Summary
Despite its flaws, this game is an amazing experience
The Good
Before I say anything at all, a small confession: I haven't (yet) played any of the previous Metal Gear games, including the direct predesessor
Metal Gear Solid. This is my first Metal Gear game, and I'm not going to compare it to others. I rented it and completed it in two days (15 hours), and after I had completed it (and only after!), I firmly decided to buy it. Even before the very last cut scene, I still had my doubts.
That's why my first advice for whoever might read this review is: play the game until the end. It is one of those games you absolutely
have to finish in order to understand it. Until the very end, the plot doesn't seem to make any sense, and it is the ending part of the game (which, I admit, is
very large) that ties together all loose ends and present a complete picture of the fascinating phenomenon called "Metal Gear Solid 2".
In order to fully understand and enjoy the game, with its immense scope, its thought-provoking content, its brilliant plot line, and its majestic architecture, you should keep in mind it is not a hundred per cent game, but rather a mixture of a game and a movie - or even a movie with a game inside. The movie part is at least as important as the game itself, and in fact it even overweighs the game, containing the actual story and being perhaps even larger than the gameplay part. I don't exaggerate - the more you play the game, the more it becomes a movie, and the end part is nothing else but a huge cut scene (over one hour long!), with two boss battles thrown in between. Many people complained about that. A friend of mine whom I asked about "Metal Gear Solid 2" said: "It's great, but I ain't paying fifty bucks for playing for ten minutes and then watching a movie for half an hour". Also, most players seem to dislike the game's short length. I fail to see the connection between a game's length and its value - in such a case, no short story or song would ever stand a chance against a novel or a symphony, no matter how genius the first ones and how bad the second ones might be. I also don't quite understand why a game which is 100% game is worth fifty dollars, while a half-game/half-movie should be sold for a lower price. After all, we do buy movies on a video cassette or a DVD for approximately the same money. "Metal Gear Solid 2" is a thrilling, suspenseful movie/game - a long movie and a short game, which works for me. If it were any longer, the movie would become too tedious, and ruin the whole experience.
The term "movie" is perhaps not quite correct. Beside the usual cinematic cut scenes, a large portion of the game is occupied by Codec dialogue. Using special nano-augmented cerebral connection, the heroes of the game can exchange information and talk to each other. Those dialogues always appear on a special screen, showing only the faces of the conversation participants. They are all voiced, but the voices can be skipped, and the dialogues can be read quickly through, like a book. This part of the game is not really a movie, but rather a novel or an essay, used to express its philosophical ideas and give backgrounds about its heroes.
The game's plot belongs to the most breathtakingly brilliant and complex ones ever written for any game. Its wonderful architecture is second only to
Xenogears. The whole game is simply shaken by plot twists and turns: each time you think you know what's going on, an unexpected eventy follows, and turns the whole things upside-down. This is why I insist on playing the game until the end: only the end clarifies and explains everything, and without seeing the end, it is impossible to enjoy the game's story. The game starts very modestly and slowly, but don't be fooled by this seemingly trivial beginning. Like a train starting its journey at a big railway station, it gains speed the farther away it is from the starting point. In the end, it rushes at full speed, like a newly invented Japanese express train "shinkansen". The game's plot twists can be compared to dangerous curves at 150 mph. In the beginning, sneaking around with Snake on the tanker, I thought it was just another boring mission-based
espionage action game. With Raiden talking to Rose and meeting colorful comic-like bosses such as Fatman, I thought the game was rather intended for some silly kids. At the end, I was genuinely impressed by the way all loose ends of the plot were tied together, and how all seemingly unimportant events and conversations made sense. Therefore, my next advice is: pay attention to everything. Don't skip any dialogue and don't get annoying by what seems pointless and stupid. The end makes up for all the trouble the player might have had while following the strange plot.
The characters also seem incredibly bland and plainly stupid in the beginning, but again, have patience to play the game until the end, in order to see there were motives behind each character's behavior. Of course, there are a lot of badly implemented stereotypes among those characters, and tons of clichés (a tough Russian girl, a vampire, a super tough special agent, a nervous, typically Japanese "conflicted" young man, etc.), but they make the game very colorful. Some of the characters belong to the most convincingly presented and memorable ones I have ever seen in a video game, and most of them have psychologically valid reasons for their actions, complicated backgrounds, and well-developed personality. "Metal Gear Solid 2" has so many strange characters that it can be compared to a book by Dostoyevsky. It is as if all the weirdos and maniacs decided to make a reunion in this game. On the background of those neurotic, unstable characters, the figure of Solid Snake - the only character of the game who manages to maintain his positive approach throughout the game and until the very end! - forms a strong contrast to the rest. Emma is a very interesting, appealing, and memorable character, and while Solidus seems like a typical comic-book villain in the beginning, he certainly gains much more personality during his speech in the end of the game. Many fans of the series hated Raiden, who is indeed quite unpleasant (very similar to Squall from
Final Fantasy VIII), but he is also a very convincing character, if not the most sympathetic one.
The game's actual content was way more important for me than even its undeniably cool plot and exciting gameplay. While the ideas of the game were presented in quite an irritating manner (see "The Bad" section), they were in fact surprisingly interesting and mature for a video game. In my opinion, moral and social content of "Metal Gear Solid 2" is what makes it a truly great game, and not just a flashy spy simulation with a twisted plot. Most games concentrate on either the past, the remote future, or are set in a fantasy world. In any case, social criticism doesn't belong to the most popular topics discussed in games. "Metal Gear Solid 2" is a game about our world and our society, in particular about the American society. It contains ideas unseen in any other game. In this aspect, the plot of "Metal Gear Solid 2" is much stronger than the one of
Deus Ex, to which it is closely related. As blatantly as the main ideas are presented in the game, they can't be ignored. "Metal Gear Solid 2" is kitsch, yet it is important. It is too naive and too sincere, yet it reflects our time and our society in a way no other game does. Let's put it this way: if there is a game that can be interesting for the future generations as a testimony of our epoch, it is "Metal Gear Solid 2". Alone the "confession of the Patriots" near the end of the game belongs to the most stunning and brilliant social revelations ever seen in a game.
"Metal Gear Solid 2" is the most cinematic game I know, yet it also offers a lot of exciting gameplay. If you thought such a short game would probably fail in terms of versatile and refreshing gameplay, you were wrong. The gameplay of "Metal Gear Solid 2" is very suspenseful, and offers a surprising variety of things you can do. The world of "Metal Gear Solid 2" is not as wonderfully interactive as the one of
Deus Ex, but there are many nice gameplay gimmicks, small things that make it more believable and enjoyable. You can hide yourself in lockers, extingush fire with a spray, knock guards unconscious and then drag their bodies away, crawl, knock on walls to distract guards, etc. Although 80% of the game is set in one location, you never get bored, because each level is unique, and offers plenty of diversion. The level design is excellent, and gameplay style changes very often, providing a lot of refreshing quality. Beside the usual sneaking/spying gameplay (which is very exciting as it is), there are lots of other missions which can almost be considered mini-games: disarming bombs, sniping control units, directing a missile, swimming, etc. Certain areas have a feeling of a jump-and-run game, while others remind puzzle-solving adventuring. A particularly unusual and thrilling part is where Raiden has to guide Emma through several levels, while holding her hand (reminds me of
ICO). Boss battles are quite interesting, each boss requiring a special strategy to beat him. I can't stress enough the importance of the "Very Easy" difficulty level, which makes the game so much more enjoyable for those who like playing games for their content rather than for the challenge (like myself). Of course, the "Very Easy" level is too easy and ruins the whole stealth aspect of the gameplay, so I'd recommend playing the game on "Easy" for the first time. On higher levels, the game is very difficult.
Lots have been said about the game's graphics. They are indeed absolutely fabulous, but the whole appeal of the game's visuals doesn't lie in its graphic quality per se, but rather in the amazing attention to detail visible in its design. The game's designers did a commendable job. Every location is carefully crafted, with so many little things people usually don't notice in games. Surely, there are realistic, gameplay-based details like jumping out of water and then leaving wet traces on the floor, but I personally was more enchanted by the "unnecessary" stuff spread all over the game. I really admire such things in games. For example, there is one location with a small area covered by seagull's excrements: if you step on it, your foot will slip and you'll fall down. In another location, there is a toy duck swimming on the water surface. There's no point whatsoever to this duck, but it is great the designers create such little details to add more appeal and realism to the world.
The Bad
Yes, "Metal Gear Solid 2" has a lot of flaws, severe flaws which irritated me enormously, even though I loved this game. One of its biggest problems concern the balance between its various aspects. It seems the gameplay and the story are taken from two different games. The quiet, dry, arcade-like gameplay, obviously designed for experts of the genre, and the half "American soap-opera", half "Hideo Kojima's diary" story make a very strange impression when combined together. You either sneak around in a monotonous spy-simulation devoid of any emotions, listen to endless pseudo-philosophical conversations, or watch a comic-like action movie. Sounds bad, doesn't it? Well, it's not that bad if you like your games original and versatile, instead of following boring pre-defined genres... who said an arcade game can't become an action movie and an essay at the same time? Yet as much as I admire "Metal Gear Solid 2" for doing this, I cannot say it does it perfectly. Each aspect of the game can be regarded as perfect, but those aspects are glued together very loosely, and the game suffers from poor balance and inconsistency. Don't understand me wrong - I'm not going to ramble about this game being more a movie than a game and
hence being crap. I've heard and read enough of this reasoning and I don't accept it, because it is a matter of personal taste and not an objective flaw. It is just that the actual gameplay portion could have been greatly enhanced if the essay-like and movie-like parts were also present in it. What do I mean by this? Well, the gameplay is completely separated from both essay and movie. You are unable to control any dialogue, and most truly cinematic events occur without your participance. It seems the creators of the game just didn't bother to
include essay and movie within the gameplay; instead, they just
added them to it. And this is definitely one of the biggest weaknesses of "Metal Gear Solid 2".
One of our reviewers here on MobyGames has stated this game "overreaches" itself, and most of the reviewers criticized the game's story for being too pretentious, confusing, and "soap opera-like". It is indeed very irritating, and the approach of the game's creators toward it is annoying and somewhat arrogant. It is as if the creators of the game used the opportunity to express through it their own opinions. The problem is not that - the problem is
how it was done. It is, for the most parts, painfully obvious and blatantly unnatural. Here you are, playing the spy in a cool secret facility, but instead of simply completing one mission and starting another one, you are forced to listen to endless dialogues, which are an impossible mixture of game instructions for kids, corny "personal" stuff, and the creators' own ideas about world and humanity. It is annoying. It is irritating. It can make many people hate the game, and I can understand why. I have nothing against lots of dialogue in games, quite on the contrary, but not when they are so badly organized. The game's ideas would have been much more convincing if they were not served to the player, if the player would have been given an opportunity to draw his own conclusions. By the way, same applies to the gameplay. As much as it is fresh and intense, it also has a certain artificial flavor. Most gameplay units are clearly divided into small portions, which have a distinct feeling of small arcade mini-games, and that might not appeal to some players who enjoy uninterrupted, natural flow of gameplay. Also, your advisors' constant remarks about what to do next ("to disarm the bomb, select the spray using your R1 button, then press X") are really silly, and out of place in such a serious game. It seems certain game elements were taken directly out of an old Japanese game for kids. The plot, as brilliant as it is, cannot hold itself sometimes, and collapses under its own load. I found some plot parts entirely unnecessary, but that's just my personal opinion. Also, I have nothing against melodrama and comic-like "coolness" of characters, mostly aimed at hyperactive kids, but "Metal Gear Solid 2" has a little bit too much of it. It works in
Final Fantasy VIII, which is set in a fantasy universe, but it is out of place in a philosophical tale about human society, which is set in our time, in our modern world. For a melodrama, the plot is not very emotional, and the supposedly touching moments are just too corny and banal in order to touch.
The Bottom Line
"Metal Gear Solid 2" is a game you either love or hate... I wasn't intending to start the "Bottom Line" section of this review with this banal phrase, but if this phrase has any meaning at all, it can be applied to this game. Nowhere else will you find such a bizarre, enchanting mixture of trivialities, clichés, common places, depth, significance, suspense, and grandeur. The plot is banal and profound; the dialogues corny and brilliant; the gameplay is silly arcade action for kids and perfectly designed, thrilling espionage action. Either you accept "Metal Gear Solid 2" as it is, and then you'll enjoy every moment of it, or you continuously pick at its obvious weaknesses, lose your concentration, stop following the game's pace, and then you might as well disregard this game as total trash. It depends on your taste and your gaming priorities. I can only say that whoever decides to close his eyes at all the ridiculous and stupid stuff contained within "Metal Gear Solid 2" is going to be invited for a real treat - a genuine movie-game. "Metal Gear Solid 2" is a great testimony of our time, where games, thanks to cutting-edge technology, try to break the barrier separating them from "serious" arts, mostly by merging themselves with another art - cinema. "Metal Gear Solid 2" is an attempt to combine game and movie - an immature, clumsy attempt, yet an attempt. As trivial as it sounds, there is no other game (none that I know) that does it better than "Metal Gear Solid 2", with its peculiar combination of seriousness and disarming naiveté. "Metal Gear Solid 2" is one of the most remarkable games I know, an experience which can enrich your world in a way you haven't even thought of.
