I think Metal Gear Solid has clicked for me. I initially stated that after MGS1 I had no interest in continuing to play the MGS games. There's a contradiction there, how can MGS click if I didn't like MGS and did not continue until it clicked?
Certain events lead me to thinking about MGS1 while in a lot of pain, and it clicked. I suddenly got it. Everything I have said so far still stands and I still stand by it, but I just didn't get it. Now, getting it, I cannot describe or even understand myself what I got, or even how I got it outside of the circumstances it happened, but I have it. I get it. I get MGS. And thus, I wanted to play MGS2 and I am glad I did.
MGS2 is amazing. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Most issues I have with MGS1 are present here to some degree, some worse, most better. Hence why this review won't have as high coverage, or as stable structure, there's not much point in repeating myself with the added note of ‘but it's okay for some esoteric reason I don't even understand’. This will be more akin to a word vomit.
Story
Let's get it out of the way first, Raiden. Going into MGS2 I knew that there was a bait and switch with the protagonist, and that Raiden was a ‘pretty boy’ and unliked by a lot of people. I like him. Raiden is a victim of his VA who sounds like a complete underage emo nerd who listens to MCR and eats his lunch in the toilets. And it's not hard to see why he's written off as such. His looks aren't helping. Nor are those cartwheels, shits more feminine than Bayonetta. But when you divorce the words from the sounds coming out of his mouth he's written emotionally sure, but within the context of a person who has emotions which allows him to build an actual character from how he interprets ideas in a very humanistic way. It’s not boohooish. If all you did was replace his VA with say David Hayter nobody would ever call him emo or whiny. Hell, look at his situation, he has a valid reason to be a bit confused. He's the perfect mirror to Snake who is very practical and logical, especially considering how their stories mirror each other too, as they're both about coming to terms with the nature of political games and their places in them. The conclusions are the similar, but it's about how they each arrive there.
Once again this is going to be split between character and scenario. I don't intend to explain the story in any capacity but I will spoil it, and it's good enough for me to give a warning. If you do read ahead without knowing the story, this section may sound insane and schizophrenic.
As I alluded to when talking about Raiden, the character writing is an all round improvement by every merit. It breaches going from weird and disjointed past decent, all the to genuinely good. Raiden and his arc is the best example of it. Much like Snake in MGS1 he initially comes off as slightly autistic, but it's on purpose this time and plays into it, using the slow shift of his general speech style to show his ascent into becoming an individual and regaining humanity. There's moments where it's very easy to pick out and think ‘early game Raiden wouldn't have said that’ and vice versa, yet it's all done in a way where it never feels like he's being forced to change by the writer's hand. Which is amazing coming from MGS1 where you can literally mark the lines the writer gives up speaking through a character and starts speaking for them. Which it does almost do sometimes. Nowhere as bad as the Greenpeace moment however, even when characters switch into explanation mode, the way they tend to talk about and explain things line to line fits with their own characters passive voice and dialogue quirks making it only come across as slight authorial narration. But all that being said, I don't care about it anymore. That was part of the click. You can't do that type of thing in a film, films being the standard allusion of video game cutscenes, and Kojima obviously likes and takes a lot of inspiration from films (these game are often facetious referred to as ‘movie games’), but they're not written like that, not presented like that, and shouldn’t be viewed like that. It’s theater. It's written like theater, it's presented like theater, it should be viewed like theater. Sure a character is acting as a narrator, but that's a tactic from plays in order to explain vital information that can’t be expressed otherwise. Even the use of the codec imitates the conditions plays have that cause this technique, lack of resources. A theater can not show a video of entire armies marching like a movie can, it must be expressed, and to avoid an omnipotent narrator a character must express this. What's important in doing so is that the explanation, even if not entirely in line with the character, is done in a way that still reflects said character. Even now in retrospect I still think MGS1 has issues with this, but 2 not so much. This theater idea is a lot more encompassing than just that. There's a lot of parallels to the more theateristic ideology of a story. Take the character writing of Otacon and Emma. It's a textbook tragedy. They could've had her survive at the last minute due to some deus ex machina so you could still have the sad moment but not the tragedy. Or if she had to die, wouldn’t have made her so sympathetic and would have highlighted bad qualities of her and used the atonement angle. But they didn't, and she died, and It's all the better for it, because it provides this catharsis of Otacon as a character. Fortune and Olga are yet more examples of characters that are a victim of tragedy. There's this constant theme of tragedy befalling everyone around both Snake and Raiden, which itself is a tragedy to both.
The scenario writing is mostly good, both in execution and premise. There is a lot of smart writing going on which is a surprise. One of the coolest examples is the retroactive counter argumentation to the Patriots throughout the game. During their speech Raiden says very little, however most arguments raised by the Patriots had been raised previously in a minor and subtle way through natural dialogue all throughout Raiden’s mission, and in those times he isn't silent, instead often argumentative and while his arguments don’t always come off the best to the individual and specific points he's countering at the time, they are counters to the Patriots speech where they drop pretenses and the context slightly shifts. “We're out here, we bleed, we die” is used to indicate the differences between simulation and reality in terms of physical execution, yet it also applies to “Now, we think for you.” as it highlights the difference between simulation and reality in the terms of philosophy.
Since we’re already at the final chapter, let's continue it. The Patriots scenes in particular is interesting, it's the moment where the game expresses the majority of its themes. “I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards” is a Garth Marenghi quote, Garth Marenghi being a satirical play on horror writers such as Stephen King or Dean Koontz. Every time I see this posted unironically thinking he’s a real author (which is a lot mind you) I die a little inside, so I guess this counts as self harm. It is very plentiful and dense, but it's not difficult nor subtle. There's not really any subtext, just text. I have complained about excessive overtness in the past, the MGS1 review in particular, yet I’m fine with it here. It's due to the more political nature and the context in which the scenes happen. The social intent is to convince. A politician does not use subtext, that would be idiotic. Similarly it would be idiotic for the Patriots to at this moment express its themes and ideas via subtext. The complete abandonment of traditional storytelling methods used up until this point to pivot into the brass upfront manipulative nature of political speeches works both because the sharp and rough shift draws attention to it, but because it provides a forum where politics becomes art. Political theater is theater about politics, but in it the act of politics itself isn't theaterised. The Patriots speech is exactly that. Politics as theater, not political theater. Any attempt as subtext to their meanings would ruin this idea and turn it into political theater, because it's not about the politics of politics which is what political theater focuses around, it's about the politics. It's a political speech, with the intent of one and taking that medium and turning it into an art form.
The whole entire final chapter is just amazing. I've talked about the relationship between the real, the superreal, and the surreal before, and here it's done excellently, it's constantly keeping you on your toes, yet it's never entirely devoid of understanding or context to the point where it comes off as for the sake of itself. It perfectly expresses Raidens own deconstruction of self at a superreal, while retaining the aspects of the real high tech nature of the Metal Gear, and the surreal of the peudeo-meta moments with the AI breaking down expressing a breaking of conditioning with the game itself. Parts which narratively play into this idea of difficulty of reality is how Rose’s existence is set at lucid state where it's difficult to intuit which layer of reality she herself exists on, which helps to just muddy everything and make it all more impactful and personal depending on how you interpret this situation. And the final reveal of the layer of reality she's on regrounds the it perfectly. The entire thing is just executed beautifully. And as the final note of the chapter, right at the start of the game you get to input your own dog tag and right at the end Raiden throws it away as a rejection of the player, who acts as a controller of him. It's a wonderful setup for a wonderful payoff. Doubly lucky because I input ‘Penis’ and it would've been embarrassing if they took the other route. It also actually engraves the information onto the dog tag. That's an excessive level of detail but I'm not complaining.
It can't all be positive, there is one big Vamp sized stain of this game called Vamp. First off, he serves zero purpose for anything other than being a vehicle to reach a few conclusions, yet even then it's done so in the worst ways possible. Like do you really need all the fake-out deaths, it's just ridiculous. And there's little to no actual character behind him like Fatman or Fortune, he just is, and that makes it feel more insulting when his actions play such a specific role in large events. It's lazy and unsatisfying, but also a wasted opportunity. Not to mention his action like the fake-out deaths come across as such a Mary Sue type character, its just fuck off. Take his introductory scene for example, it's exactly like that one airsoft anime scene everyone makes fun of, it's just retarded and conflicts with everything else. And all that wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact his way of speech is stupid edgy bullshit, his name is stupid edgy bullshit, his VA is stupid edge bullshit, his design is stupid edgy bullshit, his actions are stupid edgy bullshit, he's stupid edgy bullshit. And sure, MGS is occasionally stupid, occasionally edgy, and occasionally bullshit, but it's a fine balancing act and this motherfucker could not balance on a 10 foot wide plank. It would've been better if he was removed entirely.
Gameplay
When it comes to pure gameplay it's not as strong as MGS1 primarily owing to its design constraints, an insistence on technology, and not as consistently good direction.
I believe MSG2 was built with the story as its foundation and the gameplay and level design around it. Part 2 was to be an Oil Rig with no ifs or buts. The problem with the Big Shells level design is a restriction placed on by Big Shell itself, the struts. The struts are in isolation with connecting bridges and the inside of the struts is an individual room or two. The clear separation isolates the level design too much and makes it come off as very video gamey, which isn't very fun. It's not fun to internally map like Shadow Moses due to its simplicity and lack of options making it very simple outside of remembering where each strut is on the hexagon map (which has an actual map so you don't even need to learn that). It's not particularly fun to navigate because it retains the ‘go through a room once, you've solved it for every other time’ feeling and as you will be going through these individual rooms a lot it becomes very monotonous. Sure you can pass all this off narratively with just ‘simulation bro it's meant to be like a video game’ and yea if you do so you are right, but Drakengard is the only franchise ill give a pass to for deliberate anti-fun. A positive of this structure having clear splits of contents is that the between of those locations can and do act as story barriers, so you can generally tell when a cutscene is going to occur. This solves the issue MGS1 has where it feels constant with little regard to whether you are actively playing the game or not.
Technology. Gimmicks basically, but not gimmicks like MGS1 to diversify gameplay, but to show off console specs, art, design and programming prowess. The most obvious example is the use of the pressure sensitive buttons to show off the console hardware. This was not a good addition outside of showing off the technology and actively harms the experience. For one it makes it impossible to port or emulate accurately dooming it to die with the PS2/Xbox, and working around it makes parts annoying and unintuitive. I have used pressure sensitivity before, I have an original Xbox, it sucks.
An example of the design and programming technology is in these very specific things that are only ready used once or twice. Take the tiptoes, it doesn't even work outside of that one context, so why? What's the point? It didn't add anything, it just wanted to show off that it could and then immediately throw it away like trash. Use it more or don't use it at all. Another example is during the tanker with Snake, there's one enemy that can see your foot poking out, and it even does a view for them, yet it's only used there. Why? It's cool! Do more with it. An example of this done well is Raiden slipping on bird shit, it teaches you that this can happen right at the start and it comes across as another muh technology moment, but later it used it as an attention check when navigating a tightrope. There's setup, and then there's a payoff.
The gameplay direction is just not as consistently good as MGS1. It is better in a lot of sections and has a better base, especially when considering all the new tools at your disposal but it's just not used as effectively. The level design issues as mentioned don't help in this regard, but where it's more interesting is in its gimmick sections and boss fights. A lot of it is very easily contrastable with MGS1 seeing as 2 is a deconstruction of 1. I don't intend to go through them one by one like I did with MGS1.
The hind fights are direct mirrors, and so are the Rex fights. Both prove an improvement in general controls as both were quite painful in 1 yet mostly fine in 2. Swapping weapons is quicker and smoother, and the first person aiming is a lot better, yet it still triggers my ‘should be inverted’ sense. Regardless, it is direct improvement and that should always be celebrated. Yet its first person controls are still a bit shit to put it bluntly and no place highlights this more than The sniping section.
The sniping section is terrible. Partly because the physical aspect is awful, partly due to the gameplay design conflicting with the rest of it. There's aim acceleration and braking, and the combination makes precision control unintuitive as you need to mentally conceptualize travel paths with regards to both factors and time. Normally a system like this wants to act some aspect of aiming difficulty to not turn it into a flick shooter, but they just use one tactic. The acceleration increases the aim speed longer the movement is held, brakes is the opposite so when movement keys are no longer pressed there is reverse acceleration until it stops in place. This is rough, there's a reason why it's normally on or the other. There's way too much math which needs to go on mentally to get anywhere accurately and under pressure, and way too many variables for minute adjustments. Combine it with bullet travel time and claymores the size of a few pixels and its suicide fuel. The claymore requires you to use thermals to see them. This isn't an issue in gameplay, but everywhere else. The setting to this sniping section with the sun in the horizon watching Emma slowly work her way across the pontoon is beautiful, one of the nicest examples of environmental design for the purpose of making a scene in gameplay I've experience, but you don't get to see it much because you're just staring at bright blue and red. The claymores should not have been there for both gameplay and aesthetic reasons.
The swimming section can go fuck itself.
Going back to the idea of a deconstruction of 1, there are a few plays on the non-diegetic aspects of the franchise. My favorite example is in the tanker when you're getting the photos, and how it tricks you with the alert sounds which are non-diegetic to mess with you via diegetic implementation. A past me would have complained about immersion or some shit, and well I do agree with what past me wants to say, when it happened with the final picture I completely shit myself, and upon realizing the fast one it pulled on me I couldn't stop smiling. And it's not just used for cute little gotchas either, their integration into the ending section to symbolize Raidens reality breaking down is also great. “Turn the game console off right now!” was something that I knew about before (but not the context or even which MGS it was in so it was still a surprise) because it's a meme, it out of context it seems like it's either a stupid meta moment or a gimmick like Psycho Mantis, but it's neither and just playing on the barriers of diagetics. And I'll admit Fission Mailed got me for a second too.
And talking about the final chapter with regards to its gameplay, I imagine its shift is controversial. I love it. I love it to death. Granted outside of the Rex fight, I only used the sword. In terms of pure gameplay It's very fun swinging the stick around to mirror the actual swinging, and timing the blocks with the dodges turns the game into an all round fun hack and slash built on a framework for the complete opposite. Because it is built on that framework and you have spent the past hours working within its confines, the freedom feels amazing. Where just being shot at was a near death sentence, in the exact same situation you're the one handing them out. Sure, it does conflict with the story, it's not ‘The joy of bloodletting!’ Drakengard and a past me would complain about that but who gives a fuck, its theater, it doesn’t matter, they’re not real people nor ‘real’ people like those on Big Shell, they’re tools of expression for a climax, and the expression is ‘fuck yea ninja shit’. The final fight should've been hand to hand though.
Other things surrounding gameplay are the general controls, which can be a bit strange. Even here I still stand by my ‘should have tank controls statement’ which if anything is more insane than it was for MGS1, but 2 also highlights my reasoning better. Take wall shimming and hanging for example, I don't know what determines movement direction here. Sometimes it's intuitive, left goes left,but other times it's not and up goes left, sometimes up goes right and it's just a weird mess. Tank controls are easy and consistent, left of the character goes left. A thumbstick has 4 axes, why is vertical being used for horizontal movement? The crawling is closer to tank controls but even then it's not and again I can't tell what it's bound to so there's always a second of adjusting and wiggling whenever you do it. How it teaches you the controls is strange too, there's the initial Tanker level which acts as an introduction to mechanics, yet once you start Big Shell, Raiden is also given a tutorial on the exact same stuff you (the player) have already done. It's probably for people who skip the tanker, but why would you do that on a first playthrough?
Audio
I don't have anything new to say compared to the MGS1 review, I’m just including this section to draw attention to Fortunes' theme and how smooth it is. It's an exception to the rules MGS1 and most of this game use with the more subtle music used to set tones rather than scenes. Fortune's theme sets up scenes, and great ones at that. It's this beautiful strong melancholia of loneliness, isolation and tragedy. That first scene when she steps out with the bullets missing her is my favorite individual scene in the game because the music mixed with seeing the physical barrier of isolation and the somber and apathetic way she carries herself, alongside that lone sax. Its beautiful
Conclusion
In conclusion; not enough Mei Ling 0/10 would not recommend. If MSG2 is a deconstruction of MGS1, my MGS2 review is a deconstruction of my MGS1 review. I started this off by stating that MGS clicked but I don't actually know if that's true or not, I had an experience that inspired me to play MGS2 despite previously writing it off and I approached it from a different perspective. But I can't say anything about MGS1 as I haven't replayed it since. I may be right, it might have clicked, or maybe MGS2 is just that good. I can't tell.