Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake: Difference between revisions

{{quote|"...Metal... Gear?"|Snake, [[Parrot Exposition|beginning a grand tradition.]]}}

 

 

''Metal Gear 2'' is, like its predecessor, a [[Stealth Based Game]] following exploits of FOXHOUND operative Solid Snake. The plot kicks off when the world's oil supply unexpectedly runs dry. With the world facing an energy crisis Dr. Kio Marv, a Czech biologist, develops a microbe called OILIX, capable of synthesizing petroleum. Hoping to use OILIX to ensure their military dominance, a small nation called Zanzibar Land kidnaps Marv during a trip to the United States to discuss his findings. Snake is sent in to diffuse this threat and rescue Marv from the clutches of Zanzibar Land. But Zanzibar Land has an ace up their sleeves: a new model of Metal Gear is in development...

Beginning with ''Metal Gear 2'', the series took a brand new turn - [[Growing the Beard|it decided to take itself seriously]], to startlingly good results. ''Metal Gear 2'' further evolved the stealth mechanics of its predecessor and introduced a [[Darker and Edgier]] storyline involving [[Melodrama]], plot twists, and the themes of warfare and nuclear proliferation. The game system was also completely revamped from the original. Whereas the guards in the previous remained stationed in one room, here they can patrol more than one screen and they now have a wider range of vision as well. To compensate for the improvement in the enemy's abilities, the player is given a radar which shows the position of enemy soldiers and terrain in adjacent screen, as well as the ability to crawl under desks, ducts and other small spaces.

 

 

* [[Ambidextrous Sprite]]: All of the characters have different sprites when facing left or right, even unarmed characters.

* [[Anti-Villain]]: Going by some characters' statements, in spite of Big Boss essentially wanting to turn the world into an immense battlefield, he did nonetheless do non-villainous actions such as saving the Outer Heaven resistance members, as well as forgiving them for their earlier opposition towards him and Outer Heaven, after the NATO bombings of Outer Heaven. This was alluded to in Kyle Schneider's dying speech. Gray Fox revealed that Big Boss saved his life twice, earning him his genuine loyalty. He also saved the children living in Zanzibar Land, although the last bit is in the gray area.

** Holly's bio claims that she won a [[Grammy Award|Grammy]] for her documentary ''The Unknown Bloodshed'', even though a Grammy is a music award. This was corrected in the ''Metal Gear Solid 4 Database'' by stating she won a Emmy instead of a Grammy.

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: Let's see, apparently the American government wanted Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar to work on SDI, NEDW, and Brain Bombs, but he refused. What did they do? They had the scientific community ostracize him, exile him from said scientific community, and then act as though he never existed shortly thereafter. Suffice to say, Dr. Madnar was not too pleased with this treatment.

* [[Disposable Woman]]: {{spoiler|Gustava Heffner}} lasts all of ten minutes before getting a missile to the face.

* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]: Compared to the primitiveness of the previous game, ''Metal Gear 2'' is surprisingly very close to ''Metal Gear Solid'', despite being hampered by the technical limitations of the MSX2. It still has a few odd moments and leftover play mechanics from the first game, such as the fact that Snake still moves only in four directions.

* [[Final Speech]]: Not all of the bosses, but this game begins the tradition.

* [[The Great Politics Mess-Up]]: The game, which was released in 1990 but set in 1999, assumes that the Soviet Union will be still be around by that time and even has a character (Gustava Heffner) employed by the Czechoslovakian Secret Police, a real-life organization that was dissolved the very same year the game came out. Gustava even compares her failed romance with Frank Hunter with the [[Berlin Wall]], which was destroyed during the same year as well.<ref>The manual does note that the Berlin Wall was destroyed in 1989, however.</ref>

* [[Guide Dang It]]: The player is required to decipher tap codes to learn at least two frequencies, which can only be done by using a chart in the manual. Additionally, Snake is also told to look at the back of the game's package to learn Campbell's second frequency upon reaching Tower Building.

* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: Big Boss delivers one to Solid Snake before their final battle, countered by Snake's [[Shut UP, Hannibal]] speech.

** Also how Red Blaster ended up defeated.

* [[Humongous Mecha]]: This game marks the first time in the series Snake gets to battle a manned Metal Gear.

* [[It's Raining Men]]: According to the manual for the game, Solid Snake infiltrated Zanzibar Land at the dead of night via a HAHO jump.

* [[Killer Rabbit]]: The "deadly poisonous" Zanzibar hamsters.

* [[Made of Explodium]]: Bosses tend to explode when they die. [[Narm|Can be a bit of a level breaker if they've just given a dramatic speech.]]

* [[Mad Scientist]]: {{spoiler|Dr. Madnar.}} What a [[Meaningful Name|surprise.]] In fairness, however, his name {{spoiler|was originally Dr. Petrovich, and he was on Snake's side in the first game...}}

** Plus, according to him, the only reason why he was even labelled as such was because {{spoiler|America's politicians just wanted him to make things like Brain Bombs, as well as make things relating to SDI and NEDW, and he also mentions that the same politicians only abused and showed contempt of him.}}

* [[The Mole]]: {{spoiler|Dr. Madnar.}}

* [[My Master, Right or Wrong]]: Gray Fox allies himself with Big Boss, since he had saved his life twice before.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Solid Snake managed to stop TX-55 Metal Gear from being completed. Unfortunately, NATO apparently decided to use that opportunity to launch an air raid nuclear strike against Outer Heaven that resulted in both the Outer Heaven personnel and the Outer Heaven Resistance members suffering severe casualties, not to mention people who were war refugees and war orphans. In fact, it was this action that nearly resulted in Schneider's near death, not Outer Heaven as it was earlier implied. Also, his nearly killing Gray Fox and Big Boss (especially the former action) would prove to have serious repercussions for him in the [[Metal Gear Solid|next game]].

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: The character portraits in the MSX2 version are obviously modified photographs of popular celebrities at the time (notably Big Boss is Sean Connery with an eyepatch and Gray Fox is Tom Berenger). The rip-offs were so obvious that when Konami re-released the game on later platforms, they had to change them to avoid any likeness infringement. Even the Japanese Virtual Console version, which is otherwise a straight emulation of the original MSX2 version, uses the new Shinkawa-style portraits.

* [[Orwellian Retcon]] : In addition to the spelling variations mentioned below, many of the characters specific to this game were renamed when the game was released to other platforms. Notably Natasha Marcova became Gustava Heffner (presumably to avoid confusion with the similarly named Nastasha Romanenko from the original ''Metal Gear Solid''), while Yozef Norden was renamed Johan Jacobsen. Despite this, a lot of inconsistencies with the later ''Metal Gear Solid'' games were kept (even in the official Konami site, which still states that Big Boss lost his right eye during the '80s), along with a few factual mistakes.

** [[Retcon]]: Besides the name changes, there were also various changes in later games that make most of the events in ''Metal Gear 2'' extremely unlikely to happen. One of the most notable was the constant references to the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc that were done in such a way that made it seem as though they were still in existence in late 1999 (the setting of the game). Many of these retcons, that one in particular, were a case of [[Real Life Writes the Plot]], as at the time the game was being made, it really was still in existence, and the Soviet Union and Communism in Eastern Europe were still going somewhat strong until it fell faster than predicted.

* [[Schematized Prop]]: The opening credits sequence is a lengthy detailing of Metal Gear D's various parts.

** The dialogue between Solid Snake and Big Boss at the end suggest that ''Metal Gear 2'' takes place ''three'' years (1996) after the events of the original ''Metal Gear''. This is due to the manual claiming that the "Outer Heaven crisis" occurred in 1995, but the first Metal Gear (the one Solid Snake destroyed) was built in 1996.

** The manual has other inconsistencies, such as referring to the mission from the first game as "Operation Intrude ''N312''" instead of ''N313'' and the region in Africa where Outer Heaven was located as "Salzburgh" instead of "Galzburgh". Natasha's bio even refers to her former lover as "Frank ''Jaeger''", even though she knew him as "Frank ''Hunter''".

* [[Shout-Out]]: Several, especially in the MSX2 version:

** Black Color, {{spoiler|a.k.a. Kyle Schneider}}, was a reference to the novel ''The Blackcollar'', which involved space ninjas.

** Gainax, the Japanese anime studio, is referenced as a lavatory production facility.

** Pegimin-H, from Ultra-Q, is mentioned to be one of the natural resources for Zanibar Land.

* [[Sdrawkcab Name]]: Dr. Kio Marv's name is {{spoiler|VRAM 0.1K backwards, a riff on the MSX booting sequence}}, as revealed during the ending.

** Campbell is spelled "Kyanbel".

** Gray Fox is spelled "Grey Fox" and Jaeger is "Yeager".

** In the MSX2 version, Dr. Madnar's first name is given as "Petrovich" in the manual and "Petorovich" in-game. The re-releases gave him the full name of "Drago Pettrovich Madnar."

* [[Tabloid Melodrama]]: Briefly alluded to by Big Boss when explaining his motivations for creating Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land, when explaining that soldiers often end up as dead weight back at their home countries:

* [[Together in Death]]: Snake promises this for {{spoiler|Gray Fox and Gustava}}. Of course, [[Metal Gear Solid|we all know how that turned out...]]

* [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]: The player can make Snake kill war-torn orphans.

** [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment]]: Granted, its not as severe as what happens if the player kills POWs in the previous game, but if the player decides to shoot or even punch out war orphans, as listed above, [[Hostage Spirit Link|they'll lose health]].

* [[Would Hurt a Child]]: See [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]].

 

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[[Category:Video Game]]