Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance

"A great game"

Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance is essentially a director's cut of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. What disappointed most people about SOL was the low ratio of Gameplay to cutscenes. This game was intended to be the substance of what the gameplay should have been in SOL, hence ''substance''. This is perhaps more satisfying than the original game because of the hours upon hours of extras that are piled atop the original game.

Gameplay 10/10

The control setup for this game is superb. There is really no awkwardness of the controls that I hear about from others. The boss fights all require different, unique strategies to achieve victory. The game has 7 difficulty levels ranging from Very Easy, which is well...incredibly easy, to European-Extreme, which is almost completely realistic to real life. This difficulty level is insanely difficult, only for hard-core gamers or Metal Gear Solid fans. These difficulty levels provide a level of difficulty for all gamers.

The actual gameplay is great. There are unique and fun. Objectives range from photographing a top-secret weapon, to defusing bombs. You are equipped with a great arsenal of weapons that include C4, sniper rifles, handguns, various grenades, assault rifles, missile launchers, and even a sword which provides many fun filled moments of hack and slash action.

You also have a great array of stealth and infiltration moves such as hanging over a railing to avoid guards, choking, flattening against walls to peek around the corners, making noises, throwing objects, and , of course, the classic and sometimes hilarious cardboard box.

The VR/Alternate Missions that are the main addition to the game mainly are to enhance your stealth techniques. However, they are also a great deal of fun. The mission categories are, Bomb Disposal Mode, Hold-Up mode, Eliminate All, Variety, Photograph, and Sneaking. There is one rather amusing type called Streaking Mode (yes, I said “Streaking”).

Story 9/10

This is what disappointed most people about this game. Most people see this as a convoluted, disorganized, and confusing piece of garbage. On the contrary, I feel that his is one of the best-written stories that I have ever experienced. The depth and amount of information that is presented to the player is overwhelming the first time through. However, if the player goes through several more times the story slowly begins to make sense, and you realize how magnificent it is. The overall message that the game was trying to convey is fairly difficult to see and understand. I didn't realize it myself until a few weeks ago, after playing the original SOL for a couple years.

There are also 5 Snake Tales. These are 5 different mini-missions/stories involving the main character of the series Solid Snake. Three of the stories have alternative endings depending on how you defeat a boss or in what order you accomplish your objectives.

Graphics/Sound 10/10

The main theme for this game is just amazing, it was the first piece of video game music that I actually liked. Harry Gregson-Williams who is a great music composer did the main music for this game. He did music for movies such as The Rock and Enemy of the State. For certain cutscenes during the game you can choose an option for Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. That makes cutscenes such as the opening one very impressive, e.g. hearing the cars whiz by on the George Washington Bridge. The in game music is mediocre compared to what was previously described, but it is still quite good. All sound effects are realistic, muffled gunshots, footsteps on various surfaces, blood splattering on walls, squeaky locker hinges, and the lot. The character’s voices actors fit the characters. The right people voice Snake and Raiden. Some of the voice acting though is a bit off.

The graphics are the best I have ever seen; keep in mind that I don’t play a lot of different games. You can see individual strands of hair on Snake’s beard, raindrops hitting the muzzle of a gun, bullet casings bouncing off the floor, bugs on the floor, rivets in the hull of ship, and tiny words on someone’s identification badge (rather than a fine blur). The graphics are smooth and seemingly perfect.

Replayability 9/10

I do find the SOL game quite replayable. There are over 300 Dog Tags to collect, the names came from Konami's contest on konamijpn.com. At certain points, after you have collected a certain amount in either chapter you will get certain special items that allow your character to have unlimited ammo, or get a device that renders your character invisible to the enemy. If you wish to go through the game and find all sorts of Easter Eggs and such in the game that will certainly take many play-throughs. The story, for those whom it does not turn away, will definitely have you going back to catch more information or subtle details that you did not catch the first time around.

The VR Missions/Alternate Missions do provide hours, upon hours, upon hours of gameplay. There are 350+ VR Missions and 150+ Alternative missions. The different types of missions are: Sneaking, Eliminate All, Bomb Disposal, Hold-Up, Variety, Weapon, and Photograph modes. You can have seven characters that have their own unique set of missions: Raiden, Raiden (ninja), X Raiden, Snake, Pliskin, Tuxedo Snake, and MGS1 Snake. Some of these missions will keep you going for hours on end, while some of them will have you throwing your controller across the room in frustration, but it will still keep you occupied anywhere from 30-60 hours, maybe more if you go for top scores on all of them.

There are some additional features such as the Casting Theatre. This allows you to change the character skins on 8 pre-selected cutscenes, which can produce some hilarious results. You can square off against the bosses in 8 consecutive battles, this is quite fun, but if you die then you have to start over, which is quite frustrating especially when you are on the last boss. Konami threw in a special skateboarding mode, which is average in quality, but it only contains 2 different levels. But that is okay, since Metal Gear Solid is not a skateboarding game.

Final Recommendation

Buy for all gamers. You will not be disappointed.

Final Score- 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/14/03