Who's even doing it like Kojima for real? Bigger, bolder, more ambitious than the first game and mostly nails it. Love the story and the setting - Raiden as a foil for Snake is such a good character, and I love the big reveal that the whole scenario was planned by the Patriots to mirror Shadow Moses. Plus Kojima is the only one who would name his two main characters Jack and Rose 3 years after Titanic came out lmao. Again, like the ending of the first game, oddly life affirming too. I've been really in the dumps lately about death and meaning, and Snake's speech on what we leave behind and why struck me as quite beautiful. Also on story - I actually almost shed tears seeing Snake and Otacon's secret handshake they're so fucking cute. Just like the first one, I'm hard pressed to find a modern game telling anywhere near as compelling a story as these games have so far, and I feel privileged to be experiencing them for the first time as an adult.

Gameplay mechanics-wise I'm slightly more mixed. Loved a lot of the innovations - first person aiming, hanging, peeking around corners. The moveset is so much more fleshed out than before. But then that's also the biggest problem, the control scheme feels like it's struggling to keep up. So many times I would try and press against a wall and peek around the corner to shoot, and realise my fingers were doing up twister on the controller to make that happen. Or I'd try and shuffle along a wall and the camera angle would shift without warning and throw off my input, leading to me getting spotted. Wasn't too fun, and actually very much soured my experience with Tanker coming straight from MGS1, where the controls were so simple and straightforward.

Apart from those niggles though, had a great time. Beautiful, complex, layered story, told with humour and utter sincerity, as well as clever tricks you can only do in an interactive medium like games (I knew about Fission Mailed from years ago and wish I hadn't so I could be surprised by it). Phenomenal sequel.