Casual Friday TAG: Memories of Metal Gear Solid 2

Welcome to Casual Fridays, where we kick back, relax and take off our pants. In Typing About Games (TAG), two of the Piki Geek staff face off in a no-holds-bar chat conversation. Beliefs are challenged, points are exclaimed, hype is harnessed, and video games are dissected like insects. Enjoy a look into the discussions that plague the Piki Geek chat day after day.

This week, Jeroen and Zach were SUPPOSED to talk about the new Hitman: Absolution information that’s been coming out… but they somehow got sidetracked into talking about a DIFFERENT stealth game altogether. Their discussion was too amusing not to turn into this week’s TAG.

Jeroen: MGS2 was the coolest fucking thing a 12 year old boy could play.

Zach: Fuck MGS2.

Jeroen: MGS2 was the best, yo.

Zach: It was not.

Jeroen: It was so good.

Zach: No.

Jeroen: So, so good.

Zach: If they had said right from the beginning, “Right, you’re playing as Raiden this time,” I’d have been okay with it. But they tricked everyone into thinking Snake would be the protagonist.

Jeroen: I only knew of MGS2 after it was released, when I saw an ad on TV and was like, “Oh, hey. I remember a trailer for the first one on one of my PS1 demo discs. Maybe I should try this out.”

Zach: I was following it before it came out, all excited to play as Snake again.

Jeroen: I honestly did not realize there weren’t any levels in the game. I kept thinking, “Wow, this second level is long.” MGS2 was mindblowing for me.

Zach: It was one of my greatest disappointments from the previous generation.

Jeroen: You’re just mad you didn’t get to play as Snake.

Zach: I’m mad that they made misled everyone. Didn’t help that Raiden was a whiny little asshole in MGS2.

Jeroen: “Did you say NERD?!” He was suuuuch a bitch.

Zach: Yeah, he didn’t get cool till Metal Gear [Solid] 4.

Jeroen: Bah, he didn’t need that. Whiney and stupid as he was, he wasn’t a bad character at all. I actually liked him better in MGS2 than 4.

Zach: Man, he stopped a giant tanker with his bare hands in MGS4, lol. All he did in MGS2 was hold his hands over his dick and cartwheel around with no clothes on.

Jeroen: That defied all physics.

Jeroen: Well that and kill an entire special forces team, destroy a shitload of Metal Gears, defuse bombs, save hostages, etc. It’s not like he was useless, just whiney and a bitch. He wasn’t an Ashley. He only gets a bad rap because he isn’t Snake. And, let’s face it. Snake is Spike Spiegel levels of cool. It’s really, really hard to come off of that.

Zach: As I said, if Konami had come out from the start and said “yeah, you’re playing as someone else this time” I’d have been fine with that. But they created the expectation that you’d be playing the game as Snake. They created that backlash themselves. False advertisement.

Jeroen: Yeah, hahaha, I remember the backlash about that. I always stayed out since I came in after MGS2 was released. I could get not liking Raiden intensely or being mad about it, but the game itself was just incredible. Everything about it was amazing to someone who grew up on level-based games that lasted 8 hours and had simple gameplay. Like I said, I was constantly thinking “This second level is long.” Did not even have a memory card at the time. I played that entire game, cutscenes and all, in one straight go.

Zach: You’re talking to a guy whose favorite games at the time were still StarCraft and Half Life 1. I already knew all about lenghty, involving games. Damned youngins.

Jeroen: StarCraft was big for me too! But that had levels. So did Half-Life. And, you know, you got those games, got the mechanics, played it. MGS2 had a bunch of hidden things like the whole pullup system or holding up guards, using them as shields, etc.

Zach: Oh, also, I was pretty into the Thief series at the time, which I considered to be the pinnacle of stealth gaming.

Jeroen: I only played Thief after MGS3. Realllllly good.

Zach: I feel like if Eidos can revamp Tomb Raider the way they have, then maybe there is hope for Thief 4 as well.

Jeroen: I think at the time I realized that MGS2 was more sneaking while Thief/Splinter Cell were more stealth, if you know what I mean. It was just different in a really weird, subtle way.

Zach: Yeah, they’re different. I just happened to prefer Thief’s particular brand of stealth over Metal Gear’s.

Jeroen: It was hard not to love Thief’s. Especially in that Orphanage level in Thief III.

Zach: Oh yeah.

At this point, Zach realized that someone had pilfered his treasures from under his nose and left.