Caltrops - Gamerasutra - Re: in defense of MGS2

Forum Overview :: Gamerasutra

by Lizard_Retarded_Queen 04/30/2003, 12:03pm PDT

FABIO wrote:

Disagree. The plant portion was dull. It had an incredibly dull layout (6 rooms of roughly the same size and shape all connected by the same "shoot the drone" bridge minigames), fetch quests (bomb defusing, although the sniping part was cool), horrible boss pacing (4 hours between the first boss, Olga, and the second, Fatman), and plot elements that ripped off MGS1 verbatum and are explained away with bizzaro logic rather than the truth of "we didn't feel like thinking of anything new".

I disagree, although I do see your point. I think perhaps the influence of the VR missions as well as having played the games on a variety of difficulty levels made me a lot more interested with how details like guard placement could radically alter what tactics were more successful.

The bosses sucked. Aside from Olga, who was decent (which takes place on the "non-suck" tanker level), the only fun boss fight was the harrier. Ironically, the easiest boss of MGS1 was metal gear itself (bonus points to the genius who points out the misuse of "ironic" first!). It seemed impossible at first, but once you nailed down the pattern you could beat it every time without taking any hits. All the bosses in MGS2 were just like that. Worse then that actually, Fatman was just plain annoying (oh no! one small charge of semtax will bring this entire platform down!) and do I even need to mention the metal gear Ray fight? The pointless last boss fight?

I would understand if you were critical of all the bosses in the game, as that would be logically consistent. But I don't see what makes Olga all that distinct from Vamp or any of the others. The Metal Gear Ray fight was a disappointment as it was basically a battle of endurance, but the others all had at least a few different choices you could make in how to fight them successfully. For instance, in the Harrier battle on the harder difficulty level, a box could be used to great effect to dodge the machinegun.

The reason I like bosses like Fatman is that they really piss me off. It is a personal affront every time they take me down because of some detail I missed, and I can't turn the damn thing off until I beat him.

Yes it was cool, the first dozen times I did it. But like with any novely in any game, once it wore off I just sticked with what worked rather than what looked cool. Simply switching to 1st first mode as soon as you entered a new room and shooting everyone with the silenced SOCOM was far more effective than any sneaky tactic you could employ. This method also points out an embarresing flaw in the AI: if a guard is tranquilized a patrol will be sent to investigate his not reporting in, however if you shoot him to death no one will ever get suspicious. OOPS!

There are indeed glaring oversights in the AI like the one you note. I really do think that the VR missions might have given you a slightly different perspective on the usefulness of different tactics in the game, but of course that is Konami's fault for releasing the original version without them.

Well I guess if you found collecting all 50+ dog tags fun then you'll enjoy anything. Did you also think chocobo racing in FFX was a hoot? Minigames and extras should be fun, not tedious affairs just to say that you've completed every challenge a game has to offer. Besides, the extras sucked. MGS1 gave you the ninja's cloak suit. MGS2 gives you....fucking different colored wigs? If you enjoyed finding out which wig matched each game mood, then maybe you should pick this up.

I am not sure if it is simply that your original MGS2 lacked the feature or you never bothered to unlock it, but MGS2:S does include a stealth suit for both Snake and Raiden. The wigs are the stupidest possible way of giving Raiden cheat abilities like infinite ammo, but I think that is part and parcel of the game designer's intent, which is apparently to make the player despise and pity the main character. Unusual, but hardly unforgivable.

Holding up characters, as was revealed in the VR missions to great effect, is in many ways more challenging and interesting than some of the boss fights. They have absolutely nothing in common with randomized, crippled control based bullshit like the Chocobo Races, or for that matter most of FFX's fruity minigames.

Hey! VR missions! Something that should have been there in the first place! RAWK!

Very true. You will get no argument from me on that. But like I said, now that the full version is out for both systems, there is no reason a first time player shouldn't get either.

There's a huge difference between realistic and "holy fucking shit does this get any more retarded?".

You mean like that kickass diagram SC had of all the world's computer's being infected by the megavirus of Independence Day proportions? Yeah, that cut scene made my day.

And for those efforts you receive....more wigs!

Again, this could just be part of my gradual metamorphosis into a Japanese teeny bopper that their fruity platformers began, but the purpose of doing a MGS2 level well is much like with Devil May Cry's rating system. If the game does not differentiate between the player's achievements at all, there is comparatively little reason to replay the game, even with games that are otherwise enjoyable (like SC).