Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is an action-adventure stealth game developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation 2 on November 2001. It is the fourth Metal Gear game written and directed by Hideo Kojima, the seventh overall game in the series and is a direct sequel to the original Metal Gear Solid. An expanded edition, titled Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, was released the following year for Xbox and Microsoft Windows in addition to the PlayStation 2.
Plot[]
The story revolves around the "Big Shell," a massive offshore clean-up facility seized by a group of terrorists who call themselves the "Sons of Liberty." They demand an enormous ransom in exchange for the life of the President of the United States and threaten to destroy the facility and create a cataclysmic environmental disaster if their demands are not met. The motives and identities of many of the antagonists and allies change throughout the course of the game, as the protagonists discover a world-shaking conspiracy constructed by a powerful organization known as the Patriots.
Reception[]
The game had sold over seven million copies worldwide, and received acclaim for its gameplay, graphics, and attention to detail. However, critics were initially divided on the protagonist and the philosophical nature and execution of the game's storyline, which explores themes such as memetics, social engineering, political conspiracies, censorship, artificial intelligence, existentialism, and postmodernism. Metal Gear Solid 2 has since been considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time, as well as a leading example of artistic expression in video games. The game is considered to be ahead of its time, for dealing with themes that later became culturally relevant in the 2010s, drawing comparisons to concepts such as social media, news feeds, post-truth politics, fake news, alternative facts and echo chambers.