My Top 100: #32 – Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

 

I look back on the last generation of consoles quite fondly.  Between 2000 and 2005, the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox were cranking out next-gen gold left and right.  Huge franchises came back with a bang (like Medal of Honor and Grand Theft Auto) and newcomers asserted themselves as series that would be sticking around for a while (like Halo and Call of Duty).

At E3 in 2001, both Nintendo and Microsoft had upcoming console releases to generate buzz and excitement.  Sony’s PlayStation 2 had been out for several months at that point, but was still able to get people talking with a few great-looking games.

The biggest name at their presentation was an old standby, a gruff veteran of gaming whose last game had us all doing everything but “feel asleep”…  of course, I’m talking about Solid Snake.

When previews for Metal Gear Solid 2 were shown, people couldn’t tell if they were watching gameplay or pre-rendered cutscenes.  Konami was *saying* it was gameplay, but there was no way that was possible…  those clips of Snake running through the halls of a sinking tanker ship looked just a bit too good to be true.

It was a game everyone was talking about, and was hyped as the PS2’s second killer app behind Gran Turismo 3.  I set out to play the original for PS1 to see what the fuss was about, and I enjoyed the heck out of it.  When November rolled around, I’d be able to see for myself just how good the sequel looked.

 

 

The first part of the game had me picking my jaw up off the floor.  The wind and rain effects looked amazing, and it really did feel like I was playing an interactive movie.  Being able to switch to a first person view for firing your weapon was awesome, and the mission itself was quite fun as well.  The prologue mission ended with a bang, and I prepared for more crazy action in part two…  wait.

What’s wrong with Snake’s voice?  I know he’s wearing a scuba mask, but he sounds different.

Today, we all know about the ol’ Raiden switcheroo the game pulled on us.  At the time, I was thinking I’d end up playing as Snake (or Pliskin) again somewhere down the road.  That didn’t happen, but that was fine.  No big deal, I guess!

 

 

Whenever I think of this game, two things stand out the most.

I got it for Christmas in ’01, but decided to tackle Grand Theft Auto III first.  The following summer, I was in my bedroom one morning, playing MGS2.  I had made it all the way to the battle with Fortune when a knock came at the door.  Since we lived out of town, a knock on the door usually meant that it was a neighbor looking for this or asking for that.  Trips to Beaverdam for casual visits were usually big occasions!

I opened the door, and lo and behold, there was my old friend Michael!  I’ve mentioned him in prior posts, but he was the friend who lived across the street, and had moved to Ontario with his family about four years earlier.  I was quite glad to see him, so I shut the game off and got caught up with him for the next little while.  He had to go into New Maryland (about five minutes down the road) to fix something on his truck, so I hopped in and went with him.  Josh lived right next door to the garage Mike was going to, so while we waited for his truck to get fixed up, we went over and bugged him for a while.

That day was a bit surreal, just because it was us kids from Howarth Acres, hanging out once again.  The old crew was (partially) back together again.  Good times!

My other memory goes back a bit later that year.

On one particularly lazy Saturday, I decided that I was going to sit down and take the time to beat MGS2.  I had been dragging my feet with the game, since my recent social activities took precedence over my video gaming.  This day, however, I’d get comfy and beat the last chunk of the game.

It was a bigger chunk than I had previously thought, though…  those cutscenes, as interesting and hilariously convoluted as they got, dragged on for much longer than I anticipated.  By the time the story got all Matrix-ey, Arsenal Gear crashed into New York City and Solidus “Mr. President” Snake bit the bullet, it was almost 1am!  I had been going at it for a good while, and was so glued to the TV that I didn’t even realize the sun had gone down, much less that it was well into Sunday.

I turned off the PS2, and remembered that there was a CART race from Australia that was about to start.  Perfect timing!  I flipped it over to TSN, and the pace car had JUST pulled off.  They were going green!

Here’s what happened next…

 

 

That was crazy!  All the drivers involved ended up being just fine, but I was glued to the TV for another little while because of it.  At some point between this wreck and the end of Saturday Night Live, I started snoring away…  I guess I did “feel asleep”, after all.

Here’s a better view of the wreck!  Insane!