User Rating: 8.3 | Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance XBOX
By katman | Review Date:
MGS2 is certainly an interesting experience, once you give it time to learn it's intricacy. Ok, I fell for all the Hype surrounding this game's release to the Xbox last year, and picked it up before Christmas when it came out. I didn't know anything about it, except that all the reviewers were raving about it, and all the comparisons to Splinter Cell. However I just finished Splinter Cell at the time, and I was NOT ready for another slow-paced sneaker game like that, so I put it on the shelf after giving it the usual 1 hour checkout because I thought it would be more of the same like Splinter Cell. Now months later I pulled it off the shelf, gave it a second chance, and became completely HOOKED! It's NOT like Splinter Cell at all in gameplay, in fact it's like nothing I've ever played before. First of all let me suggest before you start the actual game, you at least spend some time playing the Raiden character's VR-missions, as they offer a very much needed basic tutorial on how the heck to operate the seemingly chaotic control scheme. I'm exaggerating here, but it seems like each button does 10 different things based on the exact pixel location your character happens to be in when you push the button, and believe me, it's doesn't come easy to remember them all! The VR missions for me at least, offered the training you'll be severely lacking when you start the game cold. Also the VR missions give you a final score at the end, so there is some challenge to try and get the highest score possible. (I probably played the VR missions longer than the actual game) One other confusing thing not explained well in the manual, is when you start you have the option to play 2 seemingly different games. In fact they are almost 2 stand-alone but intertwined stories using the same engine, but you control a different character, and you should pick the option to play the full Tanker and Shell Plant in order to play thru both interconnected stories in the correct order. The gameplay is mostly very fun, but much too varied to go into details here. You have all kinds of different moves, weapons, tactics, etc., to accomplish you goals, and it sure is a lot of fun to try out different methods. One of those rare games I didn't mind re-playing the same level over a couple times to see what happens if I try something new. There is no save game at anytime exactly, but as you run from one area to the next, the game does save a checkpoint for you behind the scenes. You'll get used to it after a while, knowing how to use it to save ALMOST whenever you want to. One other weird thing, there is not even a quit or re-load feature unless you die, so be prepared for some suicides if you screw up and want to try again. :-) Of course there is also the wacky story that everybody talks about, my advice is to just try to enjoy it, but forget about trying to understand what's going on, and you'll be much happier. In summary, if you have the patience to learn the wacky controls, and can sit through several LOOOOOOONG and Cheesy dialogs, you are in for a fun time with this game and will have a memorable experience, even if you are not sure what just happened when you are finished.

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