Current Events > Just finished my replay of MGS2 after not playing it for over a decade

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'll be honest, playing MGS and MGS2 back to back I think MGS holds up better.

MGS is so expertly paced between game and cinema. MGS2 isn't. For all of the complaints that MGS4 gets for only having a few hours of gameplay, MGS2 is just as guilty. I could almost forgive Kojima for being over indulgent with his cutscenes since it was probably the first time he could really accomplish what he envisioned, but it's a trait of his that has stuck with him to this day. We really don't need 3 or 4 cutscenes to get across that Emma is afraid of water, for example.

The exposition is all long winded and overly technical, especially in the third quarter or so when you start dealing with Emma.

As for the game play, it just feels off to me. Big Shell design just isn't that good IMO. Struts are overly simple or just way too open, which basically just means you use the tranq gun. "But Slaw, just don't use it then" but the game isn't designed around not using the tranq gun. It's basically required in the sediment pool Strut. After the harrier battle it's the best way to get past the guards on the bridge. And I guess maybe that was the point, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as having to figure out guard patterns and sneaking in MGS.

I also found the swimming sections to just be a weird addition, since it feels like they take up like a fifth of the Big Shell chapter (of course, that's more due to how many cutscenes there are at that point than anything else) and it just doesn't add much to the game overall.

The boss battles are not nearly as fun or memorable as MGS. Olga stands out to me simply due how her line of sight works in the fight. Fatman feels like there was an idea there with the bombs, but it wasn't executed that well.

I don't know. MGS2 is certainly a technical marvel, there are so many little details to be found in the game, but overall I just didn't enjoy it as much as MGS. Now i'm off to see what I think of MGS3 a decade later.

---