PS: I'm too tired from writing this to proof-read it, so sorry for any errors and for a complete lack of editing. I didn't intend to write so much but, damn, this game has not left my head for the last day and, even more than SotC, I just feel completely exhausted from the experience. Also, I tried to spoil tag where necessary... not that I think anyone who hasn't played the game will actually read this monstrosity, but if someone can think of anything else here that should be tagged, let me know.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - 10/10 Masterpiece
MGS2 was the first game I played on PS2. This was, perhaps, the last time I remember being unbelievably hyped for anything. The first MGS was (and remains) one the most profound gaming experiences I'd had. No game I'd played before had been so plot-heavy, and, even today, the sheer labyrinthine nature of that plot--its unpredictability and refusal to go where any media of a remotely similar genre would--is mind-bending. I'd played the original MGS at least 4-5 times, and every time I'd find myself forgetting this or that twist. The gameplay itself was just as original, as stealth games were non-existent back then, and the notion of playing a hero who sneaks into a compound and around enemies was unheard of, and was extremely exhilarating. It was basically a suspense/thriller in video game form.
So, the hype for MGS2 was profound. I bought the game, I played the game, I beat the game... then, a funny thing happened over the last ~18 years; I basically forgot about the game. What shocked me most during my playthrough this time was how little I actually remembered. I remembered starting as Snake on the tanker, I remember then playing as Raiden, and I remember bits and pieces of the Big Shell design... but I'd forgotten the bosses, I'd forgotten the plot, and I'd forgotten just how much of a mindfuck this game is. In a way, my forgetting it is almost eerily resonant with the games' themes itself, the idea that we're bombarded with information and lack the capacity to make sense of it via context. The grand design of the villains was nothing less than
censoring all the useless, irrelevant, and false information that prevents people from being able to easily access/comprehend the truth, and the fact that I'd forgotten that that's what the game was even about has to say something about the theme itself. That the game also makes this point by doing exactly that--ie, bombarding the player with information faster than they can process it--doesn't help either. It's also only now I realize what immense balls it took for Kojima to make this game, which is probably as close as any video game has come to replicating what NGE tried to do in terms of making a (largely) metafictional work that's as much about the audience/player as it is about anything. So for that I have to say:
This one goes to 11/10
Yet, for all the game's brilliance, it's hard for me to shake the feeling it's more movie--or perhaps more accurately given the dearth of cinematic cutscenes and wealth of Codec conversations, an interactive novel--than game. It took me about 9 hours to complete, and I'm guessing only around 2-3 hours of that were gameplay. The gameplay that's here is largely a refinement of MGS1, with most of the sneaking mechanics in place and an AI that is much smarter and much more difficult because enemies work together rather than working solo. Compared to the first game, the boss fights feel less original and interesting, in part because the bosses themselves feel less original and interesting. None of them have the compelling backstories as those from the first game, and the battles are more typical but with a few tweaks (like having to disarm bombs while fighting Fatman). The "special sequences" are also less prevalent here, and while some are quite good--the lengthy sniper section--others are just horrendous (like the underwater stuff). Though I wouldn't have minded back then, the static, typically-overhead camera also makes the stealth sections (before you activate the nodes, which activates your radar) nearly impossible because you have no way of seeing enemies other than awkwardly switching to FPV. Luckily, most of the nodes are pretty easily accessible so this only ends up being a minor and short inconvenience. I noticed this a while back, but I had far too many Game Overs. So to be blunt, I really stink at this game:
Now it's more 6/10
That said, it's possible to argue that, from an artistic perspective, that was kind of the point. We learn late in the game that the entire scenario was designed to be a simulation of the Shadow Moses incident (aka, the events of MGS1). So we're supposed to be playing a shadow of a Shadow, of sorts. This feeds into the themes on multiple levels, including Raiden essentially being a "shadow" of what Snake is; the soldier trained in VR but a virgin when it comes to real life missions. So we're literally a player playing a shadow who's playing a shadow of a Shadow. The levels of unreality have already started to mount before we even start getting to the twists and turns of the plot. Just as Anno was making a series about how Otaku's use fantasy to escape reality via a work about characters using fantasy to escape reality (in the very genre that's most about fantasy escapism), Kojima is doing the same but with gamers, essentially saying: "You seem to get a real thrill out of slaughtering the enemy. Are you frustrated about something?"
Much like NGE, the game is methodical in how it unravels these layers. The game's intro has us playing as Snake sneaking into a tanker housing the new Metal Gear. We're thoroughly in classic "safe" MGS territory here. This rug is yanked when the mission fails and Snake "dies." Introducing us to Raiden is the second rug pull, but it's mild compared to what will happen later. This large "middle" section of the game seems to exist between the intro's comfort and batshit insanity of the closing; its oddities are, in a way, precisely in how much it resembles a funhouse mirror of the first game. It's familiar enough not to completely disorient us, but eerily odd in its own subtle ways. But by this point, honestly, I had played the game for a long time. Didn't I have anything else to do with my time?
5.5/10
Then the walls crumble down and, just how NGE violently rips through its established narrative in its second half and ending, MGS2 rips through its fiction in its final third after the virus is uploaded to the computer. In particular, the most classic, comforting part of the game, the Codec calls between the Colonel and the player/Raiden goes nuts, revealing that
the Colonel doesn't exist/never existed, it was the AI all along. In essence, The Patriots, the "real villains" behind everything, were controlling Raiden to test the AI's ability to manipulate him/us via the information it gave him/us, and it was an astounding success. Even my patience has its limits. I just couldn't leave this thing up to them any
longer. I'll do the fighting and they can go home!
So the game has lead us down the rabbit hole only to reveal to us how games manipulate us precisely to do just that, and we do it typically without thinking, without questioning. Kojima must've seen a parallel with how this would happen with the dawn of the internet age. So much so that many of the game's quotes about life in the digital age were eerily prescient of today, especially in how people have insulated themselves in their own bubbles and only receive news or process information that already fits with their beliefs and ideals. One solution to this is what the game suggests: an AI that filters the information that people are able to receive. In the age of internet search algorithms, this is, in a way, precisely what happens; except instead of an AI filtering a single reality/truth for everyone to access and comprehend, everyone is living in their own AI-controlled worlds where what information they encounter is filtered based on whatever they already think and believe. So what the game predicted happened, but almost in reverse. like Shakespeare said: "Nought's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content." Basically, it means that your desire can get you into trouble if you're not careful.
3.14159265359/10
It's possible to say that the game profoundly depicts the classic "chaos VS order" duality/struggle for the digital age. The pros and cons of both extremes have been explored in art throughout history. We've typically seen "order" as the "good" (one can say that gods/religions are society's interpretation of the ultimate "order" of reality and society itself) and "chaos" as the "bad;" but chaos is what brings change, and what happens when order solidifies is you end up with tyrannies where too many people are repressed. In those depictions, "chaos" is the good that's often depicted as rebels or freedom fighters (think Star Wars here). In the world of MGS2, The Patriots are the order, while Snake, Solidus, and the other Dead Cell members are the chaos who's trying to overthrow the "tyranny" of the Patriots. Raiden, the player, is caught between them, unknowingly
working for The Patriots against the very people who are trying to free America from their control. Remember what De Gaulle said: "The graveyards are full of indispensable men." You're all alone and surrounded by bad guys.
One of the central questions the game asks is: who's the real hero and villain? It's difficult to say. In the abstract, a secret cabal who control almost everything in the US, attempting to censor information and maintain control would seem to be the obvious villains; but it's impossible to deny that the concerns they express are not outlandish and, again, are eerily prescient of all the negatives of the world we find ourselves in today. Were it possible to have an omnipotent, omniscent, and benevolent AI who filtered information so that only the truth remained, would that not, indeed, be better than just allowing humanity to wallow in the mire of lies, half-truths, and distortions that we now find ourselves in? Likewise, Solidus and co. are fundamentally committing terrorists acts, but all in the name of freedom in its truest sense; they're literally trying to free the country from the control of this "tyranny," but doing so means the inevitable killing of millions, including innocents. Is such "terror" worth it for the greater good? Actually, I am in really bad shape financially. I pay money to my ex-wife as part of our divorce settlement, among other bills... I just had no choice but to make you pay for lunch the other day. I'm really sorry.
In truth, chaos and order are just yin and yang. They need each other. Order without chaos turns into tyranny; chaos without order is unlivable. The entire conservative/liberal dichotomy is one of society--even, metaphorically, the human mind--trying to mediate between what aspects of the status quo to maintain and what to change. We know from evolution that change can be for good, for bad, or for neutral, and we humans are woefully inadequate for determining what the ultimate effect of any such changes will be or, indeed, whether our traditions are themselves, good, bad, or neutral. That's the proof of our incompetence, right there. We lack the qualifications to exercise free will. Mind the gap.
ψ/10
The game ends with Raiden
removing his dog tag, which has taken on the name/birthday of the player if the player has been using his/her name/birthday on the nodes in the facility and throwing it away. This suggests a lot, especially coming on the heels as it does with Snake telling Raiden that we have to bear the responsibility of not just passing on our genes (which the first game was all about), but passing on our memes (which is what this game is about) in the form of philosophy and culture. Raiden himself was someone who's ran from his past, essentially entering the game as a blank slate that the player controls. Rose keeps bugging him about what tomorrow is, which turns out to be
the anniversary of the day they met, but also the day that George Washington gave his inaugural address as the first President of the US. The significance of this parallel is subtly brilliant: essentially, by running from his past (his girlfriend), Raiden is also us, running from "the past" of the US's principles of freedom. Raiden gave up his freedom
to be controlled by The Patriots, we give up our freedom when we play any video game designed to limit our choices but, on a deeper level, we give up our freedom when we allow ourselves to be controlled by the AIs that determine what we read, buy, research, view, listen to, etc. The danger is that in embracing that freedom we drown in the chaos of information out there in the world, the opposite is a comforting kind of slavery. So again we return to NGE: the comforting lie or the painful truth? Infancy or adulthood? The Jack/Rose relationship is also strongly reminiscent of the Jeff/Lisa relationship in Rear Window, with her constantly trying to coax him back to reality and him being lost in his own world created by his limited perspective that he "half creates and half perceives." Listen, you haven't reported in for a long time until now. You think you can just CALL only when you want something?
That the game leaves us questioning reality is another notable layer, and perhaps the most important one. Our realities are defined by our memories, our history, our perceptions, the information we receive and context with which we receive it. The game goes a long way towards demonstrating, not just telling us, how all of this is eminently manipulatable and unreliable. When our reality is controlled by the context with which we absorb information, and that information is determined by how AI's filter our searches, or even by the biases and values of those delivering the information, it's easy to question how it's possible to really know anything. The game drills this home through a multitude of devices including its eerie fourth-wall breaking. The virus we end up feeding to the AI might as well have been administered to us as the Colonel addresses us (the players) directly with unforgettable stuff like
"turn the game console off right now, the mission is a failure. Don't worry, it's just a game like usual." it's hard not to get chills down your spine. Not to mention when the "mission failed" (or
"Fission Mailed"screen shows up when it shouldn't, but with everything scrambled. Essentially, the created world of the game crumbles in on itself at the same time the character's (and our) perception of reality is shattering as well. Again, this is very NGE (and also quite reminiscent of Silent Hill; though that game was always questioning its reality).
∞/10
Ultimately, the game is a masterpiece work of art, so much so that I think whatever failings it has as a "game" are insignificant, and it's easy to argue that many of those "failings" feed into the game's themes so strongly that they're actually successes. This is just one of those ultra-rare works where you had a visionary with the money to make a Triple-A games with all the media hype/promotion in the world, but also with the guts to completely subvert everyone's expectations with a work that would ultimately leave them thinking and questioning rather than fully satisfied as an expectant fan wanting "more of the same, but better." If that weren't enough, the game may be the ultimate philosophical document of what it means to live and know in the digital age. There's just so much here to digest that it's nigh impossible to make coherent sense of it all... but that's precisely the point, both in the game, and in what the game says about contemporary life. And that the game ends not with an ultimate resolution, but with a haunting and surreal stillness (that may or may not be real) is all the more potent, because it's not triumphant, or tragic, or anything immediately comprehensible in classic fictional terms. Again, like with NGE it seems to end with a new beginning, and new beginnings are filled with that combination of anxiety and immeasurable possibilities, and, at the end of the day, that may be exactly what life in the digital age is all about.
I can't believe it -- that someone who has committed all those twisted acts in the woman's bathroom would make it this far... this is the end of the world. I need scissors! 61/10
"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being." -- Carl Jung