(Played Master Collection version)
Man... everyone told me. Everyone told me this would be one of my favorite games of all time. And they were absolutely right.
It's extremely hard to make a game this perfect in every area. A game where the gameplay and the story are both this good is such a rare occurrence but this really is one of the most perfect games I have ever played.
So the gameplay is absolute fire, but the story... I have no idea how Kojima topped MGS2, but he did. This is easily one of the most complex games ever made, with such a crazy amount of character dynamics, psychologies, tons of intertwining and unique themes, parallels, and plot threads that all get thoroughly explored with nothing left even the least bit underdeveloped. And all with Kojima's patented Movie-Quality Directing™, Crazy Twists™ and Meta Video Game Elements™. There's also the badass action movie sequences and even the best soundtrack out of the trilogy, for what that's worth.
The word "masterpiece" shouldn't be overused, and can't be awarded to a lot of games, but this is one of them.