Review By:  Jared Black
Developer:	Konami
Publisher:	Konami
# of Players:	1
Genre:	Stealth
ESRB:	Mature
Online:	No
Accessories:	N/A
Date Posted:	12-18-02

Aurally, MGS2 is about the best thing your ears will ever be treated to. Harry Gregson-Williams, who worked on movies like Enemy of the State and Armageddon, composed the music score. As a result, it’s a very Hollywood-esque score that perfectly conveys the feeling of sneaking around. For the most part, the music is very low and calm, yet with an underlying sense of tension that perfectly accompanies the tenseness of lying on your stomach with guards all around you. Whenever the action heats up however, the music will similarly ramp up to a truly epic score that matches the chaos taking place. In fact, it's so good that I'm letting the opening movie run in the background to motivate me and get me in the "MGS mood" as I type this.

The sound effects all sound very realistic, right down to the proper sounds for footsteps on each surface. Sound plays a very integral role in the overall game as well, as much of the gameplay relies on the proper usage of sound. If you make too much sound, you’ll give yourself away and have a horde of guards on you in an instant. Similarly, you can intentionally make a lot of noise in one area to clear another area out that you want to go in. Not only that, but by listening to the words spoken by the guards in each area you can often figure out how to make it past a particular situation. For example, in several areas the guards will call in on a routine basis to report their status. If you time your attack on one of these guards just after they’ve done that, you can maximize the amount of time they’ll be out cold before someone will notice. Sound plays an important role such as this throughout the game, and adds immensely to the overall tension and depth of the gameplay.

Likewise, the voice acting is the best I’ve heard in any video game. All of the character’s voices fit them perfectly, and almost every single line is delivered with a quality of emotion and delivery that you’ll only find in professional voice actors. Snake’s voice is very tough and gruff, Otacon’s voice has a stern but wimpy quality, and Olga (a female Russian soldier who also happens to be a mother) has a very tough yet gentle delivery. Really the only time the voice acting falters is whenever the dialogue itself falters, as occasionally some of the dialogue is poorly written and feels forced.

Highs:

• Enough extras to create a separate game from.
• The same great gameplay isn't hampered a bit by the controller switch.
• The voice acting is still the best I've found in any game.
• Sound effects play a key and realistic role in gameplay, as it would in real life if you were sneaking into something.
• Many "easter eggs" and in-jokes that are great to discover for MGS and Konami fans.
• The environments feel more natural and less "forced" than those in Splinter Cell.

Lows:

• Some of the VR and Alternative missions are just slight variations on previous ones.
• Minor slowdown in several areas of the main game.
• Splinter Cell has redefined how this type of game should look on Xbox.

Final Verdict: 

Let me put it to you this way: I replayed the entire original game, and not once did I feel that I was wasting my time despite the fact that it's virtually identical to the PS2 original.  It's still that good. Then I moved on to the extras, and from the look of things I'll most certainly end up spending much more time with those and have just as much fun doing so. There are literally enough extras in here (for free no less) that Konami could've slapped them all on a separate disk, entitled it MGS2: VR Missions, and still sold a million copies at $49.99.

If you own a Xbox, this is a must buy. Even if you own both a Xbox and a PS2 but own neither version, you should still buy this version over the $19.99 Greatest Hits version due to all of the extra content found here. Trust me, it's worth the extra $30.

Overall Score: 9.3

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