Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty was the fourth game in the Metal Gear series. The game was split into two main sections (Tanker and Plant chapters) and two playable characters: Solid Snake and Raiden. The music was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams.

Story Overview
Two years after Shadow Moses, Solid Snake and Otacon, working as Philanthropy, receive intelligence of a new type of Metal Gear being transported through the Hudson River. As Snake boards the tanker, it's seized by a group of Russian mercenaries led by Revolver Ocelot, intent on stealing the new Metal Gear.


 * For a full summary of the "Tanker" chapter see Tanker Incident

Another two years later and the Big Shell, the off shore clean up facility constructed in its place is taken over by a terrorist faction calling themselves the Sons of Liberty. New FOXHOUND operative Raiden is sent in to neutralize the threat, but not everything is as it seems.


 * For a full summary of the "Plant" chapter see Big Shell Incident

Reception
Fans were taken by surprise that they took the role of Raiden during the entirety of the Big Shell chapter. Overall reaction in North America and Europe were negative towards the introduction of Raiden, and was neutral in Japan. Another dispute was the cutscenes which were considerably longer than the cutscenes in Metal Gear Solid, leading to complaints that Metal Gear Solid 2 was more like a movie with interactive sequences rather than a Tactical Espionage game.

However, despite such negative commentaries, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty received high scores from critics (95% critical average) and sold over 7 million copies worldwide, making it the most successful MGS game to date. It has also been featured on numerous "Greatest Games of All-Time" lists.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance went multi-platform in spring 2003, hitting Xbox and PC. The new version included several new gameplay modes (boss survival, the return of VR training) and some minor graphical enhancements. The PC version required an upgrade due to its high graphic content in which the user would need a DVD drive to play the game. Substance appeared on the PlayStation 2 several months later, releasing at the same time that the original version was added to Sony's Greatest Hits lineup.

Additions and Changes in Substance include:
 * Addition of a Boss-Survival mode (Was Already included in the EU Version of Sons of Liberty)
 * Addition of Skateboarding mini-game (PS2 only)
 * Addition of 5 "Snake Tales", feature sized games
 * Addition of over 500 VR and Alternative missions
 * Addition of Casting Theater (Was Already included in the EU of Sons of Liberty)
 * Alterations of names on Dog Tags
 * Alterations of Thermal Goggles graphics

The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2
In the month of September 2002, a "Making of" interactive disc was released in Japan and North America. The disc contained VR Missions, built in soundtrack, the mechanics and areas of the game as well as the ability to look at player polygons. It wasn't literally a "Documentary" in a sense as it was more interactive to a degree as it served it's purpose to show the entire game of Metal Gear Solid 2.

It was eventually released in Europe in March 2003, but cost nothing, instead packaged free with Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance to compensate for its late release.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Digital Graphic Novel
A Digital Graphic Novel was announced at the Metal Gear 20th Anniversary Party, according to sources from the Live Blogging brought by IGN.com and 1UP.com the DGN will contain full voice overs and more features than the previous digital graphic novel.

Theme
Memetic engineering (the theory that ideas, beliefs and thoughts can be isolated and controlled) is the theme of this game. The aim of The Patriots is to control the flow of information through society, censoring the public from the things they don't want shared. Solid Snake's philosophy is that humanity needs to find something worth believing in and pass it on to future generations.

Substance is also a theme within the game, as Raiden is essentially a blank character, as he is essentially controlled and used his entire life. In the beginning, he fully believes himself to be Solid Snake, until the notion of meeting the "Real" Solid Snake shows up. When Rose tells him about his room, its an all white room, with nothing but a bed within it. When he finally meets with Solidus, who had been the first to bring Raiden into war, he ends up having his own substance and personality, as taking down his "father" so to speak, and proclaiming his love to Rose, although she herself was also part of the "Meme" theme up there. The Patriots made the two meet, but there was a false relationship up there, and at the end, it was a true, just love between the two. Raiden was full.

Trivia

 * Originally, the plotline for this game was supposed to be much different than in the final release. In the original plotline, Solid Snake was sent to Iran and Iraq to investigate rumors that a Metal Gear was being held behind doors, and that Nuclear Weapons inspectors were denied access. Also, at one point, an Aircraft Carrier was supposed to be delivering the new Metal Gear prototype, but it ends up being Hi-Jacked by Liquid Snake and his team (revealing that Liquid Snake had faked his death). However, it was scrapped half a year into the design phase once it became known that tensions in the Middle East were rising again. In fact, the only remaining part of that plotline was the Tanker incident that served as the prologue.