Metal Gear Solid 2

It's taken me a long long LONG time to finally beat Metal Gear Solid 2 but I've done it! I was supposed to finish it over the summer but that never happened, I've been wanting to play it but never got the motivation to play it. (I blame it on Team Fortress 2 and World of Warcraft.)

I ended up playing it on very easy so I could get through the game and hear the story. Story aside the game play is very similar to the first Metal Gear with the addition of the very important ability to switch into a first person view.

Because it's very similar to the first Metal Gear in game play my first complaint is how clunky the controls maybe at times. Though you're not exactly driving a tank like you would be in Resident Evil but sometimes it's far from perfect when you're trying to grab and opponent from behind and snap his neck. You will also find yourself using your gun in first person most of the time also because the overhead shooting is again, rather clunky.

Game play sticks to the formula the first game made and improves on it.

After playing the game, it's not playing the game that you really remember, it's the narrative. Throughout the game, the protagonist Raiden (Jack) converses with his girlfriend Rose, an analyst who got herself involved in his mission. Contacting Rose on your codec allows you to save the game and a dialog regarding Raiden and Rose's relationship usually follows after your save. These conversations begin light hearted, evolve into something more of complaining and a bump in their relationship to a total cluster mind-fuck. (pardon the unclassy language but it's the perfect way to put it.)

From these dialogs and other conversations you learn the dark story of Raiden's past. The darkness doesn't end with Raiden's past; the game further delves into Otacon's character. Though the time focused on Otacon is brief the player sympathizes with him, especially after the death of his little sister. (A lot more sad than the death of Aerith if you ask me.)

Characters aside, near the last quarter or third of the game, strong themes begin to be expressed. After knowledge of the Patriots is learned conversations about history as we know it is discussed. How throughout time libraries have been burned, precious tomes and scrolls lost and destroyed affect history and what it is now. Except in this day and age, digital information can never really be destroyed, just sitting there for anyone to some day see. Useless information, opposing ideals to what these Patriots want, radical ideas and religion. Even though it is a game, such things made me wonder what was real or not. If what we're being taught now is just one big censored fabrication.

As with every Metal Gear game, I tell people that it's not everyone's cup of tea. It's definitely made with a certain audience in mind, so it's especially not made with the casual gamer in mind. If you ever get the chance to play this game, pay close attention to the character development, story and themes expressed in game.