I'm a bit torn on this game. On one hand, it's clearly a step up in terms of gameplay from MGS 1. Also, it looks very good for a PS2 game. On the other hand, I just wasn't as interested in the story. I feel like it started off decently. Being able to play as Solid Snake and hear Otacon over the Codec again was lovely and I liked the vibe of the Tanker level. There were some fun call backs and easter eggs and I really enjoyed the part near the end where you were sneaking around trying to get pics of the new Metal Gear. Then, we got to the plant chapter and we had the big reveal that you were now going to be playing as Raiden, but Raiden just wasn't a super interesting character to me. He wasn't bad, by any means and I definitely appreciated him a lot more as I learned more about his history and I really liked the little codec convos he had with Rose. He just wasn't nearly as cool as Snake was. He felt whiny and didn't have the same kind of cool guy energy that Solid Snake had. Also, I ultimately didn't enjoy exploring the Plant as much as I enjoyed Shadow Moses from the first game. I feel like you had to do a lot of back tracking and I feel like they made you jump from hoops just to get from one area to the next. I suppose that's kind of the point, but it didn't make it any less annoying to do. The villains and bosses simply weren't as interesting. Seeing Ocelot make his return was cool and I liked the reveal that Liquid was basically using Ocelot as a vessel to live on. I also enjoyed the Fat man boss battle. I thought it was unique and felt very reminiscent of and MGS 1 boss. I also enjoyed the very final boss battle against Solidus. Other than that, I felt all of the other bosses were just boring. Olga's fight in the beginning was fun, I suppose and I ended up liking her near the end. Fortune was kind of cool, I guess? I felt bad for her, but she was kind of just whiny. I don't think you even ever fought her. You had one fight where you just had to dodge her attacks for a bit and thats it. Vamps fight was kind of cool but nothing special. None of the characters really felt as memorable this time around. That all being said, the last 2-3 hours are phenomenal. I wanna say pretty much after the part where you have to snipe while Emma crosses the bottom of the Big Shell was when the game really picked up for me. I will always remember the part where the AI starts glitching out and Campbell starts sending you nonstop codec convos and his voice is all distorted and creepy. I love the little references and easter eggs and the part where your radar changes to a random creep shot of that lady was super unsettling but I think that was the point in the end so they nailed it. I think once it was revealed that the mission itself was basically a series of orchestrated events for the Patriots to see if they could recreate Solid Snake through Raiden, I appreciated the game even more and then ending where Raiden looks at the dog tags and its revealed that you, the player, were not just playing as Raiden, but you WERE Raiden the whole time was really nicely done. All in all, while I did have a lot of issues with the game, I still very much enjoyed it. I still would probably rank it as my current least favorite MGS game so far, but the big reveals at the end and certain moments like glitched out Campbell made me appreciate it and I can see why this is some peoples favorite game in the series.