The story revolves around a massive offshore clean-up facility that has been seized by a group of terrorists that call themselves "Sons of Liberty", backed by a rogue special forces anti-terrorist unit "Dead Cell". They demand a massive ransom in exchange for the life of the President of the United States, and threaten to destroy the facility and create a cataclysmic environmental disaster if their demands are not met. The motives and identities of many of the antagonists and allies change rapidly, as the protagonists discover a world-shaking conspiracy constructed by a powerful organization known as the Patriots.
The game was well-received, shipping over 7 million copies worldwide and scoring an average of 96% in Metacritic's aggregate, making it the third highest-rated game on the PlayStation 2 and the 14th highest-rated game of all time. While the gameplay was almost universally acclaimed, critics were divided on the philosophical nature and execution of the game's storyline, which explores themes such as memes, social engineering, political conspiracies, and artificial intelligence. It has been considered the first example of a postmodern video game, and has been cited as a primary example of artistic expression in video games. The game was controversial due to its complex postmodern narrative and unconventional protagonist.
Gameplay!!
Metal Gear Solid 2 carries the title of "Tactical Espionage Action," and most of the game involves the protagonist sneaking around avoiding being seen by the enemies.
Most fundamental are the wider range of skills offered to the player. The new first-person aiming mode allows players to target specific points in the game, greatly expanding tactical options; guards can be blinded by steam, distracted by a flying piece of fruit or hit in weak spots. Players can now walk slowly, allowing them to sneak over noisy flooring without making a sound, or hang off walkways to slip past below guards' feet. The corner-press move from the original title, which allowed players a sneak peek around the next bend is expanded to allow players to fire from cover.
In Metal Gear Solid 2, the enemy guards were given more advanced AI "to prevent an imbalance of power," and unlike the original Metal Gear Solid, work in squads. They call on their radios for a strike team upon seeing the player, then attempt to flank him and cut off his escape while avoiding the player's attacks. Often strike teams will carry body armor and riot shields, making them an even greater threat. Even if the player escapes to a hiding place, a team will sweep in to check the area. The game has a collective enemy AI, where enemy guards work together in squads, can communicate with one another, and react in a more realistic manner towards the player. The game's enemy AI is still considered one of the finest examples in the stealth game genre.
Boss battles and set-pieces remain a case of finding a strategy that bypasses the defenses of the enemy. However, in a major break from action game standards, it is also possible to clear the entire game, including boss fights, without causing a single deliberate death, through use of tranquilizer guns, stun grenades, and melee attacks.
Story!
Sons of Liberty opens with a flashback, on the George Washington Bridge in New York City in 2007, two years after the Shadow Moses incident that was described in the original Metal Gear Solid. Solid Snake and Otacon, now members of the non-governmental organization Philanthropy, are investigating the development of a new Metal Gear described as an amphibious counter-Metal Gear unit. The unit was constructed in response to the multiple Metal Gears that had been built since Metal Gear REX's design was leaked. Shortly after Snake's arrival on the disguised oil tanker U.S.S. Discovery via bungee jumping from the bridge while using stealth camouflage which busted from landing impact, a group of Russian ex-military terrorists under the command of Russian nationalist Sergei Gurlukovich attack the ship. After sneaking up to the bridge, Snake encounters Olga, Sergei's daughter, who has refused to leave the tanker despite being pregnant. A gun battle ensues between Snake and Olga.
After successfully tranquilizing Olga in combat, Snake sneaks down to the hold in order to record pictures of the new Metal Gear RAY. Matters rapidly escalate as Revolver Ocelot and Sergei Gurlukovich sneak into the holds and hold marine commander Scott Dolph at gunpoint. Revolver Ocelot and Sergei Gurlukovich have different motives, with Sergei wanting to sell Metal Gear RAY to the highest bidder and Ocelot saying he is "taking it back". Revolver Ocelot then betrays and murders Sergei Gurlukovich along with Scott Dolph, as well as the GRU in the holds. It is revealed that Ocelot has received a new hand after he lost one in Shadow Moses by the cyborg ninja Gray Fox in Metal Gear Solid; the hand is that of the late Liquid Snake, Solid Snake's twin brother and main antagonist of Metal Gear Solid who died back in Shadow Moses. The implant causes a change in Revolver Ocelot's demeanor and behavior, with Liquid somehow 'possessing' hi. Under Liquid's control he sinks the tanker and escapes with RAY before regaining command of his body.
Plant chapter
The game moves to the present, and the player finds themself in control of Raiden, supposedly operating under a reformed FOXHOUND two years after the Tanker Chapter on April 29, 2009.[50] Initially referred to as "Snake",[51] Raiden has orders to rescue hostages, including the US president, from the terrorist group Sons of Liberty, backed up by the rogue anti-terror training unit, Dead Cell, who are also threatening to destroy the Big Shell clean-up facility they have seized.[52] Raiden infiltrates the Shell via sea while SEAL Team 10 enters by air.[53] The SEAL team manages to rescue the President, but before they are able to extract him, all of the SEALS except for Lieutenant Junior Grade Iroquois Pliskin[54] are killed by Dead Cell members Vamp and Fortune. Raiden joins forces with Pliskin and bomb specialist Peter Stillman to disable explosives planted on the Shell by Stillman's former pupil, Fatman, now a terrorist. While Raiden successfully eliminates Fatman, Stillman is killed as a result of one of Fatman's traps.
With the assistance of a mysterious cyborg ninja calling itself Mr. X, Raiden is told by Mr. X that a man by the name of Ames is in the b1 core, and he knows the president's location. The security is tight so Raiden is given a disguise and finds an AK to pass off as a guard in the core. Mr. X does not know what Ames looks like but knows Ames has a pacemaker, so he uses a directional mic to find him. Ames confirms that the Big Shell is a cover up for the development of a new Metal Gear. He overhears a conversation with "Solid Snake", Revolver Ocelot, and Olga. Raiden is discovered by Ocelot, Ames dies from a heart attack, and Ocelot is ready to finish Raiden before Mr. X helps him escape. Raiden is attacked at the bridge by a man who claims to be Solid Snake. Pliskin appears and argues that the mystery man is not Solid Snake. Raiden must then destroy a Harrier driven by Vamp. After the battle, Pliskin reveals that he is indeed Solid Snake. Eventually, Raiden locates the president, and discovers that the Big Shell is actually a disguise built right on top of a new Metal Gear. Known as Arsenal Gear, it houses a powerful AI supercomputer, "GW", capable of controlling information transmitted digitally. The president also claims the democratic process is a sham, and the true rulers of the United States are an organization known as the Patriots. Revolver Ocelot kills him soon after, and Raiden proceeds to his final objective: disabling Arsenal Gear and thus halting a nuclear strike. Pliskin, having revealed himself as Solid Snake, and Emma Emmerich, an Arsenal Gear engineer, assist Raiden in attempting to destroy the "GW" AI by uploading a virus. On the way to the computer room, Vamp attacks Emma. The virus is still installed, but aborts partway through; Emma dies due to a fatal knife wound from Vamp. Snake and Raiden are left with no choice but to disable Arsenal physically. As Snake's partner Otacon escapes with the surviving hostages by helicopter, Mr. X returns, revealing itself to be Olga Gurlukovich, and knocks Raiden unconscious. The Big Shell has been destroyed.
Awakening in an Arsenal torture chamber hours later, Raiden is probed by Solidus Snake, the true terrorist leader. Solidus reveals that he once adopted Raiden, a former child soldier, as his son during the Liberian civil war and that Raiden is now a Patriot agent. Olga, working as a Patriot double-agent within the Sons of Liberty, helps Raiden escape, and he locates Snake within Arsenal Gear. As they fight through the mammoth vessel, Raiden's commanding officer begins to act extremely erratically, often speaking complete nonsense. Some of his nonsensical speech is derived from commands given in previous Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid games. It becomes apparent that the "Colonel" that Raiden has been taking orders from is actually a creation of the GW super-computer, pieced together from information about Colonel Roy Campbell coupled with Raiden's own expectations in order to manipulate him. The erratic behavior of the simulation is the result of the virus uploaded earlier beginning to damage GW's systems.
With Snake holding off a vengeful Fortune, Raiden is forced into battle with the 25 Metal Gear RAY units guarding Arsenal Gear. Olga intervenes to protect him, but is restrained by one of Solidus' robotic tentacles. Olga explains that two years ago, right after giving birth to her child, the Patriots took her away and have been holding her child hostage ever since. Olga continues to explain that the Patriots blackmailed her, ordering her to become a double-agent and make the S3 plan a success or her child would be killed. Then, Solidus shoots Olga and throws her corpse out of the way. The RAY units begin to malfunction, attacking each other and Solidus as the virus tears through the GW AI's program. Arsenal begins an emergency ascent, and Snake, restrained by Fortune, Solidus, and Raiden are carried to the roof of the fortress as it surfaces. To Solidus' increasing rage, Ocelot reveals that he too is a Patriot agent, the entire episode was a carefully-coordinated attempt to reenact the events of the Shadow Moses incident; Ocelot calls it the 'S3 Plan', or "Solid Snake Simulation", which hopes to create super-soldiers in the image of Solid Snake by subjecting them to similar circumstances. (Continuing the series' tradition of breaking the fourth wall, Ocelot's description of the S3 Plan can be interpreted as addressing not just Raiden, but also the player controlling him.) Ocelot kills Fortune and boards the prototype Metal Gear RAY stolen from the tanker two years previously, and attempts to finish off the survivors of the exercise. However, Liquid possesses him, and announces his plan to hunt down the Patriots based on his host's knowledge. Setting Arsenal on a collision-course with New York, Liquid launches RAY into the ocean, followed by Snake.
Arsenal comes to a halt in downtown New York, launching Raiden and Solidus onto the roof of Federal Hall. Solidus reveals to Raiden his reasons for trying to steal Arsenal: a nuclear electro-magnetic pulse would take down Manhattan's digital infrastructure and allow Solidus to lead it as a republic against the Patriots, a nation of "Sons of Liberty". Likewise the Patriots, via another AI, contact Raiden to reveal the truth of their actions, the AIs being programmed to becoming "digital censors", removing trite and needless information from the electronic world in what they call "Selection for Societal Sanity", or "S3 Plan". The information fed to Ocelot was another part of this plan. However, with such a control over the flow of digital information, they could as easily be manipulating perceived history for the Patriot's needs. Believing the only option available is to track down the Patriots using the information in Raiden's neural implants, Solidus offers his son one final duel.
Raiden defeats Solidus, and as crowds descend upon the wreckage of Arsenal Gear, Snake and Raiden meet one last time, where his mentor informs him that only he can choose what to believe in, and that he must pass on what he believes to be true. Having planted a tracking device on Liquid's Metal Gear, he and Otacon plan to follow him, and to hunt down the Patriots, whose details were hidden in the GW computer virus disc. As Snake disappears into the crowd, Raiden is finally reunited with Rose, on April 30, 2009—the 220th anniversary of George Washington's inauguration as President of the United States, and the anniversary of Rose and Raiden's first meeting.
In a brief epilogue, Otacon and Snake discuss the decoding of the virus disc, which contains the personal data on all twelve members of the Wisemen's Committee (the Patriots' high council). It is revealed on this disc that one of the members of the committee was a major sponsor of Philanthropy. Another shocking revelation found on the disc indicates that not only are all twelve members of the Wisemen's Committee dead, but have been dead for approximately 100 years. Snake however, deduces this to be a fake lead, due to The Patriots' control over the flow of information.[
