UNDER CONSTRUCTION - Shoo, you freaks!
Few games boast such an incredibly religious fanbase. MGS to this day causes people's jaws to drop when they pop it into their PSone, Bleemcast or PC. Spectacular cinematics, gripping story, the best voice acting one could ever hear, unrelenting action and possibly, the most innovative gameplay of its time! Metal Gear Solid was the game that all developers dream about making. And the people demanded a sequel, which they expected to be on a par or better than the first game. They got... Raiden.
Sporting new characters, weapons, music and environments; MGS2 is some seriously hot stuff. New abilities, new features and some new weapons and techniques ensure a lot of new strategies. But with all these new fangled gadgets and new environments, which are crawling with brand new enemies, is is really worth the sacrifice of Solid Snake as a playable character for the lion's share of the game? Using instead that blonde haired sissy, Raiden?!?! Read on.
Why it sucks: While I hate jumping on the bandwagon with all those idiots snarling to this day about Raiden, the unwelcome surprise that he was, I have to agree. Raiden sucks, his unyielding whining and angsty interal conflicts which are constantly clogging up what SHOULD be fairly straightforward transmissions make him less than likeable. After going through the game about 19 times now, I have to say I hope we get to watch him DIE in MGS3. And die a slow painful death at that, because I was just as surprised as the rest of you when I went and picked up my MGS2 McFarlane figures and got Raiden, who I was convinced was actually Liquid Snake at the time. Then, the night of MGS2's release, I went all out and following the Tanker sequence, I noticed something VERY wrong with Snake... and then I realized that Raiden was NOT the Ninja, NOT Liquid Snake and not someone I would have really chosen to play as... He's the new guy.
Besides the irritating sod that is Raiden, there's the story. Which becomes its own damn conspiracy theory, and gets bogged down about halfway through when you start recognizing things from the first game and the theme of "passing it on to the future" keeps popping up out of context. And that there's only ONE ending you can get is kind of disappointing... Suffice to say, this game ain't perfect. There's a lot of flaws and annoyances, but fortunately... These flaws are all story related.
Why it rules: Best. Controls. Ever.
The amount of control you have and the precision with which you can manipulate both Snake and Raiden is astounding! Seriously! It's that good! And the amount of new tricks like disposing of bodies, lobbing empty ammo cases to distract guards, and playing around with the camera ensure that you WILL enjoy this game. Period.
The cinematics are beautiful, easily the best I've ever seen. The voice acting is just as good and the new characters are no exception, Phil La Marr (Pulp Fiction, Clerks: The animated series, Samurai Jack) lends his talents as the bloodthirsty, bi-sexual Vamp and is in good company with the already impressive Cam Clarke among other amazing talents. The factoids you'll be assailed with are delivered in their usual fashion, via the descriptions of hi-tech gadgets or the new way, through Snake. Snake replaces Nastasha from MGS and will share with you all sorts of encyclopedic knowledge regarding your armed weapon and the items you equip. He's also good to call when you're in a tight spot or just bored. Campbell makes his return as he commands Raiden along with Raiden's annoying girlfriend, Rose, who takes the place of Mei-ling from MGS.
Otacon and some other familiar faces will also greet you and even though at this point, I can't imagine someone having NOT played it, I won't spoil the rest of the treats in store for those who played the first game. Everything from the rainy opening to the climactic final duel will have you at the edge of your seat. I can't see any reason NOT to own this game. Period.
I smell tie-in!: McFarlane signed on again to craft incredible figures based off of the stars of this masterpiece. Only 7 though... and one could only be formed by collecting the other six. The series consisted of Solid Snake, Revlover Ocelot, Olga Gurlukovich and then there were the secret characters Raiden, Fortune and Solidus Snake. Each figure came with a piece of Metal Gear Ray. Altogether, it's a pretty nice set, but Ray can't stand unless you bend his tail so he it acts like a tripod and all the other figures are quite fragile and their accessories are even more so. The worst thing about these figures was that they excluded other more prominent characters like Campbell, Otacon, Emma, Vamp and Fatman. To say nothing of the Ninja! There's also a slew of Japanese exclusive swag such as the MGS2 special set which includes shirt, dogtags and an exclusive silver Solid Snake figure. Besides that there's posters, scrolls and the like, but the more sought after items would have to be the awesome Kubrick sets and the PVC figurines.
As of June 27, 2003 there's more stuff out now. There's the MGS2 Redux, MGS2: Substance which has a horde of VR missions, Movie maker mode, Snake Tales and some other amusing extras... including "Snakeboarding"? Substance is available on Xbox and PS2 and comes with all the extras in addition to the regular Sons of Liberty game. To supplement this there's also a DVD/PS2 game out there, Document of MGS2 which contains all sorts of "making of" info to make your eyes bleed and furthermore has some VR missions on there just for good measure.
Overall: This may actually be the reason you bought a PS2 in the first place. You probably already HAVE it. If you don't, then you should fix that, ASAP. Despite the betrayal via Raiden replacing Snake, this game is utterly spectacular in every respect... Well, except for an annoying main character and a convoluted story which feels like a total cop-out. But you'll never experience anything like this, all the drama and action meshing together into one of the finest crafted things ever made. And did I mentions the great controls? Despite the stupid ending and other little faults, this is THE game you need. Period. I can't put it any other way, really. It's THAT good. Easily on a par with the first game in terms of replay value, challenge and overall fun.