Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

almost every video game ever made only exists in the moment. you press buttons, get some pleasure stimulus in that reward center of your brain, and you forget about them until you play them again. Metal Gear Solid 2 shatters that convention -- it is a game that exists most thoroughly when it is not being played. it is gaming's essential text, a shining example of what's possible with the medium, and possibly the most prophetic text for the 21st century. sublime.

I'm a naked blonde man boy doing cartwheels one handed while covering my penis while Col Campbell starts calling me about insane nonsense and like 8 hours earlier I was Solid Snake devouring a boat holding up everyone for their dog tags and rations

In terms of gameplay, it's a massive improvement over its predecessor. It's also still visually striking and atmospheric. However, the plot has become far more asinine and it only really comes off as clever when you start thinking about it in the meta-sense. Still, what the game argues in its meta-plot is interesting, and has become increasingly more relevant into the modern day. I also love how many goofy easter eggs this game has and all the ways you can approach stealth.

As I'm jumping naked, holding my Package and desperately hiding from the enemy as my Commanding Officer shouts psychobabble like a Youtube conspiracy theorist on Sandy Hook, I can't breathe and I'm all of the sudden in darkness mowing down whole Metal Gears with relative ease. My life never got better. If anything, our world has become the CO, and I'm still naked in the technological wilderness. Kojima should be proud, the goddamn Prophetic bastard.

In this age of "fake news", the story is more prophetic and relevant than ever. But I just couldn't rank this any higher, as I think the cutscene to gameplay ratio is horrible. All that dialogue continually cuts into the gameplay every chance it gets. Walk a few steps, and bam another conversation or cutscene interrupts you. Bit annoying really.

While the gameplay is an all-round improvement from the first game, the story became too batshit insane for its own good. The VR theory gives it greater meaning though.

Have not played a ton

It gets shit on a little bit for going off the rails in the eyes of some, but to the day it's probably my second favourite of the series, having easily the weirdest story of the bunch. I appreciated then and I appreciate now the experimental nature of the story telling and even the fact you play as Raiden. It actually made Snake seem more badass just watching him be cool. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather play as him but I liked it here. Does all the things Metal Gear does well.

What was Kojima even going on about?

scout knife with a surprise, you a spetsnaz? perfect score if not for that interminable C4 section.

What a mindfuck this must've been when it first came out

Kojima going nuts in a delightfully public fashion. I bet it was annoying to some being on an oil rig or whatever with Raiden instead of another shadowy snowy military base as Solid Snake, but I found it to actually be a pretty amusing left turn. Gameplay is still solid and the story and dialogue still pull me along.

Vamp..what a cunt.

I remember playing this and not liking it. Awkard controls and lack of a radar meter.

Come on, kojima. "The La Li Lu Le Lo"?!?! How am I supposed to take this serious? Yeah, your girlish new muppet Raiden sucks, btw.

It didn't impress me except the part where it gets hilariously meta. Otherwise, it's an alright game but I didn't like it so much and the ending made me want to throw the disc into a shredder.

Plot and cutscenes are silly and entertaining Kojima nonsense, while the gameplay just doesn't really do it for me.

I laughed and grew fat.

Whereas MGS was a brilliant spectacle, this moves into the territory of genuine art. It combines the campy story of the original and adds much better gameplay and more interesting bosses. It works on an incredible meta level as it comments on video games as a whole. I can't really say any more because this is a game that can't be truly experienced in any other medium than a video game.

Hideo Kojima's magnum opus stealth action game. Mainly based on Solid Snake's story after "Shadow Moses Incident" and Raiden's rise. "Life isn't just about passing on your genes."