wow...just beat MGS2....
 

I rented it, you see...

That story reminds me of a 40-car pile up..... wow.... no one is who they seem.... I just watched the ending...including all 45 + minutes of endless babble from the colonel and rose.... I'm just confused.... And then there's Vamp. Reminds me off a Jerry Springer Episode.... He's a seemingly immortal bisexual who can walk on water and enjoys the taste of human blood, is apperantly in a relationship with Fortune, and was shaking up with her father?!?!?

but enough about the story... the game is fun.... so rare to play a secret agent game where the agent tries to stay, well, secret. And then, there are the small gems in the game.... Grabing a soldier and using him as a hostage.... Shooting down a seagull with a surface-to-air missle launcher..... shooting an enemy with the M9 and saying "Fall down" at the perfect time. wow. Great game. :D

Any game which has an ending which requires me to search for an answer from elsewhere for an explanation, nonetheless have said explanation be mind-boggling complicated, is hardly worth beating.

Such would be the same for books too then, I would suppose. Or movies.

Metal Gear Solid 2 had a layered and, yes, very difficult to understand story, but getting a little help to figure out all the little fine details you may have missed to better understand the story ... ... well, there's no shame in it.

Unless you're the type of person who thought that "Fight Club" was all about Brad Pitt being Edward Norton, Cracker.(It wasn't, by the way . It was layered too!)

But I can agree with everyone who thought that the story didn't live up to the previous glory of Metal Gear Solid. When juxtaposed with Snake's coolness, Raiden came up short as a whiny little jerk boy.

Kinda like every Final Fantasy main character for the Playstation. With the exception, of course, of Final Fantasy 9 (which I can draw no reference from. Haven't played it).

(Edit: I'm not trying to be a snot, Cracker. Sorry if I came across as one. Peace, man. Merry Christmas, too!)

For me, the problem with Metal Gear Solid 2, isn't so much the storyline, but so much was done in such a rushed fashion. Personally, I think the tanker portion of the game was planned out really well, but after that things start to fall apart.

If feels as if, between the push to get some really good games for the PS2 system, as well as the desire for the next Metal Gear Solid, MGS2 got put out just a bit too early. It could have used some polishing.

Example: I would have nixed the whole bit about Raiden's experience being patterned after Solid Snake's experience. Why? Well, if that's the actual truth, then the result is exaclty the opposite of what the Patriots want. At the end (of MGS1), Snake was almost completely free of the Patriots direct control, and didn't trust authority.¹ Plus, at the end of MGS2, Raiden seems like he very much could go the same way.

Plus, the ninja, while cool in MGS1, is really lame in MGS2. I was rather hoping for a re-incarnation of the original², but what happened ended up being the dumbest aspect of an otherwise pretty decent game.

Oh well, thems the breaks.

Sky Warrior Bob

¹ Unless, this whole plan was really to get Snake to trust a traitor. Remember, Raiden has been altered, as he no longer had human blood, and has numberous nano machines in him. Snake's might have long died off, but Raiden could be packing a new type.

² Admittedly, Grey Fox was crushed to death by Metal Gear Rex, but in sci-fi almost anything is possible. Consider this, a cybernetic clone, who's persona is based on Grey Fox, but has no orgainic matter to speak of. What? Well, just be glad I'm not writing the Metal Gear stories....

Why must everybody make fun of Raiden?

Because Raiden is a whiney little pansy with a mullet, and is a wannabe Snake

I would have accepted Raiden as a character if he wasn't part of the Metal Gear legacy. However, I would only have put up with him in a game worth putting up with him in. Like Cloud from FF7, and Squall from FF8. Absolutely hated both of them, but I played along because I enjoyed the rest of what the games have to offer and so forth.

If MGS2 had no Snake in it whatsoever, I may have accepted him as a badly written character (though the idea is still mindblowing. Kojima-san is a rather decent writer) and put up with his crap. Fact of the matter is, we had a constant contrast between him and Snake. It is painfully obvious that Snake is the better written, and more likeable character.

Which is also strange because I disliked Snake in MGS2 when juxtaposed with the phenomenal character portrayed in MGS.

So yeah, Raiden is a whiny little jerk boy! So there! ;)

You just wait! The Raidens of the world shall unite, and rule over all you puny humans!