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