1 of the best games ever made ! trust me !
I thought this was pretty funny at the time, because it was quite clear that those who made these complaints had neatly missed at least half of the point.
Those complaints will arise again, I'm sure, since it's become rather fashionable to decry most PS2 adventure games as lacking in length, and again, the point will be missed by some distance. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is a synthesis of cinematics and game. It's not just a movie, to be watched once and put up on the shelf to gather dust. It's a game, a toy, and a brilliantly-designed one at that, one you can find ways to play with for hours and hours.
That's why Metal Gear Solid 2 manages to almost completely overcome its faults after extended play. Yes, it does have faults, principally on the cinematic end of things, to the point where you may find it disappointing after a first go-round. The game tells a gripping and thought-provoking story, with more jaw-dropping moments than I could count off the top of my head, but there are long stretches with serious problems to them, and an ending some may find unsatisfying. Were this a movie, I probably wouldn't give it that kind a review.
Luckily, though, I say again: this isn't a movie. It's a game, and it's the game of the year, for my money.
Gameplay
It's Tactical Espionage Action. What is there not to love?
Well, precisely speaking, this is Tactical Espionage Action 2.0, since Metal Gear 2 was "Tactical Espionage," and I think the first Metal Gear was just an ordinary game. The system designed for Metal Gear Solid has been expanded, refined, and updated into yet another brilliant commando simulation, sinking the player deeper into the virtual secret-agent persona. There are few games ever made that offer a more realistic feeling of becoming someone else, with a new identity and new abilities. The breadth of things to interact with, and ways to interact with them, is massive. At the same time, though, the goal remains the same: stealth. That's still what makes Metal Gear different from the rest of the market, even with more and more third-person action games adapting sneaking and hiding into their gameplay. Nothing else makes it as fun and interesting to not be seen.
That's due to a blend of design elements. On the one hand, there's the level and AI design, the presentation of the environment and opposition, which I'll talk about later. Working in concert with those designs are the maneuvers and controls that you're given in order to interact with the world, a repertoire of abilities that has expanded substantially, without losing any functionality from the first game. You can sneak just like before, moving gracefully with the analog stick and the aid of excellent camera direction, but now there are better controls for moving against walls and peeking around corners. You can move swiftly just like before, but the diving roll maneuver makes that even more interesting. If you absolutely must, you can shoot at things just as in MGS, but the new first-person shooting mode adds an entirely new dimension of precision. And hey, that savate kick just looks way too cool.
On top of all the new moves, the arsenal of items and equipment has expanded, although paradoxically the number of specific uses for all this stuff has decreased. In MGS, just about every item had some corresponding spot in the story where you had to use it, and were introduced to its functions. MGS2 doesn't work the same way. Several items are easily missed, and don't have a specific application that has to be mastered in order to complete the game. One might consider this an example of sloppy design, were it not for the fact that you can still do any number of different things with these items.
There, after all is said and done, and you've experienced the story from beginning to end, is where I believe the heart of Metal Gear's fun lies. The puzzle design through the game proper is excellent your first time out, demanding both brains and dexterity to complete the tasks set before you, but what's even greater fun is to design puzzles for yourself. Take all the moves, all the toys, mix them up with the big sandbox you have to play with them in, and it'll be a long time before you run out of fun things to do.
The guards are more complex now, as are the levels in which you battle them, but that just demands a little more creativity in dealing with them. Admittedly, they're a bit of a pain the first time, when you're trying to plow through to the next big story break. While you could easily survive Alerts in the first MGS, it's honestly faster at times in MGS2 to just let the assault squads off you and continue from the last checkpoint. They're that much smarter, that much more dangerous, and they've got cooler guns too -- see if you can rack up enough of a killing spree to get the shotgun assault guards and the grenade-launching heavies. Your humble narrator will admit to lying down a few times his first time through, but honestly, it isn't sporting. If you want to play this game right, take your Alerts like a man and use your creativity to get around them. Have fun at it.
Think of all the things that you could do to the guards here. Distract them in at least six different ways (knock on walls, toss spent clips, shoot darts behind their heads, set off explosives on the other end of the level, open up the girly lockers, leave them a copy of FHM...). Tranquilize them from short or long range (ah, the sniper dart gun...). If you're actually unsporting enough to kill them, an issue I'll address in a bit, the vista of possibilities is limitless. One especially fun tip: if you get bored of guns, try a little first-person C4.
One of the most interesting aspects of MGS2's gameplay, though, is the emphasis on nonviolence. For a game with such a huge arsenal of destructive implements, and such a horribly rich killing experience for the twisted among us, it honestly provides considerable opportunity and incentive to be a benevolent commando. Noise is more dangerous than before, and leaving evidence of violence is even more dangerous than that. A corpse or even just a sleeping guard is going to eventually come back to bite you, bringing Alerts and more guards to the area. As promised, though, between the dart guns and a couple of other toys (oh, that final, most beautiful toy...), it's possible to finish the game without killing a single soul, and that's a great off-beat challenge to present the perfectionist gamer. Not to kill everybody, but to kill nobody. A test of skill, and a test of morals as well. Too cool.
Graphics
The power of Metal Gear Solid 2's graphics engine, combined with the talent of the artists manipulating that engine, will probably not be equaled until the same team addresses itself to a project of equal magnitude. There are a few games that do better with certain effects, I can pick out games with finer texture work, and certainly there's stuff out there that pushes more polygons around the screen, but nothing on the market now, let me stress again nothing, is a finer total visual package than MGS2, from basic design on up. Emphasis on "total." No one aspect of the graphics stands out -- at any given point, you can say "those textures are great," "that animation is excellent," "good choice of camera angle," "that was a cool effect." Everything comes together in near-perfection, considering the state of game graphics today.
Well, perhaps, upon reflection, the character animation takes a small lead over the rest of the pack (with a second mention going to the weather effects on the tanker, still a stunner after months of play). In the game proper, some movements are hampered by interaction with the environment, and collision detection is still a bit of a problem (see also: Dead or Alive 3, etc.), but Solid Snake and the rest of the massive cast move just as smoothly as you please. Watch a guard yawn, and he actually looks tired. Watch Snake get the sniffles, and you almost feel your nose itch in sympathy. A held-up bad guy conveys fear just with his shivering movements. And of course, the more conventional punches, kicks, dives, and necksnaps of active commando action come across with a real sense of weight and presence -- they look like people interacting, not just polygons.
Even more impressive, though, is the carefully-crafted animation of the game's many realtime cutscenes. It took us forever to convince some of our colleagues that the game engine was rendering the cinemas, effects and all -- luckily, there's an Easter Egg feature that lets you move the camera around and erase all doubt. Everything looks and moves just that good, again running the gamut from simple, understated movements to the thunderous destruction wrought by Metal Gear Ray. Natural and artificial alike are rendered faithfully, including the simply breathtaking rush of a giant flood. And, bless their souls, the creators of this game have catered to my darkest secret whim, and included a head explosion. For the state of realtime graphics in videogames today, this game has a head-pop that sets the benchmark for the current generation.
Ahem. Perhaps it's best not to go into too much detail there. Detail is what Metal Gear is all about, though -- you could stare at it for hours and still find newer, cooler stuff. Admire the texture detail on a door, delineating exactly what area it leads to, or the appallingly well-done blood decals over an Alert gone badly. Look at how a character holds a gun just right, at least for the Die Hard context in which this game often finds itself. Check out a particularly inspired lighting effect, even if it may be blinding you (an in-reference, this). Find a picture of a real Harrier jet, and compare it to the one in the game. There are too many examples of excellence to recall.
I've heard in some instances, particularly in reference to the ballet, that true talent is the ability to make a great feat look effortless. I like the impression I'm given by MGS2 better, though, because this is a great feat that looks like it took hard, hard work. This game was not skimped on. The teams at Konami JPN West work for a living. Layer after layer of preliminary effort shows through in the final product: real-world research, concept design, architecture, story conferences, tools programming, all kinds of work that went before actually putting hammer to steel and making the game itself. Once the rough creation was together, goodness knows how much testing and optimizing before the polished final product was ready to go. Finally, on top of the core game, there's a massive collection of Easter eggs and hidden surprises to be found. The amount of time and dedication required must have been something else.
On top of all this fine work in the game proper, the overall presentation and interface design is a best-quality production from top to bottom. The GUI is mostly imported from the original game, but what isn't broken needs no fixing, and the movie sequences that bookend the game are superior. The opening credits sequence, produced by Hollywood design firm Imaginary Forces, is as good as something you'd see in a feature film (although you nasty little pirates probably already know from first-hand experience).
Sound
Metal Gear Solid 2 excels in most every audio category, but where it's best is in the overarching realm of sound design. A game's sound is a collection of disparate parts -- you have your soundtrack composed by someone here, your effects put together by that fellow over there, and an entirely separate bunch recording the voices in that corner that way. Those parts can all be first-rate in a vacuum, but the game that houses them can still have poor sound, if there isn't a strong guiding hand to put all the pieces together.
MGS2 had such a hand, and talented specialists handling every aspect of composition besides. The biggest name involved, of course, is Harry Gregson-Williams, the Hollywood composer brought on to do the musical score. What's interesting about his work, though, after being exposed to so much heavy, momentous music in the trailer videos, is how understated the score is once you view the game as a whole. Upon reflection, though, it makes perfect sense -- after all, for the bulk of the time you spend with your hands on the controls, you want things to stay as quiet as possible, and the soundtrack obliges, with very light, relaxing, ambient sounds. Cause too much trouble, though, and the pace picks up, with a faster tempo and more ominous rumbling down in the bass tones. At a full-blown alert, the soundtrack pumps even more tension into the atmosphere, as if imminent death weren't enough to get your blood moving.
Of course, those momentous pieces come into play as well, with the MGS2 main theme in several forms appearing to accent the most important moments of the cinematic scenes. When this game has high points, it soars pretty high, and this is more than enough music to accompany the visual power. At quieter moments of significance, though, the soundtrack also knows how to behave, and if things perhaps grow a little too "meaningful" to handle, it's not necessarily the composer's fault.
That fine design I spoke of integrates the music very well with a broad and finely-tuned effects suite, along with the superb voice acting we came to expect after the first MGS. Environmental noise, the specific giveaways of certain actions, and the signature sounds of particular enemies are all handled well enough to make them an important element of gameplay. You can get a good handle on your environment and how to initially tackle it just by listening for obstacles and opposition. At the same time, you have to watch your own sound, since everything from footsteps to sneezes to gunfire becomes part of the aural atmosphere that every character in the game is aware of.
To return to the subject of voice acting, this cast deserves the kind of fete that welcomed the first MGS. The same voice director is back, Kris Zimmerman, as well as all the actors from the principal returning roles, and the new members of the cast maintain the high standards set by their fellows. Even the little snippets of dialogue given the guards and their controllers are excellent -- listening for their commands and responses is a vital part of surviving an Alert. There is, essentially, nothing to complain about here that could be pinned on the actors or their immediate directors. A few lines sound odd or stilted, but likely as not that's the fault of the script itself, which features a few points where minor edits are in order.
The vast bulk of the text translation is top-notch, however, giving the characters life with realistic dialogue. These people talk like people, with their own personalities, quirks, and bodies of knowledge. Snake talks like you'd expect him to talk, a veteran with a gruff edge and absolute competence in his areas of knowledge. Otacon's lines fit his personality to a T -- supreme confidence in his specialty, and stammering uncertainty everywhere else. Go step by step through the cast and in each case, their lines help define a personality, something more than just a visual design and a few defining attributes.
There are, then, no problems with the localization, and when the script is good, it's very good. When it's not good, though, is another matter, and that will require a little more attention.
Story
Of course, it's hard to discuss issues of Metal Gear's plot and character development without spoiling major surprises, but it's possible to make a few points in general terms. To start out, the point that should be kept in mind continually: at its best, this game has as much emotional impact as it ever has visually. It is still an affecting narrative. But it doesn't live up to its best standard all the time, and when it falls, it falls hard, creating the game's most significant problems. The problems I have with the tale being told are two-fold -- some of them have to do with exactly what I'm seeing and hearing, and others have to do with the way that is presented. Form and content, in other words, although curiously enough both don't often get it wrong at the same time.
As far as form goes, the most common issue has to do with the Codec screen. This is a brilliant way to get factual information across quickly and efficiently, but it's the wrong setting to hold sequences intended to have serious emotional significance. Metal Gear Solid 2 has, bar none, the best voice acting in the business, but it's not enough to make up for the fact that it's just two greenpolygonal heads flapping their lips on a black background. So many Codec conversations go on for minutes, and they could easily be replaced by a 30-second cutscene that would have far more emotional impact. Wait for a sequence where a character talks about their childhood, and see if you could think of a better way that could have been presented. When you want to move me, you should show me, not just tell me.
And then, on the other hand, there's content. This is a trickier issue, because everyone has their own taste in what they'd like to see and when, but I think it's pretty safe to say that there are scenes, themes, and arcs of character development here that just don't belong. The heavy emphasis on philosophical meanderings, especially in the later movements of the game, are a thoroughly arguable point -- me, I skipped those courses in college for a reason, but the ideas explored are certainly worth the time. Elsewhere, though, there are scenes that needed to be cut, and badly. Just a few short minutes in the editing room, a few meters of footage on the floor, and I wouldn't have to have one absolutely horrible memory about this game stuck in my head forever. Again, when you get there, you'll know.
The rest of the story is a lot less cut-and-dried. The first Metal Gear Solid, however, probably had stronger character development all round, with a more effective motivation for its central villain and clearer personae for the supporting antagonists as well. Perhaps the trouble is that Metal Gear Solid 2 is much more ambitious in its plot construction, and thus has a little farther to fall when it can't live up to that ambition. MGS, after all, was a pretty simple story when you strip it down. The terrorists are the bad guys, Snake is the good guy, the good guy defeats the bad guys, everyone goes home wiser for the experience. It's not hard for a story like that to get hold of your emotions. MGS2, in comparison, is a Byzantine web of deception, with end after end after end played against at least two different middles. Thus, the player's sympathies tend to bounce around a little, rather than settling down and becoming seriously involved with the protagonist for as long as they did in the first game. Our heroes are still our heroes, certainly, but that's only half of it -- the conflict is sufficiently muddled that it's hard to figure out which antagonist to root against.
Closing Comments
That's an argument that will go on long after I've passed my judgment, though. The fact of the matter is that Metal Gear Solid 2 is more than just a story, more than just a movie. It's a game, and one of the best ever made. If it isn't the best story ever told, well, the games industry obviously just has a ways to go in that regard. I sincerely wonder, however, after playing something like this, how much head room there is to make a better game experience. I mean, hell, Miyamoto's busy playing with ants in his garden, and Kojima's probably off on a year's vacation after this one.
Not that he doesn't deserve it, and the entire rest of the team besides. That's perhaps the saddest thing about seeing this game come and go, after a year and a half of buildup. Some of the best creators in the business will be going home once it's over, not to be seen for more than a few game shows. Hideo Kojima, my favorite director. Yoji Shinkawa, my favorite game artist. Motosada Mori, my favorite God King Gun Otaku (which I mean, incidentally, in the most respectful manner possible, for I love the guns in this game, from M9 to P90 and all their brothers in between). Everyone else at Konami JPN West. Heck, the next E3, I'll probably miss the chance to lose Kojima's autograph for a third year running.
Oh, well. For the time being, it's worth it for the chance to play this game, and to play it again some more. Play it just once and you're cheating yourself of more than the purchase price (or a rental fee, for you cheap bastards). You're cheating yourself of a great experience, and perhaps the best on PlayStation 2, if it weren't for the fact that we'll probably see another Metal Gear adventure before this generation concludes. We have something to look forward to, then, as well as something to enjoy today.