Episode 118 - Felt Like a Big Man - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Raiden something happened to me last Thursday when I was driving home. I had a couple of miles to go - I looked up and saw a glowing orange podcast in the sky, to the east! It was moving very irregularly... suddenly there was intense light all around me - and when I came to, I was home. What do you think happened to me? Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Metal Gear Solid 2, the sequel to Metal Gear Solid and arguably the game that cemented Kojima as a designer with an eye for details who was willing to do some of the strangest things in AAA games. And also made it clear that he really wanted to make movies. Regardless of how you feel about MGS2’s plot, or many of Kojima’s plots generally, the game tells its story through some of the most elaborate cutscenes and lengthiest dialogue ever seen to this point in the industry, and that was debatably among the things most discussed when the game came out. Beyond that though, this game is mechanically a step up from its predecessor as well, and does a lot more with its stealth action framework than people were used to, making use of the new first person aiming mechanics as well as a robust inventory of usable items to force its players to think outside the box (ha ha) to tackle its challenges. The game gained notoriety from the surprises it kept hidden in the lead-up to its release, and even afterward received praise for being inventive and focusing on things games usually didn’t at that time. All that said, it’s been twenty years since it first released, so we have to ask if it held up? Is it still a justifiable favorite MGS2 game even when stacked against its later sequels and prequels? Find out, as we talk about the bizarre twists and questionable plot decisions made in the game, the variety of ways you can deal with the games obstacles, and when the bird crap comes back. Thank you for joining us once again. The spoilers for this game are more or less a known quantity by anyone who plays games these days, but I still don’t want to get too much into them here because they were the type of thing that really intrigued me when I played the game the first time. If you’ve played MGS2, what was your favorite weird thing that happened? Do you think it held up, or is it kind of a nightmare to play these days, or did you always find it kind of pretentious? Let us know in the comments or over on Discord! Next time, we’re getting into Halloween, our favorite time of year, and we’ll be talking about The Medium, so I hope you’ll join us for that.