Metal Gear Solid 2 is an essential game to anyone's collection, avid MGS fan or not.
The gameplay in MGS2 is the usual third person sneaking and strategy type. First person view can be accessed for easier shooting or seeing your surroundings. You can run up behind an enemy with a weapon to hold him up, or you can grab him and snap his neck, choke him out, or drag him to another location. Avoiding confrontation is vital to this game, so you should not be seen when killing an enemy. If you are seen, the enemy may run and raise an alert, leading to more enemies entering a room and shooting you. Your character can avoid confrontation by hanging off ledges, pressing against walls, and another wide variety of actions. Your weapons range from a Nikita remote rocket launcher to a high frequency sword. Some of your weapons will kill your enemy while others will only knock him out, so choose wisely. Overall, the gameplay rivals that of other MGS games.
The best part of playing the MGS series is the story behind each game. In this game, many new characters are added, one being a main character, Raiden. In the first part of the game, you play as the usual, awesome Snake. In the second part, you play as Raiden, who many fans don't like. Snake is also in the second part, and he helps you out throughout the game. I found the addition of Raiden to be great, as you can see Snake from a different point of view, and you can see how Raiden was exploited and used throughout the game. It also gave gamers a new perspective, instead of playing as Snake all the time. The two settings are in the same place, on the Hudson River. The game's story is a sequel to MGS1, unlike MGS3, which is a prequel to MGS1. The story in this game is much more involved than all the other games, and if you want to fully understand it, watching the awesome cutscenes is necessary. I can't stand to play MGS and not know the story, which is what makes the game series so great and why it is, in my opinon, the best game series in history. Like my review of MGS3, I won't reveal any of the story, as that is for you to find out.
Now we come to graphics and soundtrack. For a game made in 2001, the graphics were amazing. Landscape was great, even though you are seeing water most of the time. Each character in the game looked great, especially in the cutscenes. Every time a new MGS game is released, the creators take full advantage of the graphical capabilities at that time an make a great looking game. I will have to admit, compared to the other games, the explosions produced by grenades, bombs, etc were a little wimpy. As for the soundtrack, I didn't like it as much as MGS3's, but it still was a superb sounding game.
To sum it all up, MGS2 is one of the games that everyone will remember in the series. I am an avid fan of the series, and I have only played 1, 2, and 3. I have yet to play 4, because I don't even have a PS3. If you are just starting in the series, you can definitely play this game to start, as it explains everything that happened in the first game that relates to it. I love MGS2, and it is one of the games that I will play over an over again.