LGR: Metal Gear Solid 2 & 3 review

Metal Gear Solid 2 & 3





Following the events at Shadow Moses, we find Solid Snake working for an anti Metal Gear NGO. He and Otacon investigate a lead which leads them to a tanker.
This is the first part of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. We follow Snake as he traverses through the tanker, taking down the hostile soldiers on his way through. During the course of this event, Snake finds himself encountering new enemies, old enemies and even odder events. In the end of this part of the game, we find Solid Snake dead.
So, that's basically the first part of the game. From the get go it's painfully obvious that this is just a set-up to the large event. The basis is being laid and new characters are being set. And it does a pretty good of that too. At the end of this part, you will find yourself wanting more. Even though you've probably been sitting there for 45 minutes for the last cutscenes alone, you'll still be more than willing to sacrifice even more of your time to see what happens next. The characters that were introduced, both old as new, feel right in place in the story. It's like no time had passed between you finishing the first Metal Gear Solid and playing this game for the first time.
But then came the second part ...
So we start off with another familiar face running the operation of a new agent in town. This new guy is supposedly Snake's replacement and he is sent to the Big Shell to eliminate a terrorist force. Much to my horror, we don't switch scenes to Snake. At all. Rather, we are given control of this new guy. So what happened to Snake? SNAKE?! SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE! I ... was not amused.
For the rest of the game we're stuck with pretty boy, who's named Raiden. Raiden was sent in to the Big Shell to eliminate the terrorist group known as Sons of Liberty, kill it's leader who calls himself Solid Snake and save the president of the United States.
The remainder of the story feels quite familiar to the original Metal Gear Solid, with only Raiden and his personal history to shake things up. In the end this game becomes more and more complicated until we get to a point where our heads just explode. Like literally. The oh so awesome plot of this game was totally destroyed in the eleventh hour of this game.
So, the thing that kept this story great even after the ending were the characters. The development seen in the established characters and in the new ones is simply amazing. A few scenes are real tear jerkers whilst others are real suspenseful and others are extremely epic.

In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, we go back to the past. To play some shitty ga … Euh, no. We go back to the past to see the origins of the man named Big Boss. More precisely, his last two missions before obtaining the title of Big Boss. Let’s get this over with right now by saying that there is no comparison with MGS2. This game is solid gold. It shits gold. It sneezes gold. It barfs gold.
At the very beginning of this game, a Fox agent was given the codename of Naked Snake. Later this man would be known as Big Boss. Snake was given the assignment of retrieving a Russian scientist who wished to defect to America. Again. However, Snake botched up royally and is sent in again later to finish his mission. However, this time around, it’s proven to be extremely more difficult.
The main story is solid on its own accord and makes for a very good storyline. It keeps you going through the game and never gets old. And, most importantly, it never gets FUBAR’ed like in MGS2.
However, the one thing that makes this story epicly awesome is the character’s storylines. From the Cobra unit to Volgin and from Snake to Zero, all of it is tied together very well. The more the game progresses, the more you get to know. And the more you get to know, the closer you feel to the characters. Because in the end, each of their stories are tragic and will get you emotionally involved. One story in particular still draws my attention. This is the story of The Boss, the mentor of Snake. Her story is and always will be the best storyline ever imagined for a game. There is no doubt about that. I can end this review right here by saying that this entire series is worth playing for her story and how it fits in to the grand design.
One thing I did notice is that what makes this story the best till that moment was that there were a lot more details. Like the codec conversations were a lot more deep and personal, the cut scenes told you so much more about a person and how every character’s life is well thought over and explained during the game.

I could go on and on about the story of MGS3 but sooner or later I’m going to have to talk about something else. So why not sooner, eh? Right then. The graphics on both games are extremely satisfactory. They’re amongst the best of the PS2 and you rarely or never see a single glitch. The character’s movement and their facial expressions are as good as they could be at the time they were made. And the settings, the characters and everything else was very detailed. However, in Metal Gear Solid 2 everything was in metal and steel. So it was very grey. In Snake Eater everything was in the jungle and in a giant facility. But still that game had a lot more colors.
Also, in Snake Eater, everything was a hundredth times better when it came to details. The grass, the animals, the characters. Everything was a lot smoother and very realistic.
What I loved the most however is how the game’s cut scenes were done. It’s like a Hollywood movie. From the characters themselves to the camerawork. Gotta say, it was heavenly to watch it all on the screen.
On a final note, I especially like how the developers tried their best to keep it all as close to reality as they could. Like in Metal Gear Solid 2, the way the terrorists acted when taking over the tanker was exactly like it would have been done in real life. From the subtle movements to the gestures to the way they held their gun.

To kick the sound portion off, please allow me to say that the voice actors are the best and finest the industry has ever seen and I hope that they will forever be praised for their work.
And for the rest, no sound ever sounded out of place. Nothing wrong with any of the sounds. What’s supposed to be an effect, like an item dropping, sounds good. What’s supposed to be an actual sound, like footsteps, sound good. Everything sounds good. One moment sounded a bit off though. I don’t know if it was just me or what. But when Fortune was attacking you down below there, the sound was a bit off.

Last up we have … THE GAMEPLAY! Obviously. (D)

This is the part where the game is mostly flawed. Iknorite? A game that’s the best in everything but the gameplay. Unfortunately however, this is the case.
Most significantly. The thing that drags down the rest of the gameplay like concrete shoes is the camera. God, the camera. How that sucks bawls unlike anything I’ve seen before. In MGS2, the camera is tolerable. You’re always in a small area with a radar by your side so that you can see the enemies position. So you got ways to get by the crappy camera so that it never really gets in your way. However … Snake Eater had problems up the ass and through the nose.
Right, this is how the camera works: You have the character. This character is in the center of the screen. When pressed against a wall, the camera goes perfectly horizontal with the character. Standing normally means that the camera is either diagonally looking down at you or even vertically. Meaning that you can’t see jack shit. Literally. Enemies in MGS2 have a limited sight range so that you can still dodge them if you have to. With some help from the Soliton radar of course. BUT, in Snake Eater, the enemies can spot you far more easily. And there is no radar to help you. It’s just you and nature. Yes, there’s a motion radar and a sonar radar, but those show you birds as well and they only show your enemies. No environments or anything. Using these two radars means you drain power. No more power, no more radar. In order for you to get around easily and stealthy in Snake Eater, you either have to crawl all the way around or use the radars all the time. Crawling = snail speed though and using your radar drains power. So you’ll just run around. Without being able to see anything. So what do you do? You go in to first person mode every two seconds to just see in front of you. Which is a pain in the ass. Imagine playing the original GTA only with the camera right above your character. It’s that stupidly retarded. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve died because of the camera. Or how many times I got spotted because I couldn’t see diddly squat.
Moving on, let’s take a gander at the controls. Nothing much to say about the controls in MGS2 besides the one thing that’s wrong in Snake Eater as well. For the rest their intuitive and you’ll almost forget your controller is there. Until you try one thing though.
What’s wrong with the controls then, you may ask. Try this: Shooting in first person mode whilst holding an enemy soldier in your grip. You can’t let go of any button and you need to press the fire button to shoot. However, the grab and shoot button are opposite each other. And not one on the D-pad and the other … OH no, one is square and one is circle. That’s tough enough as it is without you having to use the rest of your goddamn fingers and your little toe to raise your gun and aim.
New to the game in Snake Eater is CQC, or Close Quarters Combat. An invention of genius proportions if you ask me. In cut scenes this looks simply amazing and in the game itself it can come in handy. ALTHOUGH, here’s the catch. You need to gently press the circle button to grab and push it harder to slit the man’s throat. In a tight spot this came become quite the nuisance as you will more than once slit the man’s throat when you don’t mean to. Usually this happens when you’ve been made because of the crappy camera.
The inventory system in both games is the easiest I’ve ever seen. Though made a tad more complicated in Snake Eater.
By pressing the L2 or R2 button you open a menu for the items or the weapons respectively. The game pauses and you can freely scroll to get what you want. In Snake Eater there’s an extra backpack feature. You can only carry so much weight at a time and you need to put things in and out of the backpack all the time. Which makes no sense whatsoever because at the end of the day you’re still carrying all that shit around. If such a super duper backpack would exist, I’d fucking buy it in an instant though. Hell yeah! Carry around more kilograms than an elephant has and not feel a thing. Yup, I’m sold.
In MGS2, the only way for you to be a sneaky bastard is to not go in to the NPC’s vision cone thingy. Whilst in Snake Eater, things get a lot better on that front. You’re in a jungle with a lot of different environments. From trees, to foliage to water. And to get by unseen, you are given a vast array of camouflage. From clothing to facial, you can change it to adapt to your environment. Seeing as the game takes place right after the cold way, I gotta say I’m happy that it’s so easy to use as it is. Although you go in and out of a different environment more often than a hooker goes through customers. So basically you’ll be switch them A LOT. To help you see how well hidden you are, there’s the camo-index. Of course, the smaller you are the higher it is. Standing up means 60 % visible, crouching is 70 and lying on the ground is 90. All at the same spot and in the same camouflage.
Another new thing in Snake Eater is the Stamina gauge that depletes over time. The only way to get it back up is to either save the game or eat something. So you’re out in the jungle and you need to eat. What do you do? That’s right folks, you kill shit to eat. And I don’t know what triggers it, but sometimes you get a nice and dandy mini video of him eating it. Like a snake or a fruit. Quite nasty really. And you can eat every animal in the game by the way. From birds to rabbits to crabs to crocodiles. It would be okay if it weren’t for the following two things: The food rots and you need to eat every two fucking seconds. So you need to play it through fast if you want to keep the food you have and not hope that there’s enough food in the next zone. Because not all food recovers the same amount of stamina.
And now that we’re on this subject, Snake Eater also has the best way of healing yourself that I’ve ever seen. Like the food menu, you also have a cure menu. Let’s say you break a body part. You need to every thing in the book to fix it. Put up a splint and bandage it. When you get cut you need to use disinfectant, styptic, suture kit and a bandage. There’s also so many different ways you can get hurt and each requires a different treatment. There’s also a limit to how many things you can carry. And you can’t fill em up easy either.

This is basically how Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater is like. But, it won’t be a Metal Gear review without going over the bosses. And just like with the previous games, all of them have their unique quirk and ability. Some are just lame like roller bomber boy but other’s are plainly awesome like Vamp and The Boss. Sometimes you really need to go out of your way to find a way to kill these fools. Because they will kick your ass if you don’t study their patterns. For instance, take The Fear. You can only hit him when he’s running TOWARDS something to eat or when he’s in a tree. In any other time, you can’t hit him. Even if you are dead on, you won’t damage him. Or The Boss. You can’t harm her at all by using some strategies or at specific times. So you really need to dig in to the game’s rules and figure out the best way to do it. And that is awesome on its own accord but it can be extremely frustrating and very bullshit like.
Lastly, to go deeper in to the subject of the stupidity of some of the bosses, I’d like to point out one of my B&B blogs. Which can be found here: http://screwattack.com/node/24276 (spoilers ahoy)

Or to make it easier on you, I’ll include it here:

>>SPOILER WARNING << Will use this to mark the end of spoilers :P

“This was a pretty close one. There where three bosses in Snake Eater that were total and utter bullshit. First there was The Fear. He too had a lot of the problems that the other bosses had like being untouchable in certain situations. But at least this guy had an obvious flaw that you could exploit for an easy kill. I would have said The End here now because he regenerated health every time you go looking for him but he's the easiest boss everrrr. No, The Fury was one annoying son of a bitch in the sense of: You need to get close to him to plunge a knife in to his armor. BUT, that is impossible without getting hit by his flames. He's faster than you and you can't dodge the flames no matter what you do. But again, he's pretty easy once you know the right strategy.

The third boss that really had me by the balls was The Boss. Let's go over this one a bit more closely shall we.
So, The Boss is more skilled than you in CQC. Which means that every time you go near The Boss, she will take your gun and strip it in to peaces if you don't deselect it. However, that still means she'll kick you in the ass, toss you on the ground and shoot at you when you get up. You can't fight back at that range because she'll CQC you to death like the bitch that she is and so you run away, getting shot in the meantime.
Next up is her Patriot. It will literally rip you to shreds if you so much as pop your head up from the grass.
Speaking of grass, the entire battleground is litered with white flowers. And the sky is also white. And The Boss is dressed in white. Only thermal vision goggles will help you on this one. At least that's one bonus. Unfortunately, it's only good for spotting The Boss because moving around sure isn't pleasant.
On moments she will zerg rush you so that she can hurt you pretty badly. The only way to stop this is with an explosion. Sometimes. Because as usual with bosses, she can not be touched when she's zerg rushing you. Bullets can hit her and you can punch her when she's close, but she will get you.
All of this is making this boss pretty fucking hard to handle. But there's things that you can do though.
You can A: Plant mines. These only work for half her life bar though because after that the game godmods her and she can't be harmed by them.
B: you can blend in to the environment, equip your sniper rifle and your TV goggles and snipe her down, even though she'll dodge those shots magically at point and you can only hit her once before she godmods again.
C: you can blow her the fuck up with an RPG-7, though you need to be an expert with that thing to hit her and finally
D: You can just toss around like a fucking retard and pray to your god one will hit her.

Even though The Boss is the best character in history, I really, really hate her with every breath I take. When I had to shoot her in the end there, I was both taking my own personal revenge and I was crying on the inside because I didn't want to shoot her.”

>> SPOILERS END <<

Let’s end the review here.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Great story though freaky at the end, splendid graphics for its time, excellent sound all around, mediocre gameplay and a great addition to the franchise;
Metal Gear Solid 3: Best story I’ve ever seen, horribly awesome graphics, horrifyingly kick-ass sound, above mediocre gameplay and the best addition to the franchise.
In the end, you definitely have to have played these games. If only so that you can follow with the equally as awesome game known as Metal Gear Solid 4. Which is perhaps the best and finest that the current generation of consoles has to offer.