I'm tired of reading so many reviews for MGS2 that are prefaced with "It's a great game but it made no sense at all and Raiden was gay." It is sad to see that so few people who played Metal Gear Solid 2 thought about anything deeper than what was explicitly told to them during the game. Yes the game is complex, yes things are not always explained as well as they should have been and yes Raiden is not as cool as Snake, however that does not change the fact that Metal Gear Solid 2 might be the most intelligent game ever created.
MGS2 is a work of postmodern art. Pick up any other game and you find it's about solving puzzles or hacking and slashing your way to victory with an overly-badass character. What Kojima figured was that videogames are inherently post modern, so why not take things to the next step? It's why rations automatically heal wounds, how ammo is found in a spinning box floating a foot above the ground, it's in how you have to wait for a loading time between areas, and in every other countless way the game tells you that it is a game - not real life. People wanted realism, instead they got a fat man on roller blades, a vampire and a main character who not only wasn't Solid Snake, but who was actually a whinny, selfish, childish ("Did you say Nerd?") girlie man to go along with countless other oddities. The game challenged so many players expectations and wants, almost taunting them to continue. It amazes me that in a series where the fans were all looking for realism, Kojima would create a game that forces the player to question the reality of everything around him. The plot of the game and the experience for the player are one in the same - human control. The S3's goal is to see if it can get Raiden to complete his mission and do everything they expect of him despite his not wanting to at every turn. It is the same for the player, 'this doesn't make any sense', 'why am I not playing as Snake?', 'Raiden, turn the game console off now!', 'why am I naked?!?!', etc. the game goes as far as to actually TELL YOU to stop playing, just to see if you will, but everyone kept playing. We all reluctantly got to the end, hoping for it to all make sense so we could rationalize it into some form of a possible reality only to find out that the whole point of the 'game' was to see if 'Raiden' would make it far enough to be told that it was all just a TEST to see if he would make it that far. Even once he knows this the mission is not over, he has no choice but to finish it and he reluctantly does, much in the same way that I doubt anyone got to that point in the game simply to drop the controller and quit. The backlash at this game stems from the success of the games message. The lack of 'control' players felt lead them to summarize the game with the usual "it doesn't make sense and Raiden is gay" that I hear to this day. Few people saw this aspect of the game and consequently few people appreciate it.
Raiden is a flawed character. Perhaps the gaming industry just wasn't ready for it, as virtually all the characters you'll find in today's games are the ideal, always badass, and generally the type that embody the best aspects of human nature, certainly not a whinny, self centered man who is embarrassed by his past. The fatal 'flaw' people always seemed to find in MGS2 was that you play as Raiden, instead the ideal game character, Snake. Raiden's flaws are the flaws of everyone, the flaws of your average person. The point that Raiden is in fact YOU is constantly driven home throughout the game. His noticeably feminine look to help female players identify with him, lines like "I've spent hours in VR, I feel like some sort of legendary mercenary", and "I've gone through VR for the Shadow Moses", the telling of Raiden to "turn the game console off now" and finally the part at the end where Raiden looks down at his dog tags and they have YOUR NAME ON THEM. So you see, the main character of MGS2 is YOU, and this is a fact that makes much of the arguing over Raiden seem fairly ironic.
The ending, where our flawed representative of the masses chooses his own life over the antagonist who dreams of taking back "freedom, civil rights, opportunities - The founding principles of this country," is a brilliant take on our selfish nature as a species. The AI tells you to look at the strange juxtapositions of morality around you. Solidus can only achieve his goals through killing Raiden, the Patriots pawn, while Raiden must kill Solidus to save Rose and Olga's child, thus willingly serving the Patriots. The depth of this game is amazing. Consider how the S3's plan was to censor information, much in the same way Raiden was censored from all of the trailers and clips of the game before its release. The actual hype leading up to the game mimicked the game itself. The most brilliant thing to me is how, Kojima can be substituted for the Patriots, the game itself for the S3 Plan and the player for Raiden. This is a game that talks directly to the player. This is not a story about terrorists and agents; this is an experience about us. A sequel created by our own expectations and experience just like the characters we dreamt up.
MGS2 is the perfect example of what the Patriot are trying to save. A treasure lost in the sea of garbage that the idiots produce everyday.
MGS2 is a work of postmodern art. Pick up any other game and you find it's about solving puzzles or hacking and slashing your way to victory with an overly-badass character. What Kojima figured was that videogames are inherently post modern, so why not take things to the next step? It's why rations automatically heal wounds, how ammo is found in a spinning box floating a foot above the ground, it's in how you have to wait for a loading time between areas, and in every other countless way the game tells you that it is a game - not real life. People wanted realism, instead they got a fat man on roller blades, a vampire and a main character who not only wasn't Solid Snake, but who was actually a whinny, selfish, childish ("Did you say Nerd?") girlie man to go along with countless other oddities. The game challenged so many players expectations and wants, almost taunting them to continue. It amazes me that in a series where the fans were all looking for realism, Kojima would create a game that forces the player to question the reality of everything around him. The plot of the game and the experience for the player are one in the same - human control. The S3's goal is to see if it can get Raiden to complete his mission and do everything they expect of him despite his not wanting to at every turn. It is the same for the player, 'this doesn't make any sense', 'why am I not playing as Snake?', 'Raiden, turn the game console off now!', 'why am I naked?!?!', etc. the game goes as far as to actually TELL YOU to stop playing, just to see if you will, but everyone kept playing. We all reluctantly got to the end, hoping for it to all make sense so we could rationalize it into some form of a possible reality only to find out that the whole point of the 'game' was to see if 'Raiden' would make it far enough to be told that it was all just a TEST to see if he would make it that far. Even once he knows this the mission is not over, he has no choice but to finish it and he reluctantly does, much in the same way that I doubt anyone got to that point in the game simply to drop the controller and quit. The backlash at this game stems from the success of the games message. The lack of 'control' players felt lead them to summarize the game with the usual "it doesn't make sense and Raiden is gay" that I hear to this day. Few people saw this aspect of the game and consequently few people appreciate it.
Raiden is a flawed character. Perhaps the gaming industry just wasn't ready for it, as virtually all the characters you'll find in today's games are the ideal, always badass, and generally the type that embody the best aspects of human nature, certainly not a whinny, self centered man who is embarrassed by his past. The fatal 'flaw' people always seemed to find in MGS2 was that you play as Raiden, instead the ideal game character, Snake. Raiden's flaws are the flaws of everyone, the flaws of your average person. The point that Raiden is in fact YOU is constantly driven home throughout the game. His noticeably feminine look to help female players identify with him, lines like "I've spent hours in VR, I feel like some sort of legendary mercenary", and "I've gone through VR for the Shadow Moses", the telling of Raiden to "turn the game console off now" and finally the part at the end where Raiden looks down at his dog tags and they have YOUR NAME ON THEM. So you see, the main character of MGS2 is YOU, and this is a fact that makes much of the arguing over Raiden seem fairly ironic.
The ending, where our flawed representative of the masses chooses his own life over the antagonist who dreams of taking back "freedom, civil rights, opportunities - The founding principles of this country," is a brilliant take on our selfish nature as a species. The AI tells you to look at the strange juxtapositions of morality around you. Solidus can only achieve his goals through killing Raiden, the Patriots pawn, while Raiden must kill Solidus to save Rose and Olga's child, thus willingly serving the Patriots. The depth of this game is amazing. Consider how the S3's plan was to censor information, much in the same way Raiden was censored from all of the trailers and clips of the game before its release. The actual hype leading up to the game mimicked the game itself. The most brilliant thing to me is how, Kojima can be substituted for the Patriots, the game itself for the S3 Plan and the player for Raiden. This is a game that talks directly to the player. This is not a story about terrorists and agents; this is an experience about us. A sequel created by our own expectations and experience just like the characters we dreamt up.
MGS2 is the perfect example of what the Patriot are trying to save. A treasure lost in the sea of garbage that the idiots produce everyday.