"Plenty of substance, but no class."

You heard me. No class. Ever since MGS2 came out and began getting rave reviews from everyone and thier pet dog I've sought to give the game a try. I browsed the MGS2 message board every so often, when I grew bored. I heard the good and the bad. More often than not I heard that the gameplay was stellar but the plot was twisted and .. how should I say this? It didn't know when to quit. When Substance made it's appearance on the XBOX I rented it as soon as the chance came up. Alas, MGS2 is a wildly overhyped game and while I can find some fun here it's hardly enough to warrant a purchase, much less the hype and acclaim it receives.

Gameplay
While Metal Geat Solid 2 tries to be stealthy, it's more of an after thought than anything else. You play the role of an agent of FOXHOUND, a super-secret organization that does..er..super-secret stuff. In all honesty, the story is so twisted and folds over itself so many times it's best to skip over just who you are for sure. You start out sent in to stop certain stuff from hitting a certain fan. If you catch my drift. Even though you're billed as a ''secret'' agent, being secret is never forced upon you. You can always blast your way out of every situation by snapping a neck here or shooting a guard there.

Stealth is an afterthought. Only of use when you don't feel like using the games clumsy aiming system to shoot down the baddies. With your weapon out you'll aim haphazardly at whatever comes near and you can hope to make your shot. If that doesn't suit you, you can go into a 1st person view but even then your gun will get in your way and obscure your shot. You do have a nice assortment of weapons though. Everything from grenades to rocket launchers and assault rifles. Very stealthy. I wonder how he fits it all in his pants?

Your stealth moves are fairly varied though. You can hang over rails, tap on walls or throw stuff to distract guards, roll, take hostages and all sorts of other nifty stuff. Unfortunately, there's so much stuff to do that it's hard to get a handle on it all at once and in the beginning you'll be setting off alarms like nobodys business. This leads to you getting shot full of holes and then.. mission failure. It takes some practice.

So, the controls are awkward and the aiming is shoddy. Thankfully you've got a whole slew of VR training missions so you can practice handling your weapons. Unfortunately that's all it's good for and otherwise it just seems like an afterthought. As do the ''Snakes Tales'' missions with lack of voice acting and over-the-top difficulty. You can also collect dog tags (gathered by almost literally scaring them out of guards) and take pretty pictures of stuff in the story mode. Unfortunately, you'd have to replay the story to do this stuff and it's just not worth it.

The ratio of endless Codec chatter to actual gameplay in MGS2 must be 10:1. You will literally play for 5 or 10 minutes and be interrupted by a 20 minute Codec conversation or simply endless cutscene. Almost the only time you'll see gameplay in the story mode is going from Boss A to Boss B. This might be tolerable if the Codec talk was actually fun, and if the story didn't involve so many assinine plot twists. Everyone in the game gets double-crossed and betrayed ten times over, and your main characters girlfriend can't even let you save the game without whining at you. That's not even to mention the fat bomb expert on roller blades, the bisexual vampire, people being posessed by severed arms and a lady with the power of luck. I felt more like I was watching an anime than playing a game.

In all honesty, Hideo Kojima seems to have forgotten the most important rule in video games. Show us, don't tell us. If you have amazing hardware like a PS2 or XBOX at your feet then WHY bother with all this talking? I hurt.

Sound and Music
It certainly sets the mood, I can give it that. You make different noises as you walk over different surfaces, voice acting is good as well, and the music is well suited to every occasion. The song during the ending is rather nice as well. At least this is one area in which MGS2 can be satisfied with.

Controls
The controls are .. awkward. Even though there are four setups to choose from there's just too much to do in too many different situations. Should I push X or Y when I want to grab someone? Do I have to be in front of in back? Weapon out or weapon away? Boxers or briefs? With real practice you can pull off anything at anytime but I still get the feeling that MGS2 crumbles under it's own weight. It tries to do far too much.

If I need to get an accurate shot I have to click the thumbstick to go into first person, hold X, aim and fire. Then to escape I've got to click the stick again and blah blah blah. And god forgive me if I should be crouching. Should I decide to move forward, my character will decide to crawl around unless I hit the crouch button a second time. It makes for some aggrivating situations until you get adjusted.

Replay Value
Bleh. Unless you're so in love with this game you feel like tackling the story mode more than once or dealing with the overly difficult Snakes Tales you won't find much replay value here aside from the VR missions. Granted, there's a boatload of extras in the game like new costumes and other difficulties there is no real motivation to get them. Strugging with the controls and shoddy gameplay is just no fun.

Buy or Rent?
Please. Don't fall for the hype. Do not turn into one of those insane MGS2 fanboys whom try to deny this games faults. Rent before you buy.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/02, Updated 11/21/02