Metal Gear Solid 2 is growing on me

[OilFreak]

I've been very critical of Metal Gear Solid, citing poor controls and a cheesy story. I decided to try 2 since I've heard of how prophetic its story is. Same issues as 1, with the added hurdles of no practice mode and tutorial prompts that come in way too late.
I have a friend who's a huge Metal Gear fan and he suggested playing in small bites to let the story sink into me.
I've been playing for 30 minutes a day and it has been way more bearable than sitting down for a longer session. I'm having fun with the gameplay, although the story still leaves so much to be desired. By the end of each session I'm ready to be done.

 

[Skv0ra]

Guess I'm blissfully ignorant and Portable Ops was my first real dive into the series, and I didn't have too many gripes with it other than the lack of shoulders. And not gonna lie, I spent waaaaaay more time taming enemies to join my ranks than I should've. Might just look into 2 at some point and the full versions of 3rd.

 

[Robert Newbie]

From a gameplay standpoint, MGS2 is very comparable to MGS. If I remember correctly, the dive roll and first-person aiming/shooting are the two big additions. Otherwise, it does play about the same. MGS2 does run at a nice 60fps, which MGS3 cuts down to 30fps for better graphical detail. I appreciate that MGS1-3 have tons of easter eggs and small touches, though you may miss many of them on your first playthrough.

I feel like 30 minutes is a good length, since MGS games tend to run about 10-15 hours. Some cutscenes run long. Nothing as egregious as XenoSaga, which reportedly has cutscenes that exceed 40 minutes, but still on the longer side.