Sunday, May 22, 2016

Metal Gear Solid 2 HD (PSVita)

A death to call my own.  This game starts out strong and gets better.  I understand why the fans hate it and I can see why they would be mad but if you play this game now without the prejudice of the time when this was released, it is actually a well built game.

I should preface this with my usual, I'm very bad at stealth games.  I have never been good at being stealthy.  I gave the Metal Gear Solid a series because I enjoyed 3 a lot.  By the time I got to this game, I had already beat 1 and 4.  So I had seen the beginning and at the time the ending of the series.  This game is better than 1 but not as good as 4.  Still worth playing though.

The game starts out with the normal sneak around a boat as Solid Snake and fighting enemies or being stealthy.  Your choice.  Then events happen and the player ends up playing as a new character named Raiden.  You infiltrate an oil rig turned hideout called Big Shell, I think.  I can't really remember the places that well.  Anyway, per normal fair there is lots of sneaking, espionage, cryptic metaphors, bosses with gimmicks, and timed stuff.  If you played Metal Gear Solid 1, this will seem very familiar.

Where this game differs is the story.  It seems much more cohesive and understandable than series in known for.  There aren't any really memorable moments for me though.  Raiden just doesn't have the same appeal Solid Snake did.  I'm not saying this ruins the game as a lot of fans did when this first comes out, I'm just saying.  You could have replaced Raiden with Snake and the game wouldn't have been much different.

There is a lot to this game and if you are a fan of the series, play this game.  It has some fun things to do and I enjoyed playing it on the go with the HD version on the Vita.  It definitely does help explain things about Raiden if you only knew him from MGS 4 like I did.  Now get out there.