Metal Gear Solid 2

Posting IRLevant stuff cuz it's always nice to have a reminder of what you're fighting against…

...

…and for, respectively.

MGS2 has aged oddly.
On one hand its impressive to see a game actively be a reaction to the hype that it created. And the game does play really well though the games controls certainly are antiquated. Not to mention the art direction for a lot of the game is pretty spectacular, maybe topped by MGS4 but that's debatable. Also Dead Cell offered up some of the best boss fights in the series, and very few things are as cool as the RAY fight. The first appearance of the boss rush mode is also a very nice addition.
On the other hand though the intentionally player hostile design choices are still a pretty annoying thing these days. The reliance on codec calls intentionally breaks the flow of the game, and some cutscenes just drag on and on and on. There are also sequences where the game just stops being palatable all together; swimming, leading Emma, the bomb defusing scavenger hunt which can be pretty bad on your first time, and awful if your going for a big boss rank.
Overall I like it as much as I enjoyed MGS3 and subsequently Peace Walker then, but its certainly a rough patch for the series without the context to its release. Someone who doesnt know the context of why MGS2 was released as it was would be right pissed though.
My fastest time for beating the game though was 3 hours on a bus ride. Which is a nice memory I have with the vita version.

I played it recently after playing MGS1.
In my opinion, the writing for MGS1 was a lot better. The 'main bad guy' in MGS2, Solidus, honestly felt like he didn't belong in the game. That whole final scene was completely stolen by Ocelot/Liquid and Solid Snake. Fighting Solidus at the end just didn't feel like it had to happen.

However, I don't know why but MGS2 felt a lot more immersive and 'real' compared to MGS1. Maybe it was because I could relate/self insert better with Jack. I liked the battles with Fatman and Vamp a lot too. However, the final battles against the Metal Gear Rays and Solidus just felt really jarring.

Solidus' character just felt like a lot of missed potential. He was alluded to in MGS1, even. I honestly felt like they could have written him in better. It made a lot more sense for Jack to be there, even though their stated reason for having Jack on the mission was because Solidus was the ring leader.

Gameplay wise, it's a good game

Story wise, there is a lot of good stuff in there but it gets boring and pretentious. Kojima sets up a lot of fairly complex ideas relating to post modernism which then require further explanation and exposition.

The best Metal Gears are always the ones with fairly simplistic plots. MG2:SS, MGS and MGS3, maybe Peace Walker

You sound like a numale web "journalist"

Did you play proper MGS or Twin Snakes?

At least is better than MGS3

I replayed it a couple of nights ago.

The Tanker is probably some of the best Metal Gear you can get out of the entire series. It seriously is great, with how connected the Tanker is, and how it opens up even more later on.
Then there's the unforgettable part where in game play, you knock over the pipe. I remember the first time I done that I thought I had fucked up and was about to get caught. It was so seamless.
Had MGS2 followed how the Tanker played, it probably would've been a fantastic follow up to MGS1.

The Big Shell really isn't a very good location. It's not as connected as the Tanker. Either go clockwise or anticlockwise. I like how some of the struts have more than one entrance from the walkways though.
It really can't be said enough how tedious some of the cutscenes can get. When I replayed it, I burst out laughing when Raiden and Ames went to the codec immediately after a cutscene. To me, the codec calls in MGS1 were just a way for them to get some exposition out and save space on the disk, which they would've needed since it was two discs anyway.
Emma and Stillman were boring characters and the only saving grace about them both was that they die. Dead Cell were plain retarded, and I have no idea how they were ever supposed to be 'Foxhound replacements.'

I think the game is a masterpiece when it comes to polish and little features. Like making the parrot say things, or how some soldiers would have headphones on, or how you could shoot the radio of some soldiers. Had there been more Tanker and less Shell, then I think it could've been perfect sequel, but at the same time I think that's the point the game is trying to make.

On the shit that it focuses on, like level design, challenge and overall message and how it is relayed, it's kino. The way gunplay was implemented makes sense despite the amount of hatred for it. When you make gunplay too easy, it ends up being MGS4. It's an arcadey stealth that properly balances stealth and alert mode.

I'd say more but I'm such a fucking autist for it that I don't want to spend hours explaining how absolutely fucking crazy it is and why especially from a narrative/metanarrative perspective how it's better than most of the shit ever written, and how it takes old philosophy and translates it to a new era. Don't ask fuckers on here about it though, people who go into the game end up having some sort of bias, which end up being faggots today going in knowing what to expect for the most part except hyped beyond belief, or faggots from yesteryear who wanted muh solid snake and whatnot. Just like any GOAT, it's a flawed masterpiece.

The only "perfect" unbiased and objective review I've seen for it is embed related. I'd suggest people to watch it, none of the points stated can be argued by either side.

You sound like you're trying really hard to fit in.

Go back to Holla Forums

didn't want to feel

Emma

The few times I've browsed it, it was boring as shit. I just like using the word "kino" because it's funny, don't get your panties in a twist, it's just an ironic buzzword.

did you enjoy the game op?

You must be retarded.

It was basically a remake

3 is the one that was terrible, never bothered finishing it

Maybe you should have. How far did you get? Also did you play Snake Eater or Subsistence?

Integral. Playing MGS1 just felt like I was playing a game, to me. Like I was watching Snake go through his mission, rather than being Snake himself.

It's my favorite game, i don't give a fuck.

It's got the best writing out of the series because Blaustein did his fucking job and actually localized the text. And then Kojima had an autism fit and fired him. You can see the difference in the Twin Snakes, which was translated directly.
hardcoregaming101.net/metalgear/jeremyblaustein.htm
"One of them is so funny, it's like… I think Otacon is talking about Metal Gear's design, and I had translated it as: "I don't think of them as weak points, I think of them as character flaws." Or something like that. But the original Japanese probably used two different words for weak point, or something like this. So they retranslated it and they didn't like the fact that I called them "character flaws" because it doesn't really say that in the original. Sometimes in Japanese they play with the fact that they can use an English word and use the Japanese word. And they know that the audience will know both words, so if you translate it, it'll sound like he's saying: "It's not a dog, it's a dog." In Japanese they'll say: "It's not an inu, it's a doggu." So a Japanese person will use both words, and it was probably something like that. In the retranslation for the GameCube, I think you can look it up on Wikipedia or something, Otacon says: "It's not a weak point, I prefer to think of it as a weakness." (laughs) Or something like that. Yeah, so the point was that they had bent over so far to be "accurate" that they really didn't care how the English sounded."

Blaustein also wrote the "WHAT IS A MAN?" line in SotN.

I used to hate it because "muh tanker" but now I've played it again and I'm confused too.
Has the best moments in the entire franchise for sure.

I dunno. I feel if it were today Blaustein would be one of the people Holla Forums complains about.

You know, I get what Blaustein was going for in his translation. It's funny how a Jew was actually trying to do a better job in translation than phoning it in. Kojima sperging out was good for us in the long run though, since modern translation is an exercise in letting people get away with murder. Sure, the dialogue is stiff, but at least it's what the writers put down in the fucking script. I'd take that any day over letting 8-4 have the slightest leeway in their duty.

WE MANAGED TO AVOID DROWNING

Did you say, nerd?

It's horrible. How anyone tolerates that rapid 3rd person/1st person/3rd person transition is beyond me. MGS3 redux started the OTS trend, which was a godsend. It's a pity MGS4 and 5 had the best setups, but worse everything else.

Shit.
Made good by:

MGSV/Splinter Cell Camera. Keep camera position low for scale, so world seems bigger.

Head at top of screen, legs at bottom. Camera looking slightly up. Center of screen. Look around to see what's ahead of you. Sneak. Over shoulder shoot with small focal point.

Story wise it's shit.
Visually ok. Wasted processing on smoothing textures. Needed more detail for faces. AA for distant objects/characters.

Short and animu stupid.

Nothing all strange with scum being scum. Traitors aiding them.

Dead Cell could be treated more serious. The real good guys. Anyone fucking off media and killing students having done their bit.

Unbacked, takingbon the world. Beautiful.

Play as a gook runt cunt, whinging whining little fuck blessed with weapons to do the wrong thing. Stop the world from being saved, receive praise. Same old shit, no soul.

Better Story:
Worthless filth send Raiden in to fuck everything up as directed. Raiden instead saves people. Staff on Shell all set to die having tried. Your presence the final insult.

Punish them for not trying hard enough. Shoot seagulls, send staff to report. Kill govt scum in front them. No hope from traitors, no bargains, nothing for them to offer.

Use Arsenal to shoot down nukes and subs as they are sent. Ignore them and rescue military units from coward command. Restore health to areas people doing thinga needed, constant work and improving conditions. Defended from exploitation.

Murder every UN cunt in sumight and force locals into working and living off land. Brutally without tollerance. They can enjoy adventure, not praise. Get to know their areas and look after them.

Confront commanders and butcher them. Suits and medals but others dieing. Only honour the wounded or dead. Only orders are what they tried to accomplish. Attatched families given the best conditions and integrated, going wherever Army is to feel the life of their loved ones. Efforts too going to bring them back.

All the bullshit and excuses and sentimentality sighted and shot. Sent to work a soul into their system by work. Discovering the capacity to deserve something good. Knowing it propperly for the first times in their lives.

The Tanker chapter felt like a true sequel to MGS1 - better gameplay, great level design, an actual continuation of the story, and some great sequences to hook you into it. The Plant chapter felt like a parody of what an MGS sequel would be like - an exaggerated retread of the former game, all it's flaws amplified. This was the case in both the structure of the Plant chapter's story (the Big Shell Incident being an attempted recreation of the Shadow Moses Incident) and its gameplay (intrusive and nagging codec calls, backtracking, samey environments, etc). The entire meta-conversation at the end about context and memes reflected on both of those aspects - not only was the story largely of a retread of MGS1 because the patriots wanted to test the effects of the S3 program in enforcing the passing of memes (in this case onto the Raiden), but the people's reaction to the game was also the result of the context created by Kojima and their involvement in it. If 2 was your first MGS game, you may not notice many of its flaws. As a fan of MGS1 coming into this game (bonus points for paying attention to all the promo material), it's flaws are much more apparent, as they're flaws you most likely would have taken umbrage with in MGS1.

In terms of entertainment value, it's not that great compared to other MGS games - probably one of the weakest. In terms of artistic value, it's actually quite good at conveying its message, but the sacrifices it makes to make it less entertaining overall makes it seem a bit sloppier. I'm sure the message could have come across just as well if it was a bit subtler and didn't hamfist the similarities with the first game to hamper story and game design. Then again MGS was never really about subtlety.

Overall, I'd say it's a 7/10 game - even with its flaws (both intended and otherwise) it's not a bad game by any means, but the flaws do hold it back quite a bit - even if it's for art, and good artist shouldn't need to sacrifice the enjoyability of their work for it.

I want what you're having

I like it, but I not gonna start sperging out about how I think this the best MGS game because I don't think that nor care about the title: "best game in series" bullshit.

At least explain why.

Duuuude

I think it's great.
I only played the Metal Gear games shorty before MGS5 released and I'm not sure whether I like 2 or 3 more.
2 has really nice gameplay.
It's like MGS but better in every way.
But the gameplay in 3, while very different, is very good as well.

The story is pretty well executed, regardless of meta-narrative or not.
It's entertaining and interesting all the way through, even if you don't play attention.

It's V for Venom, not 5. Please, you're triggering my autism.

It's okay. Replaying it again I've noticed a bunch of flaws, like the level design not being that good(Big shell is a very boring place to be sneaking in especially since you do nothing but backtrack to the warehouse most of the time), and I have to be honest I've really mellowed out on codec calls and cutscenes in the MGS series. Like I don't have the patience to sit through them anymore watching this green screen of two idiots spouting exposition in the most dry of manners and having to see all sorts of cool fights and shit happening while I'm sitting scratching my balls because the game won't let me play those cool fights.

Fuck off Kojima.
Go pretend to be a director.

I wish I was Kojima.

Why'd you wish to be a guy with neat ideas but who can't manage a project for the life of him?

He's had the opportunity to micro-manage his team to do his bidding, while also being able to be apart of creating multiple games, which is more than what I can say for myself.

He also gets shittons of praise despite the quality of the games he most recently worked on.

Aye.

I played through all the MGS games in the last few years (except 4) and 2 is the one I disliked the most, mostly because its writing incredibly hyped here and on cuckchan.
The writing in it is however totally fucked, Kojima had more ideas than the game had time to develop them and none of them really stuck. Raiden didn't really develop a personality or have his own goals until the credits rolled, Solidus had to pull out "I killed your parents btw." at the last minute so we could have a final boss fight.
The gameplay was admittedly superior to 1, even though I hated the level design of the big rig.

I enjoyed MGS1 the most, that is when the writing seemed best. You had this little theme of fucked up mercenaries with tragic pasts and trying to deal with their self loathing and hatred of the world and it oddly worked in that respect. Sniper wolf and Gray Fox's death scenes stuck with me, even to a much lesser degree Psycho Mantis.

Likely that was the thing that worked best for MGS, character-driven drama/conflict and those characters being forced into bad situations, its why Big Boss worked in 3.

He's not going to respond