This review contains spoilers
[Edited 21/5/2024]
“What is our legacy if we cannot pass the torch? Proof of our existence - a mark of some sort. When the torch is passed on from parent to child... it extends beyond DNA; information is imparted as well. All I want is to be remembered. By other people, by history.”
---
There is a strong case to be made that Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) is the most prolific story ever told in the medium of video games, and no other work of art stands a chance at coming close. Releasing the same year as the PlayStation 2, this game could pass as a launch title for the PlayStation 3 in a lot of senses. It feels like every single unique quirk the PlayStation 2 featured, Metal Gear Solid 2 was there to test out. Beyond these little quirks such as analog buttons being used to lower weapons and peep corners, the game takes advantage of being on the new age of sixth-generation consoles by featuring detailed 3D models with facial expressions and lip-syncing, a desire of the developers during the development of the first game, as well as even higher detail environments to sneak around in—still restricted to the same fixed camera as the first game, but this time, giving the player a first-person perspective to shoot in as well as a tranquilizer to knock out enemies with. The most significant addition to Sons of Liberty, however, is that after you spend 2-3 hours on a Tanker in the middle of the ocean following what happened to Snake and Otacon after they escaped Shadow Moses, something strange happens. Something distinctly kept out of marketing up until the very last day until the game’s North American release. Solid Snake disappeared, presumably dead, and just three hours into Metal Gear Solid 2, you meet the real main character: Raiden. Oh, to have been there. Solid Snake, based on Kurt Russell’s rough and tough Snake Plissken character, was directly contrasted by Raiden, who was designed to be a sexually appealing young man in the eyes of women. Raiden was thin, he had long, blonde hair, his clothes were skin-tight—the anti-thesis of Snake. Raiden wasn’t cool with the ladies; he had a girlfriend named Rose who guided him on the radio. He wasn’t a seasoned soldier, but rather he was a rookie who had only done training. Kojima wanted Raiden because he wanted to see Snake through the eyes of another character, similar to how Sherlock is seen by Watson in the Sherlock Holmes novels. But as the title goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that Raiden is more than a sexy look or a pair of eyes.
While it has improved and polished gameplay (albeit some frustrating elements in the form of annoying Cyphers, somewhat repetitive level design, and a really, really tough enemy AI), the main draw of Metal Gear Solid 2 is its narrative genius. It’s hard to discuss Metal Gear Solid 2 without rewriting the whole plot, so for the sake of this review I will act as if the reader is familiar with the content of the game and not waste time going over the plot. Metal Gear Solid 2 is one of the most creative and unique games I have ever seen, directly responding to the player’s desire to get a follow-up to a game with a ride-into-the-sunset ending by blue-balling the player with a few hours of Snake and then making them play not just as an entirely new character but also play through a reorganization of the entire story of Metal Gear Solid set up by “The Patriots” (Or, if you will, the La-li-lu-le-lo), the ones who control the ones who control the government and all of its decisions in-universe, using the president as a puppet for what their real goals are. In the real world, it’s very abundantly clear that Metal Gear Solid 2’s level design is drawing from Metal Gear Solid’s formula of success, however the scene where Ocelot rips the curtain back and reveals that this similarity was in fact a purposeful recreation, a metacommentary about the ways that control over an environment can forcibly breed character, floored me when I first saw it; to pull something like that off should be the goal of any writer. If the first game wasn’t clear enough, the second game in the Metal Gear Solid series doubles down on theming its story around the danger of Government control while tackling additional themes such as AI, information sharing, self-identity, etc. that feel so modern that this could pass as a work of art written today. Raiden’s story, very much queer-coded (side-tangent: It’s awesome that Vamp is the first character to be bisexual in gaming), is that you—yes, you the player as well—choose who you are based on who you want to be. What we pass on isn’t just our genes but our legacy: a collection of what we do, how we do it, why we do it. Let the next generation know what we fought for, believed in.
For most, this would be a perfect place to stop. An insane metacommentary with a new protagonist who has a strong arc about self-identity. For Hideo Kojima, this was about a quarter of the way through. The meat of the story comes with the Patriot AI, the reveal that Colonel Campbell and Rose have been AI the entire time, grooming Raiden into being a perfect soldier just as Snake was. The AI begins to malfunction and spew its manifesto: that the leaders of the world can’t trust the digital age where everything is so readily accessible, a constant flow of information prevents a controlled populace, so the Patriots plan to use their AI to control what people see, an algorithm that works for them, not just uncontrolled information—because in the eyes of the Patriots, uncontrolled information is dangerous to society and leads to what’s “true” being buried. Wow. 2001. It’s been said 1000 times before and will be said 1000 times after, but Metal Gear Solid 2 was right on the money in so many ways. In a Pre-Twitter, Pre-Snowden, Pre-Generative AI world—written before 9/11—Metal Gear Solid 2 gave warnings about the environments festered by social media, about the dangers of AI and the digital age as a whole. As much as it is an optimistic story about finding yourself despite your past, Metal Gear Solid 2 is also a cautionary tale about where the digital age would lead society if we weren’t careful, and corny as it may be, I think that we failed to heed the warnings. Information is now being filtered through social media search engines with the demonstrated ability to suppress certain keywords, and now Google is rolling out AI responses to google searches. Generative AI has plagued the internet and within a few years, it’ll be near impossible to tell what’s real footage and what is being made up—a tool that Metal Gear Solid 2 is quick to point out can and will be weaponized by those in power to feed the people the “truths” that they want them to believe. On the topic of weaponization, I find it incredibly interesting how Raiden brings up image training done on child soldiers using action movies, being that this series is based on action films—it feels like something that just is not touched on often in M-Rated games (that the content of these experiences could be used to form an image), yet a point so important to the themes of the game: when context is removed, a new “truth” is formed, this case being a truth that weaponized the appearance of so-called heroes to develop new ones, not dissimilar to SS3 in the game. Additionally, I think it should be brought to attention that this game’s story was written before 9/11, yet it so accurately depicts what the US Government’s immediate move in the face of what they consider a “threat” would be in the digital age—suppressing information, showing the people what they need to see, telling them what they need to hear to “function”. A game that makes sure you know that the people in power will work to maintain it, making sure nothing changes to hurt them: even if it means using people, lying to them. With this control of information, it becomes easy to make the people believe a certain person or group of people is an enemy or justify a “mission” for the sake of what they think is the greater good. Raiden’s cluelessness and the manipulation he experiences by GW while on the battlefield are so indicative of what the War on Terror would immediately become. Perhaps it’s a tune older than the nation, but to come out in November of 2001 with these ideas was bold and important (Kojima would go on to say that he had almost entirely given up on releasing the game upon hearing of the September 11th attacks, thinking the game would be impossible to release). To a game that ends with the message that passing on ideas and beliefs that you fought for, giving the world a piece of media that doesn’t represent the political climate of the world in order to to fight for individuality and freedom in the face of control is not just appreciated, it’s essential.
On the front of characters, Metal Gear Solid 2 excels. Seeing Snake through the perspective of another is masterfully done, and Raiden as he appears in MGS2 is one of the best protagonists of all time; his arc is immediately impactful and feels real. He feels so unique in his personality and movements from Snake, so there’s a breath of fresh air throughout the whole game (and the subtle differences make it all the more satisfying when you fight alongside Snake at the end). Though I’ll always prefer Snake Eater, Kojima’s writing abilities truly do peak here; the entire ending montage is one of the most moving sequences in video game history. Otacon and Emma stand out as well; the game highlights a very uncomfortable scenario in the depiction of their relationship but not for the sake of shock, rather for the importance of the story (with sinister undertones towards Otacon’s mother once you factor in their ages) and that’s what makes it work—sincerity. In a game that has to repeat the narrative decisions of its predecessor, nothing feels forced; Olga Gurlukovich stands out to me as a highlight of this, someone who should feel like a stale retread of Frank Jaegar but perseveres as her own character. Solidus is another highlight of the game, as is Ocelot. Both very engaging villains who make the most of their screentime. Dead Cell is also fantastic, even if they are just in the story to retread FOXHOUND.
There’s so much to say about Metal Gear Solid 2 that entire papers could be and have been written about its rich characters, story, themes, implications, predictions, so on and so forth. It’s beautiful and relevant and scary that it’s relevant. This game has lines so indicative of the world we live in today despite so much additional context from the last 23 years that there were times that I was genuinely scared. On the contrary, this game also has parts so beautiful and relevant to the world we live in today that I could not help but watch as tears welled up in my eyes. I’ve heard that Kojima never really planned to make a third game, so thinking of Metal Gear Solid 2 as the “last one” is poetic and beautiful. After four games of fighting, Solid Snake is able to save Raiden from the literal exact same trap he fell into. After accepting that it’s too late to just be David, and that his way to make a change is through fighting corruption headfirst, Solid Snake is able to give Raiden the journey of self-discovery he never got to have. To think of a world where people just understood its message and didn’t rally for the assassination of Raiden’s arc… twice… Even after my second or third full replay of the story, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty remains one of the greatest and most moving creations I have ever been blessed to experience.
---
“Life isn't just about passing on your genes. We can leave behind much more than just DNA. Through speech, music, literature and movies... what we've seen, heard, felt... anger, joy and sorrow... these are the things I will pass on. That's what I live for. We need to pass the torch, and let our children read our messy and sad history by its light. We have all the magic of the digital age to do that with. The human race will probably come to an end some time, and new species may rule over this planet. Earth may not be forever, but we still have the responsibility to leave what traces of life we can. Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing.”
“What is our legacy if we cannot pass the torch? Proof of our existence - a mark of some sort. When the torch is passed on from parent to child... it extends beyond DNA; information is imparted as well. All I want is to be remembered. By other people, by history.”
---
There is a strong case to be made that Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) is the most prolific story ever told in the medium of video games, and no other work of art stands a chance at coming close. Releasing the same year as the PlayStation 2, this game could pass as a launch title for the PlayStation 3 in a lot of senses. It feels like every single unique quirk the PlayStation 2 featured, Metal Gear Solid 2 was there to test out. Beyond these little quirks such as analog buttons being used to lower weapons and peep corners, the game takes advantage of being on the new age of sixth-generation consoles by featuring detailed 3D models with facial expressions and lip-syncing, a desire of the developers during the development of the first game, as well as even higher detail environments to sneak around in—still restricted to the same fixed camera as the first game, but this time, giving the player a first-person perspective to shoot in as well as a tranquilizer to knock out enemies with. The most significant addition to Sons of Liberty, however, is that after you spend 2-3 hours on a Tanker in the middle of the ocean following what happened to Snake and Otacon after they escaped Shadow Moses, something strange happens. Something distinctly kept out of marketing up until the very last day until the game’s North American release. Solid Snake disappeared, presumably dead, and just three hours into Metal Gear Solid 2, you meet the real main character: Raiden. Oh, to have been there. Solid Snake, based on Kurt Russell’s rough and tough Snake Plissken character, was directly contrasted by Raiden, who was designed to be a sexually appealing young man in the eyes of women. Raiden was thin, he had long, blonde hair, his clothes were skin-tight—the anti-thesis of Snake. Raiden wasn’t cool with the ladies; he had a girlfriend named Rose who guided him on the radio. He wasn’t a seasoned soldier, but rather he was a rookie who had only done training. Kojima wanted Raiden because he wanted to see Snake through the eyes of another character, similar to how Sherlock is seen by Watson in the Sherlock Holmes novels. But as the title goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that Raiden is more than a sexy look or a pair of eyes.
While it has improved and polished gameplay (albeit some frustrating elements in the form of annoying Cyphers, somewhat repetitive level design, and a really, really tough enemy AI), the main draw of Metal Gear Solid 2 is its narrative genius. It’s hard to discuss Metal Gear Solid 2 without rewriting the whole plot, so for the sake of this review I will act as if the reader is familiar with the content of the game and not waste time going over the plot. Metal Gear Solid 2 is one of the most creative and unique games I have ever seen, directly responding to the player’s desire to get a follow-up to a game with a ride-into-the-sunset ending by blue-balling the player with a few hours of Snake and then making them play not just as an entirely new character but also play through a reorganization of the entire story of Metal Gear Solid set up by “The Patriots” (Or, if you will, the La-li-lu-le-lo), the ones who control the ones who control the government and all of its decisions in-universe, using the president as a puppet for what their real goals are. In the real world, it’s very abundantly clear that Metal Gear Solid 2’s level design is drawing from Metal Gear Solid’s formula of success, however the scene where Ocelot rips the curtain back and reveals that this similarity was in fact a purposeful recreation, a metacommentary about the ways that control over an environment can forcibly breed character, floored me when I first saw it; to pull something like that off should be the goal of any writer. If the first game wasn’t clear enough, the second game in the Metal Gear Solid series doubles down on theming its story around the danger of Government control while tackling additional themes such as AI, information sharing, self-identity, etc. that feel so modern that this could pass as a work of art written today. Raiden’s story, very much queer-coded (side-tangent: It’s awesome that Vamp is the first character to be bisexual in gaming), is that you—yes, you the player as well—choose who you are based on who you want to be. What we pass on isn’t just our genes but our legacy: a collection of what we do, how we do it, why we do it. Let the next generation know what we fought for, believed in.
For most, this would be a perfect place to stop. An insane metacommentary with a new protagonist who has a strong arc about self-identity. For Hideo Kojima, this was about a quarter of the way through. The meat of the story comes with the Patriot AI, the reveal that Colonel Campbell and Rose have been AI the entire time, grooming Raiden into being a perfect soldier just as Snake was. The AI begins to malfunction and spew its manifesto: that the leaders of the world can’t trust the digital age where everything is so readily accessible, a constant flow of information prevents a controlled populace, so the Patriots plan to use their AI to control what people see, an algorithm that works for them, not just uncontrolled information—because in the eyes of the Patriots, uncontrolled information is dangerous to society and leads to what’s “true” being buried. Wow. 2001. It’s been said 1000 times before and will be said 1000 times after, but Metal Gear Solid 2 was right on the money in so many ways. In a Pre-Twitter, Pre-Snowden, Pre-Generative AI world—written before 9/11—Metal Gear Solid 2 gave warnings about the environments festered by social media, about the dangers of AI and the digital age as a whole. As much as it is an optimistic story about finding yourself despite your past, Metal Gear Solid 2 is also a cautionary tale about where the digital age would lead society if we weren’t careful, and corny as it may be, I think that we failed to heed the warnings. Information is now being filtered through social media search engines with the demonstrated ability to suppress certain keywords, and now Google is rolling out AI responses to google searches. Generative AI has plagued the internet and within a few years, it’ll be near impossible to tell what’s real footage and what is being made up—a tool that Metal Gear Solid 2 is quick to point out can and will be weaponized by those in power to feed the people the “truths” that they want them to believe. On the topic of weaponization, I find it incredibly interesting how Raiden brings up image training done on child soldiers using action movies, being that this series is based on action films—it feels like something that just is not touched on often in M-Rated games (that the content of these experiences could be used to form an image), yet a point so important to the themes of the game: when context is removed, a new “truth” is formed, this case being a truth that weaponized the appearance of so-called heroes to develop new ones, not dissimilar to SS3 in the game. Additionally, I think it should be brought to attention that this game’s story was written before 9/11, yet it so accurately depicts what the US Government’s immediate move in the face of what they consider a “threat” would be in the digital age—suppressing information, showing the people what they need to see, telling them what they need to hear to “function”. A game that makes sure you know that the people in power will work to maintain it, making sure nothing changes to hurt them: even if it means using people, lying to them. With this control of information, it becomes easy to make the people believe a certain person or group of people is an enemy or justify a “mission” for the sake of what they think is the greater good. Raiden’s cluelessness and the manipulation he experiences by GW while on the battlefield are so indicative of what the War on Terror would immediately become. Perhaps it’s a tune older than the nation, but to come out in November of 2001 with these ideas was bold and important (Kojima would go on to say that he had almost entirely given up on releasing the game upon hearing of the September 11th attacks, thinking the game would be impossible to release). To a game that ends with the message that passing on ideas and beliefs that you fought for, giving the world a piece of media that doesn’t represent the political climate of the world in order to to fight for individuality and freedom in the face of control is not just appreciated, it’s essential.
On the front of characters, Metal Gear Solid 2 excels. Seeing Snake through the perspective of another is masterfully done, and Raiden as he appears in MGS2 is one of the best protagonists of all time; his arc is immediately impactful and feels real. He feels so unique in his personality and movements from Snake, so there’s a breath of fresh air throughout the whole game (and the subtle differences make it all the more satisfying when you fight alongside Snake at the end). Though I’ll always prefer Snake Eater, Kojima’s writing abilities truly do peak here; the entire ending montage is one of the most moving sequences in video game history. Otacon and Emma stand out as well; the game highlights a very uncomfortable scenario in the depiction of their relationship but not for the sake of shock, rather for the importance of the story (with sinister undertones towards Otacon’s mother once you factor in their ages) and that’s what makes it work—sincerity. In a game that has to repeat the narrative decisions of its predecessor, nothing feels forced; Olga Gurlukovich stands out to me as a highlight of this, someone who should feel like a stale retread of Frank Jaegar but perseveres as her own character. Solidus is another highlight of the game, as is Ocelot. Both very engaging villains who make the most of their screentime. Dead Cell is also fantastic, even if they are just in the story to retread FOXHOUND.
There’s so much to say about Metal Gear Solid 2 that entire papers could be and have been written about its rich characters, story, themes, implications, predictions, so on and so forth. It’s beautiful and relevant and scary that it’s relevant. This game has lines so indicative of the world we live in today despite so much additional context from the last 23 years that there were times that I was genuinely scared. On the contrary, this game also has parts so beautiful and relevant to the world we live in today that I could not help but watch as tears welled up in my eyes. I’ve heard that Kojima never really planned to make a third game, so thinking of Metal Gear Solid 2 as the “last one” is poetic and beautiful. After four games of fighting, Solid Snake is able to save Raiden from the literal exact same trap he fell into. After accepting that it’s too late to just be David, and that his way to make a change is through fighting corruption headfirst, Solid Snake is able to give Raiden the journey of self-discovery he never got to have. To think of a world where people just understood its message and didn’t rally for the assassination of Raiden’s arc… twice… Even after my second or third full replay of the story, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty remains one of the greatest and most moving creations I have ever been blessed to experience.
---
“Life isn't just about passing on your genes. We can leave behind much more than just DNA. Through speech, music, literature and movies... what we've seen, heard, felt... anger, joy and sorrow... these are the things I will pass on. That's what I live for. We need to pass the torch, and let our children read our messy and sad history by its light. We have all the magic of the digital age to do that with. The human race will probably come to an end some time, and new species may rule over this planet. Earth may not be forever, but we still have the responsibility to leave what traces of life we can. Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing.”
Aecease
1 month ago
I definitely agree that the warnings this game gives feel so much more powerful with how AI is advancing, when you have the people in charge of our governments and the rich and powerful on social media sharing generated AI content passing it off as real to change public perception.
Why couldn’t we have gotten the sexy vampire part in real life?