So I've been spending every free moment I've had this weekend to play through MGS2: Sons of Liberty, in anticipation of Drew getting to experience this for the first time.

And man; There is so much subtext in this game that went straight over my 11 year old head back when the game was first released. Hell I've replayed it several times through the years, and I still noticed new nuances to the story this time around. Anyone else excited for the continuation of Metal Gear Scanlon?

What are your favorite moments from MGS2 and/or the MGS series as a whole?

I think it will be very interesting to go straight from 1 to 2 given that 2 mirrors the structure of 1 by design.

I'm worried. Been watching my friend play through it these past few weekends. There are way more opportunities to get caught in more complex areas. Longer evasion modes, tougher bosses, we're talking 20-30 hours here for Drewplay.

He will get to experience the best game in the series. Sadly it's followed up by the worst. >_>

I NEED SCISSORS 61!!!!!!!!!

Can I have some of the drugs you are on?

Seriously. MGS3 is the best game in the series and one of the best games ever made.

Yeah, as much as I love MGS1 I think the crazy bullshit in 2 is going to be way more riffable. I think overall it's my favorite in the series, but only by certain metrics. Generally I tend to agree with Dan's sentiment that you can make different cases for all the mainline games being the best in the series.... except MGS4.

@kishinfoulux: BLASPHEMY, I love MGS3 dearly, But that in turn was followed up with the ok MGS4

@berserker976: I could make a case for Peace Walker being the best MGS game in 2 words.

Rocket Peace.

@berserker976 said:

And Peace Walker.

Raiden, turn the game console off now, haven't you played long enough? Don't you have anything better to do with your time?

@kishinfoulux said:

Shouldn't this be a bannable offence?

That's what makes Metal Gear Scanlon so great; all four of the games all well worth playing through, but I honestly feel like MGS1 is just the warm-up; it can only get more fun from here, both in terms of gameplay and in terms of plot craziness.

I'm pretty sure that comment basically confirms him as a demon of some sort. Unless he meant it in the context of 3=best 4=worst, because that's just true.

I fear for Drew in 2, in many ways it can be the hardest out of the games. But maybe he will have an easier time than 1 because the control is better?

The ending portions of this game are going to drive him made. Maybe.

LA LI LU LE LO

I have recently played 2 and it is ridiculous just how anime it is. I found myself shaking my head at a lot of it. Holy crap. There's a bald obese guy on roller skates who built an atomic bomb when he was 10. Atomic bomb. Ten.

It'll kinda depend on how he reacts to the tanker ending. Although, lets be honest: He's in. IN! He'll have an easier time with the gameplay because of the tranq gun. In many ways that gun takes a big chunk off the other games' difficulty.

As for 3 being the worst, if you consider the original release still had the overhead camera and its a menu hell, maybe.

Also they do the dragonball thing where you get 5 mins to do whatever and then put a half hour long cutscene somewhere in between, only for you to resume as if nothing happened.

Oh. The Fortune fight might just test his patience.

I don't know if I hate it or love it. But I do like this one the least out of the series. The batshit insanity of it didn't seem earned by the end of it. Seemed like Kojima was pulling shit out of his ass, which is usually what I love him for, so I don't even know... I'm confused.

If they do get to it (they have to), then I really hope Drew isn't aware of the bait-and-switch. It has to be impossible for him not to be though, I figure everyone and their grandmother knows about it by now.

Also, fission mailed. That whole section is the fucking best.

Ehh.. I loved the setting and everything, but I wasn't too fond of the gameplay. A lot more backtracking and the classic overhead camera but without the soliton radar. Most of my time was spent crawling on my stomach only to peek up in first person out of the tall grass like a rabbit. Later on Subsistence fixed this issue by giving you control of the camera but all I had to play was the original.

It had some of the craziest bosses, that insane healing system and a ton of wonderful moments. I just wished so much time wasn't spent slumming it through those same few jungle areas. Once you got to the indoor areas I had a ton more fun as it felt a lot more like classic Metal Gear to me.

Yeah ive been eagerly anticipating this. How much of MGS is there left? I never played it .

MGS2 is my favorite in the series and MGS3 is my least favorite, I still enjoyed MGS3, but nowhere near the same level I enjoyed MGS2.

It really depends on the person but seeing how fast they've been progressing up till now I'd say at least 4-5 more lengthy episodes. There are quite a few more boss encounters not to mention area traversal all on its own.

Which continues to make Jeff's claims about how short the game is seem that much weirder.

@humanity: His sentiment does have some merit though. Once you're out of the first few big areas such as the the Tank Hangar and Basement 2, the game pretty much turns into a combination of cutscenes, shooting galleries and boss battles. So if you know what you're doing it's a pretty short game. I still think it's a super cool game, especially for its time so I don't agree with him at all. I played through it this very summer and it holds up 100 %

Still I really hope Drew will do better with the MUCH improved gameplay and controls of MGS2. It's overall the best playing of any of the MGS games - other than MGS: Ground Zeroes, I guess.

@civid: On your first playthrough it's of decent length I think. I agree that it really does hold up well. Sadly I don't think Drew will do much better at MGS2, and in fact I suspect he will do a lot worse. It's a much more complicated game with a lot more systems. MGS1 is pretty basic as far as stealth games go - avoid the vision cones and you're fine. I still think it's more of a stage-fright thing instead of actual lack of skill which is causing Drew to mess up a lot. Hopefully by the time they get to MGS2, God willing the series continues, he'll feel a lot more confident. Also the first 2 episodes will be cutscenes alone because by God that intro cutscene for MGS2 goes on for at least 35 minutes before they let you actually explore the tanker.

Laugh and grow fat.

@csl316: woah what? 20-30 hours? I just finished my second playthrough not too long ago (first was back in 2006) and it only took me 13 hours.

The thing that'll help Drew out is to accept death as soon as he gets caught. It's much easier and you save all the rations for more critical areas like boss fights.

Ya, MGS 2 is my second favorite next to MGS 3.

The reason it's number 2 is it was amazing at the time for things that hadn't been done before then, but aren't really that amazing now.

It's funny, I remember people being pissed about this game. There's an interesting amount of reverence for it now.

Edit: Maybe that's just because the negative assholes aren't out for blood on it anymore- I don't know. Once the clamor dies down the positive stuff is more noticeable I suppose.

Yeah, my buddy that's never played an MGS game will finish it in under 15 hours. But based on Drew being 10 hours into Metal Gear Solid and still being on the first disc? 2 is gonna take him months!

I think its because MGS4 managed to actually make sense of some of the crazy stuff at the end of 2... also people have more or less come to terms with the fact that Metal Gear is batshit at this point and have learned to just run with it.

You'll ruin your eyes playing so close to the TV.

MGS is brutally short if you're replaying it and knock the cutscenes on the head. It just goes, when its not talking. I restarted it tonight to see if the controls are an issue. They are not. I also figured out how to manipulate Ocelot's boss pattern a little bit and thumbed through the game's very dusty manual.

That manual is a work of crazy. Its right up there with the Gran Turismo manual of going into super detail.

Man, I hope Drew makes it to MGS2... Over the last couple videos, it just seems to me like he's not getting much enjoyment out of the game and the only thing that's pushing him through the frustration is Dan's sheer enthusiasm.

The first time I played a Metal Gear Solid game was kind of astounding for me. I remember it was 2009 and my next door neighbor had bought Metal Gear Solid 3 to play on his PS3. Unfortunately for him he couldn't play it because his console didn't have hardware backwards compatibility. He asked me if I wanted the game and I said yes of course without knowing what I was getting myself into. I had never before played a game that dealt with all this mature stuff about war. I loved the jungle setting,cold war era, and the characters.

A couple of months ago I decided I wanted to play more of the MGS games but I didn't have a ps3. I knew there was a pc version of mgs 1 but It is probably very rare to find and I didnt want to buy it for ps1. My only choice was gamecube or the vita version. So i bought a vita but totally forgot about the game for a while and then when I remembered I decided to skip the 1st game because the controlling of the game, and camera had looked antiquated. I bought mgs 2 and peace walker, played the psp one and hated the gameplay. I started mgs 2 a couple of weeks before dan and drew started playing mgs1. I barely finished the game about 2 hours ago and all i have to say is there is just too much information for your brain to process. I'm still watching the drew's playthrough of the first game and I dont think ill play it. Now that I have a ps4 ill probably play guns of the patriots on PS now.

@roadshell: After playing mgs 3 first in 2009 and now finishing up mgs 2 a couple of hours ago, I still love the 3rd game more. I hope mgs4 fulfills my needs while Phantom Pain comes out.

@lun49gameon: If you haven't played MGS 1 or MGS 2 then Guns of the Patriots will make very little sense to you and be mostly a wasted experience. There is decent gameplay there despite what people might say but it's very much a celebration of the first two games with some story mixed in from Snake Eater.

@lun49gameon: Yeah, reading through that manual again kinda brought that home. Recaps on the first two games, character biogs, tutorials, maps and a glossary at the back. Information overload.

@razorramen: I actually agree, I love all of the Metal Gear games (even Portable Ops), and MGS3 is a fantastic game, I just think a lot of the mechanics make it the worst of the Solid games. I understand what they were trying to do (with the wound treatment and lack of radar), but it made the game less fun, in my opinion. The camo system was rad, though.

Story wise, I love all of them, and they all have their own standout moments.

I just wish other people would have gotten to play Ghost Babel. While it was mostly a recreation of MGS1, it was actually a really good game, even if Kojima says it doesn't count. Unlike Snake's Revenge, which is a terrible game, and rightfully doesn't count.