Developer: Kojima Productions
Genre: Tactical Espionage Action!, Third person, Action, Shooter, Stealth
Gameplay Stats: 13.5 hours, Clear Codename Elephant, Normal difficulty
2016 is also a year of catching up on Metal Gear Solid games! Again, I played this on the remastered collection for PS3, so it's possible that there are some differences between this version and the original.
Visuals: This game looks pretty good! As you would expect from an HD remaster of a PS2 game, it looks like it's pretty solidly (XD) between generations. Too good to be a PS2 game, and not good enough to be a PS3 game. The characters and environments all look great for its time. I think my only complaint would be that there were too many characters with white hair that I was supposed to know were different based on facial features. There was a pretty big plot point near the end where a character was unmasked and shown to have white hair and I didn't know who it was until a friend told me the masked character's alter ego.
Audio: The music in this game is phenomenal. It really is so good. It sounded like it was fully orchestrated for the character themes and cutscene music which really gave the whole game a nicer, higher quality feel. Some of the songs (like the Alert music) seem like scaled up, more detailed version of what was found in MGS1 and that's by no means a bad thing. Keeping the same songs made the story feel like a continuation of the first rather than a lazy, rush job.The gunfire sounds were a bit flat, but I think that's what was able to be made on the PS2. Otherwise, the sound effects were quite pleasant and added to the overall experience.
Story: What the fuck. This game followed the same formula of the previous one (on purpose it seems) of being a fairly coherent, straightforward story until the last couple hours and then heaping in a whole load of nonsense. The coherency and the pacing of these games definitely need a bit of help. The story is mostly engaging until the end, but the last scenes of the game had me worried that my eyes would roll out of my head. There's a lot of pseudo-philosophical discussion going on and it's heaped on itself in some sort of mess. Some of what the narrative does in the end though is done to great effect. I was very unsettled when some of the main characters started changing pretty drastically. As in MGS1, this game was able to break the fourth wall very effectively. I really like this style and I think it makes media stand out and affect the player/viewer on a deeper,more personal level. I can understand how some people wouldn't like this though. I think overall the story is rather nonsensical, but it's told in an extremely compelling way.
Gameplay: Categorically an improvement over the first game! Having an analog stick to be able to control Snake/Raiden makes more precise movement easier to pull off. That being said though, they expect you to move more precisely, which in an of itself is fine. However, you don't get to control the camera as well, so there were a few times where I inadvertently strolled off an edge. The camera for the last couple fights of the game was an absolute nightmare. I have told my friends that suggested I play Metal Gear that the camera was the real final boss. Aside from the camera though, almost everything was great about this game in terms of gameplay. Swimming was a bit tough I supposed, but it generally is.
Overall, I enjoyed this game. There were several points where I was pretty frustrated with the game, but it was a lot of fun. I'd recommend it. [7.5/10]
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