After the long introduction, lets us move to 2001, the Year of the Snake, the year of Metal Gear Solid 2, the most hyped sequel ever before release and the most controversial ever after its release. For one, Snake is not in the game for a large part of it, but this doesn't affect the gameplay at all. Secondly, the plot was well constructed, constantly making you wonder what was going on and keeping you interested - a definite plus on my side -, yet, YET!, one too many revelations in the final part, a disappointing ending that leaved many questions open and made a very interesting philosophical talk to which almost nothing had hinted before, and a few questionable dialogues almost ruined it. I say almost, because I was lucky enough to be one of those who liked it in the first place, although some apparently abhorred it as soon as Snake was substituted. To each his own, I say…

And now, to the technical comment. What is good about the game is that gameplaywise it took everything that made MGS good and made it better. First person shooting mode, con peek and holding up guards are all innovations that make the game as deep and realistic as ever, and for the first time it is possible to alert guards and make it away unskated - actually, those are arguably the best parts in the game and those that keep it up in the first place. You'll die a lot, and thus on your first playthrough the game will be longer than it really is. Playing it through another time without raising the difficulty level, however, reveals some unexpected faults. On one hand, MGS2 is, again, packed with cutscenes and (less) CODEC - which gets annoying when you get tutored halfway through the game like you were a beginner - which neither you nor Jack should be at that stage). Though spectacular, skipping them is sometimes the best option once you've seen the story a few times. Secondly, the more you progress into the game, the thinner it becomes, involving a) backtracking twice and b) short gameplay sequences all the way through if you never die. Thus, it is advised to play it again on hard and skip cutscenes for optimal gameplay enjoyance.

And now, to the rest. Especially during cutscenes, character models and animation are stunning, as are the surrounding rooms, which are mostly very detailed although once again there is little variety in the post-industrial setting. Still, each "strut" has its own look and is always recognizable. Trademark PS2 jaggies make their appearance, sometimes rather noticeably, taking advantage of the large number of straight lines in the game. Mostly bearable, it becomes really horrible in a few rooms like strut D and on some walkway. In any case, this is one of the best looking PS2 games, although not one of the most colorful and complex ones - therefore, it only gets a standard A. The sound ranges from epic (the introduction, the opening), to relaxing and moody (the rest), doing its job perfectly and delivering a true Hollywood score. Voice acting is once again excellent, although I believe the script was not as good as in MGS. Especially characters like Raiden and Rose get to speak quite a few odd lines lines at the most unlikely moments, although that's more a fault of the plot than of the voice acting. The voices themselves, however, were pretty good.