*WARNING: CONTAINS METAL GEAR SERIES SPOILERS*

After playing through Metal Gear Solid 4, I decided it was high time to give the full series another run-through.  So for the first time in years, I played the most controversial game in the series:  Metal Gear Solid 2:  Sons of Liberty.  You can imagine my surprise when I realized it’s actually brilliant.

If you’re unfamiliar with the game, it catches flak for several reasons.  First and foremost, many fans of the first game were displeased with Kojima’s decision to replace Solid Snake with Raiden as the main playable character in the game.  Snake was and is a popular character, and Raiden seemed more like the main character of the latest Final Fantasy than a Metal Gear game.  He’s inexperienced, emotional, and shockingly pretty for a man.  His sappy dialogue with Rose is cringe inducing, and you’re asked to listen to it both at points in the story and every time you want to save.

Next, the plot itself was a point of contention among fans.  The tanker scene that opens the game promised another powerful, action packed story similar to the first game, but the Plant scene that makes up the bulk of the game did not deliver.  It was heady and philosophical, featured plenty of go-nowhere plot twists and bizarre character development that served no purpose at all.  The ending was universally deemed to be anticlimactic and downright confusing, failing to answer any of the questions brought up during the game.

Replaying the game in light of MGS4 is a different experience.  Since that game tied up every loose end in the series, I was less distracted by the unanswered questions, and instead was able to focus on why Kojima made the game the way he did.  For starters, choosing Raiden as the lead was the right decision.  Snake’s development as a character was done for the time being, so he would’ve been a far less dynamic hero compared to the first game.  Moreover, the hero of any Metal Gear game can only know as much as the player, so taking Snake out of our hands allowed him to be a much more competent and knowledgeable character than he could have otherwise been.  Instead, we are given Raiden less as a hero, and more as a window through which the player interacts with the hero.

Raiden was trained by VR missions and a simulation of the Shadow Moses incident, much like the Metal Gear fan who moved on to this game after playing MGS1 and VR Missions on the PS1.  He’s in over his head in such an extreme situation, much like any of us would be.  He’s clueless, which as I pointed out earlier, allowed Snake to play the part of the been-there-done-that, experienced role model to the player, and the only trustworthy voice guiding you through the game.  Basically, Solid Snake is, in fact, the main character of the game- Kojima said it himself in an interview, pointing out that the game begins and ends with with Snake’s monologue.  Raiden, however, is you.  Metal Gear Solid was the game where the player was allowed to be Snake, and Metal Gear Solid 2 was the game where the player fights alongside Snake, viewing his story from an outside perspective.  If you need any further proof that this was Kojima’s intent, look to the scene in the ending where Raiden pulls out a dog tag- with your name on it.  Even as a character, really, Raiden’s not as bad as people claim.  He’s dynamic, and actually very likable by the end of the game.  He just makes a bad first impression with that “nerd” comment.

As for the plot itself, several of the complaints lobbied against it are valid (did we really need to know about Otacon and his step mother, for instance?).  The storyline as a whole, however, is one of the best and most ballsy ever contained in a video game.  It leads the player to believe, during the Big Shell scenes, that the game is more flawed than it is.  You’ll undoubtedly notice that the flow of events is extremely similar to the first game’s, but whether you mark it as a flaw or just accept it as the way video game sequels go, you simply shrug it off.  That is, until Ocelot’s big reveal at the end of the game.

In a scene that probably contains more double-crossings than anything else I’ve ever seen, Solidus Snake reveals that his entire plan was not to obtain Arsenal Gear and hold the world ransom (as well as confirming what the player already knew- that the idea of a purified hydrogen bomb is pretty stupid), but to obtain the names and locations of the Patriots.  Or so he thinks, until Ocelot drops a bombshell: the entire Big Shell incident was actually an intentional recreation of the Shadow Moses Incident from MGS1, including everything from the commanding officer being an AI version of Roy Campbell, an opposing team of unique special ops, every important character the player is to rescue being killed (one even in a method similar to FOXDIE, when Ames’ pacemaker is remotely shut down), to the presence of a Snake at the head of it all.

Ocelot incorrectly asserts that the intention was to create a soldier on the level of Solid Snake, but in the codec calls that follow, the Patriots point out that a single soldier, no matter how powerful, is of little use to them.  It was actually a test for a prototype information-control system they’d developed, which would eventually evolve into the Sons of the Patriots system in MGS4.  They created an extreme set of circumstances and controlled not only the flow of information to the public, but the actions of everyone involved, Raiden most of all.  They gave you your orders, and you did everything they asked you to without question.  And then, even knowing that Solidus is doing the right thing by trying to liberate the country from the Patriots control, you kill him on their behalf.  And so, MGS2 goes down as a resounding victory for the bad guys.

If you’re thinking part of that twist sounds familiar, you’re right.  MGS2 did the Bioshock twist six years before Bioshock.  It gets no credit for it, probably because it was only a footnote in MGS2’s bizarre ending, whereas in Bioshock it’s the entire point of the game.

What makes this such a fantastic twist, however, is the realization that, even though you thought Kojima was a hack, he had your number all along.  You thought you were smarter than the game, but he was leading you to believe that the entire time.  Whether you love it or hate it, you have to admit the game’s ending was beyond memorable- from the fourth wall breaking codec calls once GW is affected by the worm cluster, to the downright frightening conversation with the Patriots before the final boss (notable also for being the only time in the series they actually speak).

There are some issues with the game that have healed with time, thanks to the release of the fourth installment.  Ocelot being taken over by Liquid through his severed arm is very strange, but if you finished MGS4 then it’s no longer an issue.  Same with the identity of the Patriots, as they claim to be beings of information born in the “primordial soup” of the white house walls.  Again, playing MGS4 pulls back the metaphors to show us their true identity and back story.  Other things, like Fortune’s ability to deflect missiles even after losing the technology that did it for her, shouldn’t have ever been an issue in the first place.  The Metal Gear universe allows for psychic powers, and I don’t recall anyone having a problem with Psycho Mantis using them.

The game is worth revisiting, especially if you’re one of the people who had such a strong distaste for it at first.  I’m not claiming it’s perfect, but it was extremely ambitious and, I believe, far ahead of its time.  Kojima certainly deserves more credit than he’s gotten for having the guts to tell a story like this, especially for having faith that the gaming community would appreciate it when most view us as mouth-breathing idiots playing with violent toys.