Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

  Okay its Thursday, which means its time for Spryte Bytes, haha! And I just completed Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. For the record, I did in fact watch the cut scenes from Twin Snakes and read about Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2. I did not actually have either in my possession (well, I had MG and MG2 on my Snake Eater HD edition, but I wanted to continue on chronological without dealing with "Nintendo Hard" that would hold me up for months with minimal important story information). That said, I am definitely going to attempt to acquire Metal Gear Solid or Twin Snakes in the future. (If anyone would like to tell me where I can get Twin Snakes for Game Cube for a remotely reasonable price, that would be awesome).

So the adventure begins with Solid Snake and Otacon two years after the events of Shadow Moses. He's on a tanker investigating the possibility of a Metal Gear (a giant mech armor featuring nuclear abilities) being built by the Marines. In case you have no exposure to the series, this is a very bad idea. I have now watched three different game's worth of cutscenes, played through two of them, and I can tell you that no one uses the Metal Gears in self defense. On paper, sure, a mobile nuclear warhead launcher would save you from building a gazillion silos. Off paper, it apparently makes nukes damn easy to steal.

Which naturally, means the damn thing is stolen. Tanker sinks, and we are sent two years into the future. Solid Snake is believed to be dead, but now the President's been kidnapped and there's hostages. A man claiming to be Solid Snake is behind this act of terrorism. You play Raiden from this point on-and to be fair, I really like his character. Also the fact that he has the acrobatics option amuses me quite a bit. Also at some point he gets a sword and I promptly paused to buy Rising of Amazon, because that game play was just awesome. Besides, everyone knows swords are stealthier then guns.

Carrying on, you're treated to the smooth game play I was spoiled with in Snake Eater. Stealth abilities and functions are restored, and the game play is honestly really fun. The equipment access can get jumbled at times, but its not so bad. Granted this did frustrate me when I thought I'd tranquilized guards a few times and they got back up because I'd only shot them in the gut with a bullet (???).

There's a brief escort mission, which I honestly didn't mind so much. There's some lovely fan service for those of who enjoy the male form (and very carefully played objects like the bad guy's shoulder pads and Ocelot's head) and Raiden's modesty amused me far too much.

Now lets talk about the story itself. Uh.
Well.
Honestly I thought I knew what was going on for a while and then about three quarters of the way through I became completely sure I didn't. Now I enjoy a good mind screw in my entertainment-but if you'd be kind enough to explain it, that would be lovely.

Like right now I don't know how I feel about a bunch of characters, and there's a massive amount of "How much of this is real". Like at first I thought this particularly portion was all in Raiden's head, when shit started to get really bad. But instead the game suddenly and abruptly pulls you out of it and declares "FINAL BOSS BATTLE" while I'm still not sure I'm not in the Matrix.

I mean there were definitely elements I enjoyed about the game, and right up until the fan service (I'm trying to avoid spoilers, and that's a good easy to identify spot) the story made sense.

Then it all became a bad trip. And yes, you get a sword for the...last fraction of the game. Which is fun but you don't get to use it too much because you're bringing Spoiler (Solid Snake)  and he takes out a good chunk of the enemies for you.

Also the boss battles themselves feel...lacking. Like, the Fat Man battle was fun, and definitely worth it. You chase him around, he tries to blow you up, you beat him up when he runs out of breath.

Lady Luck-well, not so much a boss battle at all as much as a "stay alive while you can't kill her". (She actually dies in a cutscene).

The battle with Vamp was pretty damn cool, to be honest. Solidus...meh. On the other hand I know I was on very easy mode, so I give them a pass for that. Besides, honestly Solidus was pissing me off and it was nice to actually get to attack something with my sword.

Also there were a couple times I got seriously screwed because I didn't know I was lacking key items to proceed. Not cool.

The music was okay, but nothing as impressive as in Snake Eater, Peace Walker, or even Portable Ops (all of which boast theme songs now on my iPod). Actually I don't remember the score well at all, I think it was lacking. However in other scenes the lack of music almost made the story more powerful in some deeply emotional scenes. Spoiler: (STOP HURTING OTACON YOU BASTARDS!)

Now, friends have told me my story concerns will be resolved in Guns of the Patriots, which while nice, does not count toward Sons of Liberty's score.

The graphics were superb (granted this is the HD Re-Release; I would expect no less!), and the cinematic scenes were extremely effective.

So lets rack up the points!

Game Play: 2 out of 2. While I did have some issues, I reminded myself this game was made pre Snake Eater. So I know it resolved those issues, learning from its mistakes. And more importantly, if I hadn't been used to the item sub screen in Snake Eater I might have started with what was given to me here. Which honestly wasn't that bad, it just tripped me up a couple times.

Story: 1 out of 2. It did have some intriguing information to be gleamed, dynamite twists, emotional twists, and I see that there is Exposition set up going on. But within itself the game's story was only okay. Raiden was an interesting new character, but I'm not sure how I feel about his love interest-this is partially because I have no idea how much of what I heard from her was real. Honestly I've not completed this game and sat through the credits, and I'm still not convinced Raiden ever left the Matrix.

Graphics: 2 out of 2. Pretty damn pretty. Much like Snake Eater the graphics were the top of their line for the time the game was made, and extremely effective for the story.

Music: 0 out of 2. I'm giving this one a meh. The music did not make an impact on me. I was all pumped too-credits began to roll, I prepared to look up the theme song. And discovered I was not a big fan. (Inversely I was watching game play videos and trailers for Phantom Pain and I want all of the songs).

Bonus: Raiden was pretty damn awesome, and I'm betting the sword would have been used more if I'd played on a harder difficulty. So 1 out of 2.

All in all, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty walks away with a 6 out of 10. Its not a bad game persay, but its not a powerful one. That said I did have a lot of fun playing it, and speculating what was going on in the story. Now I'm off to play Guns of the Patriots. I'm deeply

Camp Classic: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Yeah, yeah. I know, I'm late to the party. Shush. You may have noticed my first review was a nostalgia classic. This I will remind you that there is no particular sensical order to my reviews. This is not about recent titles as it stands. This is about video games I personally have played from start to finish in recent days.

So let's talk about Metal Gear Solid. I am a total new visitor to this series, so I consulted several friends and web sources to find out more about the chronological order of the games.

I had the Metal Gear Solid HD collection for PS3 for a while, and as a New Year's Resolution, I swore not to buy any more video games until I beat at least 25 existing titles in my collection I had not previously done so.

Which meant I finally sat down and played Metal Gear Solid 3.

I was prepared to consider it all overrated.

Then I heard Naked Snake's voice for the first time. I am now mourning the voice actor change for five. Anyway. 

I discovered a rather interesting story awaited me. It was full of intrigue and conspiracy. At first it just seemed like a spy story set in an alternate version of history. By the way, that itself is ridiculously clever-rather then world building, the world of Metal Gear Solid built around historical events. Where it could get away with it, the game used historical footage. Effective for story telling plus cost saving.

Of course I soon found out there was supernatural/scifi edge to this game I had been engaged in, and a thrilling plot of deception and betrayal. Also there were so many easter eggs I couldn't stop laughing.

At first I was a bit unhappy with the objectification thing (talking about you, Eva). But on the other hand I had to admit. It was damn effective for her purpose, which was distracting Snake. (Nice one, John.) So as a femme fatale spy, flashing her boobies of distraction worked out pretty well.

Also I soon enough learned why everyone says Hideo Kojima is a troll. Between the religion symbolism that was mocked (ADAM, EVA, SNAKE) and something I won't spoil at the end-well, it was clear the game was not meant to be taken seriously.

In other angles it did seem to be taking a crack at James Bond-hell, Naked Snake himself does it at some point.

Game play? Well, you play Naked Snake (John, sometimes Jack) who has been sent to Russia to break out a Soviet spy. (Short version). Where other games focus on beat it up, turn based, or other things-I was shocked by the difference in game play. Camouflage options to help you blend in (which I misused constantly upon realizing I could render John shirtless the entire game-don't judge me), the sneaking factor, and one particular event that made me reconsider how wise it was to randomly kill all the enemies I encountered. (I strongly recommend you avoid killing wherever possible until the point, you will know it).

But the sneaking factor, the stealth function, and the game play itself was all beautiful to me. It was fun, and for me, brand spanking new. I got attached to most of the characters with some exceptions (VOLGIN-or as I call him, Rapey Sadist Pikachu), and was sucked into the story. The graphics were pretty damn spiffy and nothing to shake a calorie mate at. And the music-well, to be fair, they had Harry Gregson Williams do their sound track. The score was fantastic, and the theme song was utterly haunting-one I still listen to constantly. (At this point its been only knocked out of favorite MGS theme by Heaven's Divide-but that's another story).

So now for the official scoring system:

• Game Play: Innovative, interesting, easy to learn, and fun. Two out of two.
• Story: When you're not laughing about how campy it is, you're deeply involved in the characters or wondering what's going to happen next. Two out of two.
• Graphics: These were pretty damn awesome, won't lie. Amazing textures, and careful monitoring to see which camouflage worked best in which terrains. Two out of Two.
• Music: AHEM I mean. It's just. Fantastic. Its haunting, in one particularly long sequence between areas, the theme pops up as this almost echo in the distance. Its beautiful. Two out of two.
• Bonus Round: I mentioned already I got to objectify my male lead, which was nice. I'll take this break to say I personally have no problem with objectification-as long as it goes for men and women. So for all of EVA's sexual angles and flashing skin, during my play through Snake showed a fair amount too. Also, rather important here. I was able to defeat one of the bosses by faking my own death and literally setting his ass on fire. Two out of Two.

Final Verdict? Ten out of Ten for the classic, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.