I don't get it.

I always see people include this in their top greatest games of all time but I just don't get it. I didn't play anything, I just watched.

I did enjoy the gameplay and considered it to be quite an upgrade from the first but there wasn't nearly enough of it. I think the longest I went was probably 30 minutes until I had to put the controller back down so I can listen with every brain cell to a two hour long partial differential equation of a cutscene. I do think it has an incredible pay off at the end and there were some truly unique memorable moments like the Codec calls with Campbell and that one radar glitch with the girl, the way Kojima basically predicted the future was also brilliant yet unsettling but man the amount of dialogue I had to sit through for that; I have a hard time deciding if it's justified. The story is for the most part, tell not show, sometimes that works, it certainly did in MGS1, I don't think it does here.

I found Raiden alright, I of course would've preferred Snake again but Raiden was decent, his design screams early 2000s which is a vibe I fuck with. Cartwheeling around is always fun. Fatman is also one of my favorite designs of a boss, chasing after an obese man while he zips around in rollerblades planting bombs and occasionally tripping over himself is classic Kojima creativity. The other bosses; however, were quite mediocre, the creativity from Metal Gear solid 1 was lacking, many of the bosses in that game though were so genius it's kinda unrealistic to ask for it again. I found the setting of Big Shell to be pretty bland, most encounters with enemies were also unexciting, not much thrill, just chill wave sounds and seagulls. The new arsenal of gadgets and weapons were very fun though.

Overall, I can see why this game was the shit in the early 2000s, to accomplish all this back then is without a doubt an achievement but playing this for the first time now, with no nostalgia, na.