History VideoGame / MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty

--> "Conflict and victory were my parents!"

--> '''Raiden:''' "Still tickin' huh?"\\

-->"Raiden, do you copy? You must continue your [[AC:[[ElectronicSpeechImpediment muh-muh-mission]].]]"

* ShipLevel: The Tanker Chapter.

* BonusFeatureFailure: Several of the wigs unlockable for Raiden fall into this category. There are two which require collecting about 70% and 90% respectively of all the dog tags in the plant chapter across all difficulties. Your reward for this? Items which give unlimited grip and unlimited oxygen. This might sound quite helpful on paper, but...

** Even worse, to get these items means you'll need to beat the game on 4 of 5 and ''all'' difficulty levels respectively, including ''extreme'' difficulty for the unlimited oxygen wig, and if you can do that you don't need these items anyway. Contrast this to the unlimited ammo and stealth camo items, which are not only fun items to use but can also make harder difficulties much easier because you can obtain them by completing the game on easier difficulties.

*** By the same token, [[spoiler:Rose (the one assisting you in the mission) being an AI is also foreshadowed when you realize half the things she says, especially in her intro codec, make no sense. Her "I'm just a normal girl who's worried about Jack" speech reads like bad fanfic dialog...or a machine just learning how to imitate a young woman.]]

** The reveal of [[spoiler:Pliskin actually being Solid Snake]] was apparently ''supposed'' to be [[TheUnreveal seen coming a mile away]], so most of the actual hints towards it are about as subtle as a brick through a plate glass window. Even this manages one hint most ''wouldn't'' pick up on immediately, however: [[spoiler:when Pliskin is disarmed of his M4 by Vamp during their joint first appearance, Raiden is able to take up that gun and fire at Vamp with it, and after some exposition receives a SOCOM from him so he's not totally unarmed going forward…in spite of the fact that all battlefield weapons have biometric scanners that prevent anyone but their keyed user from firing them, which is the entire reason Raiden later has to find an unclaimed AK in the armory as part of a disguise to infiltrate the core.]]
** After beating the game, the eventual reveal of [[spoiler:the entire Big Shell scenario being an orchestrated, intentional recreation of Shadow Moses becomes bone-chillingly clear to see from the very beginning of the Plant section. The 'Colonel' recites tutorials to Raiden that were word for word said by a combination of Campbell, Naomi, and Mei Ling from the Shadow Moses incident; as if he was reading them off of a script]]. Pay close attention to when he explains how the Codec works to Raiden; it's almost as if he slipped up reading his line, and corrected himself.

* IsThatTheBestYouCanDo: Solidus says it repeatedly during his boss battle.

* KillTheParentRaiseTheChild: At the end of the game, [[spoiler:just before his duel with his adopted son, Raiden, Solidus Snake reveals that he was the one who killed Raiden's parents in Liberia]].

* LameComeback:

* MemeticBadass: {{Invoked|Trope}}, {{discussed|Trope}}, and PlayedForDrama. The [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Shadow Moses incident]] made Solid Snake into a cultural ultra-badass icon in-universe and out, and his memetic reputation doesn't really factor in any of the personal struggles he goes through as a human being. Then, the S3 Plan, or "Solid Snake Simulation" was devised to see if putting a soldier through the same conditions as Shadow Moses would create a SuperSoldier along the likes of Snake...or so Raiden is led to believe at first, as it's later revealed that the S3 Plan, really "Selection for Societal Sanity", is a way for the U.S. government to control information flow and global narratives, and the Shadow Moses recreation with Snake's reputation as a major factor is just a testfire.

[[caption-width-right:300:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTvnKbAnQR0 ""I can't say goodbye to yesterday...""]]]]''

* AwesomeYetImpractical: [[spoiler:Arsenal Gear, according to Solidus. It requires other Metal Gears to guard it along with an army to actually maintain it. Without the requirements to support it, "Arsenal is nothing more than a gigantic coffin"]].

** For unlimited oxygen, there are only two areas in the game underwater: a pool in the very first area, and a flooded section mid-late game. You can't use it in the first area at the beginning when there ''are'' guards (and Raiden is wearing a rebreather at this point anyway extending your O2 gage a lot), and the second time there's zero reason to use it because there's no one else there. This just leaves the flooded area, and this only applies the first time through it, since while backtracking during the EscortMission section Emma is unaffected anyway, so unlimited oxygen is pointless.

The story of the game is thematically ambitious and contains elements of surrealism, post-modernism, and BreakingTheFourthWall. Despite the polarizing nature of the storyline, the game was acclaimed for its groundbreaking gameplay and graphics, which heavily utilized the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2's capabilities. The game is especially remembered for laying down one MindScrew of an ending which has been analyzed endlessly and even has its [[Recap/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty very own page here]] on TV Tropes.

Although the next game, ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', is a prequel of the entire series, ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' continues the story a few years from where this game left off and {{retcon}}s ''Metal Gear Solid 2''[='=]s twist ending [[AuthorsSavingThrow into something a little easier to swallow]]. Like the first game, this one also has a novelization by Raymond Benson, and a comic book adaptation, also available as a MotionComic in the form of ''Metal Gear Solid 2: Bande Dessinée''. An ''[[UpdatedRerelease HD Edition]]'' is available for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, UsefulNotes/Xbox360 and UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation Vita}} as a component of ''Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection'', alongside ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' and (in the overseas console versions) ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker''. The ''HD Edition'' version was later released as part of the ''[[CompilationRerelease Master Collection]]'' on October 24, 2023 for Microsoft Windows, UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, and UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXAndS.

[[caption-width-right:300:''"I can't say goodbye to yesterday..."'']]

** It is also revealed that [[spoiler:some of Raiden's past memories are questionable.]]
** The Colonel, who is an instructional narrator, also turns out to be [[spoiler:a deceptive narrator.]]

** You can humiliate the guards by, after knocking them unconscious, shooting their gun arm, wrecking their radio, and/or injuring at least one of their legs. The guard, if all three will happen, will attempt to call for backup, but will look at the radio in disappointment, be unable to use their weapon, and will limp away from danger... [[TheJoysOfTorturingMooks right into that Claymore mine you set up behind him.]]

* VirtualTrainingSimulation: Raiden has no actual combat experience at the beginning of the Plant Chapter, [[spoiler:well, none that he [[RepressedMemories remembers anyway]] ]]; all his training thus far has consisted of VR missions. This takes on a very meta note when flashbacks to these VR missions demonstrate that they are, in fact, the original ''Metal Gear Solid'' and its accompanying VR missions -- the same ones the player themselves has played.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: During the Tanker chapter, Otacon mentions that he received the tip about RAY supposedly from Emma. This side-line is never brought up again during the Plant Chapter, nor is it ever explained if Emma really was the one who sent the tip.

* WordSaladHorror: The first indication that [[spoiler: something is wrong with the Colonel]] near the end of the game is when he starts spouting off random nonsense:

* MemeticBadass: {{Invoked|Trope}}, {{discussed|Trope}}, and PlayedForDrama. The [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Shadow Moses incident]] made Solid Snake into a cultural ultra-badass icon in-universe and out, and his status doesn't really factor in any of the personal struggles he goes through as a human being. Then, the S3 Plan, or "Solid Snake Simulation" was devised to see if putting a soldier through the same conditions as Shadow Moses would create a SuperSoldier along the likes of Snake...or so Raiden is led to believe at first, as it's later revealed that the S3 Plan, really "Selection for Societal Sanity", is a way for the U.S. government to control information flow and global narratives, and the Shadow Moses recreation with Snake's reputation as a major factor is just a testfire.

* MemeticBadass: {{Invoked|Trope}}, {{discussed|Trope}}, and PlayedForDrama. The [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Shadow Moses incident]] made Solid Snake into a cultural ultra-badass icon in-universe and out, and his status doesn't really factor in any of the personal struggles he goes through as a human being. Then, the S3 Plan, or "Solid Snake Simulation" was devised to see if putting a soldier through the same conditions as Shadow Moses would create a SuperSoldier along the likes of Snake...or so Raiden is led to believe at first, as it's later revealed that the S3 Plan, really "Selection for Societal Sanity", is a way for the U.S. government to control information flow and global narratives, and the Shadow Moses incident is just a testfire.

* MemeticBadass: {{Invoked|Trope}}, {{discussed|Trope}}, and PlayedForDrama. The [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Shadow Moses incident]] made Solid Snake into a cultural ultra-badass icon in-universe and out, and his status doesn't really factor in any of the personal struggles he goes through as a human being. Then, the S3 Plan, or "Solid Snake Simulation" was devised to see if putting a soldier through the same conditions as Shadow Moses would create a SuperSoldier along the likes of Snake...or so Raiden is led to believe, as it's revealed that the S3 Plan, really "Selection for Societal Sanity", a way for the U.S. government to control information flow and global narratives.

->''"George Washington took office as the first president of the United States of America 200 years ago today.[[note]]This is erroneous; Washington was inaugurated in 1789, and this part of the game takes place in 2009, two-hundred and twenty years later.[[/note]] And it happened right here. We were going to declare another independence -- the dawn of a new nation—here."''

You know the anticipation for a game is big when you can [[PreviewPiggybacking package]] a demo of it in [[VideoGame/ZoneOfTheEnders another game]] and get ''that'' game to sell like hotcakes. ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' was a huge success and its inevitable sequel was the KillerApp of 2001.

** When the player has to destroy [=RAYs=], it requires several Stinger missiles aimed at a specific [[AttackItsWeakPoint weak point]]. In a single cutscene Solidus is somehow able to take down several [=RAYs=] by shooting at them with a P90 submachine gun, and hitting them nowhere near said weak point.

* CyberPunk: Most of the game is this. For example, Raiden's body is filled with implanted nanomachines that enable him to communicate via codec/nanocommunication. [[spoiler:Said nanomachines also mess with Raiden's senses, partly by manifesting the [[AIIsACrapshoot Colonel AI]] that he takes orders from.]]

* BrutalBonusLevel: Determined players who slog through the VR Missions will be rewarded with a playable [=MGS1=] Snake. Like his MSX theme music suggests, his levels are [[NintendoHard a lot harder]], and the final Variety Mission taxes all of the skills you've learned by that point: A deathmatch versus dozens of snipers and guards [[InvisibleMonsters wearing stealth camo]], and ''then'' a duel with Genola, without any rations. All on one life.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aIrLgLDtYg One trailer]] was bold enough to replace Raiden with Snake in the plant. It even featured footage of Snake battling the Harrier on the Verrazano Bridge, an area only briefly glimpsed in the prologue.

* DevelopersForesight: [[DevelopersForesight.MetalGear See here]].

* EscortMission: The encounter with Emma is this.

** President Johnson's ultimate fate is a premonition for what will happen to Raiden. Johnson realizes the bogus nature of his surroundings, but can do nothing because, as a piece on a chessboard (or character in a video game), he can't pull the plug or even exit the game. When Raiden reaches Federal Hall, he calls up his masters and threatens to let Solidus go scot-free; the Patriots remind him that [[spoiler:Olga's child will die]] unless he complies. The only way to stop the "simulation," in this case, would be to turn the game console off! In ''The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2'', Kojima has this to say of Johnson's [[spoiler:death]]:

** After beating the game, the eventual reveal of the entire Big Shell scenario being an orchestrated, intentional recreation of Shadow Moses becomes bone-chillingly clear to see from the very beginning of the Plant section. The 'Colonel' recites tutorials to Raiden that were word for word said by a combination of Campbell, Naomi, and Mei Ling from the Shadow Moses incident; as if he was reading them off of a script. Pay close attention to when he explains how the Codec works to Raiden; it's almost as if he slipped up reading his line, and corrected himself.
---> '''Colonel:''' ... if we need to reach you—''contact'' you, the Codec will beep.

* {{Lunacy}}: Sergei Gurlukovich notices that the moon is pale as death in the storm, suspecting that the mission is going to end very badly. [[spoiler:He's right.]]

* ManBehindTheMan: Invoked beautifully. From the start, Solidus is presented as the BigBad, but it turns out that he's being manipulated by [[spoiler:Revolver Ocelot, who's been working for the Patriots the whole time]]. Similarly, we think that the bad guys' ultimate evil superweapon is Metal Gear [=RAY=], but it turns out to be [[spoiler:the Big Shell itself, which is actually a disguised Arsenal Gear]].

* MeaningfulName: The "Big Shell" is a literal one: [[spoiler:it's a "Big Shell" for a giant underwater fortress to hide under]]. Though it's more "meaningless meaningful name," given there's no non-secret reason for the facility itself to be called a shell. The use of meaningful naming is examined in more detail [[http://metagearsolid.org/reports_vr_theory_2a.html here]].
** “Iroquois Pliskin”, the fake name Solid Snake gives to disguise his identity, is one too. When Snake admits it, Raiden immediately understands [[Film/EscapeFromNewYork “Pliskin”]] due to being a movie buff, but needs the origin of “Iroquois” explained to him.

** Shooting a guard in the crotch nets you a one hit kill. It's tough to do, so get up close and personal and hold them at gunpoint. If you're above the nut shot, you can wing their arms and legs until they're hobbling around on one foot. Don't worry; they'll eventually pass out from blood loss. You can shoot birds. You can shoot your escort partner or just knock her out and do things to her, earning you an angry call from her brother. You can take indecent photos of two passed-out teenage girls. Kojima wants you to be *ahem* immersed in the game.

* YouDidntAsk:
** [[spoiler:Snake tells this to Raiden after he asks why he didn't tell him about Mr. X/Olga's allegience.]]
** Also stated when Raiden realizes that they knew that they were developing Arsenal Gear.

* SequelNonEntity: Meryl's fate at the end of the previous game is deliberately left ambiguous so that the story can follow either ending (though Snake does drop one indirect reference to her); Nastasha's book in the game's extra features doesn't mention her. Also, Snake comes equipped with both his stealth camo and his infinite ammo bandana.

* BoringButPractical: You get an M9 tranquilizer pistol at the beginning of the game. You'll be using it a lot. It may not be as powerful as the various assult rifles and rocket launchers, but it can put enemy guards to sleep, and its inherent muffler prevents it from drawing attention to you. Furthermore, reinforcements finding a sleeping guard is better than them finding a dead one; the backup will simply wake them up and disperse rather than triggering Caution mode, even during an alert, putting an attack squad to sleep with headshots will end the alert as no more guards can spawn, while shooting them in the head lethally with other weapons will just result in more attack squads spawning in.
* BorrowedBiometricBypass: To gain access to the Shell 1 Core, Raiden must place an enemy in a chokehold and bring him to the door's retinal scanner, which only works if the enemy is alive and conscious.

* MultipleEndings: Each of the Snake Tales have different outcomes depending on whether a different route was taken or if the boss of the level was beaten lethally or non-lethally.

*** By the same token, [[spoiler:Rise (the one assisting you in the mission) being an AI is also foreshadowed when you realize half the things she says, especially in her intro codec, make no sense. Her "I'm just a normal girl who's worried about Jack" speech reads like bad fanfic dialog...or a machine just learning how to imitate a young woman.]]

** In the second, Emma tiptoes across the rim of the oil fence while being assaulted by gunfire, cypher drones, and even mines. Raiden (and later Snake, once he shows up) take turns picking off the obstacles to clear a path for her.

* PacifistRun: Both Snake and Raiden get access to a tranquilizer gun from the beginning of their respective segments. You never have to directly kill a single person, although Fatman and Solidus still die even when you defeat them by stamina loss. The game also awards the ''Pigeon'' CodeName to those completing a run with no kills.