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In honor of Solid Snake’s upcoming retirement from the battlefield, I’ll be taking a look back at the Playstation incarnations to get you all fired up for the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Today we’ll be looking at Snake’s first adventure on the PS2, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

2001 wasn’t the best of years. George W. Bush began his first term in office. The world lost Dale Earnhardt, Joey Ramone, Chet Atkins and Jack Lemon. Of course, none of that overshadows the losses suffered during the attacks on September 11. Despite all the tragedy, the gaming world was treated to a banner year. Both the GameCube and Xbox hit store shelves already packed with releases like Final Fantasy X, Ico, Grand Theft Auto III, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Super Smash Bros. Melee and Halo: Combat Evolved. It’s hard to believe there was even time to play Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

I tried playing MGS2 back when it originally released and just could not get into it. I guess it had a lot to do with not wanting to stop playing GTA III (what is it with GTA and MGS games coming out in the same year for the last three iterations anyway?). I wanted to give this game a fair shot despite much fan outcry over playable characters. After playing through the first MGS, there was no better time to capitalize on the momentum.

There was a ton of buzz around Kojima’s sequel, and fans were thrown into a frenzy when there was a demo disc attached to Konami’s March release, Zone of the Enders. After getting to play all the way up to the first boss fight with Olga, even I was caught up in the fervor. I must’ve played through the demo about 20 times. It turns out, that was the most fun MGS2 had to offer me. There were a ton of upgrades to the series this time around, and all of them could be witnessed in the demo without having to suffer through the most contrived story to grace a console.

Graphically, Kojima again found a way to push a system to what we then thought was the limit. The character models, again based on Yoji Shinkawa’s designs, looked like nothing I had seen before on my PS2. The opening level of the game took place during a rainstorm, providing some nice effects and situations during a playthrough. Though you could use a first person view to look around in the first game, the sequel added being able to shoot while in the first person view. You still couldn’t move in first person, but even small victories are still victories. Environments, while constrained to a tanker boat and an oil rig, were still phenomenally rendered. Add in the ability to shoot objects scattered about rooms, like bottles or bags of flour, and get realistic results was another of the game’s great advances. Of course, shooting your gun off wildly is bound to attract unwanted attention.

In the previous installment, escaping from one or two pursuers was never too difficult. For the sequel, Kojima made sure escape in an enclosed space would be as tough in the game as it would be in real life. When enemies were alerted, they called for backup, and even continued searching the area in squads until they were sure the area was clear. MGS2 added one neat feature to the combat engine where you could hold up an inattentive guard for some items. They also added the tranquilizer gun in this installment, and if you were patient enough, you could actually play through the whole game without killing anyone. I tried doing it for the first two bosses, but since there was no achievement, I used regular weapons the rest of the time.

Sadly, playing trying to play through this game again was painful. After taking pictures of Metal Gear Ray, and for the first time in the series being introduced to the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo, or Patriots, I started to remember why I gave up on this game seven years ago. The storyline presented here takes things to such extremes it becomes unbelievable Kojima would expect you to buy into it. This is another example where I wish they would’ve went with the “less is more” mentality. I was so fed up with uninteresting story, I fell asleep in the middle of one of the longer cut-scenes. It also didn’t help the bosses in this game were so uninspired I had no desire to see the unmemorable fights through. And I guess I’m in the minority here, but playing as Raiden wasn’t all that big a deal. It was a necessary story move, and I think Kojima did the best he could with the corner he wrote himself into.

Despite it’s many miscues, Metal Gear Solid 2 still plays very well. If you can manage to stay awake during the more droning cut-scenes, you may actually be able to finish the game in a weekend. I honestly can’t believe I fell asleep, but then again, maybe I can. This game was just missing something the first and third ones had. Hopefully when I play through MGS3 next, my memory of that game being back on track will stand true. Nothing this game did wrong could dissuade me from picking up the fourth installment on Thursday. In fact, I’m a little more excited to see just what’s up with the new cyborg Raiden.

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Metal Gear Solid to Have 90-Minute Cut-Scenes 

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