A huge step-up from the first game. The added crouching and knocking on walls already give this a way more engaging stealth feel, but also the bigger levels, the radar and the different screens, guards can walk between, makes it feels way more like a huge place you're infiltrating.

The progression is not quite as cryptic as it was in Metal Gear 1 ... there were some instances where I looked at a guide real quick, but I'm confident you can beat this on your own without taking ages.

The keycard system luckily got a little better. There are now cards that combine multiple levels, so that you don't have to switch between all of them to try them out on a door. And generally the map/radar helps getting around the map a lot ... I never got lost, like I did in the first one. It's all really neat stuff.

Bosses are pretty well done in this game. Not all of them are great, but you can tell they tried to give all of them a unique gimmick and some of them require a specific strategy to overcome them. The Running Man in particular comes to mind. It's just a bit of a shame that the final onslaught of story-relevant bosses are kind of a cakewalk and especially the last one feels pretty lackluster in terms of gameplay.

The story still isn't nearly as intricate as they'll become later in the series, but there are a decent amount of twists and character moments and I'm pretty fond of the 4th wall breaks, even if they went a little overboard at times.

Good time, I can see myself replaying this one some time.