2025-06-18

Metal Gear Solid 2

Struggled a lot with this review, I played MGS 2 on April 29-30 (the same days the game takes place!!) but constantly redrafted my thoughts. I have played this game countless times, it’s been discussed to death, and I just can’t conclude anything about it.

I guess my biggest point is, I like the game for all the opposite reasons as everyone else. That doesn’t mean I hate the things that most people like, but I’m just not on the same page as everyone else. Let me list the things I like and why I like them:

First, gameplay is king, and I freakin love the gameplay for MGS 2 over all the other MGS games. It’s true that 3 and V have more complexities, and even approach some strange emotion known as “fun”, but there’s a very specific recipe of gamefeel that is just perfect in 2. There’s a TON of improvements from 1, but it still has the formula at its core. Aiming is the big new mechanic, and that’s reflected in level design and bosses and gameplay moments. Consider aiming to be this strange gimmick that had to be invented, and consider this for any aiming-based game. Most shooters just shrug and say “yeah of course there’s aiming”, when their design doesn’t really justify the system. I won’t go into deep detail on this point, because MGS2 does run out of aiming-based ideas eventually. But when it does, it’s still a birds-eye stealth game, which already feels great and works perfectly.

Second, is all the different modes of play. MGS 2 is surprisingly cross-platform, it released on the OG Xbox, which was the version I first played this year. Analog button controls were carried over gracefully, though the lack of shoulder buttons killed my muscle memory. You have to click left stick to go first person, it’s awful. I also saw a lot of transparency errors, not sure what that was about. Overall it’s a serviceable port, but offers nothing new versus the original. “Modes of play” also extends to VR missions, which I didn’t revisit on Xbox but they are great. Everything I said about the core gameplay is fully represented in the VR missions. There’s a lot of bloat to 2’s missions, especially compared to 1’s excellent standalone expansion, but there’s more toys to play with so I welcome the maximalism. It’s unfortunate that we never saw VR missions like this again, which probably reflects how the series stopped being designed around isolated gameplay interactions.

Story comes last, because it SUCKS!! And this numeration is a list of things I like about the game! I like how it sucks! It seems like everyone selectively jerks off one portion of this game’s story, which is silly and dumb. There is no reading of the game as a postmodern deconstruction of alienation in the post-information blah blah blah when theres giant robots backflip dual P90s crotchgrab parrot. I take my art as a WHOLE, every single element of a Work is essential. Not necessarily meaningful, but essential. The game’s goofy screenplays and unsolicited trauma dumps are enjoyable to me for what they are. It establishes a nonserious vibe, in contrast to MGS 1’s very serious conspiracy, personal stakes, and cool plot twists. I don’t care whether this contrast is intentional (death of the author baby), it just works exactly the way it needs to for me to see it as something special.

And nobody talks about MGS 2 like this. They either hate on it, or praise the few parts that can be enjoyed by a wide audience out of context. Great works going misunderstood is nothing new, though I can’t help but feel like I’m the guy who’s wrong here. Hmmm, nah it’s the kids who are wrong. Anyways.

Score: 2/3. I love this game to death, but that won’t make me universally recommend it. The gameplay is fantastic, and it’s a sweet follow-up to the first game, but you need to learn to love it.