Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
You are a mercenary named Solid Snake entrusted with the battle against an array of enemies, including Metal Gear, a nuclear capable robot. In this latest edition, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, you must stop deadly weaponsof mass destruction from falling into the wrong hands. Secret weapons technology is being shipped on an oil tanker to an unknown destination. You must infiltrate the transport and foil their evil plans.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance is the PS2 espionage action game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty with new playable characters, new VR missions, and a few twists. More than 350 new and moderately interesting VR missions fill in some of the gaps in the original game's story. There are also five separate "Snake Stories" that act as new missions. These take place apart from the main story, making them feel less like an expansion to the sprawling events in Sons of Liberty and more like an unconnected romp designed to pad the original game. Unfortunately, the "Snake Stories" lack the thrill, tension, and exposition that made Sons of Liberty so special. The "substance" is nothing more or less than a collection of disconnected additions to the core game Sons of Liberty, which remains unchanged from its original release: you play as Solid Snake in stealthy espionage/assault missions, infiltrating the lairs of bad guys to take down nuclear-powered bipedal creations called Metal Gears. Snake has all kinds of tricks up his sleeves: high tech weapons, the ability to sneak around undetected--he can even flip over the side of a railing to hide (a "Grip Meter" counts down, increasing the tension and making you pray the enemy walks away). Both a boon and a detriment to the game is its reliance on cinematic scenes to further the convoluted plot. They're well-rendered and professionally done, but you'll seemingly find yourself spending more time watching the game than playing it. Substance is worthwhile for anyone who doesn't already own Sons of Liberty. That goes double for Xbox and GameCube fans, because the game looks much better on those consoles than it did on PS2. For those who've already played the original, this reissue just doesn't add enough, pardon me, substance, to merit purchasing it again. --Bob Andrews Pros: - New modes and missions
- Graphics improvements on Xbox and GameCube
Cons:- New content too sparse for players who already have the original game.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance Accessories
 Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater
Fable: The Lost Chapters
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
Halo 2
Ninja Gaiden
Halo: Combat Evolved
Oddworld Stranger's Wrath
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance Reviews
If I had just put a terrorist to sleep, knowing he'd wake up again in a few minutes, I'd just slit his throat. Also, what's with the stupid shaking the body to find stuff. The one main problem is the horrible camera angles. MGS2 is no Splinter Cell. Next, why in the world doesn't Snake have a knife. Why can't Snake just go through the pockets, instead of having to shake the body repeatedly, to try and find something.
I'm not sure why I'm even giving it 2 stars, but I'm in a generous mood. not even close. Yeah, it grew. At the very least, toss him overboard, toss his weapons overboard, or something. Dumb doesn't even begin to describe the contrived story line and limitations.
And why can't I pick up their weapons. And wouldn't this wake them up if they're asleep. Just let me play in 1st person mode. I really like Splinter Cell. Wasted 3 hours on it, trying to see if it would "grow on me".
like fungus.
Characters. "Snake Tales" stars Snake in various missions on Big Shell. Lame. thought I'd mention that. Turn it off." or "Hari Kari Siscors 69.".
then it turns out everything is a VR mission. Go for it. FOX-HOUND (and MGS2 in general) have some real entertaining characters to say the least, all with a fictatious background that is pretty miserable to say the least. thats really it. The reason: there is a new Metal Gear, codenamed Ray, as it's cargo. You can actually swim in this game which is a real plus. It's fun, has awesome graphics & music, and it's a pretty cheap game nowadays. These missions can range anywhere from "use stealth to get to the end" all the way to "snipe all the enemies who come near the curry".
You can jump over railings and hang over ledges to hide from hostiles, you can roll to knock them down, and you can do the infamous melee combo to knock 'em out. I mean seagulls actually do their business on Big Shells roof and you can slip on it, how much more realistic can you get. It's rumored that about 2/3 of the actual game is talking. We find our hero Snake secretly boarding an oil tanker ship that belongs to the United States Marines. Both as Raiden & Snake you collect a lot of weapons including a tranq gun, a SOCOM handgun, an "adult entertainment" magazine, an assault rifle, chaff & frag grenades, a sword and many more. not really important but pretty fun. Everything in this game looks so real and textured. We'll start with the VR missions - there are probably over 100 of them since you have to play a bunch with Raiden, Snake, Pliskin, Snake in different suits, etc.
The only downfall is the length of the game and the story near the end of the game. Now you can "hold up" terrorists for their dog tags. I'm gonna be straight with you guys - MGS2: Substance has amazing graphics and even better music. meh. skip a few years ahead and we find ourselves controller a new comer named Raiden as he sneaks into a huge facility in the middle of the ocean called "The Big Shell" which was built to contain the oil spill Ocelot caused.and which has also been taken over by Russian terrorists. You'll meet up with a familiar ninja ;), the daughter of someone who died on the Marine tanker, Otacon's sister who is just as lame and annoying as Otacon himself, and many more. At one point you'll find yourself running around disarming bombs all throughout Big Shell which was kinda fun. What really seperates Substance from the original Sons of Liberty is it's huge VR mission system, and the mini games "Snake Tales".
words can't even explain it. Just as our boy Snake gets on board, the entire ship is brutally taken over by terrorists of Russian decent. Just as Snake makes his way to the bowels of the ship where it's cargo is being held, and after a moment of intensity between the Marines and terrorists, Revolver Ocelot jumps into Ray and sinks the ship killing everyone and spilling oil everywhere. as your running around your getting codec calls from Colonel Campbell saying, "Go ahead and take a rest, I'll save your game. The ending was so confusing I don't even get it.
Oh yes, this is the first game where if you take down an enemy or are spotted, back up actually comes. Also there is A LOT, and I stress A LOT, of talking in this game. Sometimes you'll feel depressed (when he time calls for it) orfeel pumped up for a big battle through the music.truley helps the overall feel & atmosphere of the Substance. it's really beautiful for the PS2. The music is superb. For once you can go into first person view to manually aim in MGS2: Substance, which is really helpful.
The best is Fat Man because hes fat, roller blades, is funny, and plants bombs all over the place. It was a neat little idea. Raiden's original mission objectives are to rescue the hostages of Big Shell, but as the game moves on Raiden must stop the demented FOXHOUND unit and put an end to the Metal Gear Ray project. This review is too long for it's own good, so I'm gonna sum it up now - if your a fan of the Metal Gear Solid games or if you really enjoy sneaking around.or talking.you have to play this game. If properly completed you unlock a mini game where you can skateboard as Snake. They use radioes to contact each other, and if you are really good at aiming, can destroy their radio.
Then again, kids today don't have to know how to read to graduate, so I guess I can't expect them to know what a good story line was if it smacked them in the face. Its what happens when you pick up a book and read the last chapter.
The problem is the most the the people who play MGS know MGS from the day when most gamers today where still in there diapers. I see a lot of reviews comparing MGS to Ghost Recon. Metal Gear is an almost 20 year old game.
I saw some diaper wearer here posted that the game had no story line. Go ask you Dad, ya mama's boy, to break out the old NES so he can whoop you assssssss. There are 8 Metal Gear games all of which are Great games and without them there would be no Ghost recon.
On a more positive note, the graphics were very impressive and the story-line and cut-aways were equally impressive. If you're a Splinter Cell fan and are expecting something even remotely akin to that gameplay experience you will be terribly disappointed. I took the plunge and bought this recently for $6.99 from my local video store, and I'm taking it back. Bottom line: the game lacks the fluid gameplay experience that I've come to enjoy from Splinter Cell and just doesn't even come close to measuring up to that standard. 2) Given how bad the camera angle for the game is, one wants so very desperately to play in first person mode.
And I'm ok with that. I need to admit here that my only frame of reference for this game is the Splinter Cell series on XBOX and for that reason the gameplay is just so disappointing to me. There were two major problems with the gameplay for me:. 1) The camera angle is not well positioned which makes it difficult to get a good orientation of one's surrounding and makes movement difficult, I found. My sense from reading previous reviews is that many gamers are inclined to like this game on the Xbox because they have enjoyed previous versions on another console (PS2 I think). (In my humble opinion).
I can't emphasize strongly enough how much the camera angle bothered me. But, while the game does allow one to look around in the first person mode, it doesn't allow one to *move around* in first person.
it is very interactive. like it is possible to shoot seagulls that fly around in the raiden levels. the controls are awful when im crouching down or something and i guard walks over i want to get up but i normaly end up lying on the ground which means i get a kick in the head from the guards. the characters are weird like theres a bisexual vampire who is in love a marine commander. then you find out that raidens girlfriend is pregnant and your commander is ai and loads of other stuff.
on one of the levels you are walking around inside a metal gear naked and whatever you do one hand is always on his you know what. its possible to kill almost anyone or anything. also the person who saves for you is raidens girlfriend so after when you save you normally get a long speech about how empty raidens room is and why he wont sleep next to her and when they met they argued over what building king kong climbed up or something like that. it has lots of annoying bits like the very long cutscenes but overall it is a very fun and addictive game well worth the money theres otacon the weird person with glasses who had a realtionship with his mum the main character looks like a girl. also when you have to save the girl thats scared of water i accidenly used melee attack on her a couple of times which brings me onto something else. the cutscenes are interesting but also quite tedious.
also when your naked the guards arnt afraid to kick you and shoot you. this is one of the most fun and addictive games i have ever played. there are lots of plot twists and after a little while i was completely confused on whats going on. sme bits are annoying like when you have to do something or go somewhere and you dont know how or where. most of the bosses are werid like theres one called fatman who is a fat guy on rollerblades who plants explosives all over the place and before he dies he says something like laugh lots and grow fat.
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