|
Post by CitizenChris92 on Oct 22, 2015 12:05:17 GMT -6
All done with Sons of Liberty.
Well I be damned. Never expected the second game to raise the bar to such a degree for me. I can now see why people would have issues with this game, but I for one loved almost every minute of it. For a game to take such an identical premise of the previous installment, deliberately playing with the player's expectations of the scenarios and characters, and then subverting them all in different ways and managing to connect them into a cohesive whole, is quite extraordinary. There is certainly a plethora of things to talk about with this particular game, but I for one will focus on taking up the game's focus on its postmodern plot, the games message on collective social control, confirmation bias, nature of social identity and a few of the game's characters that interested me.
The story is something that fascinated me considerably more than its predecessor. While MGS1 featured nuclear weaponry as a means to bring nations to its knees, along with focus on the importance of an individual's genetic code and his potential power to defy his fate, Sons of Liberty in turn focused on biopolitical networks and information control as a method for global dominance, in addition to having our collected, cultural and cumulative memories that we leave for the future, as the more important factor in play when talking about our legacy to the world. This is a topic that interest me considerably more and is also something that I find to be relevant in our current age, considering how our era is defined by the rapid transmission and over-reliance of information, internet freedom, censorship, digital storage, etc, and how the game addresses the impact that it can have to society and our evolution, how it can be controlled by an individual, organization or a government. That is why I find the convoluted plot of MGS2 to be both interesting and fascinating in how it is presented, and is something that I would personally consider a postmodern deconstruction of its medium, as it combines both elements of the story as well as the game itself to work in tandem with the narrative to convey its message. From a gameplay perspective, its deceit of our expectations and our critical thinking of the success of the previous game as a form of art and using it as a form of repetition for the successor, and with the story itself focusing on the importance and danger of information in our current age, along with the utilization of cultural memories as an impacting factor in our evolving history, all help shape this game into an amalgamation of various sources and ideas, and in turns creates avenues for us to create new experiences for us--the player. Having the game deliberately challenge our perception of truth--while nothing revolutionary for me personally to do in my life--is still entertaining and highly creative in its presentation, and is something that I can't help but love as a gamer.
Playing as Raiden was highly entertaining, both gameplay wise and narrative wise. I enjoyed Raiden slightly more as a character than I did with Snake, since it demonstrated a more human character--putting emphasis on his supposed inexperience in combat, personal values, a more personal take on relationship, manipulation and control, admiration for the legend that is Snake and the development that followed through the story, and more, helped shape him as a compelling character. But surprisingly enough for me, the real joy in it though is witnessing how much of a blank slate Raiden really is. Seeing how he transforms through the game as more and more revelations are being showcased, it becomes more apparent that he isn't actually that inexperienced in combat (having lived his life as a child soldier and the trauma it has caused him in life), he doesn't really have any solid values or beliefs (as it is Snake who ultimately teaches him how to live life), his almost nonexistent relationships and questioning if anything in his life was even real, how surreal his manipulation really is and how in the end he throws away his dog tags, refusing to acknowledge the realities of his past, and decides to fabricate his own identity. The only thing I knew of Raiden was his character in Metal Gear Revengeance, so seeing this being his "origin" story of sorts was a much welcome aspect for me.
One of the key reasons that I was looking forward to the sequel was witnessing the potential continuing development of Solid Snake, and I was quite pleased what I got. I enjoyed his reasoning to return to active duty and how bitterly it ended for him after MGS1, with it reverting back to what Liquid preached; that peace hadn’t sustained the love that had bloomed on the battlefield, which was a heavy theme in the previous installment. While tragic in a sense, it is kinda uplifting to me that Snake personally demonstrates that only by liberating ourselves is when we can be free to do what is right, and not have our past decide our future. Snake finding enlightenment in his quest through close friends, personal beliefs and morals and experience that guides him, is something that I loved witnessing.
Solidus ended up being a surprisingly interesting character. Just like how the game has on many other aspects played with expectations, it was entertaining to at first think of Solidus as a madman with intentions of causing terrorism, but ends up actually being him wanting to achieve the liberation of information technology, seeking change through war since he beliefs it to be the only method of achieving liberty (which also goes with him being a clone of Big Boss which helps create such an ideology, I'd believe). While of course radical, it makes it easier to sympathies with him considering the threat that he faces. With an organization like the Patriots, who not only preside over the executive branch of the government, but also the legislative and judicial branches as well, and even beyond, and in turn controlling the flow of information and ideas in society, makes it a hard challenge to overcome and to even properly oppose--since there can be no revolution without them knowing about it. Solidus thinks that his method is the only way to oppose them, and even then he fails. He fails because he harnessed the power of a cultural memory to deal with his present-day problems, with his obsession over revenge and building a legacy, made him predictable and led to his downfall. Solidus is quite a tragic character, and while of course not the most humanitarian of fellows, his outlook on destiny and life was refreshing from that of Liquid's.
I'm also pleased that Ocelot took a turn towards being considerably more interesting as well, and while not much was done in terms of him as a character, seeing how he alone (I think?) was responsible for carrying out the Patriots plans through risky duplicity and cunning manipulation, is certainly a quality that I enjoy with characters! I kinda like what kind of character Ocelot is portrayed as, considering how he is betraying people left and right, which makes it easy to question his motivates and loyalties, it is interesting to see how he actually is truly loyal to the Patriots (or is he?). His entire life is consists of one secret after another, and his true identity is known only to a handful. He manages to trick and control those with power by pretending to ally with them, while secretly furthering a plan to negate their attempts. This is what his heartless personality and complete submission to a corrupt power allows. I like to see Ocelot as a commentary on modern age politicians, who swear to serve their country and their people, but may be following hidden agendas to serve their own interests. A politican with a revolver, now that is entertaining as fuck!
And well that is what I have to say about Sons of Liberty. Awesome! Truly awesome! I will most likely seek out any analyses I can find in the web to see what others have contributed and found out (since I bet there is plenty of things that I missed). Also would enjoy people here putting their thoughts on the table *looks at Chris*
And with all that said, time to finally start with Snake Eater. Finally I get to see the legend himself--Big Boss! Oh, I've talked quite a bit about Sons of Liberty in the past and the list of reasons why I hold it in such a high esteem -- Most Metal Gear fans seem to prefer the straightforward stories, with little imagination, although I suppose that might be bias speaking on my behalf but I can't really help because there's really a lot of depth to Sons of Liberty If we take into account its legacy as video games' answer to a fully realized post-modern narrative, how it trascends the ideas Kojima wanted to bring to games, we can really come to appreciate it. He always talked about in interviews, how the Psycho Mantis boss fight in the first game was sort of a progenitor for the things he wanted to accomplish -- By branching the barriers of the game beyond the 4 walls of the TV into the living room, he'd be able to do a lot of things to immerse the player into the experience and present unique gameplay mechanics. SoL's post modern legacy is already put into account in the first few minutes of the Big Shell Incident; Nevermind the ominously similar premise to the first game, and consider the oddness of the player having to type in his name, blood type and day of birth, all of this makes up the parts of who we are but the most important part is the role it serves as revealed later on -- It's presented as sort of a throw-away key to accessing the Soliton Radar and then you don't have to type it again. It is later revealed to be the info that is listed on Raiden's dog-tag, that is to say the dog-tag of the player -- It solidifyes the indentured bond/relationship between player and player character -- Most game's protagonist are self-contained characters, whose motivations and feelings are determinant by the game's mechanics and plot; Raiden, while having, dialogue is meant as as a literal and figurative representative avatar of the player -- He's rookie solder who has no real idae of what he's actually getting into, his shared perplexition in regards to strange characters and events he encounters are shared. He shares our suspicions when the 'Colonel' says something ominous off-hand, between the words, where his orders don't make much sense. It all comes to a head when one takes the discussion of VR-training into account. The footage of that particular scene between Raiden and Snake showcase some footage from MGS1 & 2's VR mode, respectively. It beckons the questions as to whether the Tanker Incident was all just an elaborate paradigm for Raiden's VR training -- Another thing to think about, in regards t othe symbiotic relationship between player and player chracter, is Raiden's knowledge of the Shadow Moses incident. Like most Metal Gear Solid players, he's already quite familiar with how it all occured -- When he has to take out the circuit panel, both him and the Colonel calls attention to using the Remote controlled missile 'like in training'. Only when Raiden finally enters the actual Arsenal Gear, the illusion or simulation? Starts to shatter slightly. Strange auras appears beneath his feet, Rose acts suspicious even after revealing her role as a mole, is she just a fabrication of the GW AI or is both Rose and the Colonel the same AI finishing each other's sentences with a different face? At the end, Raiden finally decides to choose for himself for the first time. He defeats Solidus, and throws away the player dog-tag. He systematically freed himself from the player to become his own man, his own character. "I'll find my own name and decide what to pass on to the future". It's all spawned, and build upon, the game's theme "memes" -- Ideas, culture, recurring subjects, things that people evoke so often is what makes up 'memes'. The characters of Metal Gear are fundementally made up of memes being passed on -- Learn to hate someone? That someone will become a carrier. Genes and memes both propogate themselves accordingly -- Similar to how genes would leap from body to body through reproduction, in form of sperms or eggs, so too will memes propagate themselves in the mindset of the shared cultural heritage leaping from one mind to another in a process one could title refer as 'imitation'. In the midst of cat pictures, and troll comments, one person could deliver an existential reflective comment on human nature, if it then in turn catches on then it would seek to propogate itself. The Patriots questions that this process should be left at the mercy of nature, because they believe it'll ultimately smother the species in convenient half truths and garbage which they seek to filter out. Creating context that is. It compliments, or rather stands in parallel to that of the first game's primary theme of "genes". Our lives are ultimately build around wanting to make the best out of life, get a great job, travel to see the things we wanna see, start a family and die, we all want to leave a mark and pass something on before our short time is up. It is as recurrent to us as it is to the Metal Gear games. If the first game's premise could be summarized around the question "How much is a human being defined by their genes?" then the question for Metal Gear Solid 2 would be "How much is a human being defined by information?". We know and are taught that Natural Selections dictates that the strongest will survive, with the coming of the digital age by the time of the game's events, The Patriots would seek to stimulate it and evolution of mankind by controlling the digital flow of information. A species never seeks change, any more than its DNA structure so only by introducing a new factor into the 'soup' can help change the individual, and the species. People fear change and will fight it thus they need to come to terms with it. The missing link is mutation, or rather in the case of the information age, filtering out all the garbage truths thus promoting the positive ones as selected by them. Raiden's inability to act, evolve or think for himself is the basis for the Patriots desires to intervene. He only exercises his will to freedom but doesn't utilize it. Colonel: The different cardinal truths neither clash nor mesh. No one is invalidated, but nobody is right. Rose: Not even natural selection can take place here. The world is being engulfed in "truth." In a lot of ways, one could coin the term 'Cultural Selection' as a perfect summarization of The Patriots goals. Oh, man.. I haven't talked about Solidus Snake yet. To partially quote Lance Henriksen from those SWTOR videos. Solidus Snake and the rest of Sons of Liberty channelling Ghost in the Shell will be the subject of my next report! Glad you loved it, btw -- Snake Eater will hit you right in the feels if it hasn't already.
|
|