Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance Review [SPOILERS]

Metal Gear Solid 2’s plot is split into two sections, Tanker and Plant. The Tanker section begins two years after the Shadow Moses incident, on an oil tanker by the coast of Manhattan. Solid Snake and Otacon are back, as members of Philanthropy, an anti-Metal Gear organization. Snake infiltrates the tanker because it is carrying Metal Gear RAY, a new amphibious type of Metal Gear developed by the US Marines. However, the tanker is also hijacked by Russian operatives, led by Colonel Sergei Gurlukovich, his daughter Olga, and Revolver Ocelot. Snake is able to document Metal Gear RAY, but then the Russians complete their takeover of the tanker, reaching the Marines in the hold. Ocelot kills the Marine commander, and then betrays Col. Gurlukovich, killing him before taking control of Metal Gear RAY. The tanker, sustaining heavy damage by this point, begins to collapse. Ocelot is then possessed by Liquid Snake, who lives on through his arm, which is attached to Ocelot, escaping the sinking tanker with Metal Gear RAY.

The Plant section begins two years after that, on the Big Shell, an offshore facility constructed to clean the oil spill caused by the destruction of the tanker. In this facility, the President of the United States, James Johnson, has been taken hostage by a terrorist organization calling themselves the Sons of Liberty. It is also here that the game enacts its famous protagonist switch. Rather than Solid Snake, who seemingly died in the tanker incident, Raiden (real name Jack) of FOXHOUND is sent by Colonel Roy Campbell to infiltrate the Big Shell and rescue the President. Also assisting with the mission is Rose, Jack’s girlfriend, as an analyst. 

Inside the Big Shell, Raiden encounters members of Dead Cell, a former anti-terrorism special forces unit now working with the Sons of Liberty, who claim to be led by Solid Snake despite his reported death. The members of Dead Cell are Vamp, a man with vampire-like abilities, Fortune, a woman who can make bullets fly by her, and Fatman, an explosives specialist. Raiden also finds survivors of a Navy SEAL response team, lieutenant Iroquois Pliskin and Peter Stillman, another explosives specialist who once mentored Fatman. Raiden and Pliskin disable the C4 explosives planted by Fatman before realizing they were just a ruse to activate other explosives in the facility. Raiden goes to disable these explosives and encounters Fatman, defeating him and stopping the destruction of the Big Shell, but sadly Stillman does not make it due to Fatman’s explosives. 

A cyborg ninja, not unlike Gray Fox from the last game, then appears to help Raiden, telling him where the President is. Raiden and Pliskin then prepare to evacuate the hostages, but are attacked by Dead Cell’s leader, in a Harrier jet fighter. Although this person identifies himself as Solid Snake, Iroquois Pliskin reveals that he is actually Solid Snake, and that Dead Cell’s leader is someone else. Raiden shoots down the Harrier, and then goes to find President Johnson.

Raiden finds the President, who has a great deal of information for him. To start, he reveals that the Big Shell is actually just a cover up for a massive new weapon, called Arsenal Gear, located beneath it. This Arsenal Gear also houses an advanced AI called GW. He also discloses that the entirety of the United States’ democratic election process is a sham, and that the country is actually run by a hidden organization called the Patriots, and that they were the ones who installed him as President. His predecessor, George Sears, is actually Solidus Snake, the third clone of Big Boss after Solid and Liquid Snake, and he is the one leading Dead Cell. Suddenly, Revolver Ocelot appears and kills the President. 

In order to stop Arsenal Gear, Raiden and co. determine that they need to upload a virus into its AI, GW. Raiden finds Emma Emmerich, the step-sister of Otacon, who has the virus to upload into GW. On the way to meet with Snake and Otacon, Vamp of Dead Cell appears and stabs Emma. Although Snake does his best to treat her, Emma dies from her injuries, and the virus is only 90% uploaded into GW. Otacon is sent to get the remaining hostages out of the Big Shell before it collapses, and then Snake suddenly knocks out Raiden, and he is captured by the cyborg ninja, who is actually Olga Gurlukovich.

Raiden wakes up inside of Arsenal Gear, captive in front of Solidus, Ocelot, and Olga. Solidus then reveals Raiden’s past life as a child soldier under him. After Solidus and Ocelot leave, Olga frees Raiden and explains that she is actually a double agent working for the Patriots in exchange for her child’s safety, and that they only knocked him out to get him inside Arsenal Gear. Snake is waiting inside with Raiden’s gear, but on the way to him, things get weird. Raiden begins receiving Codec transmissions from the Colonel, but they get increasingly erratic and hostile. Rose is also involved in some of these transmissions, revealing that she was sent by the Patriots to spy on him. Raiden then learns that the Colonel and Rose are not real, and that the transmissions are coming from GW, Arsenal Gear’s AI, and that they are going haywire because of the virus. 

Raiden then finds Snake, who must face off against Fortune of Dead Cell. Meanwhile, Raiden destroys multiple Metal Gear RAYs before the virus makes them non-functional. Olga then sacrifices herself to save Raiden from Solidus, telling him that he must stay alive in order for her child to survive. Snake and Raiden are then captured by Solidus and Revolver Ocelot. Ocelot reveals that he is actually working for the Patriots, and that the entirety of what’s happening is an exercise called the S3 Plan, designed to create a soldier on par with Solid Snake, and that everything at the Big Shell was designed as a parallel to Shadow Moses, such as the deaths of CIA agent Ames and the President mirroring those of DARPA Chief Donald Anderson and Kenneth Baker at Shadow Moses, and Dead Cell being a stand-in for the previous game’s FOXHOUND members. Even Solidus and his relationship with Raiden are a parallel to that of Solid Snake and Big Boss.

Ocelot then kills Fortune, and afterwards Liquid Snake, still inside his arm, possesses Ocelot again and says that he plans to hunt down the Patriots. He escapes with Metal Gear RAY and Snake pursues him as Arsenal Gear crashes into Manhattan. After the crash, Raiden receives a codec transmission from another AI in the image of Campbell and Rose, that explains that the real purpose of the S3 Plan is to control human thought and ideas in the digital age. The AI then orders Raiden to defeat Solidus or else Olga’s child and the real Rose would be harmed. Solidus then provokes Raiden by revealing that he killed his parents. Raiden does defeat Solidus in one final battle, and the world is saved from Arsenal Gear and the Sons of Liberty.

In the aftermath, Raiden meets up with Snake outside the wreckage of Federal Hall in Manhattan. Snake says that he and Otacon are going to use the virus disc to find the Patriots, as the information on their identities exists within its data. Raiden offers to help, but is told that he has other things to do and people to catch up with. Snake tells Raiden that despite the false nature of his mission, everything he felt and experienced was real. Snake also vows to find and rescue Olga’s child. He then reunites with the real Rose, and the two vow to begin a real life together. After the credits roll, an audio sequence with Snake and Otacon plays. They successfully datamine the virus disc for the identities of the Patriots, but learn that all the members have been dead for over one hundred years.

There is a lot to take in with the story of Metal Gear Solid 2, and Kojima brings even more meta commentary than the last game. The game was very far ahead of its time in terms of its commentary, with themes such as the Patriots’ goals of thought control and information control being incredibly accurate to how the digital age progressed in real life. Raiden’s questioning of reality in the final act as the AI Colonel and Rose break down, revealing that his entire mission was a ruse, is not unlike life in the current digital age, where misinformation and outright lies run rampant and shape people’s thoughts and worldviews. Kojima also brings his trademark fourth wall breaking during the final act, with the AI Colonel telling Raiden to “TURN OFF THE GAME CONSOLE RIGHT NOW,” and referencing past Metal Gear games during its breakdown. This sequence of GW going haywire is more relevant and chilling today than ever in our age of actual AI producing nonsensical answers and images.

Gameplay-wise, Metal Gear Solid 2 is a natural evolution of the first game’s mechanics. Snake/Raiden must carefully sneak around, avoiding enemy guards and taking them out if necessary. There are also additional mechanics, such as the ability to enter a first-person perspective for shooting and scoping out areas. The enemy AI has also been enhanced, giving them advanced responses and strategies for when they catch the player. The Codec also returns, with Snake and Raiden able to tune it to different frequencies and communicate with other characters. 

Graphically, Metal Gear Solid 2 is naturally a major upgrade over its predecessor, going from the PS1 to the PS2. The game features fully expressive and more detailed character models, as well as more detailed environments. The Big Shell in particular has an odd sort of beauty to it, being set out in the open ocean. This is most apparent to me during the sunset sniping section with Emma Emmerich. Like the last game, full-motion videos are also used to enhance the storytelling, particularly towards the end. The soundtrack is also very good, with electronic and drum/bass influences and some great ambient tracks. 

The enhanced port of Metal Gear Solid 2, Substance, has a few additional modes and features. These include Snake Tales, a series of non-canon missions involving Snake at the Big Shell, a boss rush mode, a casting theater mode that lets you swap character models in MGS2’s cutscenes, and a PS2 exclusive skateboarding mode where Snake and Raiden can skateboard. Seriously. It utilizes the engine from Konami’s Evolution Skateboarding, and there are missions and goals to complete with it. 

In conclusion, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance is one of the greatest games I have ever played, and it is everything a sequel should be. It delivers on the expectations set by its predecessor while also completely subverting them in unexpected ways with the protagonist switch and mind-bending final act. The game also enhances the foundation the first game laid with its gameplay and graphical improvements. With its deep and postmodern storytelling, Metal Gear Solid 2 is perhaps the best example of video games being an art form.