Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance

The Good
I really enjoyed the original 2D Metal Gear games, but was greatly disappointed with the series’ first outing into the third dimension. While it certainly held moments that were reminiscent of past greatness, Metal Gear Solid was mired in questionable writing and mediocre gameplay. It still held promise, though, featuring memorable characters and striking presentation. Metal Gear Solid 2 was one that I had previously skipped after I was warned by friends that “if I didn’t like the story in the first game, you definitely won’t like the sequel’s.” With this advice still in mind, I went into Solid 2 with slightly lowered, but still optimistic expectations.

Previous games in the series featured largely the same storylines, right down to repeating plot devices. This time around, the story is shaken up in several ways. The series’ main protagonist, Solid Snake is swapped out for new protagonist, Raiden, after a lengthy prologue sequence. Since the last game, Snake has been working with Otacon to destroy or expose black market Metal Gears that have been popping up since the Shadow Moses Incident. After failing a mission and being believed dead (it’s made pretty obvious he isn’t), Raiden takes over in the aftermath just two years after. His job is to infiltrate an offshore environmental clean-up rig called Big Shell, rescue the president, and prevent the launch of a nuclear device. Okay, so maybe it’s not all that much different than the previous games.

A lot has improved in terms of gameplay since the original Solid title. Most notably, the camera is usually pitched at a better angle, so while the view is still incredibly restricting, it’s not as claustrophobic as before. You can also aim and shoot from the first-person perspective, allowing you to better hit enemies that are currently offscreen. I’m still not sure why the camera can’t be controlled at will, since it can in underwater sections, but at least I didn’t find myself frustrated by it like I was in the previous game.

The alarm states are more dynamic. If an enemy spots you, they don’t immediately trigger the alarm; they have to radio it in first. If you take them out before they can finish their call, the alarm won’t go into alert, but guards will be dispatched to investigate. Guards don’t disappear when killed anymore, so if they come across one of their fallen comrades, they’ll begin searching for you. To prevent this, you can now drag bodies to hide stash them away. You can even shoot the radio on a soldier’s belt to prevent him from calling for help. All in all, the combat and stealth is greatly improved this time around, and while the gameplay from the first Solid frustrated me, the improvements here made it much more enjoyable.

The game still features a pretty concerning gameplay to cutscene ratio, but it’s a bit better at actually letting you play the game. Chunks of the game are left undisturbed by the ring of the codec, allowing for memorable sections, like one where you infiltrate a portion of the base dressed as an enemy soldier. When the codec did ring, I found the characters to be a bit more enjoyable to talk to this time around. While Raiden’s girlfriend comes off as attention-starved and creepy, the fact that the game depicts an already ongoing relationship – especially one that is as unhealthy as theirs – is actually pretty rare for video games. Snake in his supporting role also shows a different side of the character, and it’s pretty well done.

Most strikingly, the Metal Gear series has a history of breaking the fourth wall, and this finally pays off in Metal Gear Solid 2’s conclusion where the whole narrative jumps off the deep end in an effort to play with your expectations. Without spoiling anything, the climax of the game is well worth sticking through all the feverish exposition about conspiracies. It’s a moment where the game seems to acknowledge that everything about it is absolutely ludicrous and fully owns up to it. Though, unfortunately it does once again feature an almost intolerably horrible denouement.

The Bad
Yet despite the ambitious narrative, the Metal Gear Solid 2’s story still mired in the same overblown exposition and questionable dialogue. While the cutscenes and codec sequences are spaced apart a little better to provide a more reasonable pace with less starting and stopping, most of the cutscenes are significantly longer than the ones found in the original Solid title. Perhaps the good news is that the added length is mainly devoted to action rather than entirely filled with long death monologues, random spillages of melodramatic life stories, and lengthy dialogues about the nature of life. Those are still present, but the story attempts to be more than just heavy-handed character development, at least.

The biggest issue is that the narrative, even more than it was in the first Solid, is extremely unfocused. The writers seem to have a lot to say about free-will, censorship, love, life, war, nuclear proliferation, and even reality itself, so all of it gets thrown into the same pot, disguised under a story about rescuing the president. It constantly harps on the old conspiracy about a shadow organization that controls the government, which is a tale as old as time. The result is a complete mess, where characters complain about their petty issues while the fate of the world hangs in the balance. At the worst of times, character motivation becomes muddy and incomprehensible, and at the best of time it scrapes out something insightful, and then quickly buries it so it can throw something else your way.

That’s the worst of it, though. In terms of gameplay, I didn’t find much that irritated or annoyed me. The only part that bothered me was the boss battles. They’re much fewer in number and pretty weak (par for the series, it seems). Yet what was really disappointing wasn’t the bosses you fight, but the ones you don’t. On a few occasion, a fight with a big named baddie is brought up, then resolved in a cutscene. It’s weird; the game seems unwilling to let the player take part in these action sequences, afraid that the fight won’t be bombastic enough.

The Bottom Line
With greatly improved gameplay, I certainly enjoyed Metal Gear Solid 2 a lot more than the first Solid title. The variety in gameplay, the improved stealth mechanics, and the greater attention to interactivity makes it a joy to play. Even the story, though still riddled with drawn out moments of dry exposition, has a few moments of brilliance that shine through and make it a more enjoyable narrative to sit through. However, its storytelling still seems to be at odds with the gameplay – perhaps more so than before. I’m not sure how I feel about sitting through 20 minute cutscenes in the first place, but when situations that should be part of the gameplay are resolved within them, I feel like the developers have misplaced their priorities. Nonetheless, Metal Gear Solid 2 is a GOOD game, and I’m glad to have the series back to some sort of shape that I can enjoy.