Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

The Good
This game improves on the strengths of the previous game's engine. The same stealth emphasis is here only now you have more abilities to use. Most notable is the addition of being able to peak around corners for a view of whats a head and being able to hang over the edge rails by your hands.

The AI is greatly improved over the first MGS game. If you are spotted then the enemy will radio for reinforcements. If you manage to kill a guard quietly you still need to vacate the area because when the guard fails to radio in its status report, other guards will arrive to investigate.

The graphics and animation in this game are fantastic. They really show off what the PS2 is capable of. I especially liked the fluid movement of the characters. While I have problems with the actual story presented in the cut scenes they are a technical high point. They are the best looking ones presented in any game I have played.

The Bad
Like the last game, this one is quite linear and very short. This game can be easily won in a weekend. If you've played it before and know what to do, it can be beat in a single day. Apart from seeing how fast you can beat it there is not really any replay value here.

While I earlier praised the AI of various guards you have to get by, the boss characters are not very well done. The strategy for beating them was basically finding a pattern for doing damage and then repeating until they were dead. These supposedly "climatic" battles were something I came to dread. The boss fights were dull slug it out fights. And did not compare to the tense, stealthy measures you had to employ against the lowly guards!

Adding to the game's lack of replay value are the very long cut scenes. You will spend as much time watching movies as playing the game! Its obvious that the creator of this series really wanted to be a movie director but ended up in video games. Watching long cut scenes would have been acceptable of the game's plot were not so terrible.

The story is bad, soap opera bad. I don't expect much from a video game plot but when you spend so much of the game learning about the story it should at least be tolerable. There is a basic thread of covert terrorists groups working to gain leverage over a corrupt U.S. government. That would have been fine but they had to throw in a lot of bad long lost brother-sister-father-son crap. Plus a trite bit about incest and suicide and an apprentice gone bad. All this would have been comical if it were not presented so seriously.

The Bottom Line
Metal Gear Solid 2 is fun weekend rental. I really enjoy the whole stealth aspect of the Metal Gear games. Its unfortunate that these games are short on actual play value and long on soap opera plotting.

The Good
Back in 1998, Metal Gear Solid was critically acclaimed as being the best game ever released for the PlayStation console. It was the perfect amalgamation-- mix tactical espionage action with a deep, fascinating storyline and great graphics. Metal Gear Solid still remains on many people's "Favourite Games" list (as it does mine). You can only imagine the monumental task that Hideo Kojima had in front of him. How does one exactly create a sequel to one of the greatest games of all time? Well, his answer is in the form of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty. And a great answer it is.

First on the new features is the new gameplay additions. They're almost too numerous to mention, but I'll try: Shooting in first person; being able to hang from ledges; rolling manuevers; being able to hold guards at gunpoint; "jump-out" shots; completely destructible environments and being able to hide in lockers, among others. Even though this seems like you may have a monumental advantage, you don't. When you are spotted, guards come out in numbers and in full force to try and find you. They are much more intelligent than in MGS, and it takes a lot of skill to evade them effectively. This makes the whole "sneaking" aspect of the game much more enjoyable than in MGS, because you have so much at your disposal. There's likely techniques that I've never dreamt of that are possible in MGS2.

Second up are the graphics. MGS2 and FFX (Final Fantasy X) are often categorised as having the best graphics on the system, but I must say I prefer MGS2 over FFX anyday. Simply put, the animations in MGS2 rule over FFX. Every animation in this game is as fluid and life-like as you'd come to expect playing a video game. Adding onto that is the detail level-- especially when it comes down to little things like the V/STOL jets on a Harrier jet, it shows that Hideo Kojima, like every game he does, has done his homework.

The Bad
The worst part about this game, by far, is the storyline (which I and many other loyal MGS fans were hoping wouldn't be the case). After the amazing epic scope of the first Metal Gear Solid game, this is a large disappointment. In the beginning of the game, it all looks good-- Solid Snake, now working as a part of an anti-Metal Gear organisation called "Philanthropy", sneaks onto a tanker in the lower New York Harbour. This tanker is no ordinary tanker-- Otacon, Snake's partner and fellow member of Philanthropy, receives word that a new model of Metal Gear is being transported...

This part of the game is known as the "Tanker chapter", and it's the only time you'll play as Snake. At the end of the chapter, when the Tanker sinks, you fast-forward two years later to a decontamination facility (set up to clean up the oil spill that the Tanker produced). Much to the dismay of fans, you don't play as Snake, you play as Raiden, a green, annoying agent with a lot of fancy moves. As the storyline progresses, you'll find storyline elements like Otacon's sister, a mad bomber and the bomb disposal expert who square off, a vampire (!), a NEW form of Metal Gear which is more than just a weapon, and, biggest of all, a conspiracy that's been hiding beneath the (supposed) democracy of the United States.

This is simply too much information for the player to grasp in a 10-12 hour game. What's more, the plot, though grand in scope, never gets off the ground. Unlike MGS, where you have a specific goal in mind throughout the entire game, MGS2 confuses the player to the point of frustration. This confusion is mostly through MGS2's rampant use of plot twists. In MGS, plot twists were used so effectively-- they drew the player's emotions to the limit. MGS2, however, will just leave the player with a resounding "WTF".

What's most frustrating, though, is that MGS, which is a grand masterpiece in story development, was created to set up for this game, which sputters and fails. It almost seems like MGS2 could have been drawn out a while longer to allow for more of Kojima's ideas. Oh well.

The Bottom Line
Despite this, MGS2 is still a quality game with lots of memorable moments. The only thing that brings it down is its' predecessor. MGS2 would probably be an even better game were it not attached to Metal Gear Solid. But to be related to MGS just leaves a disappointment in the player.

The amazing graphics and great gameplay additions come close to making this downfall up, however. I still recommend MGS2, despite its' shortcomings.

The Good
The refined gameplay is incredible, and you get to play as Solid Snake and Raiden saving Manhattan from a nuclear disaster involving the new model of Metal Gear: Rey.

It's got unexpected turns, some nice surprises here and there and the music is superbly fitting in this adventure.

The Bad
The story, while nicely complicated and thought-provoking, can be a little too weird and contrived at times, but it's still an enjoyable romp in New York making urgent commentary on the dangers of warfare and espionage affecting the world at large.

I guess what I said I liked about the story can also be applied for what I didn't like as well. It's nice and complex and layered in its story, but it tries a little TOO hard, and sometimes succeeds, in confusing and alienating the player.

The Bottom Line
It's the sequel to the original Metal Gear Solid, and it's a worthy if somewhat unexpected continuation of the story. It's like any sequel trying to expand the world of an original work: it strives to be a cog in a massive work and as gaming's equivalent of James Bond I say this game does exactly that.