Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty for PlayStation 2 Reviews by Gamers

I'm a big fan of the first MGS game (on PS1), and I loved the combination of gameplay and cinematics in that game. But this game shows that too much story can kill a game's momentum. There's been a lot of talk in the industry lately about renewing focus on narrative in games. As Metal Gear Solid 2 shows, you should never sacrifice good gaming for the sake of story.

We already have plenty of relevant storytelling media (film, novels, comics, tv); what makes games so compelling and unique is the sense of immersion, problem-solving, strategy, control, interaction, and so on. Over half of your time spent "playing" this game is spent watching FMV sequences. That fact aside, if they were well written and well acted sequences, I wouldn't mind so much; however, the bad Japanese-to-English translation leads to awkward phrasing and logic, and the voice acting pales in comparison to many similar-generation games (ca. 2001).

What gameplay there is, is excellent. At this point in the series, the controls are still very stiff and often awkward (like pre-RE4 res. evil games), but they ultimately work for what the game asks you to do. I prefer the espionage gameplay style of the Splinter Cell series and of the first two Thief games, but the MGS series works for what it is.

The boss fights are among the best in gaming (approaching Shadow of Colossus), and the American militaristic-paranoid setting for the game is loads of fun. If you're anything like me, you'll do yourself a favor and hit X to skip through the FMV sequences whenever possible.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of liberty mainly focuses around the new character Raiden. Although many fans of the series were disappointed, a lot of them were excited to witness what this game had to offer. In the beginning you play as Solid snake. you are on a barge in New York trying to take pictures of the newly developed version of metal gear. Later on in the game you are raiden on a containment facility called Big shell which is supposed to contain a oil spill.
What i love about this is the way you can go at it in 2 different ways. You can either go in guns blazing killing everybody you see or go in with a stealthy point of view which you can go in trying not to get caught or not giving away your position. I also love all the different weapons you can get. there is a wide variety of weapons that you can get.
The storyline with Raiden was very interesting. Warning all people who doesn't want to see a naked man holding himself then don't buy this game unless your a bad gamer. Also i would have liked to use Solid snake more than i did but it was fun to play anyway.
Also i heard that many people thought this game was was hard to understand but it set the standard for MGS 4.
overall this game is good but a little bit on the difficult side but i was able to beat it and it was a great game.