Description
In 2007, two years after the Shadow Moses incident, Solid Snake - now working for a freelance organization known as Philanthropy - infiltrates the oil tanker U.S.S. Discovery, investigating the development of a new Metal Gear-type weapon. A confrontation with a Russian military group as well as an old acquaintance from Snake's past adventure leads to a massive detonation, after which Snake is presumed dead.
Fast-forward to the year 2009: the player takes control of Raiden, a rookie agent operating under the order of the Colonel, apparently member of a reformed Foxhound unit. His initial assignment is to infiltrate the offshore clean-up facility Big Shell and rescue the President of the United States of America, who was kidnapped by members of a terrorist organization known as Sons of Liberty. However, the matters become increasingly complicated as almost everyone Raiden communicates with appears to have a hidden agenda, and it is hard to tell a friend from foe...
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is the sequel to the espionage action game
Metal Gear Solid. Much of the gameplay remains the same, as the game's protagonist has to sneak past guards, outsmart them using various gadgets, and defeat the tricky boss enemies. There are a host of weapons to be picked up through out the game, some old, such as the FAMAS and Socom, and some new, such as the AK-47. Martial arts combos can be used to disable guards. It is possible to crawl through small spaces, peek around corners, and perform acrobatic leaps to get away. The protagonist can also hang from railings, effectively hiding from guard, or stick his gun in a guard's back, surprising him. The cardboard box is also back, and can once again be used for hiding.
Gadgets such as sneak suit, mine detector, thermal goggles and others can be found along the way.. The radar from the original game is still there and alerts the player to guards' positions and also shows their field of view. If an alarm is sounded the radar is disabled while the hero has to escape. In some situations it is necessary to enable the radar before it becomes possible to use it.
Like its predecessor, the game is heavy on codec conversations and cutscenes. All the cutscenes in the game use the in-game 3D engine; the characters' movements are motion captured animations.
Alternate Titles
- "合金装备2" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
- "MGS2" -- Common abbreviation
- "Hejin Zhuangbei 2" -- Chinese title
Part of the Following Groups
User Reviews
The Press Says
| PSM |
Dec, 2001 |
10 out of 10 |
100 |
| Game Informer Magazine |
Dec, 2001 |
10 out of 10 |
100 |
| GamingTrend |
Oct 29, 2005 |
590 out of 600 |
98 |
| Jeuxvideo.com |
Mar 07, 2002 |
19 out of 20 |
95 |
| Game Vortex |
2001 |
94 out of 100 |
94 |
| Gamer 2.0 |
Jun 16, 2004 |
9 out of 10 |
90 |
| Eurogamer.net (UK) |
Mar 12, 2002 |
9 out of 10 |
90 |
| TotalVideoGames (TVG) |
Nov 19, 2001 |
9 out of 10 |
90 |
| Armchair Empire, The |
Feb 09, 2002 |
8 out of 10 |
80 |
| Christ Centered Game Reviews |
Jun 01, 2005 |
76 out of 100 |
76 |
Forums
There are currently no topics for this game.
Trivia
Action figures
Just as for the original, a line of action figures has been released by McFarlane Toys. Most of the main characters are depicted and as an added bonus each individual figure comes with a part of the new Metal Gear. Collect them all and assemble the monster!
Development
The development budget for
Metal Gear Solid 2 was somewhere in the region of 10 million US dollars.
Ending
Pretty soon as the game starts and you get used to controls, you are requested to enter your name, date of birth and such things (like in some typical Square RPG games). In the ending animation, when Snake asks Raiden about that dog tag he's wearing, Raiden looks at it, be fore he throws it away, and in that cinematic, on a dog tag, you see your name and info.
Intro
On the opening of the game, there's one piece that somehow does not fit the game without any explanation. First, we see some roman letters (numbers) etched on stone, then we see some Japanese ink writings on a paper, and then we see programming data and computer code.
Hideo Kojimo commented how that was to show the advance of civilization from storaging data. First through stone, than using paper, and the least digital data which is the only that doesn't have its existing time period. And that is then connected to the game and especially Arsenal Gear as an AI with great capability to track, store and control data.
Making of
On the
Making Of MGS2 documentary that comes on an extra DVD, Hideo Kojima said that idea for
Metal Gear series originated from his playing 'hide and seek' with his son.
North American version
In comparison to the Japanese version, some extra gore was added to the North American version. In the
Substance re-release this was revoked.
Raiden
In order to cover up the character Raiden, the promotional trailers for the game showed several scenes with Solid Snake in different scenes. In the final game, Raiden is involved in the same scenes, but in Snake's place. Hideo Kojima used computer tricks to cover up Raiden and no one knew of his existence until the game was released. However, the manual spoils the surprise on its very first pages.
References
- Just as in the original Metal Gear Solid, a poster for Hideo Kojima's previous game Policenauts can be found in the Computer Room in the Shell 1 Core.
- If you look quickly in the scene where Snake logs into the computer to send the pictures to Otacon, you can spot another reference to Policenauts.
- During the game, you will come into contact with a man named Pliskin who is actually former protagonist Solid Snake in disguise. The name is a direct reference to "Snake" Plissken, the main character played by Kurt Russell in John Carpenter's movies Escape from LA and Escape from New York.
- A crazy Bomber man, one of the bosses is named Fatman. That was also a name of one of the atomic bombs that fall onto Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
- The names of the characters Jack and Rose were taken from the main characters of Titanic. This film also influenced the decision to set the first chapter of the game on a sinking tanker.
- emma's nickname (E.E.) and full name (Emma Emmerich-Danziger) are references to E.E. Danziger, a character in Jack Finney's novel Time and Again.
- In the flooded basement of Shell Core 2, you can find a rubber duck floating harmlessly in one of the air vents. While it's possible that it's just a humorous detail, it's most likely a reference to the original tech demo for the PlayStation 2 which featured a rubber duck floating in a tub.
Series
In a Gamespot interview done shortly after the finishing of the American release, Hideo Kojima has amended a former comment about MGS2 being the last installment, saying, "I really think that Metal Gear has to live on in some form. But as I said at the end of Metal Gear Solid, I really think it is time for me to hand the director role over to someone else. I might do the initial planning for the next game but not much more than that."
He goes on to mention that the future of a certain character who is disliked in some gaming circles is still uncertain.
Soundtrack
Due to a success of Metal Gear Solid, the development team had higher budget for the sound of the game. However, they didn't know who will they take to compose the score for the game. One day, executive producer Hideo Kojima and sound director Kazuki Muraoka went to see Replacement Killers at the cinema. They both liked the movie a lot, and the music from the movie seemed pretty good. So, they flew to US, and got Harry Gregson-Williams to make the score for Metal Gear Solid 2. They actually took his music from other movies, such as The Rock, Enemy of the State and some and put on one CD, and told him they'd like to make this video game with a Hollywood type of soundtrack. He also saw the interest in composing for something before he actually saw the picture, since when composing for movies, he always got inspiration from the pictures. And so the soundtrack for MGS2 was created.
Women
Looks like developers of Metal Gear Solid 2 had focused minds on some things while making a game. You open a locker, you see wrapped up posters of a women, you enter the dining hall, you see framed pictures of women in swimming suits. There is even a poster of Charlie's Angels movie in one room.
Awards
- EGM
- February 2006 (Issue #200) - #82 out of 200 of the "Greatest Games of Their Time" list
- GameSpy
- 2001 – PS2 Game of the Year (Readers' Choice)
- 2001 – PS2 Action/Adventure Game of the Year
- 2001 – Best In-Game Cinematics of the Year
- 2001 – Best Force-Feedback of the Year
Information also contributed by
Big John WV,
FinalGMR,
MegaMegaMan,
Mejs,
J. Michael Bottorff,
Juan Pablo Bouquet,
Macintrash,
MAT,
Ray Soderlund,
xofdre and
Zovni
This entry to the MobyGames database was contributed by
Macintrash 
(2518) on Oct 23, 2001.
