I now know why everyone hates Metal Gear Solid: 2

[IanBrazen]

I am a BIG Metal Gear fan, but to be more specific I am a Big Big Boss fan because MGS:3 is the one I first played.

ever since then I played them all with the exception of portable ops and (until now)MGS:2.
So I got the HD edition a little while back, I mean two Big boss games for the price of one how could i resist.

However I told myself that I should play 2 first after all its the only one in cannon I haven't played yet.

Besides the fixed camera I have no problems with the game play, its excellent for its time, my problem is with the story.
MGS:2 in my opinion had a lot of potential to have a great story.
Its premise and set up is very intriguing, and with the exception of one, all the characters are interesting.

But holy hell someone really should have told Kojima "Show. Don't tell"
It feels like half the game I'm staring at the codec screen while two people ramble on about King Kong or chop sticks in someones hair.
The codec sequences are in a word oppressive!
Even the big reveal at the end is all told through the freaking CODEC!
I kept wanting to jam my finger on the square button.

I liked Raiden, and still do, however I think his albatross is his girlfriend Rose who is barely a character and more of a plot device.

Ill stop here before I turn this into a review.
My question for you folks is: What is the black sheep of your favorite game series, and why?

Now I need to play Snake Eater to get the bad Metal Gear taste out of my mouth.

 

[oplinger]

You should look up the amount of cut content from MGS2. There's a ton of it just that we know of. Even more than we do not. That is why MGS2 is so terrible. Passable, but it was supposed to be MUCH MUCH better.

what is the black sheep of my favorite game series? uh.. I don't have a favorite game series. ANd black sheep to me would be a game that's different from the others in the series...and I can't really think of any I've played that were drastically different from the others.

 

[IanBrazen]

You should look up the amount of cut content from MGS2. There's a ton of it just that we know of. Even more than we do not. That is why MGS2 is so terrible. Passable, but it was supposed to be MUCH MUCH better.

what is the black sheep of my favorite game series? uh.. I don't have a favorite game series. ANd black sheep to me would be a game that's different from the others in the series...and I can't really think of any I've played that were drastically different from the others.

jeese I cannot imagine even more of that heavy handed drivel.
Its hard to believe the game was made by the same people.
Wish they would make MGS:5 about the boss, ide love to see the pain storming Normandy and killing Nazi's with bees lol.

btw I was curious and looked up the definition of black sheep, this is what i got.
1. A sheep with black fleece.
2. A member of a family or other group who is considered undesirable or disreputable.

So I think both our definitions were wrong ;p

 

[scorptatious]

I liked MGS2. Sure, I kinda consider it my least favorite in the series, but I feel that it's by no means a bad game. I liked Raiden and Rose, I liked the plot, I liked almost everything about this game. The only thing I didn't like was that I couldn't find out what my overall ranking was because the site that showed you you're rankings is long gone.

As for the black sheep in my favorite series? Hmm... I have a lot of favorite series'. It's kinda hard to think of a black sheep in any of them. Although the one I can think of would probably be Valkyria Chronicles 2. Compared to the first game, I found this game inferior in almost every possible way. I could explain why, but I'm kinda tired right now.

 

[krazykidd]

I think persona 3 is considered the black sheep of the persona series , and maybe of smt games in general , but don't quote me on that .

Also mgs:2 , fun game , when there is game parts that is!

 

[Austin Howe]

My favorite black sheep is certainly Final Fantasy VIII, but this one comes close.

Here's why: http://www.deltaheadtranslation.com/MGS2/

 

[Austin Howe]

That'd be the original Persona, aka "the one that's not good."

 

[TehCookie]

I thought people hated it because of the Raiden troll. Since Snake was more advertised than him and even the demo was the beginning area with Snake and then you get stuck play a new character for the game. Not to mention a bishounen, for some reason guys seem to hate those characters.

Though for the ontopic question I'd say Persona 1 for the Persona series. The rest of the series is considered great but Persona 1... not so much. It's interesting to see the origins for the rest of the series since 3 and 4 are so radically different. If you're talking about the entire Shin Megami line I'd say Devil Summoner would be the black sheep because it's real time action combat, and I love it.

 

[IanBrazen]

Also mgs:2 , fun game , when there is game parts that is!

Tell me about it.
The most fun part is when raiden gets his sword, thinking that you might get to do some tenchu style ninja kills.
but you only get to use it for probably 10-15 mins of actual gameplay.
grrr.
btw im looking forward to metal gear rising, even though revengence is a dumb ass title.

 

[shrekfan246]

Snip.

Yeah, the number of Codec conversations for exposition dumps was pretty insane, but most people had more issues with the "BOOM! No Snake, you get to play as Raiden! LOLOLOL" switcheroo. At least, that's how I understand it.

I'm not really sure I have a favorite franchise, though... maybe Sonic the Hedgehog? And hell, most people just say the entire franchise is made of black sheep simply because it's Sonic. My own personal picks would be Sonic '06 and the Storybook Wii games. Unleashed was a black-and-white sheep, because the Day stages were amazing and as a fan of God of War/Devil May Cry-style games I didn't hate the Night stages, just thought they were very out-of-place in... a Sonic game. Since then they've just been getting better and better though.

 

[Syntax Error]

There's a TvTropes entry for MGS2's ENDING. It concluded that MGS2 established Kojima as a Troll/Magnificent Bastard, and the fans love him for it.

 

[Mirroga]

Yeah the switcheroo was the biggest mistake MGS 2 did. It was like they gave us a promise of Solid Snake's next big adventure. And then BOOM, trolled by Kojima.

It doesn't help that some gameplay parts are bad if not notorious in their blandness or backtracking.

 

[Austin Howe]

There's a TvTropes entry for MGS2's ENDING. It concluded that MGS2 established Kojima as a Troll/Magnificent Bastard, and the fans love him for it.

I linked the essay by James Clinton Howell that linked to. I doubt people are reading it, unfortunately.

 

[crazyrabbits]

OP, you wanted a MGS game.

What you got was a post-modern study on the player's relationship with a video game character, and how it breaks the fourth wall.

Simple, really.

 

[rockmanman]

guys im not defending the game, but if you dont like or care for the codec parts, just skip ém. Still the gameplay itself is pretty flawed, and those underwater parts - damn that was some controllersnapping frustration

 

[fix-the-spade]

What is the black sheep of your favorite game series, and why

Metal Gear Solid 2 of course!

Too many cut scenes! I know that in Metal Gear this is par for the course, but 2 takes into self parody levels.

Also, whilst Solid and Snake Eater were truly fantastic, 2 suffers from having such a boring setting. The real stinker though is that the setting was caused by 9/11, loads of content set in New York got cut because of that, which is dumb to my opinion.

However, Substance was pretty good. Lots of interesting stuff in the extras and Snake Tales was better than MGS2 proper.

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

The fixed camera angle killed it for me.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Snip.

Yeah, the number of Codec conversations for exposition dumps was pretty insane, but most people had more issues with the "BOOM! No Snake, you get to play as Raiden! LOLOLOL" switcheroo. At least, that's how I understand it.

I'm not really sure I have a favorite franchise, though... maybe Sonic the Hedgehog? And hell, most people just say the entire franchise is made of black sheep simply because it's Sonic. My own personal picks would be Sonic '06 and the Storybook Wii games. Unleashed was a black-and-white sheep, because the Day stages were amazing and as a fan of God of War/Devil May Cry-style games I didn't hate the Night stages, just thought they were very out-of-place in... a Sonic game. Since then they've just been getting better and better though.

Yeah, definitely '06 from the Sonic franchise.

Also I quite liked MGS2, perhaps not as much as the other games in the series, but I wouldn't distance it enough to call it the black sheep of the franchise.

Oh, and DMC2 of course.