Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is Completely Insane

You thought Metal Gear was insane before? That is just adorable! Oh, you sweet summer child, the insanity hasn’t even begun!

‘Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty’ is by far the most divisive game in the series. If you ask a fan how they feel about it, they’ll either say it’s a timeless masterpiece or a disappointing disaster. Personally, I think both sides have some pretty fair arguments. So, what do I think?

I like it. Not a lot, but it’s good.

Two years have passed since the events of Metal Gear Solid. When the terrorist cell called the Sons of Liberty take over military base Big Shell, it’s up to the rookie Raiden to infiltrate the facility and defeat them. But not all is as it seems. Raiden’s first proper mission quickly goes off the rails, and the ensuing events reveal to him a secret that will shake his understanding of his country, his life, and his purpose in fighting.

So, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the protagonist. Beyond the opening prologue – which is incredible – you don’t get to play as Snake in this game. Instead, you get to play as Raiden.

Unfortunately, this is before Metal Gear Rising, so Raiden isn’t cool yet. But that’s kind of the point.

Metal Gear Solid 2 explores a lot of complicated themes. How media has desensitized us to violence, how ideas get passed from person to person like genetics, expectation vs reality, the list goes on. It does tons of interesting things with these concepts, many of which have become downright iconic moments in video game history.

But… well, the actual story is kind of a mess. The series’ signature exposition dumps are more complicated and confusing then ever, and the character work isn’t always great. Raiden is a total dweeb, Otacon’s sister is a huge pain in the ass, and every single villain is downright obnoxious!

Except for Solidus. Not Doctor Octopus gets a pass.

Also, Snake and Otacon have a secret handshake that is the Konami code. Is that important? No. But I love that too much not to mention it.

Visually speaking, Metal Gear Solid 2 holds up surprisingly well! The character models are all great, the environments are shockingly detailed for a PS2 game – though they’re a bit repetitive in aesthetic.

And of course: the music. It goes without saying that the soundtrack is incredible. Metal Gear is just one of those series where the soundtrack always slaps!

One thing I cannot stand about this game is the codec. Whoever thought to replace Yoji Shinkawa’s wonderful portraits with green-tinted character models made a terrible mistake. That wouldn’t be a problem, but… well, it’s Metal Gear. You spend a lot of time in the codec.

Now, let’s talk about the game itself. As you might expect, MGS2 is a stealth game. You sneak around gathering items and weapons, moving from lengthy cutscene to lengthy cutscene, from boss fight to boss fight, until the game ends. The standard fare.

This game introduces a ton of gameplay improvements from MGS1. The shooting feels better, enemy AI is more sophisticated, and your list of options for any given encounter is expanded dramatically! This is the first game where you can go full pacifist, and it’s pretty fun! The core gameplay is a blast!

I can’t say the same for the mission design or the boss fights.

This game repeatedly makes you do some really tedious things. Freezing bombs all over the map, a slow escort mission, a lengthy underwater section, so on and so forth. Sections like these suck and I hate them. Every moment spent in them, I wanted to go back to sneaking around and fighting the regular soldiers!

As for the bosses, they really aren’t very good. I’m sorry, but characters like Vamp or Fortune or… Fatman just aren’t that compelling. Not to mention their fights are more exercises in patience than a fun, interesting challenge. They’re cartoonish to the point of being obnoxious.

This is an interesting sequel. It was sort of designed to be a disappointing sequel. You don’t get to play as Snake, the story is more mature and bizarre than its predecessors, and the bosses stink. But complaining about those things feels kind of null, because that was the whole point of the game. It didn’t do those things because of bad game design, it did them to make a point.

If you can appreciate that point, you’ll love this game! But if you wanted a badass stealth game with fun bosses and level design, you might not. It’s an art piece through and through.

And now, there’s only one game left. Excluding non-canon spin offs, because I only have so much patience for Kojima’s insanity.

Gonna be saying that a lot with MGS4…