O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
For the longest time I’ve considered Metal Gear Solid 2 to be my favorite entry in the series, from the mechanical perspective. Not the most popular opinion, to say the least, given how much controversy surrounded MGS2 and how much more beloved MGS3 usually is. But in many ways, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was the final evolution of what Metal Gear was up until that point and a glimpse into what it turned into for the next couple of entries. And because of how much I liked that simpler stealth action approach of the earlier titles, it was very nice to see the idea taken to its logical conclusion. Still, it’s been decades since I’ve played the game so I was a bit worried if I will like it again, as it did before. I did. But it definitely didn’t age as well as I’ve remembered.
Just like all the preceding Metal Gear entries, MGS2 is a considerably simpler take on stealth action gameplay than what the genre started to evolve into since Thief: The Dark Project came out. Enemies still couldn’t hear you running even directly behind them, unless you were stepping on a specific material of the floor, their cone of vision remained rather simpler (though it did get more advanced in terms of height when compared with MGS) and lots of mechanics and ideas were not complicated. It also continued a somewhat metroidvania-inspired design for the world, with card keys of different levels allowing access to different parts of the map and unlocking new gear, that makes some areas available or easier. But a lot of these things were starting to change, evolve or get phased out, which will continue in the sequels.
First person view became incredibly important, for example, as you could (and often had to) use it for combat, not just looking around. Due to that, regional damage to enemies and precision became more important over the positioning and quick shooting in previous titles. Fully non-lethal ways of dealing with enemies were introduced and the game started the general switch to promoting a non-violent way of dealing with problems more, which would also become more pronounced with sequels. The way enemies react to discovering you has been made more involved, with a dedicated radio call to report your presence and a multi-stage alert and investigation process. You can now jump over and climb over certain objects and railings and attempts at platforming are present in a few spots. And there’s a lot more new stuff, yet almost all of it feels like an expected evolution of the Metal Gear game design you knew up until that point. The game didn’t do anything entirely new, just perfected (or at least attempted to perfect) every idea that has been explored before.
But MGS2 is also known to be a game that had a fair share of cut content. Even apart from several key scenes missing near the end of the game, that had to be cut because the game was releasing just a few months after the 9/11 attack in 2001, you can feel how unfinished some of its ideas are. Due to which, the reuse of already seen areas feels more “unintended” than the backtracking in MGS. To be absolutely fair, both titles suffered from having the second half of the game that felt unfinished and somewhat rough. But I feel that MGS2, despite being the game with content cut, handles the uneven pacing better. Despite being far more linear, cutscene-heavy and in many ways simpler, the second half of MGS2 (and just to be clear, I’m talking about the Plant chapter here) has a lot of very fun things going on. And the plot, for how wild it gets, is well written and quite smart. Very stupid at times, but at other times – very smart and especially interesting to experience several decades later.
Although, up until that last point, I feel that the usual criticisms directed at the plot of MGS2 are justified. For the longest time it is very frustrating, the characters feel annoying, many things make zero sense. And while the end reveals make it all work, I feel like it could’ve been all handled much better, without feeling genuinely annoying in the moment.
What, probably, could not have been done better back in 2001, are the controls. The game attempts to do A LOT. And the controls do cover the needs, but from the modern perspective – they are very bizarre and illogical. It also doesn’t help that the game fully supported the DualShock 2 capabilities for the most basic actions, and since no game controllers since then had fully pressure sensitive face buttons, the need to have a modifier-type button to perform certain actions feels like an unnecessary complication. Plus, several potential mistakes one could do with the controller the game was designed for, are also impossible to make now, even though the game clearly wanted that “clumsy controller mistake as part of experience” feel.
It’s worth noting that the Master Collection Version is based on the 2011 Metal Gear Solid HD Collection made by the highly talented Bluepoint Games. Which, in turn, was based on the later re-release of MGS2 called Substance. The same release was the basis of the Xbox and PC ports back in the day, but unlike MGS1, there’s very little reason to even consider playing the old PC port version of the game over this one. The HD and Master Collection versions do miss a few little elements that original Substance had, notably the Evolution Skateboarding cross-promotion. But it is as complete as it can be and while the PC port has its share of issues, even after all of the updates, it does look and feel very good overall.
As I was playing MGS2 for the first time in decades, I was frustrated for quite a few hours. Because the controls feel weird. Because the way camera is set up is often used against you in the most frustrating way. Because a lot of its encounters are straight up cheap. And yet, by the time I was fighting with a bunch of Metal Gear RAYs, doing cartwheels to avoid missiles near the end of the game, I was having a lot of fun. And I remembered what I loved about this game. How much fun and frustration I had decades ago when doing the same fight on Extreme difficulty and how satisfying it was to pull it off (I still consider that fight to be among my favorite boss fights ever). The music, the presentation, the style and a lot of the story still holds up is still awesome. And I’ve only replayed the game, while a lot of the fun lies within replaying it…
So yeah, I do think there are faults with MGS2. Controls and camera will take some time to get used to. Some of the design and story decisions are unapologetically bad. But it’s worth it. Even over 23 years later, it’s definitely worth playing it.