The story in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty begins with a prologue of sorts. The first chapter follows the now well-known character Solid Snake as he sneaks aboard a Marines freighter as it makes its way down the Hudson River. Snake's mission is to gain photographic evidence of a new Military weapon believed to be on the ship. The mission quickly changes as an unknown group of soldiers sneaks aboard the ship and systematically takes over the freighter. Snake must now deal with this new threat as well as complete his spying mission. The story begins its long road of twists and turns once Snake reaches the bowels of the ship and witnesses the top secret cargo, a new type of Metal Gear (imagine a walking tank capable of undetectably firing nuclear weaponry). The prologue ends with the sinking of the ship that Snake is aboard. This first chapter sets the stage for the second, and most lengthy, part of the game.
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| 'Spose they'd let me borrow it to go pick up a pizza? |
The second chapter of MGS2 introduces a new protagonist, much to the chagrin of the Metal Gear fan base. The distaste for the new character is understandable as the new character, Raiden, is a whiny, pretty-boy when compared to the gruff, get things done no matter what, Solid Snake that the fans had known and loved. Raiden is a rookie agent in the spec-ops military agency FOXHOUND sent to an offshore plant in the Hudson River built after the first chapter's conclusion to clean up the oil spilled by the tanker. Raiden's mission involves rescuing hostages taken in the plant when it was recently taken over by the terrorist organization Dead Cell. One hostage in particular is of high importance, as the president of the United States was touring the plant when the terrorists took over.
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| Yes, that's a male. I think he's an albino or something. |
As is now the Metal Gear series's signature, the second half of the MGS2 story is full of so many twists, turns, corkscrews, and loop-de-loops that the end barely even resembles the beginning. Luckily there are many interesting characters in the game to keep you interested, even when you may or may not have any idea what's going on in the storyline. The more interesting of the cast are the members of Dead Cell. Each member is like a super-villain from a comic book in that he or she each has his or her own powers and characteristics. There is Fatman, the world's best bomb maker and psychopath; Vamp, a man with super-human speed, a taste for blood, and apparent immortality; and Fortune, a woman with a gigantic rail-gun who cannot be touched by bullets and believes herself to be doomed to an eternal life of pain to name a few. The members of Dead Cell blur the line between realism and fantasy in that their abilities all seem supernatural, yet some are explained as technological.
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| Ugh, I have so much trouble keeping up with all these new Pop groups... |
MGS2's gameplay is that of a stealth/action game. Many gadgets and weapons are available to augment the two protagonists' skills in remaining undetected. One of the nice things about the game is the fact that while it is entirely possible to play through the entire game without harming a single enemy (other than required boss fights), the game doesn't punish you for shooting your way through or out of situations. A less stealthy approach is harder to complete in most situations, however, as once spotted by an enemy more guards patrol the area and actively search out your character. It is worth noting that a good portion of the game is cut scenes. Another signature of the Metal Gear series would be the games' cinematic quality. This means watching lots and lots of videos. In some cases you literally take two steps, watch a video, take two more steps, watch another video. This "watching a game" idea really turns some gamers off, so be aware of that if you're thinking of trying the game.
As I previously mentioned, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was originally released on the Playstation 2. I'm not sure if it was just the fact that I was used to the PS2 controller when I was playing this on my Xbox 360, but I found that the controls were extremely awkward in some situations. For example, in order to aim a weapon in first-person mode, you must first press the first-person view button, then you have to hold down the weapon button to raise the gun, finally when you let go of the weapon button, the gun fires. That is, unless you happen to have an automatic weapon equipped, in which case, forget about aiming. I'm going to be especially hard on these bad controls due to the nature of the game. MGS2 is a predominantly stealth game. Nobody wants to be struggling with controls when an enemy could spot you and ruin everything within a split-second.
While this is an HD version of the game, the graphics definite show the game's age. Character models and environments have obviously improved visually, but are still nowhere near that of more recent games.
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| Apparently the terrorists employ futuristic, flying doughnuts! |
In addition to the main game, the HD edition of MGS2 includes VR Missions (a number of challenges to complete) as well as Snake Tales, a number of "what-if" scenarios taken from the main story to play through.
Overall, Sons of Liberty is a thrilling adventure that will (mostly) keep you guessing. My playthrough of the HD version lasted around 9 hours as I was rediscovering the game and all its hidden items. If you wanted to blaze through it, you could likely do so in around 6 hours. Of course, if you skipped all the cut scenes...well, you would barely get anything out of the game.
The awkward controls and not quite HD-quality textures are the only real downsides to this great game (unless you hate watching videos). I'm glad to see it resurface on new consoles so that others can experience one of the most interesting game series in recent history.
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