Metal Gear Solid -Part 2- Butts as a Plot Device
Entry posted by solidbatman
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Lets get one thing out of the way really quickly. In Part 1, I said the terrorists were demanding money from the US government or they would launch a nuke. That was incorrect. The terrorists are actually demanding the remains of Big Boss, a super solider that we will learn more about down the road. Sorry for being a moron.
Picking right up from where we left off last time, the DARPA chief is dead, from an apparent heart attack. Outside, we hear a commotion, and then cell door opens up. Snake is quickly held at gunpoint by a female guard while a guy in the background, is knocked out cold on the floor and without any clothes (SUPER IMPORTANT MAYBE?). The female guard mistakes Snake for Liquid for some reason. Its clear that this girl has little combat experience, but a shooting gallery sequence gives her the experience she needs and reinforces the idea that I am terrible at this game.
In this sequence, armed guards come rushing through a door and you simply have to shoot or knock them out. I began this bit with no ammo however, and nearly died running for the two boxes. After dispatching the first wave, a few more appear, with one wave rushing in after throwing these grenades. I mistook them for stun grenades and stood over top of them. They were explosives instead. Goodbye cruel world. On the verge of death, I somehow complete the sequence... a Key miracle if I've ever seen one.
The female guard runs off but not before we get a good look at her ass for plot related reasons I'm sure. In the middle of all of this, a cut away scene takes place with three men, one of whom wears a mask. One of them complains that another killed the man, diving too deeply into his mind for the launch codes. They have another plan, however. This is our introduction to Psycho Mantis, the psychic embedded with FOXHOUND, the former special ops group that has turned terrorist.
At this point, I am completely at a loss as to what to do. I pick up some C4 and begin knocking on walls to find false walls, as instructed by calling Campbell, before falling to my death in a trap floor. Of all the ways to go, a cartoon villain trap does me in. I'm really glad I'm not streaming or recording this.
This seems to be the first major use of sound as a game play element in Metal Gear Solid. You can knock on walls to draw guards away from their posts, but in this case, we are looking for walls that have rooms behind them. Their is a visual cue as they do look different than the rest of the walls, but they also sound very different when you knock on them. Once you find the wall, simply place C4 on it, and detonate. Its a fun game play element the series ran with in this installment, though I can't recall if it shows back up again. We'll find out eventually.
Here we go. I find the room with the Arms Tech guy in a literal bind. The Arms Tech President is tied to a bunch of C4. From behind the set up steps a man wearing cowboy boots calling himself Revolver Ocelot. We wants to see "if the man can live up to the legend". Time for the first boss battle.
I vividly remember this battle from my first playthrough many years ago. Ocelot uses a 6 shot revolver that takes time to reload. The key is to keep moving and hit him as he reloads. Doing this, I manage to only be hit once or twice and easily defeat him. My only major screw up was shooting the tied up Arms Tech President once. He took the bullet like a trooper though. Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't hit any of the trip wire to detonate the bombs.
Upon defeating Ocelot, he prepares for round 2, before an invisible being enters the room and slices off Ocelot's arm, freeing the Arms Tech President too. The Arms Tech guy seems to recognize the new being, exclaiming about the exoskelton as the invisibility wears off. The new person is wearing some sort of cybernetic suit and using a sword as a weapon. When he lays eyes on Snake, he goes crazy, screaming and seizing up before fleeing the room.
What follows is a trademark of the Metal Gear Solid series; a ton of talking. This scene goes on for about 10 minutes or so. The Arms Tech president explains what his company does, and why he created Metal Gear REX, the new Metal Gear. He tells Snake to find Hal Emmerich, his chief scientist and to contact the female solider via codec. The female soldier in question is actually Campbell's niece, Meryl. In the first big 4th wall breaking moment, he tells Snake to check the back of the CD case for Meryl's coded frequency. He also lets drop that the terrorists of FOXHOUND got the code out of him. Once again, just as he is about to tell Snake something very important, he dies of a heart attack. His final words being, "...they are using you to..." and then he dies. Convenient is it not?
Now the terrorists have both nuclear launch codes for Metal Gear REX, so we have to find Meryl or Hal Emmerich to stop this things from happening. Luckily for me, I have my CD case still! I call and.... I get no response. Perfect! I exit the stage and try again. Bingo.
Meryl is a fan of Snake. Most ladies are. Snake proceeds to hit on her. The writing in this game is funny at times, but not overly in your face with comedy. Meryl claims that women have more hiding places than men, so she was able to hide the cancellation information from guards. After much talking, Snake tells Meryl to stay the hell out of his way, while they work together (tsundesnake). Snake decides if he is unable to cancel the nuke launch, he'll destroy Metal Gear REX. He's destroyed a Metal Gear before (pre Metal Gear Solid games). Snake now heads off to find Hal Emmerich. And this is where we save for the day.
One of the major complaints about the Metal Gear Solid series is the high amount of cutscenes and codec conversations. Of the 2 hours or so that I've played, at least a solid 1/3 of it has been cutscenes or codec talks. Sadly, for an older, smaller title such as the first MGS, it leads to gameplay sections being somewhat short and choppy. This could be because of the limitations of the PS1, but also maybe Kojima going too cinematic for the game. I do recall the game opening more as it goes along, so we will see if I remember that correctly. With the amount of plot twists that the series likes to use, it really is no shock that there is a ton of story telling going on, and the attention to detail only compounds the issue. I'm looking forward to seeing how the series evolves in this regard, though I know MGS2 suffers from the same issue.
Death Count: 3
Alert Count: 4
Stupid Convenient Plot Element Count: 2
- Minoru and Darklord Rooke
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