Metal Gear Solid 2 turns 20: 5 reasons to replay it

Metal Gear Solid 2 turns 20

As someone once said "Relatives are not chosen". In fact, in every large family there is a somewhat eccentric brother, who came out of who knows where, capable of surprising things and at the same time giving milk to the knees. The classic brother of which one wonders: "but whose son will he be?".

Curious, because the episodes that make up the regular series of Metal Gear Solid seem to lend themselves very well to this type of comparison, without count that, not even on purpose, the genetic link between brothers is one of the central pillars of the epic. November 13, 2021 marks the twenty years since the arrival on the American market of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the "strange" brother of the gang, considered by much of the videogame public to be a bit like the black sheep of the family In this article, however, we will try to identify five elements that made it special and worthy of being remembered even today, for better or for worse.

Are you ready to infiltrate the next lines?

5. The change of protagonist

The presence of Raiden as the protagonist in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was completely unexpected Let's open our mouth wide and immediately extract the poisoned tooth on which our tongue has been beating for years: Raiden. Let's be clear, we are not so angry with the character himself, as with the trick from "Snake is there, Snake is not there" with which that crafty Kojima has literally duped us.

During the dissemination of preliminary information and trailers for Metal Gear Solid 2, the Japanese designer in fact kept the presence of the White Demon hidden by any means, even going so far as to omit it from the scenes in which he would later be the absolute protagonist in the complete version. Kojima left nothing to chance and even forbade the voice actor who would have voiced the character, Quinton Flynn, from making any statements about his plans and what he was working on.

Snake, Snake, Snake, Snake everywhere . There was no way to suspect that, as soon as the prologue was finished, we would then only smell the smell of Snake. When players found themselves commanding an all-new hero, Raiden, the feeling was a mixture of "Are we kidding?" and "Well, this section will end soon", and instead ... And instead we are faced with one of the most unsettling videogame deceptions in history, which has disoriented, confused and, if you like, disappointed thousands of fans all over the world.

It must be said that the good Hideo has always had the vice of sailor promises: after all it is the same one that in the trailer of the first Metal Gear Solid showed how the entire base of Shadow could be torn apart Moses with C4 explosives. Tsk, but when ever?

4. The soundtrack

The soundtrack of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is an authentic masterpiece The landing on Playstation 2 benefited Metal Gear Solid under many aspects: the undoubtedly better graphics, the gameplay enriched by greater possibilities ... The element that most of all benefited from the generational step forward was probably the soundtrack.

The musical scores of the first chapter were already entered the legend and to better celebrate the union between the saga and the new Sony monolith, Kojima and producer Rika Muranaka decided it was time to aim high. Very high. Let's say very high.

In fact, they addressed no less than Hans Zimmer, one of the greatest living composers of film music. The German author, Oscar winner for "The Lion King", however, replied spades to the offer and the Japanese duo was thus forced to "fall back" on one of the artists belonging to the team of Zimmer himself: Harry Gregson-Williams.

The soundtrack that the British musician extracted from the hat turned out to be extraordinary, a reworking of the themes composed by TAPPY for the first Metal Gear Solid that was miraculous. The cocktail of electronic, symphonic and choral sounds lent a sense of grandeur to the production that we had never tasted before and helped to increase the epic aura of the brand.

Okay, we forgive you for having us given a lot of other good stuff ... but you don't know what you missed, Hans.

3. Topicality of the topics

With Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Hideo Kojima has known to be ahead of the times as only geniuses know how to do Twenty years. Four decades. Two decades. Yet the second Solid episode of the Metal Gear genre today seems more relevant than ever, with its cauldron of content that only Kojima's imagination could anticipate.

His visionary talent allowed him to insert into the soul of the narrating arguments that then, in 2001, at the dawn of the Internet for all, were still out of focus, issues seen as distant in time or even exaggerated in the eyes of many. But, as we know, a genius is a genius not by chance, and in hindsight Snake's dad showed that the future was already there, especially as regards some thorny factors of society.

The plot of Metal Gear Solid 2 is imbued with extremely modern political, economic and social references and an importance that only after years have we been able to fully understand. The conspiracy theories; the massive presence of artificial intelligences in our life; the eternal struggle between personal freedom and collective security; the control and manipulation of information as real power. Are these issues that tell you something?

Give us the numbers of Superenalotto Hideo, which we then do in half.

2. The boss fight against Fatman

The battle against Fatman is one of the weirdest moments not only in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty but in the entire saga We are ready to bet: there was a moment in Metal Gear Solid 2 where several of you paused the game, staring at a point of the wall with lost eyes and then abandoning himself to despair like not even Artax in the Swamp of Sadness in "The Neverending Story".

That moment must have been undoubtedly the battle against Fatman, certainly one of the most grotesque points of the whole Kojimian production.

"Psycho Mantis, Sniper Wolf, Vulcan Raven ... please come back, we can explain!", if you too have given birth to this thought in the middle of the fight against the crazy Sons of Liberty bomber, we understand you all right. The design of the bomber with a few extra pounds, named after the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, immediately jumped to the eye to be anything but memorable. Or rather, it was, but for the wrong reasons.

Freezing the explosives while Fatman glided gracefully on her skates, even if it were Carolina Kostner, it was of a disarming bitterness, a setback to the majesty of the boss fight of the progenitor and of those still to come with the following Metal Gears.

We will be able to forget where we parked the car, what to buy at the supermarket, the ATM pin, the name of our children ... but forget the tragicomic fight with Fatman no, that will be really impossible.

1. The final speech

Snake's words at the end of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty are full of meaning Where the first Metal Gear Solid made the transmission of genes one of the founding elements of its narrative, the sequel seemed to take a further step as regards the legacy to be left to posterity.

Under the blanket of refined gameplay, the saga has in fact always had the elegant tendency to wanting to teach us something, placing ourselves in front of implicit Martullian questions capable of giving life to a reflection. In this sense, the words of Solid Snake, spoken by David Hayter right on the bell of the final movie, have the power to make us bring home an interesting elixir, which does not focus on science or nature, but on the experiences of each of us. .

In a confession to be honest, perhaps a little "explain", our hero exalts the importance of history, of the past, of everything that a human being builds during his or her existence and that ends up being then be handed down. The prodigies of the digital age, according to Snake and therefore according to the Kojima of 2001, could also lend a big hand as regards the survival of all those values ​​not written in our DNA, such as art or subjective sensations.

After all, if we pause for a moment to think about it, it is precisely what we live for.

What do you think? What are the other good or bad reasons to remember Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty today, a lifetime after its release?

Have you noticed any mistakes?