Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

The Good
First of all to say, I'm a huge fan of animations and CG in general (sometimes even 2D ones, like in "Outlaws"), and this game gives you plenty of those. But that's not the point with this game, 'cos it was quite the opposite case. Real-time rendered animation are wonderful, but what I was eager in waiting was the time I'll be playing after each of those semi-longer breathtaking cutscenes. Yup, ingame quality is so well done that I enjoyed it as much as watching cinematics. Also, the thing was that they were all in real-time and not pre-rendered and then just saved as animation (more about that later). And those textures were so fantastically glued to the objects and polygons that it all looked as real, and gave you a feeling of watching some action movie.

Since I've mentioned ingame was even more taunting than watching cinematics, let's say a few words on that one, now. You move from third-person perspective, which varies (sometimes it looks almost as top-down, and sometimes quite up front, depending on the camera position, and if the current location scrolls along), and you can do quite a nice set of moves while in that mode. You can flip over the fence until enemy soldiers pass, hide in the locker, shoot around (while shooting in 3rd-person view mode, it gets something like shooting in those horror-survival series), fight, drag an enemy soldier, walk with box on top (now that's a great one, hehe), crawl (though that sometimes automatically switch you to first-person view if you're in the tight area that cannot be reached or seen from atop), use the corner view, and more. Now, for the precise shooting, you can also switch to first-person mode. While in it, you can do alsmot everything the same (except walking), but it's rather hard to fight in it, since when you make a circle strike, you turn for 360 degrees and get lost, hehe. Switch between the two modes is really wonderful, as all those texture at up-close look really great. Let's say a word or two about game parameters now.

You can set a few types of radars to have, and change more basic options than you'll need, from vibration to whatever I forgot right now. Also, when you finish the game (originally you play as Raiden), a new chapter opens that you can play, a 'Tanker Episode' which happened two years prior to game's story, and you play as Snake. There's one thing really interesting to observe while playing, and that's the enemy AI. For example, I was entering a small portion of a computer room that had two way of getting out. After the reinforcements were summoned upon, three of the guards spotted where I have entered. Now, in some ordinary mumbo-jumbo action shooting game, they'd just rush and there'll be some major shooting upon. But no, these just splitter and one sneaked from the each exit of where I was, while third one was staying outside in case I escape somehow (and that is when you play on Very Easy level, on European Extremely Hard, only difference is there are more soldiers, and game may over as soon as you're spotted). I saw everything form top-down at that part, so it's nice to observe them in action whenever you can. You can also try to distract some guard by knocking somewhere and then head the other way, pretty neat altogether, and I barely counted a few nice tricks this sequel possesses.

Going onto audio discussion, music is wonderful. It reminds a lot on music from "The Rock" movie, partially 'cos Harry-Gregson Williams was one of three who composed for that movie, but what Hideo and his team planned, and I'll say achieved, this does altogether bare a resemblence to some Hollywood action movie, only it's far better. While we're talking sound, I must say that no matter speech altogether was nicely done, sometimes it really looked awful. For example, Raiden sounding like a girl whenever he yikeses or sighs (it was enough for him too look like a girl, already), or the part Otacon was crying, even child would notice how much faked that was. But maybe original japanese version was better acted, I dunno. Japanese trailers look good, though, hehe.

Atmosphere was really nice, I especially liked all those women posters and pictures around the game, hehe, if that cannot increas the atmosphere, I dunno what can ;) Plus, effects and character movements (both your and enemy's) look so real you can't help but thinking it is real. Now to mention that real-time rendering thingy this game has. That is best shows after you finish the game entirely, both chapters, you get 8 cinematics from the game to watch, in which you can change character roles. For example, what in original story was Snake, you can put Raiden, Fortune, Snake form the original "MGS" or someone else instead. The model will change, though the voice will stay the same, since it's recorded for the game as it comes originally. The advice would be to replace female characters with such and male ones with such, then voice acting won't sound too strange, hehe.

This was somehow my first "Metal Gear" game I've played (seems I usually start most of series with sequels, hihi), so I didn't know what to expect quite, and I was expecting some game sorted by the missions. So basically, I thought that 'Plant Episode' is just the first mission, since it didn't seem as it can hold the whole story and characters I've previously seen in trailer. Boy, was I wrong on that one! The game is on the same place over and over, and you just can't get enough of it. You constantly discover new places, new perspectives, and story unfolds almost entirely on the same place. I admit it fascinated me how they made an un-boring game almost entirely on the same place. And it's not as short as other people say (well, at least not if you don't skip cinematics which are half of the game by themselves, hehe).

I've seen so many great games for PC, and just a week ago, I would swear that no console can have a better game than a computer. Well, the thing I realised is that consoles do not make games by themselves, it's the poeple that counts. Konami sure pulled this ace wonderously up its sleeve, and showed how making so many details and carefully planned points for ingame playing (even if they will be used couple of seconds) is more than appreciated. With this engine and everything, I bet they could increase number of levels, rooms, enemies and everything by a far which would make us play for over 80 hours, but would that still count as a quality then? By playing this game, you can always expect something new, especially after each of two endings it has.

The Bad
Yeah, right!

Actually, there is one thing. Hideo obviously tried to go on player's feelings when entering certain real-life videos and create something more than a documentary, something that would make us 'think' or that would sound more deep. Well, it's all a pile of crap. If it was animated, I couldn't care less. That ending really wasn't as expected as I thought will be. Endings doesn't need to be too long, but do need to be animated or using something that's part of a game's creation. It would be just enough for the screen to go blank after the final epilogue (that animated, I mean), and wee see the credits with the final song. Or maybe that final song would get more to expression if it would be in the background to the final animation, like the one in "Final Fantasy VIII".

The Bottom Line
It all sums up to that this game does not lack in almost anything. Well, that 'almost' can be replaced with 'time only', but if we'd be playing each game for weeks (like that "Planescape: Torment", or when I was playing "The Secret of Monkey Island" while I was 10, so it took me 2 years to end it, whereas it doesn't take me more than one day now), we'd miss all those new releases every now and then, wouldn't we? Well, actually, I can just say "everything that's good doesn't last too long", but then again, there's so much of the good stuff that it makes an endless array, so it does last.

This game has couple of nice factors. It manages to surprise you with the plot twists, and its plot is really kewl enough as if you'd watch some action movie. Doesn't stray too far away. The graphic is simply and art, an art achieved with the right textures at the right place. The music is great (especially the main theme), though speech could've been better (I've only played english version, though). The level of details and things you can do simply go extreme. It's not as if you can do everything you wish to, but in a simple way, it could even be put as that.

Now, I dunno about the first "MGS" (yet), but this game puts you in a role of a young lad, a FOXHOUND agent who is sent on a mission to rescue the president from the hands of yet unknown soldiers. However, you were trained for field action, but only in VR (or have you never tasted blood?), but seems you have a point-blank about your past. And what you considered as just dreams may be the reality you played your role in. Snake appears in this episode but only as your 'ally', not a character you can play with. However, once you finish the game (the one with Raiden), you'll get opportunity to play with Snake the "Tanker Episode" which happened two years prior to the game's original story, and experience what you though of a background story all along.

Alltogether, this game will give you about 12 hours of playing with Raiden and 2-3 hours of playing with Snake, and that is if you do watch all animations, but also do just as you were told to, and not snooping much around. It's a worthy experience though, helped me consider console game quantity doesn't much matter if there's a quality. Hey, this worked for me, and I love the game, but if you really dislike to see animations or listen to dialogues every now and then, then pass it by.

Oh, almost forgot. Yeah, this PAL edition, SE, whatever, comes with an extra "Making Of" DVD. For those curious enough, that DVD contains some half an hour long commentary of making of the game with Hideo Kojima and some other developers, some art concepts, bunchs of "MGS" and "MGS 2" trailers (on japanese, though), and trailers for some other Konami games ("Silent Hill 2", "Shadow of Memories" and few others). It also has some minor additions, but these are not worthy mentioning, and you'll know why when/if you get this game. Well, as the woman's voice tells you at the sole start, "Enjoy!" :)