Game Discussion of The Week: Metal Gear Solid 2

This is a game series I also want to get into but I just haven't gotten around to that yet. Also added this to the community review thread.

I agree. MGS2 is what a sequel should be. 
The cutscene before the final battle about the Y2K incident was very crazy for a video game. The nostalgia is strong with me regarding this game, its the first game we got for our PS2 (By we, me and my siblings) along with a giant lego set.
I also remember fighting the vast number of Metal Gear Rays, possibly my first boss fight ever. That was in 2002, since then, i played the game once again in 2011 when it came out as an HD version, and i consider it one of my all time favorite games.

Balder and scipioafricanus - Although MGS3 may be the best game in the series, I think the best entry-point is Metal Gear Solid (PS1). The story is very self-contained (I think MGS3 is much better if you have played the previous games and get all the references, while MGS stands on its own) and the gameplay is simple enough to get you into the series. As good as MGS3 is, its gameplay is just too complex and you'll have to go into the menus a lot to change camouflage, eat and cure yourself. If you're already used to the stealth gameplay of the previous games, MGS3 is an awesome evolution, but, if it's your first game, the complexity may be daunting.

Also, MGS1 is really, really short, so much that you'll only need a day or two to beat it (the average on "How long to beat?" is 11 hours), understand what's so special about the series and then decide if you want to play the next games. I replayed MGS recently and wow, that game doesn't age at all, it's still a blast to play.

MGS2 is one of those games that I find really gets better with subsequent playthroughs.

In general, I thought it was excellent commentary on the unreliability of digital information. I'm not sure that a similar revelation could be kept secret today.

Spoilers for MGS2/5

Cervantes I will always play the first game in a series if I want to get into it.

I need to play this game

I have a few opinions on how and what order to play the Metal Gear games. Yes, I've personally played them all myself. I have a bit to say about it, so congratulations - you brought me back from a lazy postless hiatus...

Here's the lowdown.
There are 10 main games in the series spanning its 50 year story arc from 1964 - 2014 : The Story of 'The Snakes' - Big Boss and his Sons.

You could play them in story chronological order:

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MGS3 Snake Eater (1964) >> Portable Ops (1970) >> Peace Walker (1974) >> MGSV Ground Zeroes (1975) >> MGSV The Phantom Pain (1984) >> Metal Gear (1995) >> Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake (1999) >> Metal Gear Solid/The Twin Snakes (2005) >> MGS2 Sons of Liberty (2007-2009) >> MGS4 Guns of the Patriots (2014)

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Or in
Production order:

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Metal Gear (1987) >> Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake (1990) >> Metal Gear Solid 1 (1998) >> MGS2 Sons of Liberty (2001) >> MGS3 Snake Eater (2004) >> Portable Ops (2006) >> MGS4 Guns of the Patriots (2008) >> Peace Walker (2010) >> MGSV Ground Zeroes (2014) >> MGSV The Phantom Pain (2015)

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(Note: The remaining games - Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Ghost Babel, and Metal Gear Acid 1&2 - are all either side stories or alternate timeline games so they don't count in the main story)

Which is better, Chronology or Production order?
It's kind of like Star Wars - Is it better for a newcomer to watch the Prequel trilogy first or the Original Trilogy first?

Everybody has their opinion but I'm of the thinking that if you play them in chronology, you can at least appreciate what happens in the story of older games more than if you just played them right off the bat.

But there are others who will say production order is better because you can see & follow the evolution of the game design over the years. If you go this way, there are roughly 3 Generations of Metal Gear game styles:

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1. The old top-down 2D (2 Games Duology) - Metal Gear 1 & 2
2. The classic 3D (6 Games making up 2 Trilogies) - MGS1,2,3,4, Portable Ops & Peace Walker.
3. The new open world (2 Games Duology) - MGSV Ground Zeroes & The Phantom Pain

The problem here is that most people don't really care to play the old 2D games before the big names like MGS1,2,3 or 4.
So anyone considering playing MGS2 for example, is very likely more interested in the classic 3D style than the old 2D ones.
Notice that there are 6 games for the classic 3D style. Here, MGS1,2 & 4 (NOT 3) form a continuous trilogy, which is the *bare minimum* Metal Gear experience.
So if you want to play the "1st" game, like Cervantes I highly recommend you play MGS1 or the Twin Snakes remake first before MGS2, then finish up with MGS 4.
But between the Original MGS1 (PlayStation 1) VS the Twin Snakes remake (Gamecube), I recommend just going for the Twin Snakes at this point if only to keep in line with MGS2 & 4 in terms of gameplay (plus Meryl's figure is much more ogle-worthy in Twin Snakes). Although the quality of production of the original MGS1 definitely holds up and is still impressive to this day, it may be a bit primitive in terms of design compared to the other two.
That being said, I found the original version to have better voice acting with stronger raw emotion compared to the remake, which comparatively sounds a bit stale despite the better cinematics.
They both have their strengths so I'd say just play both if possible.

Let me reiterate - The Twin Snakes, Sons of Liberty, and Guns of the Patriots form a continuous story trilogy that make up the bare essential & quintessential Metal Gear experience. i.e if you're going to play *just* 3 of the games in the whole series - make it these 3.

You could insert MGS3 Snake Eater (& Portable Ops 1) between MGS2 & MGS4 as per production order, but that will break the continuity of the narrative. Indeed there are people who will insist that MGS3 be played before MGS4 because there are references to the former in the latter, so there's a bit of a conundrum in preserving narrative flow VS understanding and appreciating all the references that comes with production order.
As such, I personally feel that Snake Eater, Portable Ops, and Peace Walker can be grouped as a 'Prequel Trilogy' that's ideally played before the main trilogy as per chronological order. The Prequel Trilogy is less important than the main one, but forsaking it will cause you to miss out on some of the best games in the series, and not be able to properly appreciate plot points in the main trilogy. Furthermore, the prequel trilogy (or at least Snake Eater + Peace Walker) are definitely prerequisites before playing the more recent Ground Zeroes & Phantom Pain....

As you might be able to tell, I'm a bit of a Metal Gear aficionado.
I won't add much to what has already has been said about MGS2 itself though, except that Raiden is a kewl guy if you like swords, but he's not very manly... (No match for Ryu Hayabusa - a REAL ninja...)

But if you ask me which is my personal favorite game in the entire Metal Gear series, I have to say...
Peace Walker!! Nuclear Deterrence!!! You're (The Real) Big Boss building your MSF army and leading your men to freedom! What's better than that??
And after that you get to hunt monsters in the swamp! How kewl is that?!? There are no monster swamps in Phantom Pain or Ground Zeroes btw...