Substance Of Liberty

This is a sneaking mission,

Behold! We are risen! And Reborn! Rezzed! Our identity crisis is solved...for now. Stay tuned for further changes in the sequel, We Are Indecisive and Easily Bored.

The following is the least amount of text I can devote to Metal Gear Solid 2 and feel as though I have still done it justice. Apologies go to Pkadden who wrote a much better piece on the game.

Depending on who you listen to Sons of Liberty is either completely brilliant or utter crap. I happen to fall into the former category, so be aware.

Disclaimers: My first Metal GearSolid experience was playing through The Twin Snakes. I didn't start the Playstation original until last summer and am only halfway through. Lastly, I did not play the sequel until five years after the release, ergo my experience was not as....emotional as it was for some people.

Don't play MGS2 without playing through either MGS or the Twin Snakes. I can't say this any more explicitly. To fully appreciate what Hideo Kojima did requires that you know the first game decently well. Fans wanted the same game again and that is exactly what they got, except not at all.

As you probably know, Snake's first 3D outing was a smash hit and one of the best games on the PSOne. Emphasizing stealth and brains over muscle, it was a breath of fresh air for the industry and almost single-handedly revived the genre the MSX titles helped create. It had a sprawling, tangled military-conspiracy storyline with hours of dialog and cutscenes, all featuring high quality voice acting. (Some might say the writing for the series is stilted and unnatural, but honestly it is still better than Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix etc.) It was unlike anything gamers had played before.

Anticipation for the sequel was intense, to say the least. Fans eagerly ate up every last screenshot and morsel of information provided by Konami. The trailer showed at 2000's E3 stole the show. Zone of the Enders owes a large portion of its sales to the fact that it came with a demo of Sons of Liberty. The full game's launch was a huge event. Yet looking back on it, most gamers will tell you how much they hated the game and how let down they were. What went wrong? Critics were calling it the greatest game of all time based on that demo alone; from the Tanker portion it is clear that Hideo Kojima could have made it to the top of critics' lists for years to come if he wanted to. He didn't.

It is very difficult to explain exactly what the game is about, or how it goes about doing what it does, or why it is so brilliant. This is especially hard to do so without spoiling the plot, so please bear with me.

The big shocker, at the time, was that you do not play as resident badass Snake for the vast majority of the game. This pissed off fans to no end, especially because his replacement is the "whiny" "geeky" "gay" "pretty boy" Raiden. This bishounen has spent much of his life training in Virtual Reality for live combat and is somewhat introverted. In short, he is a gamer. Almost everything that happens to him can be paralleled to the player. Many fans felt insulted by this as they did not want to see themselves in such a light. They wanted to be everyone's favorite hardened mercenary with an awesome voice. Isn't that what fantasy and escapism are all about?

This was only the beginning of their problems, all of which I will not get into. however, one of the biggest gripes is talking to Rose every time you want to save. She brings up her mission misgivings and relationship problems at the most inopportune moments and it drove a lot of people batty. They seemed to miss the point that Kojima meant this to be annoying; he even said that some of her behavior was inspired by his wife's nagging. This can be viewed in a couple ways: as a deterrent to saving, as a way to explore another aspect of the player's character, as representation of life intruding on art, as a parody of sappy romance movies (cheesy piano music plays in the background during some conversations) etc. There is meaning there for those willing to invest something, but if it is really so odious to you, it can be skipped.

This can be applied to the rest of the game too. A lot of work went into crafting every aspect of the experience, but all the cinematics can be skipped and no exploration is really required by the player. The game can be beaten without killing anyone. Bypassing a long Codec conversation telling you about the next objective is no obstacle as you can call the person back and have them succinctly explain the goal. It does a great job of letting the gamer tailor their experience, and yet it seems like many are too lazy to figure out how.

The gameplay is intricate and rewarding, offering tons of options for any situation provided you understand the controls. The graphics hold up very well and are some of the smoothest on the PS2. The soundtrack is a unique and awesome blend of industrial techno, orchestral and tribal music, partly composed by Harry Gregson Williams. My personal favorite aspect is how it attempts to transcend it's video game trappings and become something more; I believe it succeeded.

Whether you think he's a genius or a hack, there is no denying Kojima is one ballsy SOB. He took an opportunity for enormous critical and commercial success and tried to teach gamers something about hype, games and life. Naturally, they hated this and sadly most of the work he put in has gone to waste. If you look hard enough though, you can find fans who appreciate what he did and won't forget the sacrifice. Who dares, wins.

Semper Fi,
Snake