Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty - Snake? Snakkee? Snnnaaakkkkkeeeeee! (Metal Gear Solid 2 - Sons of Liberty (PS2))

Member Name: AndyCreighton

Product:	Metal Gear Solid 2 - Sons of Liberty (PS2)
Date:	23/05/09 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Visuals, Great Voice Acting, Engrossing Story, Likeable Characters

Disadvantages: Story Gets A Bit Weird, A Bit Short, Lack Of Snake

Back in 2001 Konami released one of the most antipated games of all time. A Sequel to the stelth-em-up Metal Gear Solid. The second installment, Sons of Liberty was the first game of its type on the PS2 with similar games popping up afterwards. While MGS 2 did not have the impact that prehaps the first game did, it was still well receieved with the majority of the gaming world and although a questionable main character and a puzzling storyline may make you think twice about purchasing it, the game was incredibly fun and successful.

The opening sequence (I'm refering to the whole boat section of the game) is probably more enjoyable than the entire game. You once again take on the role of Solid Snake, a member of Foxhound although this time he's gone solo. You board a Navy ship which is rumoured to have a new model of Metal Gear, your mission? To get photograhpic proof of this new prototype and expose it on the internet. Although almost immeditaly things turn sour. Russian Mercs start boarding the ship, staging a takeover. Are they after the Metal Gear? Can you get to it in time?

The first thing your probably going to notice once taking over control of Snake will be how good he, and the rest of the game looks. While it may be slightly dated now, there is no argument that at the time this game was top of its league in terms of looks. The character models are superb, with both Snake, and the enemies looking great, you really get to appreciate the graphics the first time you use the new First-Person mode to hold-up and enemy. The amount of detail is immense. The game also sounds great, the voice acting is excellent and feels like its been taken straight out of a film. The guns sound great and sound like you'd imagine them too.

There is a fare amount of dialoge as you would expect by such a story driven game but it only helps you further understand the characters and thier situation. If theres one thing MGS2 does right, its character development. Its very rare that a game is produced where you actually care about the outcome of each of the character. The story itself is, well, strange. It is engrossing, and will drive you from strutt to strutt, however towards teh end of the game it gets a bit weird, and becomes quite hard to follow. It took me a few play thoughs and i'm still not sure if I get it. Nonetheless it is entertaining, and will have you questioning certain things about yuor own life.

Once you're finished on the boat the story moves onto a clean-up facility in the middle of the sea called the Big Shell. This is where teh story will unfold. You play Raiden, an operative for Foxhound. When terriosts takeover the Shell and capture the president who was visiting, its your mission to inflitrate the facility and retake the hostage. The only problem is that the rugged, husky sounding spy we've all come to love isn't the main character! Whats more, you only actually get to play as Snake in the first chapter when your on the boat mentioned earlier. This is a strange move by Konima. Snake still features heavily in the story however, although it still would have been nice to be able to play through the Big Shell as Snake.

The game is relativley short, only taking around 10 - 12 hours to complete on your first play through. I say your first play through as there wil be more than one, trust me. The game offers a fair bit in terms of reply value. You can intimdate enemies into handing over thier dog tags, collecting dog tags unlocks new items and gadgets for you to play with such as the Stelth Camo and Bandana. There are more than enough reasons to play through the game a second and maybe even third time.

Sons of Liberty improves on the first game in a number of ways. Like mentioned above, one of the biggest additions is the First Person View. You can now look, aim and shoot from First Person. This allows you to shoot with a lot more accuracy and also to observe your surroindings more. If your able to sneak up on an enemy and put a gun on him, he'll freeze, put his hands up and even hand over Rations and other goodies if you intimdate him enough. The bigger the gun, the more he'll be intimdated. Its quite fun aiming an RPG at a Russians groin to see him squirm! This is a nice feature which is as useful as it is fun.

One thing that really made the original Metal Gear Solid popular were the unique and interesting bosses such as Physco Mantis and Grey Fox. While the bosses in Sons of Liberty are in some ways similar to those in the first game, they don't have the same charm. None of them are as likeable as thier predecessors and while boss battles are fun thier inferior to those in the previous installment.

Overall MSG2 is a very enjoyable, albeit short, ordeal. The story isn't as strong as the previous game and with some weaker character. However great visuals, awesome voice acting and basically so many options to kill the enemy that your not sure which to use, helps MGS2 to be a fine sequel and a great game on the PS2.

Andy Creighton

Summary: Great Game, Deserves To Be In Any PS2 Game Collection.