The dialogues in this game are a total marvel, they have some of the best dialogues I have ever seen in a video game, fascinating, the feeling it gave me is different, I have not cried, nor has it impacted me emotionally much, but it has impacted me in another way that I cannot explain, it is simply beautiful what Kojima wants to convey, this game is perfect in all its splendor, I thought that MGS3 was the pinnacle of all MGS , but in my opinion MGS2 is a little better, either because of the rhythm and consistency, the incredible dialogues and how everything is executed perfectly, there is no gap in the script, and the game explores themes that are wonderful, as such it can be existentialism, free will and the purpose of being, which in Raiden is present throughout the game and in the end it explodes perfectly, the ending is incredible. This is a message towards life, an emotional impact with a purpose beyond that, a life lesson.
I love you Kojima, FUCKKK.

text I got from my bf like two days ago and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it

Mgs2: Memes will be used to spread misinformation and cause societal collapse
People in 2001: Lmfao huhhh whatever man
People in 2023: I actually love the tiktok account using dog videos intended to brainwash egirls into being white supremacists

The boldest sequel ever made to one of the most important games of its time. Including being the biggest technical leap you can witness a series going from one console generation to the next. I have little to elaborate on and expand upon from my first playthrough of this game months ago; I'm only just confirming my feelings on this now as though written on stone tablets. My quintessential favorite video game of all time remains Fallout: New Vegas, and that personal fact will never change, but Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty officially trails right behind as being my absolute second favorite in the medium.

It's an understatement to say this game was ahead of its time with how relevant its commentary has become this past year. Something that people in 2001 didn’t fully appreciate because they got too distracted by how far Kojima went in his cautionary story about subjective reality and the impending dangers that technology will impose on society without being aware of it. But thanks to the passage of time, what Kojima was trying to accomplish with his unconventional sequel is now better appreciated and taken to heart. The original Metal Gear Solid was about ‘gene’, the lineage that defines why we’re here in life and whether we should accept that. In Metal Gear Solid 2, we’ve moved onto ‘meme’, the passing of cultural ideas that we struggle to sort out for the future. Even though it doesn't seem like his favorite game (toss up between 3 and 5 from searching it up), I think this is probably Kojima's most personal game because of the themes and creativity. Metal Gear is a franchise about passionate people who are even more ideologically motivated, passing the torch to the next generation while struggling to decipher what needs to be passed on to let the world succeed. Kojima clearly resonates with these ideas a lot, and when taking a peek into his personal history, it makes sense why. This stems from a sad episode from Kojima's childhood where his father died, and he spent the rest of his life haunted by this memory. He was trying to make sense of his death and what his father must've wanted Kojima to take away from it to pass along for his future. These games feel like Kojima trying to express this personal struggle and understand more about himself alongside the player.

I believe that's why the ending of the game is the most inspiring and greatest ending in video game history because of its message. Like Raiden, Kojima finally found what he wanted to live for and pass on to the future when his time is eventually over. It's making these games, which reflect his passion for literature, movies, and video games, to impart onto the player, who'll pass along his ideas through their experiences. This was released in 2001, and they pulled this shit off? Unbelievable.

took some time to mull it over, but metal gear solid 2 is genuinely such a brilliantly crafted retort and strengthening of 1's ideas of human individuality to where yeah, i'd say this is the best metal gear game yet purely for how well written it is.

the patriots' ideas of an overabundance of information and conflicting and personal so-called "truths" are very well laid out and incredibly topical years later as most have pointed out, backed up by multiple events throughout the game. it's why the patriots being revealed to be long-dead is such a harrowing whammy of a reveal - solidus and ocelot were fighting against an idea that doesn't even fully and tangibly exist anymore.
and that is exactly what the patriots sought to prevent through the GW system, creating one singular "truth" through justified censorship so as to eliminate humanity from spelling its own doom in the confusion.
but i would actually heavily disagree on MGS2 being as cynical as most make it out to be.
thatmagicalmage couldn't have said it any better in their own review where laser-focusing on MGS2's prediction of a misinformation-ridden future misses how it is incredibly hopeful and loving of the human condition in spite of the negative consequences of free will - evidenced by snake's speech in the post-credits scene describing the importance of our works now that we pass on to the future, and raiden's own decision to live his own life not giving a damn about whether or not he's played into the patriots' hands as he's found his own purpose and what gives him satisfaction - and that is the ultimate triumph he could have ever had over the patriots. it's why i bring up MGS1 because it's very reminiscent of the lesson snake learned about choosing his own life to lead and the antithesis he and raiden play to the gene-devout liquid snake. and yet it doesn't feel like a rehash of MGS1's themes of the importance of individuality, it feels like an extension.
snake and otacon choosing to make their own impact through the anti-metal gear "philanthropy" organization in spite of their forefathers' warmongering efforts shows your path in life isn't beholden to the deeds of your ancestry, and raiden's inability to fall into despair by the hands of the patriots shows no matter how much one may try, no force in this universe has the ability or the right to control how you think or feel. the only person who can decide how you want to live your life is you and you alone, and there's no point in living without that individuality. because it's how we connect with other people.

fuck me, MGS2 is awesome. metal gear is awesome.

[Played Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance]

Since I got into MGS at a time where I was unable to emulate PS2 games, I knew Metal Gear Solid 2's story long before actually playing it- I'd seen a playthrough, I'd watched a friend stream it... that can't ever quite replace playing a game yourself, but I knew I loved its writing long before I ever got around to properly play it.

As for playing the game... I mean, it's fun, but also it's only a little more than "alright". It feels a bit like an awkward in-between of MGS1/the MSX games and MGS3, where its room design and AI don't really fit the overhead perspective, leading to frustration. It's trying to abandon the Soliton radar what with it needing to be re-unlocked for every room, but it needs it more than ever due to the aforementioned issues. Before you do the game is a whole lot of shifting to first person, which is awkward - bizarrely I think this is the game where the cardboard boxes might be the most useful. Take all of the above with a grain of salt- as much as I love Metal Gear I could never 100% get into any game's gameplay loop (Well, excluding Rising's, but I don't think that counts...). Still there's good stuff here, the ability to play non-lethal fits the series' themes brilliantly and is generally a good option to have, and it's always satisfying to quickly headshot a guard with a silenced pistol (tranquilizer or not that it may be): I really like how when you deal with every enemy in an area more are eventually called in by the confused radio operator, it's a nice touch of realism and presents the player with a choice that didn't exist before (although it does remove the satisfaction of systematically clearing out a whole room). Still, especially with how fast the game rushes towards its conclusion and with how full it is of setpieces, MGS2 never really feels like it gets to make its mechanics shine. Boss battles are overall good, but never reach the heights of MGS1 or 3, with the Dead Cell characters' abilities never translating to particularly interesting gimmicks in gameplay unlike said games' rogues galleries.

Overall the gameplay does the job I ask of it- It's entertaining in short bursts, and the game's focus on story makes it so you rarely deal with more than that. Besides that... I quite loved the look and feel of the game. MGS3 is advanced enough to look pretty darn realistic (which it does with far more style than most other games that try), but MGS2 has an aesthetic all of its own- a sort of shiny, gleaming idealized reality that I think serendipitously fits Sons of Liberty's themes very well. While we've all heard Yell Dead Cell and it is indeed quite good, I also think the game's soundtrack shines the brightest in the more atmospheric tracks.

So much has been said about Metal Gear Solid 2's themes and metanarrative but I think on a simpler level Raiden's character and his arc are not appreciated enough- I struggle to think of any character that heightens and incarnates his story's themes as well as he does and it's genuinely a shame that even today he's thought of as the inferior version of the cool cyborg we got later on. I also love how the Patriots are presented, before MGS4 pulled away the curtain- as an almost supernatural entity that defies explanation. I love how many characters in MGS2 are hiding something or eventually betray Raiden- even the heroic ones like Snake end up stabbing him in the back at some points, and that very much works for the themes of information and misinformation that the game carries. There are some flaws in the storytelling- I overall feel positively towards Rose, but some of her dialogue with Raiden is a bit hard to believe even considering the series' propensity for melodrama, and Stillman's arc resolves too fast to have much emotional impact. Still, I gained a newfound appreciation for the game overall- it's flawed, clearly a bit too ambitious for its own good, and unbearably campy (<- this is a good thing) at times, but it's one of the most clever narratives in the medium to this day, executed in a completely unique way, and all without losing any of its heart and style, which is all pretty impressive for a game where there's a guy called Fatman (because he's fat and makes bombs) who runs around on roller skates drinking wine with a straw (<- this is a good thing).

I'm having a hard time writing the review for this, so I'll keep it brief.
Coming from the high of Metal Gear Solid, I expected more of the same and that's largely what I got, plot twists and all. My favorite aspect of the game was the story, it was super engaging! It sucked me in just like MGS1 and I ended up beating MGS2 in under a week. I loved how modern it felt, with all the AI discussion and internet censoring. Still very relevant today, perhaps even more so. Please play it blind! You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Moving on, The controls were disappointing. MGS2 is my first experience with the PS2 despite having grown up in the 2000's, and I really do not like the pressure sensitive buttons. I got used to it by the end (sorta) but for most of my 12 hour playthrough, the buttons felt unresponsive and made snake/ raiden feel sluggish in return.
Putting the controller aside, the controls feel largely unchanged from mgs1 and I don't mean that in a good way. Oftentimes I would stick to a wall when I didn't mean to, or I would accidentally crawl while trying to shoot and then I would be a sitting duck, even climbing ledges felt clunky. There are some platforming sections mid game that were super frustrating because of this. I get that's kinda how stealth games should work but it still felt inopportune in certain moments. Swimming was clunky, there is still a tricky button mashing section like MGS1, I could go on.

The graphics and sound are impressive though. MGS2 has aged very well on that front, and I liked how footage from MGS1 was in some of the codec calls. I'm a sucker for fan service, I know. I need to find the score for this and put it into my vgm playlist asap! One could say the vibes are immaculate.

I'm not really sure how to word my feelings towards Metal Gear Solid's sequel. It was more of the same, which was both good and bad for me. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first game, but it was still quite memorable and I'll probably stick around to play the third game!

"To begin with, we're not what you'd call 'human.' Over the past 200 years, a consciousness appeared layer by layer at the crucible of the White House. It's not unlike the way life started in the oceans four billion years ago. The White House was our primordial soup, a base of evolution. We are formless. We are the very discipline and morality that Americans invoke so often. How can anyone hope to eliminate us? As long as this nation exists, so will we."

--

"If you're immortal, why would you take away individual freedoms and censor the Net?"

--

"Life isn't just about passing on your genes. We can leave behind much more than just DNA. Through speech, music, literature and movies... what we've seen, heard, felt... anger, joy and sorrow... these are the things I will pass on. That's what I live for. We need to pass the torch, and let our children read our messy and sad history by its light. We have all the magic of the digital age to do that with. The human race will probably come to an end some time, and new species may rule over this planet. Earth may not be forever, but we still have the responsibility to leave what traces of life we can. Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing."

next level

It's hard to talk about Metal Gear Solid 2 without treading ground video essayists on YouTube haven't already worn to the bedrock. By now every point of discussion has been mined, you know what the game is about and you've already made up your mind whether you want to play it or not. For some it's the black sheep of the Solid series, for others it's a high point that was eerily predictive of the current Internet era.

I suppose I fall into the later camp. Gameplay just feels great, there's some really fun parts of the Big Shell to sneak through, and screen-to-screen stealth-puzzle driven progression of the game feels just as intelligently designed as the original Metal Gear Solid. Granted, I see a lot of validity to the complaint that the Big Shell's nearly identical struts wears a bit thin, and it is at times a little disorienting when everything looks the same and you're told to go to Strut A or C or F or whatever. It's a definite weakness over the more defined landmarks of Shadow Moses, and the excellent Tanker chapter that opens MGS2 only highlights the Big Shell's shortcomings even more.

The incredible amount of detail keeps me invested, though. Shooting buckets of ice cause cubes to fly out, which you can then individually knock around or just watch melt in real time. Getting out of the rain in the Tanker chapter causes condensation to build up on the screen and spending too long in it will give Snake a cold. Urine splatters on Raiden's head with physics that beautiful recreate life. Now days if a glass doesn't shatter when you shoot it in a game people will bitch to death on Twitter about how lazy and unfit for continued existence the developers are. Back in 2001 though, Metal Gear Solid 2 showed how truly drastic the leap was between fifth and sixth gen hardware. Slipping on bird shit? That's only possible with the power of Emotion Engine, baby!

But of course what dominates most of the discussion around Metal Gear Solid 2 is its story, which deals heavily in themes of information control, particularly in the digital age. For much of the game it simply comes across as if Kojima just read 1984. It's a shallow, unchallenging take on censorship and culture control, that is until the very end of the game when Kojima begins to lay out exactly how this will all manifest in the digital age, where junk data reigns supreme. It's some pretty interesting stuff and also allows Kojima to do even more interesting things with how you play MGS2's climactic act, but it also results in some horrible pacing issues. Structurally speaking, MGS2's final two hours are hampered by excessively long codec calls interspersed between what is otherwise the story's more tense moments. Like, Solidus is right here and he brought two samurai swords so we can stab each other to death on top of the federal reserve building or whatever but hold up, AI Campbell needs to yack at me for 20 minutes.

Still, it is important to note that in 2001 a little over 50% of American households had an internet connection. The Internet was a far cry from its current incarnation, where much of our lives are tangled up in the world wide web. There was no Twitter, no YouTube, no Facebook to revolutionize the way we keep in touch with one another, let alone the way information is disseminated to the masses. And yet with each passing year MGS2 becomes more prescient. Maybe it's a time and place thing. I was pretty young when this came out and much of what Kojima was laying out in the last act went over my stupid little head, but it stuck with me, and I got to see the Internet shape itself into that very monster in real time. I wonder if someone born after the Web 2.0 explosion would really get as much out of it as I did.

And yeah, sure, Raiden is a real wet fart of a character. I mean the guy doesn't even have any posters in his room, what kind of sick freak doesn't have at least one poster? And Rosemary? Yeah, she's a cardboard cutout of a character, the sort of person who is so boring they would fall in love with the first guy to tell her she's wrong about what building was in King Kong. There's plenty of valid criticisms about the story! But I like it. I like getting to see Snake through the perspective of a rookie. I like the weirdo conspiracy to essentially mold Raiden into Snake's double. I don't even mind Raiden's lack of agency given how that factors into the overall narrative and central themes.

Really, I think I just like Metal Gear Solid 2.

Essa análise será significativa bem mais extensa que as anteriores, pois esse jogo merece tal abordagem. Pretendo discutir alguns pontos sobre design de jogos, arte, forma que enxergamos mídia e a incessante forma que vídeo games são comparados a outras formas de entretenimento. Cuidado com os eventuais spoilers!

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty é a sequência mais corajosa já criada na indústria dos vídeo games e provavelmente é a mais próxima de uma verdadeira arte pós-modernista que podemos apreciar com um controle em mãos. O que realmente impressiona nesse segundo título é a forma que utilizaram o desenvolvimento, os trailers e a expectativa do público para poder passar a verdadeira mensagem que desejam. Sons of Liberty manipula o jogador em várias camadas para criar tanto desconforto quanto conforto ao mesmo tempo, porém essa visão artística começa muito antes mesmo de você jogar.

Voltando no tempo, Metal Gear Solid 2 foi um dos jogos mais antecipados para sua geração. Haviam milhares de propagandas distribuídas pela Sony e muitas pessoas estavam comprando para testar o que seria o próximo salto para a indústria. No entanto, em nenhum momento foi demonstrado absolutamente nada sobre o que realmente o jogo abordaria. Durante entrevistas, demonstrações e trailers, Raiden nunca foi citado que estaria no game e muito menos como protagonista. Havia algo que os desenvolvedores estavam claramente escondendo de um forma extremamente planejada.

O primeiro segmento é utilizado como uma ferramenta para desviar atenção de quem está jogando do verdadeiro cerne das questões que serão apresentadas. Toda aquela área é estrategicamente construída para demonstrar a evolução das IAs dos guardas, a chuva constante, movimentação do Snake, qualidade de sombra, objetos quebráveis e a utilização da primeira pessoa. Nesse momento, os desenvolvedores estão entregando exatamente o que seria uma continuação digna do tão apreciado jogo de espionagem cinematográfico. Tudo é maravilhoso para quem está jogando e a curiosidade sobre está acontecendo durante essa nova missão só aumenta à medida que coisas inesperadas vão ocorrendo, porém, do nada absoluto, Snake morre e toda a jornada reinicia dando início a história de um segundo personagem. Você não é mais Solid Snake, e sim Raiden repetindo os mesmos passos e mesmas conversas, tutoriais que foram feitos em Metal Gear Solid só que de uma forma parecida com um sonho absurdo. Para época isso foi chocante, era como se o jogo estivesse fazendo uma piada do próprio jogador enquanto retira tudo que foi demonstrado no primeiro segmento. Acredito que a falta de personalidade da Big Shell é algo intencional para justamente fazer acreditarmos que essa segunda parte é tudo o que não se esperaria de uma continuação.

Boa parte desse desconforto no segundo ato é criado pela a extrema semelhança entre os dois jogos, essencialmente demonstrada através de diálogos no Codec e cutscenes enormes. Normalmente, isso não seria um problema, mas entra uma questão: por mais que esses diálogos possam ser intencionais, eu não consigo aceitar que o Kojima seja um bom escritor até esse momento. O próprio Metal Gear Solid tem alguns furos de roteiro bastante aparentes, como Liquid deixar Snake vivo ou a cena de tortura com Ocelot. Para alguns, isso pode ser resumido como suspensão de descrença para tornar os segmentos divertidos, e logo voltarei a esse assunto. Continuando, Sons of Liberty beneficiaria muito se fosse focado na regra "show, don't tell", pois é um absurdo os inúmeros diálogos de exposição que esse título possuí. Por outro lado, acredito que a origem desse problema possa estar nas limitações do Playstation 2, mas só poderei confirmar isso com total certeza ao jogar os próximos Metal Gears. Porém, dependendo da forma que você decidir interpretar os próximos acontecimentos, tudo que eu falei pode ser anulado para esse título específico.

O terceiro ato é o momento que Sons of Liberty começa finalmente e lentamente demonstrar seu real objetivo e mensagem para o jogador. A quebra da quarta parede nunca foi tão abusiva quanto é dentro do Arsenal, chegando literalmente replicar a cena da tortura do primeiro jogo e fazendo o Snake citar um item "cheat" de munição infinita. Não existe mais o que esconder, você está no estomago da criatura. Tudo fica tão absurdo que o conceito que sustenta um jogo de espionagem é quebrado logo em seguida, pois você tem munição infinita e luta com dezenas de ninjas que normalmente Raiden evitaria para não entrar em combate. O fato do protagonista conseguir derrubar 10 Metal Gears, algo que é apresentado como extremamente perigoso em seu antecessor, ao mesmo tempo é o ápice da loucura. As várias e confusas reviravoltas do xadrez 5D que os antagonistas estavam jogando entre si é a demonstração da principal mensagem do jogo: o perigo do excesso do consumo da mídia e como a desinformação está sendo aceita como verdade pelo público. Afinal, o que foi real e o que não foi durante a sua jornada em Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty? É algo que fico muito curioso para saber como será abordado no terceiro jogo.

A quebra final de toda a experiência ocorre quando acontece, provavelmente, o diálogo mais profundo que já foi criado em um videogame. A dúvida se o Coronel é realmente uma IA ou um novo tipo de ser que emergiu da consciência humana é extremamente conflitante. A discussão sobre o controle de informações e a ética da sociedade atual é simplesmente magnífica. Não estou dizendo que isso representa o ápice da filosofia, mas para uma indústria que cada vez mais foca apenas em tratar jogos como produtos, é, com certeza, impressionante. Acreditar em uma verdade hoje em dia é algo muito subjetivo e requer muita pesquisa, pois o algoritmo (que somos nós mesmos) influencia as pessoas acreditarem apenas no que querem ver.

Para concluir, Metal Gear Solid 2 é um jogo que desperta conflitos ao ser analisado tanto como uma obra de arte quanto como um produto comercial. Embora reconheça que as habilidades de escrita de Kojima apresentem falhas em certos momentos, comparáveis às de George Lucas, e que algumas partes do jogo possam ser cansativas, esses aspectos são justificados pela mensagem que o jogo deseja transmitir. Isso me levou a refletir sobre algo importante: videogames não devem ser avaliados da mesma forma que outras formas de mídia. Muitas vezes, nos concentramos em critérios aplicáveis a filmes e livros, esquecendo que os jogos são uma forma de entretenimento única que não precisam seguir os mesmos padrões. A incessante busca por validar os videogames como forma de arte comparável a livros e cinema é algo que precisa ser interrompida o mais rápido possível. Acredito que os videogames serão reconhecidos como arte quando outra forma de entretenimento assumir a posição de rejeitada, assim como ocorreu com o cinema no século XX.
Sons of Liberty é, sem dúvida, uma das melhores experiências que alguém pode vivenciar nesse meio, e isso se deve ao fato de que o jogo aproveita ao máximo o potencial dos videogames da época.

Yeah, this is very easily my new favorite game of all time now. There's so much to love about this game, from the smooth and clever gameplay to the nice OST, and don't even get me started on the writing man. The whole dynamic between Otacon and Emma, the new role given to Snake and how perfectly it fitted him, Ocelot and Solidus both being god-tier antagonists, the themes about misinformation being more easily spread through the internet and how we need to do something about it, learning to decide your own fate, and passing on stuff to later generations, and especially Raiden's whole character arc throughout the whole game. Just play it man, because this is just one of those games where you need to play it to believe it.

Throughout the entire last act of Sons of Liberty I was constantly thinking that I am willing to call this the most essential video game of the century so far. This may be a bold claim in the eyes of some, but this was what MGS2 was able to make me feel. Hideo Kojima tests and challenges the medium of video games in a way I feel hasn't been replicated since. The fact that this game came out in 2001, a mere few months after 9/11, quite frankly blows my mind. It was ahead of its time back then and its ahead of our time now. Its themes of our governments relation to digital information, individuality, free will, truth, and our relation to video games. These themes are already daring on their own, but the way Sons of Liberty is able to cohesively piece them together is nothing short of masterful. However even in the situation, there were brief moments of tranquility and beauty that will still be cherished. Such as climbing down the ladder with Emma with the sunset in focus and the final minutes of the game. Kojima believes in a better future, and we all should too.

Well, I didn't enjoy this quite as much as the first one.

I somehow managed to suck worse at this game than the first one, even with the modernised controls. I don't really like Raiden as a protagonist, and the story didn't really hook me like the first one did. I did quite like the meta nature of it all, even though it did seem quite up-it's-own-ass at times. The long, rambling codec call before the final boss really took me out of the game, in all honesty. Ah well, seems that's Kojima for you.

Moving on to what many consider to be the peak of the series: Snake Eater.

EDIT: after a few months of reflection I've realised that I actually like this game more than I thought I did, so I'm bumping it up a mark.

It's impressive how 5 years after playing it for the first time, MGS2 as a whole still holds up to this day. A game that would stay relevant as time progresses and would only become horrifying due to how the times change. How powerful Memes would become, how influential technology would surpass into something greater yet worse, misinformation, and questions about the concept of "freedom". Would happily write an essay about MGS2 but my nanomachines (son) are saying something different. 10.5 years later, MGS2 is still one of my favorite games of all time created by the hideous person, Hideo Kojima.

8 playthroughs later, I'm still amazed how there are many hidden details within the game that is yet to be discovered.