by, but personally aren’t enough to keep me from counting myself among the portion of players who view SoL as the point where the narrative first seriously jumped the shark. And this is coming from someone who is more forgiving of the most heavily criticized elements than the majority of others typically are. The disdain for Raiden as the protagonist because he’s “weak” and “whiny,” for example? I totally don’t buy into it all. The guy is pretty likable and it’s hard to think of him as a wimp just because he’s inexperienced when he still manages to kick an insane amount of butt by the time the credits roll. Not to mention his inclusion makes the overall world of Metal Gear feel more expansive in a cool way. Honestly, I imagine part of the hate (outside of the general anger at a lack of Snake) is simply misplaced frustration at his girlfriend. Don’t get me wrong, I actually understand why she’s having trouble with aspects of their relationship, but could she legit have not found a better opportunity to constantly pester him about it than right when he’s in the middle of trying to rescue the President from a group of terrorists?
It’s a shame that the utterly outlandish qualities and willingness of the characters to dive into every little detail of their personal dramas at inappropriate moments causes the plot to come up short considering what a huge element of the brand that is. It’s not enough for me to turn my back on the title as a whole however, as it’s hard to fault the actual gameplay much. I’m someone who prefers to play stealth games aggressively taking out guards before they’re aware of my presence rather than waiting around to memorize the blind spots in their patrol patterns, particularly in offerings like this one where you’re regularly required to revisit prior locations, so additions such as first-person aiming are a godsend! Kojima even managed to give you the tools for an effective offense without compromising the underlying motif introduced in this outing of pacifism that encourages the player to resolve situations non-lethally and would become a staple moving forward. A variety of systems and items were created here that make it completely possible to avoid killing anyone, including the bosses (not that it has any affect on their fate already predetermined by the script though).
I also just love the new setting! It may not have the personality or atmosphere of Shadow Moses, but its layout is a massive improvement. Admittedly, that is because they sort of took the easy route of making it basically one big circle. Yet, I’ll accept that as it severely reduces the tedium of backtracking and the sheer variety of one-off scenarios you’ll encounter prevent the surroundings of the adventure from ever coming off as simplistic or repetitive. If you look back at prior Metal Gears up to this point, you’ll notice a cycle of Kojima taking previous set pieces and recreating them with refinements and at a grander scale. Something he does in Solid 2 to a degree as well, but evidently the gaming auteur realized there wasn’t much else he could do differently with those old ideas so he started finally cooking up fresh concepts à la underwater swimming areas and thrilling sniper sections where you provide cover for a moving ally that kept me enthralled in the moment-to-moment action.
This captures almost perfectly how I’ve always wanted a Metal Gear to play, right down to little touches like the map that pops up on the pause screen. You may find the overall yarn encapsulating the highly enjoyable interactive portion of the package to be exasperating to the degree that it effectively dashes your enthusiasm for the rest of experience entirely the way a minority of players have. Especially since it becomes borderline unintelligible in the final act and it director’s penchant for lengthy cinematics/codec calls mean you’ll be sitting through extended stretches of it. I’m not saying there aren’t still those classic MG segments that will leave you wondering whether or not their creator is some kind of sadist either (that darn shell 1-2 connecting bridge…). Those otherwise serious faults end up turning into quibbles when faced with the fine tuning of the mechanics and plethora of excellent QoL features though. Earning Sons of Liberty a well-deserved seat alongside the crème de la crème of the
9/10
This review contains spoilers
This review will contain spoilers
Prefix the same thing I did on my MGS 1 review. I played this through the new master collection on PS5 however I want to talk about each game individually so ill review each one as I complete them and then ill talk about the master collection later.
I think Metal Gear Solid 2 is a very good continuation of the series and one ups the first game in a number of ways, It continues well of the story of the first game with a good balance of returning and new characters. However this game in my opinion has one major fault that unfortunatly drags the score down for me a bit which I will get into later.
To start off with the great stuff, I love the story of this game, It is a great spy thriller with so many twists and turns that you never really know what's coming next. I love the twist that the whole game is an engineered retelling of the events of the first game and when you look back you can really see it. I really like Raiden as a protagonist and how he is much less keen to just go along with everything and questions order from the get go unlike Snake in MGS. I still do prefer Snake as a protagonist because Raiden doesn't have the same charm but still a good character. Side character wise I think this game has it a lot better as it makes use of them a lot more, where as MGS 1 only had Meryl actually interact with snake outside of codec, where in this one Raiden interacts with all but 2 side characters. Villain wise I like Ocelot but I think that Solidus Snake is a bit of a dip from Liquid.
To move onto the gameplay I think they made a lot of good upgrades from the first game with the ability to climb, hang from railings and Raiden can use his dodge move to jump gaps. Combat is very similar but with the addition of first person aiming it makes shooting segments a lot less tedious.
Visually the HD version looks fantastic and is a massive step up from the old polygon style of the first game. While still having the polygon style, there is a lot more detail in facial features and costume design. Looking back at pictures from the ps2 version, that game looked incredible for its time anyway, amazing that it was released on the PS2. Score wise its just as good as the last game, the boss fight music in this game is a personal favourite.
Unfortunately I didn't find the bosses in this game as fun as the previous game. Fatman was fun and the Solidus fight was entertaining but the rest were kinda just mediocre especially compared to the bosses in the first game.
Now to get onto my biggest complaint about this game. The cutscenes. It took my around 9 hours to beat this game and I am convinced that at least 5 hours of it was cutscenes. It barely felt like I was playing the game. Baring in mind I had this problem with the first game as well but it comes back ten fold here. Now I understand that Kojima's style is to make his games like movies and he masterfully crafts these stories into long and thought out cutscenes and there are times in this game when that works, but a 12 minute long codec conversation where Raiden occasionally goes "what?" doesn't hit for me. This is where the bulk of my complaints lie. I dont mind sitting watching a long cutscene as it normally has something interesting happening. Like the cutscene before the Solidus fight is amazing and I dont mind that, but its the stupidly long exposition filled codec segments are a drag on this game more so than the first.
I understand that these long cutscenes are a staple of the Metal Gear franchise and I will try and not let it effect any ratings in the future instalments that I play. I really did enjoy the first game but this game has made me a fan of the Metal Gear series and I am excited to start MGS3 soon. Would definitely recommend.
Prefix the same thing I did on my MGS 1 review. I played this through the new master collection on PS5 however I want to talk about each game individually so ill review each one as I complete them and then ill talk about the master collection later.
I think Metal Gear Solid 2 is a very good continuation of the series and one ups the first game in a number of ways, It continues well of the story of the first game with a good balance of returning and new characters. However this game in my opinion has one major fault that unfortunatly drags the score down for me a bit which I will get into later.
To start off with the great stuff, I love the story of this game, It is a great spy thriller with so many twists and turns that you never really know what's coming next. I love the twist that the whole game is an engineered retelling of the events of the first game and when you look back you can really see it. I really like Raiden as a protagonist and how he is much less keen to just go along with everything and questions order from the get go unlike Snake in MGS. I still do prefer Snake as a protagonist because Raiden doesn't have the same charm but still a good character. Side character wise I think this game has it a lot better as it makes use of them a lot more, where as MGS 1 only had Meryl actually interact with snake outside of codec, where in this one Raiden interacts with all but 2 side characters. Villain wise I like Ocelot but I think that Solidus Snake is a bit of a dip from Liquid.
To move onto the gameplay I think they made a lot of good upgrades from the first game with the ability to climb, hang from railings and Raiden can use his dodge move to jump gaps. Combat is very similar but with the addition of first person aiming it makes shooting segments a lot less tedious.
Visually the HD version looks fantastic and is a massive step up from the old polygon style of the first game. While still having the polygon style, there is a lot more detail in facial features and costume design. Looking back at pictures from the ps2 version, that game looked incredible for its time anyway, amazing that it was released on the PS2. Score wise its just as good as the last game, the boss fight music in this game is a personal favourite.
Unfortunately I didn't find the bosses in this game as fun as the previous game. Fatman was fun and the Solidus fight was entertaining but the rest were kinda just mediocre especially compared to the bosses in the first game.
Now to get onto my biggest complaint about this game. The cutscenes. It took my around 9 hours to beat this game and I am convinced that at least 5 hours of it was cutscenes. It barely felt like I was playing the game. Baring in mind I had this problem with the first game as well but it comes back ten fold here. Now I understand that Kojima's style is to make his games like movies and he masterfully crafts these stories into long and thought out cutscenes and there are times in this game when that works, but a 12 minute long codec conversation where Raiden occasionally goes "what?" doesn't hit for me. This is where the bulk of my complaints lie. I dont mind sitting watching a long cutscene as it normally has something interesting happening. Like the cutscene before the Solidus fight is amazing and I dont mind that, but its the stupidly long exposition filled codec segments are a drag on this game more so than the first.
I understand that these long cutscenes are a staple of the Metal Gear franchise and I will try and not let it effect any ratings in the future instalments that I play. I really did enjoy the first game but this game has made me a fan of the Metal Gear series and I am excited to start MGS3 soon. Would definitely recommend.
This review contains spoilers
Tight, claustrophobic sandboxes allow for sequences highlighting the causality of player action due to the proximity of guards; in that respect, it represents not only a marked improvement over the previous entry's limited and exploitable areas but immediately begins enforcing the most prominent theme of the game. Tranquilize a guard only to be discovered when dragging their body, forcing you to scramble to find a hiding spot for a clearing. Then in the subsequent tightened security phase, use a box to crawl near the exit, get a guard's attention near the exit, and choke hold them as leverage for escaping. Everything the player does has consequences, has some observable effect on the environment that can help or hurt them.
Beyond the tanker chapter, Big Shell is structured so most rooms are struts connected to another, the player tasked to approach them in one of several ways resulting in subtle shifts of the original challenge depending on the perspective you approach them from. Maybe there was room to go further with the idea, but it comes across the same, connection enabled through choice and consequence. There are numerous mirrors and tangents in the narrative, the obsession with parents, siblings, children, and family is no coincidence.
I find it fascinating that the game commentates on complex ideas of anonymous dissemination of information, the role of digital information in human advancement and the jarring sense of encroachment on one's perception of reality, but the conclusion is very simple, gesturing to the very basic idea of ecology. Despite the gizmos, the networks, despite the finale with enough increasingly grand and indigestible revelations to make your head spin, no matter the method of connection the fact is that we all are, and only you can decide what it means to live for you and your progeny, and that discovery may be the only truth you can rely on in times to come.
Beyond the tanker chapter, Big Shell is structured so most rooms are struts connected to another, the player tasked to approach them in one of several ways resulting in subtle shifts of the original challenge depending on the perspective you approach them from. Maybe there was room to go further with the idea, but it comes across the same, connection enabled through choice and consequence. There are numerous mirrors and tangents in the narrative, the obsession with parents, siblings, children, and family is no coincidence.
I find it fascinating that the game commentates on complex ideas of anonymous dissemination of information, the role of digital information in human advancement and the jarring sense of encroachment on one's perception of reality, but the conclusion is very simple, gesturing to the very basic idea of ecology. Despite the gizmos, the networks, despite the finale with enough increasingly grand and indigestible revelations to make your head spin, no matter the method of connection the fact is that we all are, and only you can decide what it means to live for you and your progeny, and that discovery may be the only truth you can rely on in times to come.
i want raiden to impregnate me
I'm writing this review right after playing, so forgive me if my mind is still piecing itself back together.This isn't my first dive into Hideo Kojima and his work, but its the one that has shown off his ambition and artful storytelling skills the best. It makes me miss the days where AAA games could be this bold, daring, artful, and meaningful.
I'm wayyyyy late to this party, so I'm gonna assume that you most likely know MGS 2 and what makes it great. So I won't drone on about the incredible story, characters, dialogue, deep gameplay mechanics, and fantastic presentation.
Instead, I want to lament about the loss of projects like this in the AAA industry. This game reminded me of SH2 and Killer7 in a way. Not because it's similar to those games in terms of story or anything, but in how there is a clear voice and creator behind it with a vision. It's never afraid to do something bold and different, while still having relevant messages for today.
Play this game. Play more games that dare to be more than just a fun time. Play more games that have meaning, messages, heart, soul, and passion. There's always a place for simple, good, well designed fun. But the industry needs more games like this as well.
I'm wayyyyy late to this party, so I'm gonna assume that you most likely know MGS 2 and what makes it great. So I won't drone on about the incredible story, characters, dialogue, deep gameplay mechanics, and fantastic presentation.
Instead, I want to lament about the loss of projects like this in the AAA industry. This game reminded me of SH2 and Killer7 in a way. Not because it's similar to those games in terms of story or anything, but in how there is a clear voice and creator behind it with a vision. It's never afraid to do something bold and different, while still having relevant messages for today.
Play this game. Play more games that dare to be more than just a fun time. Play more games that have meaning, messages, heart, soul, and passion. There's always a place for simple, good, well designed fun. But the industry needs more games like this as well.
Freedom To Decide
One of the best stealth games ever made and one of the best games in general ever made. Hideo Kojima is truly amazing being able to make these games especially with the story and how it holds up still to this day on how relevant it is with its many themes in its storyline and characters.
"Find something to believe in. And find it for yourself. And when you do, pass it on to the future."
The finale for MGS2 once you enter the arsenal is one of the greatest stretches of a game, I've ever played especially with the twists and the adrenaline rush of how the story is proceeding. Raiden being naked was not just for funny purposes, it was he was vulnerable and naked mentally as well. For one of the first times in forever, during that one section of the game, I felt like I was in a weird dream stance especially when it got insanely uncanny from the Codec calls from the AIs. From this point on to the finale battle and the last codec call is just a masterpiece. I love Raidens character and his own character arc of not just being used, to be able to start living for himself and for his story only. This game tells us and lays it out for us that we decide for ourselves, don't just believe what you are told, question ourselves and our own identity, and much more. One of the best games ever and I can't stop saying that.
You should do yourself an honor and play this for yourself. To be able to experience this masterpiece for yourself is a amazing experience.
One of the best stealth games ever made and one of the best games in general ever made. Hideo Kojima is truly amazing being able to make these games especially with the story and how it holds up still to this day on how relevant it is with its many themes in its storyline and characters.
"Find something to believe in. And find it for yourself. And when you do, pass it on to the future."
The finale for MGS2 once you enter the arsenal is one of the greatest stretches of a game, I've ever played especially with the twists and the adrenaline rush of how the story is proceeding. Raiden being naked was not just for funny purposes, it was he was vulnerable and naked mentally as well. For one of the first times in forever, during that one section of the game, I felt like I was in a weird dream stance especially when it got insanely uncanny from the Codec calls from the AIs. From this point on to the finale battle and the last codec call is just a masterpiece. I love Raidens character and his own character arc of not just being used, to be able to start living for himself and for his story only. This game tells us and lays it out for us that we decide for ourselves, don't just believe what you are told, question ourselves and our own identity, and much more. One of the best games ever and I can't stop saying that.
You should do yourself an honor and play this for yourself. To be able to experience this masterpiece for yourself is a amazing experience.
Is just a video-game.
One of the greatest stories in video game history, foretold of the dangers of AI, Social Media, general Internet Age type stuff and all this back in 2001. I seemed to get lucky with the port, I didn't have any major crashes or loss of progress although I have seen people having many problems with it so keep that in mind. Gameplay holds up too! MGS3 is still where my hearts at but this is still in my All Timer's. Many fond memories of playing the VR missions and messing about in the cutscene viewer at a friends house back in the day.
MGS2 is a game that I always liked but just soured in my mind the longer I spent away from it. With the Master Collection coming out I finally had a reason to revisit it. I'm very happy to say that my memory was just off as this is an amazing game. Everything I said about MGS1 being ahead of it's time still applies here and more with a lot of the themes it tackles being such a huge part of modern day society. The Tanker mission is a great intro to the game and the last act is arguably one of the craziest acts in gaming history.
Bafflingly brilliant on every level, puts most games to shame even almost 13 years later. Builds upon everything that made the original great, especially in terms of narrative and gameplay. So many little details that still blow my mind, and I'm always finding new things every time I go back through it. Playing this always takes me back to my childhood, I'm so happy I still love these games.
Literal life changing expierence I'm genuinely honored to live in the same era as this amazing piece of art like holy shit. the night I finished it I sat on my bed eating pizza rolls for the first time in probably 10 years bawling my eyes out
If there was a real presidential candidate who was a clone of a war hero with doctor octopus tentacles and two katanas named democrat and republican I'd totally vote for that guy.
I've been wanting to play this game for years and it did not disappoint. The gameplay was incredibly addictive, having so many different options and incredible attention to detail. It makes this game very hard to put down. And the story while it does have its issues, is thematically one of the most relevant stories I've seen. There are parts of this game that make it feel like this could've come out recently, which for a 20 year old game is mind blowing. Although the game’s age can clearly be seen with its controls, which were very difficult for me and made for a lot of frustrating moments (especially the boss fights). I did have some issues that slightly brought the game down for me. But by the time I witnessed that conclusion, I left feeling completely satisfied. The last hour of this game was exciting, shocking, and incredibly moving. Even having it partially spoiled, it was an emotional rollercoaster that I'm going to be thinking about for a while. I'm so glad that I finally got to experience this.
raiden should taintflip onto my nutsack 💯
This game just blew my mind ...
So creative, crazy and a strong artstyle with an amazing story and gameplay, really make this a wild ride.
The plottwists really got me and i loved the message this game has. One of the most mesmerizing finales i ever had in a game.
A real masterpiece that made me understand why people hold Hideo Kojima in such high regard. He really is a unique visionary like no other in the games industry.
So creative, crazy and a strong artstyle with an amazing story and gameplay, really make this a wild ride.
The plottwists really got me and i loved the message this game has. One of the most mesmerizing finales i ever had in a game.
A real masterpiece that made me understand why people hold Hideo Kojima in such high regard. He really is a unique visionary like no other in the games industry.