Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid franchise has turned into what’s not only the defining series for the unconventional video game developer, but it’s also blossomed into one of the most well-recognized series on the market and one of Konami’s biggest hits. The original Metal Gear Solid is a formative video game, but its sequel, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, marks a real turning point in the series, for better and for worse.

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Metal Gear Solid 2 remains a very controversial title, and it certainly shows how outlandish Kojima can get with a story. But there’s also plenty that the game gets right and ways in which it pushes the action genre forward.

10 Timeless: The Graphics And Cutscenes

Metal Gear Solid 2 Lab Death Cutscene Graphics

Metal Gear Solid 2 is the first title in the series to show up on the PlayStation 2, which means that it’s able to excel in a number of areas that just wasn’t possible in the first game. One of the biggest concessions in the first Metal Gear Solid is the graphics, especially when it comes to characters’ faces and finer details.

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Metal Gear Solid 2 is a major step forward that looks beautiful and still holds up now. Additionally, the cutscenes in the title are even more impressive and really push the limits of the medium.

9 Hasn’t Aged Well: Big Shell's Layout And The Level Design

Metal Gear Solid 2 Big Shell Snake Stealth Hiding

Metal Gear Solid 2 tackles a lot and it’s incredibly ambitious in practically every area, especially for a video game of its time. Metal Gear Solid 2 devotes so much attention to its story, new characters, and gameplay, that it feels like some other areas were rushed, like the design of Big Shell.

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It’s a much more forgettable design that Shadow Moses from the first game and Konami even includes a map of the place to make the ill-designed spot easier to navigate. Beyond that there are endless warehouses to work through, which are just generally bland.

8 Timeless: First-Person Shooter Aiming And A Variety In Weaponry

Metal Gear Solid 2 First-Person Shooter Aiming At Soldier

The more advanced hardware of the PlayStation 2 allows Metal Gear Solid to smooth out and refine a lot of the elements from the first title, with a lot of attention going into Raiden’s arsenal. Metal Gear Solid 2 adds first-person shooter aiming into this third-person action title, which isn’t that revelatory now, but it was brilliant at the time and really streamlines the gameplay. There are also many underwater fights and weaponry that indulge in that respect, including some tense and exhausting fights against the new Metal Gear RAYS.

7 Hasn’t Aged Well: The Story

Metal Gear Solid 2 Revolver Ocelot Meets With Solidus Snake

Metal Gear Solid 2’s story hinges on nuclear war and the world being controlled by evil omnipotent artificial intelligence systems called Patriots. This is also the same game where a dead character lives on through another character’s arm. Hideo Kojima has gone to some weird places, but Metal Gear Solid 2 is a clear example of him just running too far with power and why it's not always a bad idea to have people to rein him in. The lessons learned here lead to the far superior Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which is the best of both worlds.

6 Timeless: Its Ambitious And Meta Nature

Metal Gear Solid 2 Snake And Raiden Bond And Exchange Dog Tags

The story in Metal Gear Solid 2 is a double-edged sword in the sense that it features exquisite highs and staggering lows. Outside of the actual plot elements, the game has some deep things to say on worthwhile topics like the player’s role in a video game, the brainwashing of society, and a lot more on culpability and manipulation. This is also expressed through a narrative where Raiden’s story intentionally mirrors Snake’s from the first game and there are many self-aware nods to the past, like a new cyborg ninja shows up and pretends to be the previous cyborg ninja.

5 Hasn’t Aged Well: Fatman And Vamp

Metal Gear Solid 2 Fatman Boss Holding Wine

The Metal Gear Solid has a strong reputation for introducing some exceptionally atypical characters for an action series. Metal Gear Solid 2 has a villain named Fatman who rides around on roller skates and guzzles wine. He’s weird for the sake of weird and without earning it. The villainous Vamp also brings vampires into the universe, which is a major leap in terms of what exists in this reality. These boss battles fail to match any of the innovation that was present in the previous game’s Psycho Mantis fight and feel particularly tone-deaf now.

4 Timeless: The Sword Fight With Solidus Snake

Metal Gear Solid 2 Raiden Versus Solidus Snake Sword Fight Final Battle

The Metal Gear Solid series has an interesting relationship with boss battles, which can result in some of them coming across as forgettable and others that try too hard to do something different with a fight. Not all of the boss encounters in Metal Gear Solid 2 are winners, but the final one with Solidus Snake, the former President of the United States, makes for a very unique and satisfying conclusion. Raiden gains his iconic High Frequency Blade and sword fights against Solidus Snake, who wears a cybernetic suit that also allows him to sprout tentacles.

3 Hasn’t Aged Well: Raiden’s Girlfriend, Rosemary

Metal Gear Solid 2 Raiden Embraces Rosemary Girlfriend

Raiden’s consistently gets calls from his girlfriend, Rose, where she gets into their relationship. The game spends a surprising amount of time on this material. It’s one of many unnecessary subplots, but this one is the most egregious and an attempt to test the gamer’s patience. Character development is never a bad thing, but this is actively obtrusive and slows down the tempo of the story. It’s clearly Kojima’s commentary on adding a level of realism into the title and a deconstruction of the genre in an effort to be unique, but it’s a risk that doesn’t work.

2 Timeless: How It Changes The Protagonist

Metal Gear Solid 2 Raiden Aims Gun Graphics

There are a lot of ways to alienate an audience in a video game and Metal Gear Solid 2 engages in a tremendous bait and switch regarding who’s the hero of the sequel. Audiences were excited to get another entry where they control Solid Snake, but after a tiny taste of that, the sequel then shifts over to rookie, Raiden. Raiden is a poor substitute to Snake, but that’s somewhat the point, just like the reflexive nature of the plot. It’s an interesting exercise and Solid Snake would eventually return to the spotlight, but later.

1 Hasn’t Aged Well: The Endless Exposition

Metal Gear Solid 2 Final Cutscene Statue Of Liberty Speech

In the first Metal Gear Solid, Hideo Kojima strove to add a level of cinematic storytelling to video games that had previously been absent. The game is an accomplishment in that sense and naturally Metal Gear Solid 2 attempts to go even further in that regard. However, this is a perfect example of how less can be more, especially when the end of the game devolves into a series of codec calls and cutscenes that just endlessly spout exposition. This culminates in a 90-minute cutscene that explains the game’s biggest revelations, which could have been handled much better.

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