You Should Play This: Metal Gear Solid 2

You Should Play This: Metal Gear Solid 2

You Should Play This is a running column by Brandon Hyde detailing the unnoticed intricacies in video games.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, released on November 13, 2001 tells the story of both Solid Snake and the protagonist of the game, Raiden. Nearing the end of the game, Snake regails Raiden with a speech regarding their inability to have children, but instead their duty to pass on their emotions. Snake specifies the way this of passing on their emotions is through their use of music, literature, and movies. “Through speech, music, literature and movies... what we've seen, heard, felt... anger, joy and sorrow... these are the things I will pass on.” Snake makes a specific point about how information and history can be changed and controlled by groups of people, but art can strike through that. Metal Gear Solid 2 uses this same tactic of misinformation to at first confuse the player and then finally pass its own emotions onto the player.  

The first few hours of Metal Gear Solid 2 is spent playing as Solid Snake, where the player is picking up the story from the previous game. As the game enters the second hour, there is a specific and deliberate turn in which the player now controls the character of Raiden, a character previously unseen in any of the promotional trailers or information regarding the game. From here, the player controls Raiden until the end of the game, never to be Solid Snake again. This change in protagonist gives the player a sense of confusion at first, where there is no indication as to what will happen or if Snake will return as the main character. Changing the protagonist of a franchise between games immediately changes the landscape of what was perceived about the game. There is no safety net with Metal Gear Solid 2, instead there is only uncertainty of what will happen to both Raiden and Snake. If Snake is no longer the protagonist of the game, there is the chance of him dying during the story. This does not happen during the game, but that same misinformation is always there, scratching at the back of the player’s mind. 

Over the course of the game, the story of Raiden becomes clearer to the player. As the player learns more about the Raiden, so does Raiden learn more about himself. This collaboration of information is a way for both the player and Raiden to feel in sync. As Raiden becomes more knowledgeable about his world, so does the player. Nearing the third act of the game, it is revealed that Raiden has been speaking with an artificial version of his commander, Roy Campbell, a notable character from the previous game. This revelation is another way to separate the player from any sense of comfort or power with their knowledge of the first game. But at this point in the game, there has become a kinship between Raiden and the player. There is no need for Campbell, because the player is able to trust Raiden and his emotions. Raiden’s confusion is the same as the players, making for a collaboration of their own emotions. Metal Gear Solid 2 takes the player out of the sense of confusion by firmly giving them the character of Raiden.

As the game reaches its conclusion, there is a final passing on of emotions to the player and to Raiden. Snake’s speech regarding the passing on of emotions acts as a way to undercut any of the misinformation that has been given to both Raiden and the player. The speech is a way for Metal Gear Solid 2 to pass on its own history to the player by allowing them to decide what the content in the game means to them. As Snake outlines in his speech, “What is our legacy if we cannot pass the torch? Proof of our existence - a mark of some sort. When the torch is passed on from parent to child... it extends beyond DNA; information is imparted as well. All I want is to be remembered. By other people, by history.” By saying that he wants to be remembered, Snake is passing on the agency to the player for them to decide what this means to them. The entire game of Metal Gear Solid is information being imparted onto the audience for them to remember these characters and this story. By giving the player a raw and stripped down speech for them to consider, it allows them to take this same lesson of remembering history with them into their own world.

Metal Gear Solid 2’s ending is concerned with giving the player an ending that will stay with them. The ending speech by Snake outlines the thesis of the game with the character speaking to both Raiden and the player themselves. The lessons learned throughout the game for Raiden are applicable to the player’s life and our world. By giving the player the same journey as Raiden, Metal Gear Solid 2 allows for a stronger experience, when it comes down to its own goal. The goal of giving the player the same feelings of contemplation about their own history and what it means for them outside of the game. By speaking directly to the player, Metal Gear Solid passes on lessons that go beyond just the gameplay experience and become a deeper understanding of the world for the player.