I played this for the first time on the PS3 about 10 years ago. I didn't fully appreciate it at the time, but still enjoyed it. I just had the same complaints that were common at the time, like the story is confusing or Raided is whiny. But replaying it now, I value it much more. Raiden is still a bit annoying at times, but not as bad as I remembered. Snake and Otacon's friendship is really wholesome. What was once confusing about the story is now my favorite part. It is so far ahead of its time, and super relevant to how things are today. The concepts of censorship, misinformation, and the dangers of ai are things that everyone is discussing now, and this game was talking about it in 2001. I still prefer the first and third games, but this one is much better than it used to be taken for. I do wish that the rereleases included all of the bonus content from Substance. It's a shame that I can no longer skateboard around Big Shell.

What do we choose to pass on to new generations? How do we choose the context that is passed down? Who do we choose to pass the information on? Is there more to life than this? Who are we without content and context?

This game is nuts and I mean that in the best way possible. From the story, gameplay, and overall presentation this game is crazy!

The story is truly something very special. The risk this game took to be a meta narrative on the series and legacy that it had garnered is incredible. A lot of terminally online people probably wouldn't be prepared for the message this game carries. The internet is a dangerous place. The fact that we can be carried into rabbit holes of misinformation that is so easily accessible for anyone to find is scary. I'm not sure if it's necessarily right for someone to say what should and shouldn't be allowed to be posted into the ether for anyone to read and interpret, but I don't believe most people will do their due diligence of cross referencing and sincerely proving something is truth. As we enter the age of AI and easily created deepfakes, we are entering a disinformation age where truth won't matter and it will be vibes deciding what is the context for the data. Maybe it's always been like this, and truth has been dead since the beginning.

On a lighter note, the gameplay is great and large step over the first Metal Gear Solid. The controls are much tighter and I didn't feel like I was even doing something I didn't want to do for the most part, the crawling sometimes was annoying and I kept getting A confused for climb up (too much Uncharted and Shadows of Mordor/War has trained my brain to smash the A button at all times when on a ledge). I really enjoyed every boss fight in this, with the last two really being the stand outs. Flighting a bunch of RAYs is pretty fucking sick and fighting on top of a building that I see almost every day going to work is pretty sick.

The style of this game is sick as hell. I love all the cheesy slow-motion shots in the cutscenes, mixture of live footage and photos throughout the game, and the just cinematography in general was great. While the story is deadly serious the characters and dialogue make it a treat to experience. Everything is so over the top and is delivered with so much seriousness that it makes it hilarious. If it didn't have this humor, it really would be a slog to play through since the cutscenes are so long.

Why a 4.5 though? I'm not sure. I think I would need to play through this again for it to break the barrier. Maybe it's that I was on my phone during some of the cutscenes. Who knows. Maybe it's GW in my head again.

(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

It has been said many a time before, but Metal Gear Solid 2 is even more brilliant today than it was when it was released in 2001. The gameplay has several new layers and QoL features that make it feel surprisingly modern (most of the time). All the frustratingly rough edges that MGS1 had have been smoothed out, resulting in an extremely polished experience.

The story and characters are where this game shines the most however. As convoluted as the plot is, the story is a beautifully sincere piece about living life as you see fit and believing in your own truth instead of just following the ideals of the masses. There are so many touching moments, from Otacon's last conversation with Emma to Snake's monologue at the end of the game. The meta-narrative soars these themes to levels never-before-seen in gaming, allowing the player to relate to Raiden and his feelings as he learns more about the world around him. It also basically predicted Twitter.

10/10.

I want to preface this by saying that I'm so glad I continued playing the series and specifically this entry. Even though I got the Master Collection, I was a little disappointed by the first entry and became reluctant to play the next game. Furthermore, when I began playing this game, it was a little boring, and I took a break from it midway through. There didn’t seem to be any sense of direction in the first part of the game, however, halfway in, the story gripped me. The way the theme of misinformation is explored by embracing the medium of video games to the fullest captivated me. I felt at times that the story was held back by the aged gameplay, but as the story progressed, so did its levels of awareness, going beyond its gameplay and becoming a story and experience about the subjectivity of truth and purpose. For me, the Metal Gear franchise started off on the wrong footing, but the latter half of Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty was a beautiful adventure about love and espionage. Without spoiling anything, the more surreal approach this entry took profoundly resonated with me. The continued relevance of the story proves its ingenuity as a prophetic work ahead of its time. I look forward to playing the next one.

Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol 1 version played on Nintendo Switch

Raiden, switch to nano-communication, it'll help save our animation budget

It's just so good, the gameplay is such a massive step up from MGS1 that if I hadn't played Snake Eater first it would've blown my mind. Everything feels so refined and well made. The story is also just so so cool, so many questions running around your mind that get their answers later, so much dramatic irony and hanging threads and an incredibly unique ending. I absolutely loved the two act structure that follows on so well from the first game and also sets this up as something derivative yet new. No real quarrels with the gameplay either, the boss fights are all fun, there's no overly tedious sections or stretched out parts. Just fire after fire after fire.

Also holy shit this game ends so crazily

10/10

MGS2 is a technical marvel of an improvement over MGS1, that is undeniable. I imagine that if we had gotten the perfect sequel to MGS1, it would still play exactly like this.
HOWEVER, MGS2 fails to surpass or even measure up to MGS1 by simply not making use of all of its improvements. The tanker chapter is a great tutorial and introduction to the new elements, but unfortunately, the big shell never quite reaches the same highs the tanker does. And this is all on top of the fact that MGS2 is just REALLY easy. First person aiming is a head and shoulders improvement over MGS1, but the guards weren't exactly made good enough to compensate for that, still having the limited range of the first game despite the fact that Raiden can snipe them with a pistol from across the entire room.
Of course the story also isn't as good as MGS1's, but that would require a much more in-depth analysis of the worth of meta commentary in place of a good plot and how that meta is implemented, which I would LOVE to do, just not on my backloggd reviews. Maybe I'll make an MGS2-specific video on my channel one day, but don't bet on it.