MGS2 has been out long enough for everyone to have beaten and for us to talk about it.

My feelings summed up in one word: dissapointed.

The tanker missions and a really good feeling, and seemed to build on MGS "mood" or "tone."

Then the plant chapter started.
Raiden=lame
He just looks dorky, Snake looks like a real guy. Also, was it just me or did it look like Raiden's head didn't really attach to his body that well? Sorry, just my personal opinion. It was a daring move to change the main character like that. I think they pulled it off as best they could but, probably the most excited I got in the game was when snake reappeared in his sneaking suit at the end, and when he chased after the Ray at the end.

Bosses: Zero character development really devoted to the bosses except for Fortune, and hers wasn't really that good. MGS had TONS of character development and the enemies seemed to be more fleshed out. Also, Solidus sucked as a Final Boss/Main Villan.

Otacon dealing with sister's death: Really, really good. That was probably the best scene in the game.

Story/Ending:
Okay, Unless its the end of the game, 5 (maybe 10) minutes should be the maximum length of a cutscene(see http://www.reallifecomics.com Monday strip for an accurate take on this). Especially when they are always talking on the fucking Codec. They had this great engine which could do great realtime cutscences, yet most of the time they were in the codec. Don't give me any nanomachine/spy bullshit. They did it b/c development time was cut short, the game HAD to be out this Christmas season.

Also, the whole Rose thing. Right from the start I was like what? She's an analyst, but suddenly she's involved in the most top secret mission of all time, and she's the protagonist's girlfriend!
My suspension of disbelief began to plummet immediately. And I guess that's my main probelem with the game. MGS totally sucked me in and had my suspension of disbelief set on high. It all just seemed to fit togther more and just seemed... RIGHT. MGS2 doesn't.

Ending: What is up with the pseudo-philosophing bullshit? Whoa reality, whoa dream world, whoa VR. whoa YAWN. The philosophizing at the end of MGS fit, it dealt with life, and revalutating one's priorities, Snake might have been dieing, so he decided to LIVE.

Anyway to end this already long post...
Was MGS2 one of the better games I played this year?
Yes, but definitely not the best. I enjoyed GTA3(actually still enjoying), Halo, and Anachronox more.
Will I play MGS2 again? NO. I played the first one 5-6 times but I am going to trade in MGS2 this weekend.

Just my 2 cents...(actually about a buck-fifty considering the length of this post.)

There's a lot to like or even love about MGS2, but all the wonky little Japanese quirks have the game in a stranglehold by the end. Like the presence of Emma's parrot in the big dramatic Otacon moment. Raiden is epitome of this - the androgenous anime-style hero who casts a pall on everything with his lameness. And his girlfriend Rose... sheesh. Even he could do better.

Raiden: "I'm taking fire... I'm pinned down... looking grim."

Rose: "Jack, why won't you ever show me the real you?!"

Raiden: "I'm hit! Losing a lot of blood, not going to make it..."

Rose: "That's just like you to change the subject whenever I try to get close to you!"

I also think that the Plant isn't a very interesting location. The Tanker was a lot more interesting, even though you wouldn't think there's much they could do with it. Perhaps they couldn't have kept it interesting for a whole game, but they could have come up with a better alternate location than an orange oil platform.

That said, I love all the gameplay refinements and little details. The amount of options available to you make it fun just to mess around and see what all your character can do to the enemies and environment.

-Matthew

I'm not done with MGS2 yet, but here's my take on it:

I play MGS games to play Certified Mr. Badass, seen-it-all, hardCORE Solid Snake. Not some whiny pussy Final Fantasy reject.

Interestingly, the actual game mechanics are identical between Snake and Raiden. But I don't WANNA play a whiny newbie that complains about not having covered bomb defusal in VR training.

The first MGS definitely had a problem with being far too verbose. People would break into long-winded diatribes on the Nature of Man or whatever at the drop of a hat, and at the most inopportune times. Maybe it's just being like four years later, or maybe not, but it seems to be worse this time around. My favorite moment was when I had 400 seconds to go find and disarm this big bomb, and I call in on the Codec to save. Raiden and Rose reminisce forEVER about the first time they met. Uh, Rose? Could we talk about this later? I've got to go diffuse a bomb here...

I think the cut-scenes, the cinematic ones, are actually very well put together. They're "shot" well, they're really cool, and they're usually not obnoxoiusly long. It's the codec yapping that gets to be a pain.

It's a testament to the quality of the gameplay and the exceedingly high production values that the game remains entertaining anyway. It's just plain fun to sneak around, hiding from one corner to the next, taking out guards without them even knowing you're there. And using cool gizmos to disarm traps. It's got a lot of the same qualities as Thief or NOLF as far as that basic mechanic is concerned.

You know what would be great? If the mythical Metal Gear Solid X for Xbox was a graphically enhanced MGS2 where you could choose to play through the game from either Raiden's point of view or Snake's. Like, you'd be off in the second hub disarming bombs while Raiden was off in the first hub, and you'd fight the harrier from the chopper, that kind of thing.