Got further in this game than the first Metal Gear due to the the more complex AI and crawling adding more enjoyment to playing this game than the first as it's closer to a modern MGS game, but it still didn't hold my attention for too long. Saving also felt a lot fairer, and I'd lose 5 minutes progress at most with is much easier to make up for. The most interesting part to me is seeing Big Boss in a villain role, especially coming to these games after MGS3, but apart from that the story is what you'd expect and everything is kept pretty sparse.

Overall Metal Gear 2 is a better game than the first and I found it more engaging as it's more similar to a modern title, but I don't think it's worth my time following a guide for 5 hours anymore just to say I've completed a game I don't enjoy playing. Probably worth at least trying if you're a fan of the series and want to see where they started, but not much more than that.

Metal Gear 2 is a major step up from both its predecessors. The sheer scope of the game is extremely impressive for the time; the giant interconnected map, the drama of the story, the creative puzzles and problem solving, and the overall presentation far exceeds that of Metal Gear 1 and Snake’s Revenge, although the later wasn’t all that outstanding in any of those fields to begin with. As well, it really feels like Kojima came into his own with this project; even for somebody like me who hasn’t played any of the future games, and only knows bits and pieces from internet osmosis, Kojima’s signature style can clearly be seen. It genuinely felt like Kojima cared much more about this project, much more than he did the first game; and whether it be because he was much more invested in this entry, or that he just wanted to one up Snake’s Revenge, it has culminated in an experience that is worth any players time, even non die hard Metal Gear fans.

The first Metal Gear’s narrative was nothing to write home about, it was simple and really only served to progress the game forward; in comparison, Metal Gear 2’s story is like The Godfather. Characters are actual characters and not plot macguffins, the player becomes invested in their personal stories and wants to see them make it to the other side, or their demise in the case of the antagonists. But even then, the game’s antagonists are honestly sympathetic at times. The returning Dr. Madnar and Gray Fox are both stand out examples of this; they both have similarly tragic but understandable backstories that led them to where they are, but are still very clearly villains who have done heinous things. Additionally, in what was probably the biggest surprise this game had, each of the characters play into the games overall thesis of war and the never ending cycle of violence. All the characters have been shaped by war in some way, like how Gustava was separated from her partner by the Berlin Wall, or how Snake himself has some form of PTSD from the Outer Heaven Uprising that keeps him from just quitting the operation. Hell, there are even children NPCs that can be found roaming the facilities of Zanzibar Land who have been displaced by NATO’s war efforts against Big Boss and his team of mercenaries; to which later Big Boss calls them the next generation of soldiers to fuel the machine. Mind you, this is all from a game that came out in the year 1990, on a computer system that has all been but forgotten to time; this was during a time where narratives in video games didn’t ever go past “save the princess” or “kill the bad guys”. This story was so far ahead of its time it's almost absurd. Not to say that the story is perfect, or even all that serious; many of Kojima’s “isms” do slightly detract from the story's overall impact; some of the dialogue is particularly campy, and Dr. Madnar breaking the fourth wall by name dropping the MSX and Konami are a bit distracting, although it is rather funny. Additionally, the cinematics are much more dramatic and lengthy, which I assume is emblematic for the rest of the series going forward, as is everything previously stated. But it is not just the presentation that took a major leap forward, the game design is also just leagues better from the first entry.

Both Metal Gear and Solid Snake function quite similarly in terms of progression; the player is dropped into a large, interconnected map where they must collect key cards, weapons, and gadgets to move forward. But where they differ is in the players' agency. For the most part, the challenge in Metal Gear’s design was learning enemy patrol patterns and then maneuvering around them so as to not get caught, which is fine, but it is the only form of interaction the player has; the player does have weapons they can use, but using them will set off the alarm, and the gadgets are all used for puzzles. It is a one sided interaction. Solid Snake fixes this issue by not changing, but rather evolving this design concept. For starters, the enemy patrol patterns are way less complex, but in turn, have become harder to recognize; but that doesn’t really matter all too much because a new map has been added that lets the player see where enemies are and where they are headed. Combine this with the larger maps and the ability to crawl under certain walkways, cracks in the wall, and under crates; the player has much greater control over how they navigate through each area; and when the player does inevitably trigger the alarm, it actually feels like a mistake made by player, rather than the jank of the game. Additionally, Snake’s array of gadgets that he collects are far greater; almost all of the items, outside of a small few, have utility functions outside of their associated puzzle. The camouflage mat is a particular standout, letting the player create their own cover to hide under on the go, letting the player be a bit more risky with their movements. On top of that, the keycards have been ever so slightly altered; they are still numbered and the player has to still equip them to open a door, but now for every three that the player collects, they can then be combined into a colored card that functions as all three of those keys, making the repeated opening and closing of doors when backtracking more convenient and player friendly. On that note, backtracking might be the only criticism I have in regards to this section. The greater majority of the game is paced very well, it is only the last third of the game that has some unnecessary backtracking, but that is a minor negative drop in an otherwise fantastic sea of design.

I would like to close by mentioning the fact that I played Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, as well as Metal Gear 1 and Snake’s Revenge, in the Metal Gear Master Collection Volume 1 that was released last year. I will probably not be returning to this collection for future entries in this series, not because the collection is bad, but because I already own original copies of each of the games on their original hardware, and I think it would be better to play them that way. So with that, I wanted to say that I think the collection is a great value for anybody looking to get into the series. The emulation of the two MSX titles, the NES port of the first game, and Snake’s Revenge are all great; the quality of life features such as save states and virtual manuals really make these the definitive versions of these classic titles, though I wish you didn’t have open a browser on my Xbox to just look at the manual. I would highly recommend all of these original titles, as well as the Master Collection as the format to play them, although you could probably skip Snake’s Revenge and miss nothing.

This game takes a lot from Metal Gear 1 and polishes it: more gadgets, better stealth passages, and an overall more lively world. The problems start with the pacing, an insane amount of unnecessary backtracking, and the most stupid and flat story I've seen in a long time. I see why Hideo Kojima is one of the most well-known Game Designers of today's time but man he had a rough start with Meal Gear 1 and 2. At least the game has almost no bugs and gets very creative from time to time. Sometimes you can see the mastermind behind it all and sometimes it feels like Hideo just wants you to dislike the game and tries to annoy you as much as possible. Would have rated it better than Metal Gear 1 but there is just too much stupid shit in this game that drags it down a lot sadly (invisible swamp-road, pitfalls, card nr. 9, ration for the bird, freezing the key etc etc)

This was quite fun. Huge metal gear fan and have never touched the original two before. I got through metal gear and while it was fine and interesting to see the series roots, not particularly fun. I had a good time with metal gear 2 though, what a beautiful, fun, exciting time with a very metal gear story. So much of the series can be traced back to here. I was surprised to get such a “first draft” of metal gear solid and it was quite fun. I will say though, the random obtuseness just makes this game insane to play without a guide at some points. The chocolate in the yellow puddles? All of the elevators going to different floors? It made everything more complicated then it should be but I think that’s just the game design of the time. I really could have left that behind. Fun time though!

And the duology is complete.

Definitely a big step up from the original Metal Gear. The story feels much more like the type of story Kojima would become known for, it's a lot more twisty and spy film inspired than its predecessor. Also really neat to see the introduction of a few characters in MGS, especially fulfilling to see Gray Fox's debut. The soundtrack is also pretty great, the original game had a few decent tracks but this one has some genuinely memorable themes (the first building's main theme especially). There's also a pretty big difficulty jump in this game, guards have excellent sight and peripheral vision, so you need to play extra careful to avoid getting spotted. It's still obviously a product of its time and a few mechanics are dated (albeit the checkpoints are more generous than the first game), but it's still a genuinely good game that is worth playing for longtime fans who haven't played the originals like myself before last night.

7/10

i am conflicted

right off the bat, the game starts with an insanely good opening credits theme. this immediately sets the tone for an evolution of the same annoying earworm playing in the background that metal gear 1 was plagued with. im not kidding when i say that this opening theme is probably the best ive heard since gravity rush's discovery of gravitation, excluding full moon full life, but im not counting that. both have this indescribable feeling of something special, just conveying how much of a ride you're in for.

the ost as a whole has gotten a huge upgrade. there's tons of memorable songs, including the afformentioned opening theme, but also nearly every area theme. unfortunately, i found the "you've been spotted!" theme and the boss themes to be as lackluster as the first metal gear's soundtrack. they just sound like noise after a while.

another thing i liked about this one over the last was how much of an upgrade the color palette got here. it's much more vibrant and lush, compared to the muddy browns the first game was riddled with. seemingly, it's even more vibrant in the og release(i played the version that's included with mgs3 subsistence). another change in this version was the sprites.

the sprites in the og msx2 version are definitely giving off that vibe of "80s kids cartoon about a super spy". all buff macho men that are tanned to hell but contrasted to weirdly uncanny sprites of the female characters. i dont hate these sprites, but the ones in the subsistence version are definitely an improvement. perhaps that's just cuz i like anime style more but i cant really change that, can i?

the story for the most part is also stuck in the ways of metal gear 1, where it is too basic to take seriously. another casualty of the vibe of"80s kids cartoon about a super spy". that's what i would say if not for the end, where it raises some questions about war. being that this monologue was right at the very end though made it impossible to explore with any level of depth, but im gonna assume it's focused on a lot more in the solid series. the story is a relative improvement overall, though. it does it's job fine. felt a lot rushed at the end, though. it still insists upon cheesy b movie romance at the end, honestly the ending reminded me a ton of uncharted drake's fortune, lol.

youll have noticed im dancing around a huge issue i had with the first metal gear. ill just acknowledge it now, the game is still impossible without a guide. using a yt guide is how i even noticed the sprite and color changes between the versions. ill contend, maybe it's a bit less cryptic, but honestly, there's still plenty of areas you can just waltz right into without any way of beating the things that await you. that's just poor game design. without a guide id be so much more frustrated with this game, there's just too much that's not stated to the player in any way and it leaves them confused. im not from the era this was made, so this cryptic game design is foreign to me, and frankly i dont think it should've ever been this cryptic. im not against the openness of approach, but i wish it was more like "heres a bunch of paths you can take" you go to each of them but theyre all blocked off except one because you dont have an item, kinda like metroidvania progression. so it's still "open" but never confusing and you can only take one at a time.

another thing that makes me split on this game. the gameplay. dear god, the gameplay is as dogass as the first. enemy sightlines are still razor sharp and don't make much logical sense. you can walk right past them as long as youre an inch away vertically, but god forbid you walk in the horizontal sightline of someone on the opposite side of the screen. cuz youll be spotted immediately. there's no good or logical way to become hidden again. either you fuck with the game's memory by loading into another area and suddenly the entire base forgets about you, or you run for dear life like a chicken with it's head cut off. the jank way enemies see/forget you just breaks my immersion. honestly quite similar to hitman in that regard where they forget about you after a bit. another thing is the gunplay. it's still shitty. requires pixel perfect precision. clunky as fuck when you combine that with running away. it just flat out sucks. a lot of bosses are bullet sponges as well, which sucks. they are better than the first game's however.

so im very split on this game. on one hand, the ost is fantastic, the colors are better than the first game's poo brown, and the story feels like it's finally getting somewhere with what the solid games will focus on. the sprites also made me go "ooh ooh i know you youre that guy ive seen so much" . that being said, the game suffers a lot due to keeping a lot of the first game's shitty systems or cryptic gameplay requiring a guide. as it stands, i don't understand why i played these beforehand instead of hopping right into solid. maybe there will be some connections later on that will make it worth while like trails. but right now they do feel like a waste of time and disappointed me compared to what i had expected this series to be. ive had absolutely gargantuan expectations for the solid games for years given how much praise they get, and i feel like somehow ill be disappointed in them unless i temper my expectations. so ill scurry off and finish hitman 3 and cold steel 2 now. as for the game itself, the ost is really making me feel a 7, which surprises me, but that's what i feel mg2 is as of right now. maybe ill bump it down later, or even up, idk. hopefully ill be binging the solid games in May after i clear out the rest of my "playing" tab.

I was pleasantly surprised playing this. Metal Gear 1 was a very rough experience and gave me no shortage of issues, but this managed to take what was a very rough foundation and turn it into something genuinely fun to play despite its age.

MG2's stealth is hardly complicated. Stay out of guards' lines of sight, avoid stepping on surfaces that make noises, and if there is no opportunity to slip by undetected then wait for the guards' patrols to line up and give you the chance. With a top-down perspective and a radar in the corner showing all enemy locations (even on adjacent screens) the game is pretty generous at giving you the tools to remain undetected instead of using unpredictability as a substitute for difficulty.

This game improves over its predecessor in a number of major ways. The design and layout of the map is far better at keeping up the pressure with nearby enemies without feeling overbearing or too simple. At the same time, it avoids the constant backtracking of the previous game by introducing plenty of shortcuts and a more centralized structure for the base so that no part of the map is absurdly far away. Combine this with a much better hints system with the Codec calls (which were extremely minimal in the first game) and better instructions for progression and I never hit a point where I felt like I had no idea what to do.

Its easily one of the best aged games of its time period and rarely gave me any difficulties. So I don't have to preface the review with any statements about rough edges or outdated design choices. Just give it a shot and even a modern gamer shouldn't face any issues.

a huge improvement. It still didn't age the best today. But they went even more insane with the great ideas and concepts from the first game. The game has cutscenes. An MSX2 game has a great story with cutscenes and twists.

And of course this game added my favourite mechanic in a videogame. The codec. This genius mechanic lets you call your crew to navigate you through areas and bosses. But it's not that basic. It's a way to give these characters more depth. They don't just advise you this is where so many of the character interactions happen. They sometimes just comment on stuff you do in gameplay too. It lets you fall in love with characters who don't even show up physically in the game(Master Miller 🔥). Metal gear 1 did have a codec that's how big boss has presence in the story. But in that game he's the only one that takes advantage of it. The others rarely do anything. And even for big boss he only adds interesting dialogue in certain story areas. So when I say this game made the codec I don't mean the device I mean the mechanic of calling for advice or comments in any area or situation.

It's hard to believe Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake was made for the same hardware that its predecessor released on just three years prior. As many have pointed out before, this plays almost like a 2D version of Metal Gear Solid. It has the cinematic presentation, the wacky characters and winding story, and the stealth-action gameplay that Metal Gear Solid would go on to further refine in 1998. The game has a lot of style and confidence, and tells a fairly fleshed-out story for its time. Hideo Kojima and his team proved themselves capable of growth and perhaps even greatness.

The game's ambition comes not without growing pains. And the game is unfortunately held back in some ways by the aging hardware of its time. Navigation feels awkwardly segmented with the game's grid-based maps and frequent loading transitions. Most optional codec conversations are either unhelpful, uninteresting, or unfunny, and often lack any relevance to Snake's immediate situation. The game unfortunately also falls back on the same cryptic gameplay that plagued the first game.

With that being said, Metal Gear 2 has a lot to like for fans of the later games. And when you manage to get through a room undiscovered or find the obscure solution to an environmental puzzle, the game can be quite satisfying. I think I'll just stick to the 3D games, but this was fairly enjoyable and great to play as a fan of the series.

I’ll start by saying, I want to love this game. As an 8-bit title there is so much to be impressed by, from the brilliant presentation, to the music, to the improved gameplay, and even the story!

Metal Gear 2 definitely begins to ramp things up, as there is plenty more dialogue here than last time, as well as a more complex plot with interesting characters and tragic twists. As an early Kojima title, it’s so interesting to see this attempt at a deeper story already. It’s still easy to follow, but there’s plenty of great beats, exciting moments and slower more character driven conversations… it’s great, and so impressive for the hardware it’s on.

Gameplay overall has been improved too, you now have a radar which makes it much easier to navigate your immediate surroundings and know what to expect up ahead. Enemies are much smarter now, they will react to sounds, can actually turn their heads, and will chase you relentlessly until you get out of sight. You can crawl to stay below enemy eyesight, and there’s plenty of hiding spots you can potentially slip into.

There’s even a few set pieces that help the game standout and shake up the regular gameplay, such as tailing a guard through a dense forest or infiltrating a camp full of orphaned children.

This is in part due to the much improved presentation, this game looks great especially considering it’s an 8 bit game. The colours are way more distinctive and the locations are far easier to tell apart.

Combat is also better here, and the boss fights are mostly a step up, assuming you know how to damage them.

That’s it, the reason I can’t recommend this game, knowing what to do is once again just guesswork unless you fancy checking every single door available every time you get a new card. I won’t repeat myself but again, you need a guide to win, and that’s truly a shame - 4.5/10

Chances are if you google the first two Metal Gear games at all, you will see a lot of posts and articles asking the same question: "Should you play them before Metal Gear Solid?" Or even "Should you play them at all?" I think there's a very simple answer to both of these questions and that is yes, you absolutely should play them, but not before the others. Weird, I know, but let me explain.

I went into the first Metal Gear with a sense of resigned duty almost. Everything I'd heard about it and my own warped sense of completionism had reduced the game to a perverse form of gamer homework. Something I had to play, not that I wanted to play. I was expecting a dull, repetitive and frustrating experience, antiquated and borderline unplayable, but in the end, I was pleasantly surprised. The first Metal Gear is a great game, especially in the context of its release year (1987! Nearly forty years ago!). It's visually charming, the music is good, the gameplay is fun and it's surprisingly complex. Definitely not without its frustrations, but easily one of the best games from the eighties that I had ever played.

Now along comes its successor. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Famously created in response to the bastardised NES port of the original receiving its own followup, what's here is a fascinating step in Kojima's journey as a game designer. Metal Gear 2 is an upgrade in every sense of the word, with better visuals, fantastic music and truly deep mechanics. The technical prowess on display here is staggering, it almost feels like an indie demake of one of the later MGS entries. Enemies now have 45 degree vision cones and will inspect suspicious noises. The tools you have at your disposal are impressively varied (though similarly to other Metal Gear games you likely won't use most of them), guards will move from screen to screen indepedent of where you are, and there's a hell of a lot of text dedicated to the narrative, a lot of really well written. It's 1990 and in this supposedly silly, sneaking action game are some really profound words on the nature of war and what it means to be a soldier, or to be born into a battlefield.

Well I've sufficiently answered why you should play Metal Gear 2, but not why you shouldn't before its successors. It's simple enough, Metal Gear 2 is the blueprint for Metal Gear Solid in a lot of ways. So much of the structure and level design of MGS is stripped right from here, to the point where it almost feels like a remake of this game. Noticing those similarities in the structure is one of the more significant motivators I had to finish this game, especially as the backtracking becomes egregious at its latter half, and that simply won't be part of your experience if you haven't played at least Solid first.

As I've hinted just there, Solid Snake is by no means perfect. The combat is improved but it still feels clunky and often arbitrary. The backtracking becomes truly awful, with the game asking you to trek all the way from the very end all the way to the beginning (and back again) before it permits you to see its finale. There are some truly bullshit instakills too, and a lot of the puzzles are beyond cryptic. A walkthrough is borderline mandatory if only to look up the frequencies and tap code chart that would normally be found in the manual, but some of these puzzles are so silly that there's no sense trying to work them out without help.

All that said, I do think Metal Gear 2 is really impressive and I had a great time with it. It's by no means the best entry in the series, but it feels like the true genesis point for Metal Gear's identity. If you really didn't like the first game, give Solid Snake a chance, but for god's sake don't touch the NES version.

Weird that Backloggd didn't traced the PS3/Xbox 360 HD Collection version of this (or least count those consoles + PS2 for Substance), but whatever.

Anyways: this felt a huge evolution that peaked in the best and polished way with MGS1. We basically have a beta, if I could dare to say.
It felt a little cryptic with the Codec system to get what is necessary for doing next in some parts, and the plot of this absolutely deserved a retelling.

I still liked the original Metal Gear much better because of how Zelda-ish it felt for the progression.