Metal Gear Solid 2 was a huge game in terms of sales – one of the first really big hits on the PS2 – and yet it was also controversial at the time. I played a lot of console games at the time, and completed and enjoyed MGS2, though I feel it was not without its problems. Still, when given the opportunity to review the novelization of the game by Raymond Benson I was looking forward to revisiting the story and see how it held up and what if any changes would be made. What follows will be a somewhat more spoiler filled review than I usually do in this column, so if that’s of interest click on the link to read more.

I remember a lot about the game, most especially the early part where Solid Snake is infiltrating a cargo ship in Manhattan harbor. Snake is a operative no longer working for the government, a highly trained clone of a super-soldier, who’s mission seems to be trying to keep Metal Gear from falling into the wrong hands. Metal Gear is a large robotic machine that we’ve previously only seen prototypes of, but since the first game has now begun to be mass produced for use by various country’s militaries. Onboard this cargo ship is rumored to be the latest model, Metal Gear Ray, which is meant to be an anti-Metal Gear that the US Military can use to one-up all the other countries of the world. Snake’s job is to infiltrate the cargo ship, without being noticed, and take some pictures of Metal Gear Ray so he can prove to the world that the US Government cannot be trusted.

His job would have been bad enough because there’s an entire division of Marines guarding Metal Gear Ray, but then a group of Russian terrorists board the vessel as well – led by Snake’s former foe Ocelot – and their agenda is to steal the Ray prototype. Things go badly and the ship sinks, with all aboard presumed dead.

Fast forward 2 years and we’re now infiltrating Big Shell – an oil rig like series of buildings out on the water. A terrorist unit called Dead Cell have seized Big Shell and captured the president of the United States – your mission is to sneak aboard and save the president, and along the way maybe figure out why you’re now playing the game as a whiny manga-like character who is most definitely not Snake (named Raiden).

Raymond Benson is in many ways true to the story from the game. Unfortunately the problems with the book are mostly due to this, and they’re only made worse in novel form. For instance, the banter between Raiden and his girlfriend Rose could at least be skipped with a few presses of a button in the game, but now all the dreadful dialog is here for you to read. Also the members of Dead Cell seem even more ridiculous in book form than they did in a videogame – the vampire-like Vamp, the roller-skating Fatman, and the unable to be killed Fortune just all seem so out of this world for a military style adventure.

Benson does his best to make as clear as possible the convoluted plot of double and triple crosses, clones and simulation training exercises. He even manages to explain a bunch of things I never understood when playing the game (like the fact that Big Shell was created, at least publicly, to contain the oil spill created by the sinking of the cargo ship by Snake at the beginning of the story – and so it makes sense that things move on to Manhattan towards the end). Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the scenes that were removed from the game in the wake of the Sept. 11th attacks have been added back in to the book – which was one area I was actually hoping to see (since the story seems so choppy at that point – I thought maybe things would be connected a bit more if those things were added back in – alas, not to be). But the things that are crucially wrong with Metal Gear Solid 2 aren’t the fault of the author – the fact that Snake is reduced to a bit-part in his own game and replaced with a character who has nothing but annoying conversations with nearly everyone he interacts with just cannot be changed. No amount of well written action scenes can really overcome that failing – and I really tried going into this book with the expectation of knowing what was going to happen and hoping to just enjoy the ride.

But even after all this time I found I just couldn’t enjoy it, the character of Raiden is just too annoying, the convoluted plot is just too ridiculous – and I found just like when I played the game, I longed for the first part of the novel where Snake was infiltrating the cargo ship and everything just works so well. It’s a lot like the original game at this point, familiar territory but also an expansion on the story – and I would have loved to have the game really just continue it’s focus here. But that’s not what the game does, and I didn’t expect Benson to rewrite the story, so things have to proceed as I know they must.

As I’ve mentioned before, the writing is well done and very accurate to the story (with some minor expansions that certainly add clarity) so if anyone who’s been interested in this series but would never play the game is looking for another way to experience the story – this is not a bad way to do so. If you’re new to the series I’d definitely recommend reading Raymond Benson’s novelization of Metal Gear Solid 1 first. While I haven’t read it, the story it’s based on is far superior to MGS2 and it’s necessary to understand a lot of what’s going on in this second book. However, if you’re a fan of the series of games, and the plot of MGS2 doesn’t bother you – I can certainly recommend the book.

Review Copy courtesy of  Del Rey Publishing.