This contains spoilers for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. If you are interested in playing this game at all, I would highly recommend avoiding this blog because the story of this game is something you need to go into blindly.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty’s plot mechanic is about AI’s control of information to altar our society. This mechanic is seen through Arsenal Gear, a submersible, mobile fortress developed for the United States Navy that you have to sneak into and shut down. Inside of Arsenal Gear houses an Artificial Intellegence with the ability to monitor, block, and tamper with internet communications.
This AI would control information accessed on the internet in America to manipulate the history, truth, and even the mind of the protagonist, Raiden.
Arsenal Gear was created by the government in order to prevent society’s regression into the digital era. The government believes humanity is incapable of self-governance. There is too much knowledge and information within the internet for humans to handle responsibly. By controling information, the government maintains their level of authority over the people of America and ensures it will never be challenged.
The game’s narrative is obviously very politically-charged. But there are some incredible similarities to today’s society.
One of the biggest dilemmas our society faces today is social media. Today, AI is used for many decision-making processes, primarily as a tool for information control in social media. AI algorithms filter and shape the information and content we see in order to captivate and engage us. This could give results such as a distorted reality (due to the content potentially changing our beliefs and values) and could also result in an echo chamber, where you will never see the full picture and all of the internet’s diverse perspectives on a topic because it is so heavily filtered. Another dilemma with social media is with misinformation, disinformation, and “fake news” related to political motivations to gain support. This mirrors the themes of Metal Gear Solid 2, and stuck out to me like a sore thumb on my playthrough, and is insane to see how this plot was created in 2001, an age on the internet long before the rise of social media.
The game leans into this control of information and distorted reality heavily. Almost comically. For example, Colonel Campbell is a recurring character in the Metal Gear Solid series that assists the protagonist in following his mission and updating the status of his situation. You play through 17 hours of this game, fighting your way through and defeating an entire team of genetically modified soldiers with the help of Colonel, and it is finally revealed that Colonel Campbell isn’t a real person, and that it is Arsenal Gear’s AI manipulating you into doing tasks for it with nothing suspicious even occuring beforehand. Colonel Campbell even tells you to turn the game console off.
The game is full with moments just like this one. The AI in the game even reads the save data of different games you have played on your console and references how much you played them. The game immerses you so heavily it almost seems as if Arsenal Gear has taken control of your console.
Anyways, I just wanted to share my amazing experience with this game. I played it during Thanksgiving break last year and couldn’t put the controller down. I highly recommend anybody to check it out that is at all curious about it. Hideo Kojima, the director of this game, is widely considered one of the greatest game directors of all time, if not the greatest (he totally is), being incredibly influential to the development of story driven games through his inspiration from films and literature.
This game is a magical I-can’t-believe-this-exists cultural artifact. It was able to combine themes that were incredibly difficult to merge at the time of writing and did so with immense popularity. Done by a Japanese studio working on an American game genre about America. ‘Nuff said.
I’ve never heard of Metal Gear Solid 2, but the way you describe it makes it seem like it’s more than just a game—it sounds like a deep commentary on information control and AI, which is super relevant to what we see happening today. The idea of an AI manipulating the protagonist through the game and even breaking the fourth wall by reading save data is mind-blowing! It’s crazy to think that this game from 2001 could predict so many of the issues we’re dealing with now, like social media manipulation and fake news. I’m definitely curious to check it out now. Thanks for the great review!
I especially like that sneaky little parenthesis in your “objective” description of Kojima, Wyatt…..
I love the metal gear games so this was a fun post to read. Kojima for being such a (gloriously) weird guy has always seemed very tapped into the pulse of American culture. It’s impressive especially since he began to produce these commentary’s on America and it’s government during the 1990’s when the information and culture bridge between Japan and America wasn’t open nearly as wide as it is now. If you haven’t played them, I highly recommend the first two metal gear games (the arcade shooter ones). I played them last year and enjoyed way more than I thought I would considering the difference in gameplay from the metal gear solid we know today.
Very surprised to see a post about MGS2. Have to say I’m content with the post. The story telling and thematic pieces of the MGS series are what make it so compelling to me. The predictions are also very realistic and possible. Like cross said as well Kojima has always created absolute heat
The themes and stories of the Metal Gear franchise might be my favorite in gaming so far. The games’ timeline is such an over-the-top, crazy jumble, but it never feels uncoherent. The stories, while also very crazy, capture a surprise and wow element that I haven’t encountered in many other game series. Out of the games I’ve played, the only series that comes close to the chaotic timeline organization but still nails the execution would be the Zelda timeline, albeit not very coherent. I’m sure the more video games I play, the more I’ll find a similar feeling captured from the Metal Gear series.