Right off the bat I'm going to admit that this game has a fundamental problem. It's only really an exceptional game (possibly even capable of 5 stars) in the context of the MGS cannon as a whole.
As a stand alone title, it's story just don't make sense after coming from MGS1. You need to play MGS3 / MGS4 in order to understand the structure of the story and why you are doing the things you are doing. This is the clearest I can be without major spoilers. It's losing half a star for this.
Mechanics wise, as always the game has nailed them for the time of it's release as well as the scope of the platforms it was available on. Having said that aiming/movement/swimming sometimes has levels of jank that are acceptable, but not optimal.
Having watched plenty of speedruns, this may just be an intense skill issue but not everyone is going to get that cracked at the game. I've played enough and its still annoying. Half a star off.
The 4th wall breaking meta stuff in this game is intense, kind of weird and even got me to follow its instructions as a kid. Unique and characteristic of Kojima's style of story telling and experiencing it is a must. Meta commentary in the game about the future of society is weirdly spot on and dystopian which just adds to the immersion and makes the game better retrospectively.
It also has to be noted that the quality of gameplay from MGS1 to MGS2 is a massive step up. It took the same concept and refined it whilst adding a few more bells and whistles.
If you deeply understand the MGS story line, the significance of everything and appreciate the bait and switch that pissed off fans on release, this game is 5 stars. The jank can be overlooked but without all this contextual knowledge the game just isn't 5 star material in its own right.
As a stand alone title, it's story just don't make sense after coming from MGS1. You need to play MGS3 / MGS4 in order to understand the structure of the story and why you are doing the things you are doing. This is the clearest I can be without major spoilers. It's losing half a star for this.
Mechanics wise, as always the game has nailed them for the time of it's release as well as the scope of the platforms it was available on. Having said that aiming/movement/swimming sometimes has levels of jank that are acceptable, but not optimal.
Having watched plenty of speedruns, this may just be an intense skill issue but not everyone is going to get that cracked at the game. I've played enough and its still annoying. Half a star off.
The 4th wall breaking meta stuff in this game is intense, kind of weird and even got me to follow its instructions as a kid. Unique and characteristic of Kojima's style of story telling and experiencing it is a must. Meta commentary in the game about the future of society is weirdly spot on and dystopian which just adds to the immersion and makes the game better retrospectively.
It also has to be noted that the quality of gameplay from MGS1 to MGS2 is a massive step up. It took the same concept and refined it whilst adding a few more bells and whistles.
If you deeply understand the MGS story line, the significance of everything and appreciate the bait and switch that pissed off fans on release, this game is 5 stars. The jank can be overlooked but without all this contextual knowledge the game just isn't 5 star material in its own right.