Succinctly put, Metal Gear Solid 2's called a "tactical espionage action" game, but it would be more accurate to call it "choose your own level of tactical espionage action" game. Like its immediate predecessor, you can get through the game by exhibiting just about whatever level of subtlety you wish on most difficulty levels. Of course, the game's most interesting when you're busy creeping around, avoiding enemies or subduing them without detection than it is when you're playing Rambo, but whichever strategy you prefer gets the job done. In terms of gameplay, Metal Gear Solid 2 is a real beast. It takes everything that made the original Metal Gear Solid great and adds to it. It's the little things that add up, and it's the little additions that contribute to one big leap ahead of MGS in terms of gameplay nuances. For instance, an upright dodge move using the prone button, grouping of similar items in the menus, and so on. Most of what I have to talk about with Sons of Liberty is in the writing. The horrible, drug-induced, tin-foil-hat-wearing writing. Simply put, MGS2 is the single worst game I have ever played insofar as plot or story is concerned. Words like ludicruous, ridiculous, and idiotic spring to mind when writing about it. Allow me to explain. MGS2 is set in a modern or not-too-distant-future setting and, despite the series' original (and by 'original,' I am referring to its pre-Playstation days) limited abuses of the reality/science barrier, continues the wild trend triggered by Hideo Kojima in MGS to move away from the realm of the believable. For instance, what we saw in MGS was writing that really pushed the limits. It was over the top, it was often silly, and for chrissakes, one of the enemies was Psycho Mantis, a disfigured man with the ability to read minds and make your Dual Shock controller shake a bit. After the phenomenal success of MGS it seems that Hideo took a wee sabatical to smoke a huge freakin' bowl, play Deus Ex, read Spiderman comics, and watch John Woo movies. MGS2 goes so far above and beyond where MGS left off, with its rollerblading bomber, its vampire, its crazy psychic witch, and its overexaggerated key enemy who has borrowed shamelessly from Doc Oc. Plus, they've brought back Revolver Ocelot who - get this - is being psychically dominated by mind of Liquid Snake, who was killed at the end of MGS, through the replacement arm that was transplanted to the former from the latter. This stuff is insane! I've read more plausible plotlines in conspiracy theory rags! The only rational explanation I can even consider is that, by this point, Hideo Kojima has found that he's more than comfortable taking this franchise which could have been very not-dumb and not-lame and making a number of dumb and lame plot decisions to undermine the greatness of the pre-Playstation titles he inherited the universe from. In brief, Hideo Kojima is a shameless crackhead who probably should have stuck to anime, through and through. There's also something to be said about the total imbalance of gameplay towards the end. Most of the game managed to balance how much cutscene and Codec chatter one sat through against how much I was doing the good stuff - running around and shooting people in the neck - pretty well. But towards the end, it got silly again. There were times when I set the controller down for literally fifteen to twenty minutes at a time while sitting through the excessive monologing. (Good thing these villans aren't in the comic industry - they'd put the Legion of Doom out of business with their powerful affinity to explain away the nuances of their plot.) Another thing that stuck me was the fact that, for most of the game, I wasn't playing as Solid Snake. The player spends most of the game playing as the scrawny, not-even-remotely-cool Raiden, who probably writes bad emotional poetry when he's not failing to be badass like Snake. I would be lying if I said I feel any less that gypped. It's a Metal Gear game, and therefore it is blasphemy that I would spend most of the game not playing as Solid Snake. And it's not like it's just Raiden, either. Along with him, we get his girlfriend, Rose, as the token save-frequency girl, and she's just about as emo and whiny as he is. And, of course, during a black ops counterterrorist mission is the best time to bring up your sex life. In summation, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty improves on the original MGS formula, but at the same time forgets where its roots lie. Real danger and urgency has been replaced by hyperbolic enemies and supervillian silliness. So, I celebrate the great accomplishment of gameplay and graphics this game represents, but I also mourn the loss a great franchise to a game developer who - in his second major showing - has proven himself to be a terrible hack of a writer.
Other Helpful Reviews for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Mega Hits!)
The amount of times I have played this game and not once have I gotten bored of it. If I'm not found threatening the guards to make them shake and drop their items and or dog tags, I'm probably running away from a herd o... Read Full Review
At long, long last the sequel to the best sneak ‘em up in town is here! MGS2: Sons of Liberty delivers all the things you love from MGS and much more! Snake is back but this time he has a very different roll. You start o... Read Full Review
