Feature By

Brad Gallaway

After what seems an eternity of hype and unbelievably high-gloss reports from nearly every game information source available, I have to say that the short piece of Metal Gear Solid 2 released on the Zone Of The Enders demo disc has lived up to every single bit of the talk so far.

Unlike Chi and Dale, I really enjoyed the original Metal Gear Solid (MGS) in a big way, and I’ve been a fan of the series since the original game way back on the NES. It’s quite clear to see from the demo that Snake’s come a long way since his 8-bit days, and every piece of evidence points to the likely event that Metal Gear Solid 2 will be Kojima’s ultimate masterpiece, and something to be universally respected.

While definitely not perfect, MGS hit the mark everywhere it counted. From what I’ve seen so far of the demo, MGS2 looks to completely outdo it not only visually, but also interactively. At the risk of sounding like every other magazine, Web site, reviewer and critic on earth, everything I saw was generally amazing. The intro, the graphics, the level of detail—everything. Since I’m sure most readers already know that you have to see MGS2 to believe it, I won’t spend any more time discussing the eye candy.

Graphics aside, the thing I found most entertaining about the demo and the thing that I perceive (so far) to be the biggest advancement is the amount of things you can actually DO as Solid Snake. Shoot guards on any part of their body, hide inside lockers and look out from the vent slits, hang from ledges and drop off—it’s all in here. To be honest, there are even more things to do that I didn’t even think to try, and that’s the part which has me so excited. Half of the enjoyment I had with the disc was just going around and seeing what kind of crazy maneuvers I could pull off, or how much of the environment wasn’t interactive (which is not much, honestly). If the rest of the game follows suit, we are looking at an incredibly high new watermark in videogames.

With a new level of interactivity, along with it comes a new level of control. I did have to sit down and take some time to get acclimated to the setup on the DualShock 2, which is even more complex than MGS, though it’s unavoidable due to having so many more actions available. I do agree with both Chi and Dale when they mention the camera’s problematic switch when leaning up against walls, and some of the more sophisticated moves took some effort as well as manual dexterity. Will these issues be a problem in the full version? It remains to be seen.

Other things I’m reserving judgment on include the storyline, voices and characterizations. Like was mentioned earlier, the demo still has Japanese voices, so the quality of the domestic version is currently unknown. Still, almost all of Kojima’s work has been universally praised as having consistently outstanding production values, so I’m not too worried. Hopefully Konami will tap the cast of the original game, as I felt most of the voices were as perfect as game voices get. David Hayter, the voice of Solid Snake in MGS, would be especially welcome for the sequel.

One of the areas that I would say MGS needed to improve was the plot and writing. While easily better than the majority of games made, MGS had enough elements in it for two games, possibly even three, which I felt diluted the overall impact and focus. Also, some of the characters had extremely long speeches that appeared predictably during the game, usually as they lay dying. While not major things, they helped to increase the game’s "cheese" factor, and this is one part of MGS2 which will I hope will be improved over the original. From the demo, it’s much too early to tell.

Overall, I came away from the small piece Konami has baited us with extremely impressed. The environment of the game and Snake’s place in it were extremely well-realized, and if the other areas in the game receive as much attention to detail as the first 15 minutes available from the demo, it’s going to be an unbelievable experience for gamers everywhere. Titles with the amount of promise Metal Gear Solid 2 displays come fewer than once a generation, and I hope that Hideo Kojima does everything necessary to bring the finished version to the highest level of quality possible while providing a huge jumpstart to the sagging PlayStation 2 as well as the entire world of videogames. The tough part now is that waiting for the final version will be even more grueling than it was before I had played the demo.

Tentative Rating of Trial Edition: 10