After a whole life wondering what was so special about the Metal Gear series, for many people to consider it one of the best in videogame history, I decided to finally give it a chance at the beginning of this year. I started back in February with the first Metal Gear Solid (which I loved but didn’t have enough time to write a review of it) and then jumped immediately to its sequel. After watching its 12 minute long opening cutscene, I had to give it a break.
That break ended up lasting a few months, enough time to get over my Metal Gear induced hangover. You see, these are relatively short games, but insanely dense in terms of narrative and gameplay mechanics. While impressive from a technical standpoint (for a 2001 game), Metal Gear Solid 2 simply wasn’t clicking for me in the same way as the first. I had to force my way through, hoping for a silver lining along the way. What I ended up finding was way more rewarding and mind-blowing than I ever expected.
Claustrophobic freedom
The opening chapter of Metal Gear Solid 2 is very reminiscent of the first game. We play as the very same Solid Snake in an environment somewhat similar to Shadow Moses, with a control scheme and gameplay structure very reminiscent of the previous adventure. However, everything feels more snappy than before. Snake’s moves are more fluid, there are many more ways to mess with the enemies’ minds and sneak through them, and the game itself looks and runs much better. All thanks to the power of the then brand new PlayStation 2. Instead of scaling up the scenarios, Hideo Kojima and his team chose to keep them tight, but much more crammed with details and small interactions. There were many instances where I opted to mess up my playthrough just to see the outcome of a certain action, like placing a trap for an enemy to fall on, even knowing that it would trigger an alarm. My only issue with all this freedom, is that it comes with a more complex control scheme. Getting used to it isn’t something trivial, but eventually it’s possible to get more comfortable with it.
By the end of that first chapter the game already introduced all its core mechanics, that are mostly the same as its predecessor, but vastly improved. We are then put in the shoes of a rookie named Raiden. The mission is to rescue the US president from Big Shell, a facility in the middle of the Hudson river where he’s being held hostage by some terrorists. It’s from this moment on that Metal Gear Solid 2 transforms into a metanarrative, but that realization only comes near the end of it.
A game that plays you
The idea of a metanarrative wasn’t something new in the series by this point. The first Metal Gear Solid already had a few memorable fourth wall breaking moments, like the codec frequency printed in the game back cover, or Psycho Mantis reading the player’s mind by commenting on the memory card game saves, but this second game pushes this concept way further. The more we play it and progress in its convoluted story, the more questions and inconsistencies we find regarding our mission objective(s) and the people surrounding Raiden.
The codec radio is without question the most quintessential narrative device of this game, probably even the entire series. It’s mostly through it that we communicate with the supporting characters and get vital information to progress in our mission. What would happen if that information wasn’t real? What would happen if the people we talk with weren’t real? Heck, what would happen if our own reality wasn’t real? That’s the scenario that Raiden, and we by extension, are confronted with at a certain point. Distinguishing what’s real from what’s a fabrication is a fascinating challenge that transcends the game itself. When the credits rolled I just sat silently, still figuring out what I just witnessed. I’ve just been played by this game, and I loved it.
Pros
- Uncanny attention to detail
- Great degree of freedom to approach most situations
- Game’s insane plot, focused around AI and misinformation, is more relevant nowadays than ever
Cons
- Convoluted control scheme
- Constant switch between third-person and first-person views
- Not much environment variety
Great✦✦✦✦✧
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is simultaneously rooted in its origins and way ahead of its time. It’s simply one of those kinds of games that words alone can’t quite describe. The only way to understand it is to play it and fall for its ingenious metaphorical traps.
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