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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Critical Close Up - Metal Gear Solid 2 (MUST WATCH)

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Aldro on 24 July 2013

Saw this, had to share. If any real MGS fan enters this thread => You really ought to see this. If not: What a shame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-2YuPGYabw

Think about everything you know and then think about why you know it.

Are our thoughts hardwired from previous experiences or do we have actuall real control over them.

And if we do have that much control over our thoughts, how do we filter out objective reality from what we just want to be reality?

 

Games are perfect for liars and sadists, they are manipulative illusions deliberately designed to dupe players into believing they have the agency of choice.

But in reality, almost every possible interaction and outcome of a game have been carefully cultivated by rigorous play testing.


You are not a secret agent sent out on a mission to rescue the president, and you weren't last time either. You are tapping on a piece of plastic in front of a TV screen, playing a game.

 

The first hour is a carefully constructed tech demo designed to completely pander to fans.

This opening tanker sequence is the most convincing piece of misdirection of them all. It exceeds what was shown before, it carefully sets up for a sequel that was too good to be true...

...It isn't shy about showing off the game play changes. The game points out that guards are tougher than before and you can shoot out lights to play with shadows. There is multiple entry ways and a non-linear level design, but the layout of this place funnels you into the vast amounts of detail they put in here...

...Everything about the tanker is built to showcase an ideal sequel. Its what the players expected and wanted out of MGS2...

...but then Snake dies. You are an hour into the game and suddenly the game as you know it starts all over again. And this time, its a lot like the first game...

...The tone is now considerably darker, and the levels are now linear metal corridors. The dialogue is really stiff and dull, and we figure out that Raiden, who could not be anymore different than Snake, is going through an almost nightmarish ordeal...

...And these codec calls are relentless. Seriously, you play the game in 1 minute bursts here. The frequency of these calls got a lot of backlash in reviews of the first game, and were light in the tanker.

So you have to wonder why they so furiously return to reexplain tutorials and exposition that you already know.

These issues could not have passed play-testing, it had to have been included deliberately to make a point.

If the first few minutes of the tanker chapter are what a great Metal Gear Solid sequel would look like, then the first few minutes of this chapter show just how much worse it could have gone.

There is stuff here that lashes out against both fans and critics. Its a facade that the game maintains up until the very end.



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NiKKoM on 24 July 2013

You know something is really messed up when they have to make a 35 minute video to explain MGS2..



 

Face the future.. Gamecenter ID: nikkom_nl (oh no he didn't!!) 

Aldro on 24 July 2013
NiKKoM said:
You know something is really messed up when they have to make a 35 minute video to explain MGS2..

Please watch it!

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty deals with how identity can be affected by the philosophies of one's society (a 'meme') and the effects of censorship on society. They even reflected that by marketing the game the way they did. Fucking crazy.



ishiki on 24 July 2013

it's neat, and 2 at the time was one of my favorite games... but after playing 4, I just felt like any genius was accidental... no offense :D



Aldro on 24 July 2013
ishiki said:

it's neat, and 2 at the time was one of my favorite games... but after playing 4, I just felt like any genius was accidental... no offense :D

Added stuff to the OP. If you didn't watch it, atleast read some of that xD



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iBlah on 24 July 2013

but how does the president who grabs your balls fit into all this ?



 

Aldro on 24 July 2013
iBlah said:
but how does the president who grabs your balls fit into all this ?

Its Kojimas way of saying: "I have you by the balls"

LOL No idea.



Xxain on 24 July 2013

Im about 15mins in and so far nothing not revealed in the game ot talked about to death already has been shown. Ima keep watchin though.



Xxain on 24 July 2013

The first interesting details is Raidens response according to wheter you did the the Tanker Mission. I did not know that because Ive never started the without doing the tanker.



Aldro on 24 July 2013
Xxain said:
The first interesting details is Raidens response according to wheter you did the the Tanker Mission. I did not know that because Ive never started the without doing the tanker.

Yeah.

And this =>

"When call Snake while holding the Nikita, he gives you some basic fluff about controlling the thing as usual. Then at the end, he says this:

Unlike VR training, you won't have a bird's-eye view to help you control the missile.

So what, right? It's just telling you that it's all first-person now, because you're going through vents and whatnot and it's more realistic than the older games.

Then you realize. MGS1 had a bird's-eye view for the missile.


It might not mean anything. But it might be a clue hidden within MGS2, that retroactively establishes MGS1 as Raiden's VR simulation of Shadow Moses."

 

As well as =>


"Raiden slew Solidus when the player won the fight.

MGS2 visually acknowledged Raiden's transformation when the player returned to the title screen. Whereas the player had seen Solid Snake's face at the start, he saw Raiden's face after having beaten the game.

Solid Snake's face had been colored the same shade of red used for lethal weapons in the player's inventory during both MGS1 and MGS2.

Raiden's face was colored the same shade of blue reserved for non-lethal weapons in the player's inventory-MGS2's innovation upon MGS1's combat.

The changed title screen formally depicted Raiden's awakening and MGS2's gameplay shift away from MGS1. "

Bild:


"Raiden had escaped the delusion that he was Solid Snake, and he had escaped the player's control over him as an actor.

In a concluding cutscene, Raiden threw away his dogtags with the player's name chiseled thereon.

MGS2 had ditched MGS1, and Raiden had ditched the player "