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Too Much "Substance"...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: January 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was a big fan of Metal Gear Solid 1 (for good ol' PSX) despite the preachiness and moralizing. It had a thoughtful plot, and good gameplay. Then I heard bad things about "Sons of Liberty" and better things about "Substance", so I thought I'd pick up "Substance".
Well, I've spent money more foolishly, but not to be bored right to sleep near the climax of the game. "Substance" manages to take the load-bearing pillar of game plot to bash in the other pillar of game _play_. And the result ends up being that Snake and friends seem to migrate into Silent Hill territory near the end, without giving too much away. Now, I enjoy both genres of game (adevnture/espionage and surreal spookiness), but crossing the wires shorts out enjoyment of both. At the end, I really didn't care if I beat the bad guy...because the bad guy was simply another dupe higher up on the ladder. You might think that a bad plot is only a flaw in one facet of a superb performance on other fronts. Superior voice acting, four returning voice actors at least from MGS1 with the great David Hayter taking the lead as Solid Snake, the gruff, reluctant but highly competent hero. If anyone reading this has any swing with what comes out of Konami's doors in the way of product, tell them 1) We'd really like to play the hero we're used to all through the game--Solid Snake. Leave playing the new guy with the bad haircut and girl problems for a "reward" after beating the game. and 2) Don't get so involved in trying to outclever the audience with all the convoluted plot twists and lengthy talk-talk-talk sequences. For all the highly cunning intent, it was repitious and boring. Short spaced out sequences are okay. The running gags of "Iriquois Plisken" and "'Why didn't you tell me?' 'You didn't ask.'" were great and show that the good folks working at Konami know their audience has a sense of popular culture like the writers of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and in-jokes are not wasted, but highly enjoyed.
To sum up, more Snake, a lot more playing Snake, no surrealistic flights of fantasy (unless your product is "Silent Hill Snake"). I appreciate the author has strong feelings and philosophy about what life is, and what should and should not be done with it--would that other game makers had similar ideas. But please, don't beat us over the head with the message. If you need to go on about it, there's plenty of space for a "book" in the background or extras section on the DVD--beating the game player over the head with it after they shell out out the cash for the game should be a violation of the Gevena Convention.

What Is This?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: March 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The graphics aren't bad or anything. This is actually like a mod and not a new game. You'd rather be better off without this game.It has a few extras and minigames, improved graphics and fixed bugs. Overall, it's just the same game. Don't buy it unless you got some green to burn.

Somewhat disappointing

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: June 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I found this game somewhat disappointing. This is the first time I have ever played a metal gear game and found it lacking. I found the star wars game bounty hunter, which is another shoot the place up game, longer, graphically more impressive and faster moving.

Pointless.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 6
Date: March 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is a pointless release. The VR Missions aren't even fun. There's not much to say about Substance other than that it's...pointless.

overpriced, overhyped

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: March 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

so i was a big fan of the original metal gear solid. i liked sons of liberty too. so i figured substance would be a worthy purchase. after all, it had 300+ vr missions and 100+ alternative missions. too bad that averages out to about 40 missions, with eight characters to play them over and over again. that's right, they are the same missions, with only minor differences.
the only real draw is the all-new snake tales, but i am finding those unreasonably hard. not to say that they aren't any fun, but be advised that they had me wall-punching mad at a few different points.
all in all, if i were you, i'd save $...-$... and buy the original MGS2 on greatest hits. substance just doesnt have any.

Blech!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: March 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I wanted to love this game...I really did. I thought it would be cool to be able to play alternate versions of missions and see old characters rendered anew, but it was just a let-down. Snake-Tales are hokey, silly, and really no fun (at least, that is how I felt). Snake-Boarding was pretty entertaining, but I will stick to Tony Hawk thanks very much.

The one Mission in Snake-Tales that is really worth playing is the one where you get reunited with Meryl. It seemed like a fun idea...until you actually got to play and had to deal with that horror of horrors: SLOWDOWN. Had the graphics been enhanced (like promised with the XBox Version, but never followed through) this would have been excusable, but this is Playstation 2 with the exact same game code no less. Also, in Snake-Tales, your trademark radar is disabled. Normally, this could be taken as a challenge, a chance to show our skills...but it simply becomes a pain, especially when you consider how really buggy the game is.

Here is what I mean: On the tanker, during a bomb disposal exercise, I quietly sneak down a staircase into the engine room. I spot a Gurlukovich soldier. Unaware of my presence, I crouch down on the stairs and go into first-person mode with my M9. I aim carefully so I can get him in the neck. I did not realize it at the time, but although I could see the laser-sight 'beam' aimed right on target, the actual 'dot' did not show up on the soldier (I guess the boringly technical way to describe what happened is that the sight 'dot' fell between two of the polygons). When I fired, not only did it not take him down, but it alerted him to my presence (even with a silencer) and then I had to deal with the attack team! After being annihilated (My USP only had 2 bullets), I tried again, this time waiting until the sight 'dot' was visible on the soldier's neck. I found that the tiniest movement of his head would cause the dot to disappear. Again, normally I would see this as a challenge of timing, but...When I am aiming directly as someone's head, usually whatever I am shooting embeds itself IN the head rather than THROUGH the head!

But, if you can get past this fundamental flaw (which only shows up in Snake-Tales) the VR Missions are what really carry the game, and you have over 300 to choose from. They are just about the only part of the game done well.

To Sum Up: SLOW and BUGGY? Not the two words you want to hear when discussing Metal Gear Solid 2, are they? Well, if anything, it is worth a rental, but ownership should be reserved for the hardcore fans only.

Not worth it if you have the original!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: September 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance is NOT worth while if you have the original Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Especially on the PS2 where it's more or less a re-release of that one but with expansions.

First of all, the "300+" VR Missions is NOT 300+ considering that you play through the same damn levels over and over again with about eight different characters. Not only that but they count the same level twice if you decide to do a time trial. The game actually averages about 40-50 missions when you look at it this way. There are several different modes but they aren't worth it.

As far as the Snake tails go...they're dumb. I thought throwing in Raiden was a bad idea but at least putting him in the main story halfway through was much better than THIS! There is no point to the Snake Tails and for some reason you go through a bunch of VR missions in the last couple of levels of Snake Tails. Snake Tails also has no definite plot at all. They only made the Snake Tails to satisfy those who didn't like Raiden it seems. I'm probably the only person in existence who didn't have a problem with Raiden at all (If you look under SOL many gave it one star just because of that! Sorry but that's not how you game).

Aside from the VR missions and Snake Tails what else is new? Well, we get European-Extreme Mode which is a nice add on considering the American Extreme Mode actually was hard enough, this one presents a completely new challenge with much more complexity in the guards. While just like the American Extreme Mode this can become seriously easy once you figure everything out, it was still nice to experience. It actually is harder than the American-Extreme mode.

Aside from the VR missions and the new difficulty level there is no difference between this and the original besides a few small elements in the gameplay (such as only having to destroy one sensor in the Tanker rather than the three), but that doesn't make this game worth the price they're asking for.

As far as getting rid of Raiden was? Nope didn't happen. As I mentioned it seemed as though the Snake Tails were only to satisfy those whinning gamers who didn't like Raiden.

My advice is to actually go out and get the original. The only bonus this one really has is mediocre VR Missions. If you want a review of the main story I suggest you look at a four star or five star review of MGS2 Sons of Liberty since you'll actually get info from them.

Not what I was expecting

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

It's the same thing as MGS2 with the exception of Snake Tails(which the levels look like a training sessions). There's no new plot.

Not a bad game, but really bad extras!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The orginal game of Metal Gear Solid 2 was fun, don't deny it. But now that Substance is out, I'm going to warn you, stick with the orginal.

The Original Game: 4/5
Great stuff. Although there are many cut scenes, your bound to have fun with this stealth title.

The Extras: 3/5
The skateboarding is horrible, so don't even mess with it. However I must say that the huge amount of VR Missions prove for a good time.

Control: 4/5
You'd be suprised at some point in the game how easy it is to be stealthy. Pop around corners, freeze enemies in their tracks. It's all pretty easy to manuver!

Sound: 4/5
Top notch. Whenever enemies notice you, the music that plays can give you a start, and make you feel like your really in a chase. The opening theme song is lovely, and the voice overs are awesome. Really dramatic stuff.

Overall: 3/5
The game is alright, just take out Snake Tales and Skateboarding. I honestly think your better off paying 10 bucks for a used copy of the orginal game instead of this!

good movie....i mean game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: May 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

You've heard plenty of good things about this game already, so here are the bad. I hate the very tedious Fatman level!!! Final battle sucks! Could have used a female playable character instead of Raiden. I've been replaying this game for a long time now, and I still hate the Fatmal level!!!

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