Hello and welcome to The Review With No Name But It Probably Should Because I Have Calumon, Right?
Calumon: Jack's looking at Metal Gear Solid 2 this week. Hope you like it! ^^ I'm still surfing the Interweb!
Jack: Right, now Metal Gear, The Sequel.
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I'm going to be honest here, this review almost didn't happen. Whether that's a good thing or not is up to you, but when I discovered Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series, that hooked me, and Now I am under the spell of LittleKuriboh.
What? Metal Gear!?
Fine.
AGAIN, REVIEW ACTUALLY STARTS A BIT FURTHER DOWN
So Metal Gear Solid ended on a semi Cliffhanger, and by that I mean it left itself on a confusing phone call. Here's MGS2 a game which I have to say if I hadn't already played through all the other Metal Gear games, I would be saying that I was hopelessly confused, as this game raises more questions than it answers.
Nostalgia is again a factor. It won't be as bad as my Metal Gear Solid review, but I don't care. Your reading this and that's what makes my day. Even if you are a Forum Lurker, just watching what I do, waiting for your perfect opportunity to post at me (With Calumon, I've had a few).
OKAY HERE'S THE ACTUAL REVIEW. THAT LAST BOLD TEXT IS A LIAR!
Here's the story. Solid Snake, after saving the world for apparently the third time, has now joined up with Anime Loving Scientist (And Creep), Hal 'Otacon' Emmerich. He and Snake are working on making sure that there will be no more Metal Gears in the world. This is basically an excuse for Otacon to Atone for his Sins of making a new Metal Gear and spreading them worldwide, and an excuse for Snake to make some Big Explosions and break a few necks along the way.
We start off in an almost dazzling sequence where Snake jumps off a bridge and onto a Tanker where the new Metal Gear, developed by the Marine Corps., is being transported. Almost instantly, the Tanker is Hijacked by people with Bad Russian Accents and Everyone's favorite Double Entendre maker, Revolver Ocelot!
Now, I know what your thinking. Raiden Ruined MGS2 by whining. See, I don't see that. He did not ruin it, he made it. He reacted like anyone else would if they found out INSERT SPOILERS HERE. Although it doesn't excuse the fact that 90% of Raiden's lines are Sentence Fragments followed by Question marks. We don't need someone to remind us we need to be confused. All we need is some stupid guards who are admiring their intact collarbones. Which brings me swiftly to...
The Gameplay! Ah yes, a bit has changed since the PS1. You can now hang off small ledges, aim in first person, have easier Close Quarter Battles, and hold up guards. All these sound like they should make the experience much easier, but they don't now that the A.I is smarter. They will work as a team to kill you, no matter what. Grenades, Storm and Clear, Shotguns and even being able to spot you, from a fair distance is now on their Training regime, along with actually searching Vents for Super Secret Spys.
Oh and Crawling Controls STILL suck, but you don't have to crawl so much, so that's alright.
Boss Battles make a return, although I must say, they aren't as stellar as MGS1. The first boss is a match with a Russian Woman when both of you are armed with pistols. You may be thinking that that sums up MGS1's first boss when you take on a Russian Man with Pistols, but at least that fight was interesting. You had crap loads of bombs and sensors in the middle of that arena, and the actual boss could make Bullets go where he wanted. In MGS2, the boss' only super power is that she has hairy armpits and know how to move an oversheet and spotlight, all of which are countered by one shot. At least a battle with an Immortal beard man, a VERY fat man and his MANY bombs, and FORTUNE MOFO'S! (Yeah she's not as good as Psycho Mantis).
The soundtrack REEKS of pure awesomeness fresh from the creative brain of Harry-Gregson Williams, who managed to make such amazing Orchestral soundtracks that kept me on the edge of my seat for hours on end.
Speaking of time, I have to point out some of the bad, and I'm going to say that after the Solid Snake mission, which is Sublime, we end up getting Raiden, who is CONSTANTLY GETTING TALKED TO FOR THE FIRST 2 HOURS! Through every door, in every room for the first hour is a cutscene and a codec call! This equates to 45 minutes of listening to Raiden's Girlfriend's problems, an Old Moustache Man's Problems, and Colonel Campbell yelling at you for a tutorial, for something that was explained in the LAST FUCKING MISSION!
Verdict: Misses out on true MGS glory by an inch, but is still worth the money. Unless it's from eBay. Those copies are expensive on there.
Calumon Review Tip: Never disturb Jack when he's Yelling at the TV! >.<
Calumon: Jack's looking at Metal Gear Solid 2 this week. Hope you like it! ^^ I'm still surfing the Interweb!
Jack: Right, now Metal Gear, The Sequel.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I'm going to be honest here, this review almost didn't happen. Whether that's a good thing or not is up to you, but when I discovered Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series, that hooked me, and Now I am under the spell of LittleKuriboh.
What? Metal Gear!?
Fine.
AGAIN, REVIEW ACTUALLY STARTS A BIT FURTHER DOWN
So Metal Gear Solid ended on a semi Cliffhanger, and by that I mean it left itself on a confusing phone call. Here's MGS2 a game which I have to say if I hadn't already played through all the other Metal Gear games, I would be saying that I was hopelessly confused, as this game raises more questions than it answers.
Nostalgia is again a factor. It won't be as bad as my Metal Gear Solid review, but I don't care. Your reading this and that's what makes my day. Even if you are a Forum Lurker, just watching what I do, waiting for your perfect opportunity to post at me (With Calumon, I've had a few).
OKAY HERE'S THE ACTUAL REVIEW. THAT LAST BOLD TEXT IS A LIAR!
Here's the story. Solid Snake, after saving the world for apparently the third time, has now joined up with Anime Loving Scientist (And Creep), Hal 'Otacon' Emmerich. He and Snake are working on making sure that there will be no more Metal Gears in the world. This is basically an excuse for Otacon to Atone for his Sins of making a new Metal Gear and spreading them worldwide, and an excuse for Snake to make some Big Explosions and break a few necks along the way.
We start off in an almost dazzling sequence where Snake jumps off a bridge and onto a Tanker where the new Metal Gear, developed by the Marine Corps., is being transported. Almost instantly, the Tanker is Hijacked by people with Bad Russian Accents and Everyone's favorite Double Entendre maker, Revolver Ocelot!
About 2 hours in, Your told it's 2 years later and your on an Environmental Clean-Up facility playing as someone who is at first Snake, then called Raiden, then Jack, then they keep swapping between the two, which kind of defeats the object of a Code-Name if you have someone who is going to say the person's real name down the damn radio.Ocelot in MGS1 said:
Now, I know what your thinking. Raiden Ruined MGS2 by whining. See, I don't see that. He did not ruin it, he made it. He reacted like anyone else would if they found out INSERT SPOILERS HERE. Although it doesn't excuse the fact that 90% of Raiden's lines are Sentence Fragments followed by Question marks. We don't need someone to remind us we need to be confused. All we need is some stupid guards who are admiring their intact collarbones. Which brings me swiftly to...
The Gameplay! Ah yes, a bit has changed since the PS1. You can now hang off small ledges, aim in first person, have easier Close Quarter Battles, and hold up guards. All these sound like they should make the experience much easier, but they don't now that the A.I is smarter. They will work as a team to kill you, no matter what. Grenades, Storm and Clear, Shotguns and even being able to spot you, from a fair distance is now on their Training regime, along with actually searching Vents for Super Secret Spys.
Oh and Crawling Controls STILL suck, but you don't have to crawl so much, so that's alright.
The soundtrack REEKS of pure awesomeness fresh from the creative brain of Harry-Gregson Williams, who managed to make such amazing Orchestral soundtracks that kept me on the edge of my seat for hours on end.
Speaking of time, I have to point out some of the bad, and I'm going to say that after the Solid Snake mission, which is Sublime, we end up getting Raiden, who is CONSTANTLY GETTING TALKED TO FOR THE FIRST 2 HOURS! Through every door, in every room for the first hour is a cutscene and a codec call! This equates to 45 minutes of listening to Raiden's Girlfriend's problems, an Old Moustache Man's Problems, and Colonel Campbell yelling at you for a tutorial, for something that was explained in the LAST FUCKING MISSION!
Verdict: Misses out on true MGS glory by an inch, but is still worth the money. Unless it's from eBay. Those copies are expensive on there.
Calumon Review Tip: Never disturb Jack when he's Yelling at the TV! >.<
