Metal Gear Solid 2: More relatable now than ever.

Introduction:

I've always been intrigued by the Metal Gear series after I played through Ground Zeroes, The Phantom Pain, Peace Walker and Metal Gear Rising.

I finally got around to Metal Gear Solid 2 on PlayStation 2 and thought it was worth writing about.

Tanker:

Everyone knows the start of this game. It's the perfect essence of a stealth mission while also setting you up for rest of the game, the setting is dripping and oozing with content to be explored. I'd say the best details are the minute details; like the famously known ice bucket or if Snake stays out in the rain too long he will catch a cold, sneezing and effectively letting the guards know of his presence. I do however wish they kept the sequence where you have to run from the flooding waters at the end of the Tanker mission, either way what a thrilling way to start a game!

Plant:

This is the meat of the game, from freezing bombs and sneaking around in an enemy disguise to getting the HF blade and fighting Metal Gear RAYs, Tanker was essentially a prologue to this part of the game. My ONLY criticism is the fact that even on Extreme difficulty the max Metal Gear RAYs you can fight are 20 but in a cutscene it says there are 25.

Story:

The story is as complex as most fans know it to be. Tanker is set in 2007, as Snake and Otacon follow a lead on a Metal Gear project by the US Marines they realize the bigger picture once Ocelot arrives on the scene. The death of Commandant Scott Dolph and Sergei Gurlukovich are a major part in this story due to Olga being the daughter of Sergei and Scott's daughter being a member of Dead Cell.

2 years after the tanker incident which Solid Snake was framed for as an excuse to create Big Shell, Raiden is sent on a mission to rescue the president. Now in my opinion the first sign you can tell something is off is the first codec call with the Colonel when he says "When we need to reach you... Contact you, the Codec will beep." and I feel like it's a little bit of foreshadowing for what's to come.

Even before Raiden can rescue the President he has to disable bombs set up by Fatman, who isn't even with the other members of Dead Cell on the ideals part of their plan.

After you defeat the egomaniac that is Fatman, you go off to find the President but not before you bump into the Ninja who gives you an outfit and tells you to go find an AK-74U to blend in with the enemy to find Ames who knows where the President is. Ames has a pacemaker which you need the directional microphone to hear to spot him. Once you find him and talk to him about where the President is and a little bit about The Patriots, Ocelot and Solidus Snake show up to which you use the directional microphone to listen in on the conversation. After a bit of Chitchat between those two and Olga, Ocelot spots us talking to Ames, getting spotted in the process of trying to blend in.

After a panicking getaway you go get the President, use a remote rocket to blow up the electric floor generator that guards the room he is in and talk to him. He informs you more about the nuke, The Patriots and everything he knows. Ocelot shows up again but this time kills the President. 

At this point I recall the relationship between Raiden and Rose getting heavy, rejection becomes a form of protection for Raiden as we see his character come out here and there throughout the story. The main reason I'm not entirely focused on the relationship in the story I will explain in a bit.

Artificial Intelligence:

We all know that the Colonel and Rose in the game are AI created for the S3 project, the problem shows up when you realize the whole game was in control of The Patriots.

The problem with the AI is it wanting to filter and create context, something our waking government actually aspires to do through censorship and saying what is right and wrong.

Another problem with AI in general, even in Metal Gear's story, is they rely on humans to fix technical problems. Metal Gear Arsenal was essentially a big AI defense program that not even Solidus Snake wanted, all he wanted was to stop The Patriots but due to them rigging Raiden's pulse to both Olga's child and Rose, Raiden has no choice but to listen to the AI and kill Solidus.

The reason I'm not focused on the relationship between Raiden and Rose is the possibility that it wasn't really her entirely and just an AI to test Raiden emotionally and the S3 plan.

Selection for Societal Sanity (S3 Plan):

The S3 plan was lied about to many people in the events of Metal Gear Solid 2, it was called the "Solid Snake Program" as a way to trick people into thinking it was an exercise to recreate Solid Snake. In reality it was a project to manipulate world events and decisions of others, due to the overwhelming information from people on the internet The Patriots sought out control of everything entirely.

Final thoughts:

My final thoughts are this; AI is definitely something to fear on a grand scale like this but in reality it will always need human intervention and direction to function properly.

My take from Metal Gear Solid 2 is to always choose your own decisions and think for yourself. AI can be helpful here and there but don't let it be the forefront for your ideas or decisions.