Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty : Web Wombat: Games

Now, while many of you know about or have even played Wolfenstein, did you know that it was originally slated to be a more stealthy kind of game? No? You didn't?

There was going to be much dragging of bodies, changing of uniforms and, when the beta testers got hold of it, gnashing of teeth.

Apparently, the control scheme was WAY too complicated, so it was toned down into what we see in bargain bins and bundled with every re-compilation of Doom level packs…Castle Wolfenstein.

What this has to do with Metal Gear Solid 2, I have no idea, but it's filling up space, so I'm not complaining...

When Metal Gear Solid hit the scene in late '97, it was hailed as a revolution. The first true console stealth-em-up, it provided both intense action and thought-provoking drama in one neat twin-CD package. For five long years we've waited, and Konami have delivered, as always.

The first thing that strikes you about MGS2 when you shove in the impressive looking DVD is the sheer professionalism of the intro. The camera angles, the movement, the effects, the music, it's the closest you'll ever come to being in a movie.

And the first thought that enters anyone's mind when they view the intro for the first time is, undoubtedly "Cool!"

Based a few years after the original MGS, we meet up with Solid Snake on the Hudson River, during a truly fearsome rainstorm. In short order, he snubs his customary cigarette, tosses his raincoat to the four winds and takes a flying leap off the bridge.

"Come on you commie pigs!! Kill meee! Do it now!"

No, he's not going kamikaze; he's bungee jumping from the Brooklyn Bridge, armed with his trusty cloaking suit. The sequence that follows is too impressive for my clunky prose to elaborate on, suffice to say that it's truly amazing.

Snake lands on the deck of a huge Marine Corps carrier, armed with only his trusty cigarettes, a converted Beretta M92F tranquilizer gun and his bandanna, which flutters in the gale-force winds quite convincingly.

Otacon is still alive and, along with Snake, has formed a UN-recognised anti-Gear group known as PHILANTHROPY.

After the destruction of Metal Gear Rex and the Shadow Moses military base, the construction schematics and blueprints for the Metal Gear somehow became available on the black market, and shortly after, every man and his dog was busy building their own derivative version of the Rex.

Otacon is concerned that the Marine Corps, who received a grant to perfect a new, amphibious, Metal Gear codenamed "Ray", are about to enter the solo-testing phase for this new death machine, and has found that the Metal Gear is currently stored in the belly of the carrier, which is heading out to sea to begin trials.

Otacon needs evidence to prove Ray's existence, which is where Snake comes in.

However, things quickly go pear-shaped. An unknown force takes over the ship, slaughtering the guards and assuming control. This force is lead by the rogue Russian general Gurlokovich and his operatives, who seem to have no compunction about murdering anyone who gets in their way.

Things just get worse when you find that they, too, are after Ray and it seems that one of your old friends has joined up with the Russian…

Interestingly, Snake is not actually the focus of MGS2; The ship mission is actually a flashback. When we get to the present we find that we instead have Raiden, a green special ops agent, anxious to prove himself to his superior, Major Campbell, Snake's original CO in the Foxhound agency.

It takes courage to be as courageous as Snake...

Thanks to events that were set in motion that fateful day two years ago, Snake is considered dead and the biggest environmental mess in the past 50 years has occurred 20 miles off the coast of Manhattan, for all of which Snake is blamed.

It seems that Campbell is grooming Raiden to become the replacement for Snake. You see, Raiden has been trained extensively, but only using VR.

Throughout the game, discussions abound about the nature of VR and the fact that no matter how much training you receive, it will never be able to replace experience.

Campbell repeatedly tries to tell Raiden to not deviate from the generated scenario, Raiden slowly starts to realise that he is royally screwed and that all the scenarios in the world aren't going to help him get out of this mess, especially after the arrival of the renegade crack operatives known only as the Dead Cell, who couldn't give a flying continental about the scenarios.

I can't tell you anymore about the storyline, under pain of death. All the words in the world wouldn't do it justice, so I'll leave it at that.

MGS2 makes it a point to not just allow itself to be a game. Instead, it is an experience. Everything, and I mean everything, has been fine tuned to the point of perfection. From the way that water droplets make their way down the screen (an effect later used in Vice City), to the subtle way the camera moves during the many cinematics.

I have only one criticism, which I think I should get out of the way before we continue…The codec system. While it's an excellent idea for getting information across during a field exercise, too much of the plot is revealed through codec transmission, and it can sometimes get slightly dull watching 2 talking heads for five minutes straight.

Considering the perfection of MGS2, this feels somewhat petty, but I think that the point is still valid.

The graphic element of Sons of Liberty is stunning without being distracting. It blends so naturally that you don't find yourself being blinded from excessive eye-candy. The best instance is at the start of the flashback mission, where Snake gets the drop on Gurlukovich's daughter, Olga.

Snake didn't get much affection from his mother...

She's not as helpless as she seems though, and takes a free-shot using a hidden gun in the base of her combat knife, which Snake barely avoids.

The sequence slows down when the bullet goes flying, and we see how Snake, using his amazingly graceful yet economical style of movement, drops down slightly and twists away.

And the graphics are not just for show. Visual cues make up a large proportion of the action, and come into play numerous times.

For instance, if your bullets go wide, you may hit a pipe and spray your enemy with boiling hot steam, blinding them temporarily.

The same can happen to you if you stand to close to a fire extinguisher during a running gun battle. Light sourcing also plays an important part, as shadows can tell you the positions of enemies and what they are doing.

Audio is another interesting and equally important area of the MGS2. Not since Thief have I seen such ingenious use of sound as a weapon in your tactical arsenal. If you blow out a light bulb and someone hears the sound of breaking glass, they may wander over to take a look.

Footsteps and the like are eliminated by the special skin-tight suit that you, as a special-ops agent, are entitled to wear.

What is really cool is that if you spend too much time in the rain or the water, then you can develop a nasty cold, which means that you sneeze at the most inopportune times, usually alerting all the assorted nasties in the area to your presence.

Like I said in my Vice City review, it's the little things that matter.

The voice acting of MGS2 is truly excellent. Each actor has risen to the occasion, giving their all to this project. Snake is his usual laconic self; Raiden is jumpy as hell and eager to please, whilst Otacon is, well…Otacon.

All new: stealth box Mk. III. Now with more stiffness

The real credit should go to the villains, though. Never before have I seen such a motley crew voiced so well. Vamp is creepy and not a little bit weird, Fortune is…hard to define, and Fatman is just nuts, absolutely 110% insane.

When you have more than two of these guys in the same room, the atmosphere is electric.

Lesser actors could have hammed the lines up, but, to their credit, they play their characters so convincingly it's almost scary.

From start to finish, MGS2 is a work of art, in every sense of the word, both graphically and aurally.

The storyline is beautifully written and voiced, and it's obvious that Metal Gear Solid 2 was a labor of love, not only for Hideo Kojima, but for the rest of his team as well.

They didn't bow to pressure and they weren't afraid to shy away from controversy, and it shows. Their work has paid off. MGS is the complete gameplay experience.

Hideo Kojima and Konami, we salute you!

Game: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
System: PS2
Players: 1
Memory Card: Yes
Developer: Konami

Rating: 100%

(Ratings Key/Explantion)

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is on the shelves now.

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