Metal Gear 2 builds upon the stealth-based gameplay system of its predecessor. As in the original Metal Gear, the player's objective is to infiltrate the enemy's stronghold, while avoiding detection from soldiers, cameras, infrared sensors and other surveillance devices. The biggest change in the game was done to the enemy's abilities. Instead of remaining stationed in one screen like in the first game, enemy soldiers can now patrol different screens across a single map. Moreover, guards now have an expanded 45 degrees field of vision instead of just seeing in straight lines, along with the ability to turn their heads left or right to see diagonally. Enemy guards can also detect sounds, being able to hear any noise made by the player (such as a punch to the wall or a gunshot made without a suppressor) and will investigate the source of the sound once it is made. Guards can also hear sounds made by the player when walking on certain surfaces, which means that one has to be careful when navigating certain areas. If the player is discovered by the enemy, then a counter will be displayed on the upper right side of the screen that will go down after the enemy has lost track of the player. When the counter reaches zero, the alert phase will go off and the game will return to normal.
The player is given a variety of new maneuvers and tools to help them remain undetected and complete the game. For example, the player can now kneel and crawl in addition to walking, allowing the player to avoid making noise over certain terrains, pick up land mines, and hide in tight spaces such as under desks or inside air ducts. A radar with a 3x3 grid on the upper right of the screen shows the player's current area in the center grid (as a red dot), with enemy soldiers as white dots, allowing the player to determine what's ahead. However, the radar is disabled when the game enters alert phase. The radar can also be used with the mine detector equipped to determine the locations of enemy mines or launch Stinger missiles onto an airborne target. Many of the weapons and equipment from the first game are brought over along with new items such as robotic mice used to distract enemies, a camouflaged mat and three different types of rations, each with special attributes. Health and carrying capacity are increased each time a boss is defeated.
The transceiver has also been greatly revamped from the first game as well, with conversations now being context-sensitive rather than being simply area-oriented. The transceiver screen now displays the faces of Snake and the radio contact he's currently communicating with. The player can also talk to children living in the fortress to gain new information; the player is penalized with a loss of health if they kill a child. The areas are more varied than in the previous MSX2 game and a number of puzzles must be fulfilled to complete the game, such as luring a carrier pigeon with a specific kind of ration, chasing after a female spy to the ladies' lavatory, and deciphering secret tap codes to gain new frequency numbers.
Metal Gear 2 is set in a near-future world in which the Cold War continued into the 1990s, with the game's events taking place in 1999, three years after the events of the original Metal Gear (later retconned to four years in Metal Gear Solid).
Solid Snake, formerly retired FOXHOUND agent and hero of the original Metal Gear returns as the playable character. His new mission is to rescue the kidnapped Czechoslovak biologist Dr. Kio Marv from the forces of Zanzibar Land. He is assisted by a radio support crew consisting of Roy Kyanbel (spelled "Roy Campbell" in later versions), his new commanding officer; McDonnell Miller, a survival coach and drill instructor; George Kesler ("George Kasler" in later versions), a military strategist; and Yozev Norden (renamed Johan Jacobsen in the later revised versions), a wildlife expert. Also assisting him on-site are Horry White ("Holly White" in later versions), a CIA agent posing as a journalist; Natasha Marcova (Gustava Heffner in later versions), an StB agent, Olympic gold medalist and Dr. Marv's bodyguard; and Dr. Petrovich Madnar ("Drago Pettrovich Madnar" in later versions), the Metal Gear designer from the first game, who was captured along with Dr. Marv. Also appearing in the game are Big Boss, the renegade former commander of FOXHOUND, and Grey Fox ("Gray Fox" in later versions), who disappeared following the events of the Outer Heaven incident.
The bosses of this installment consist of Black Color (Black Ninja in later versions), an experimental drug-enhanced ninja from a disbanded NASA project (who is revealed to be Kyle Schneider from the original Metal Gear); Running Man, a former Olympic runner turned terrorist; Red Blaster, an explosive expert from Spetsnaz; Ultra Box (the Four Horsemen in later version), an assassination squad specializing in confined spaces; Predator (Jungle Evil in later versions), a jungle warfare expert from the South African Reconnaissance Command; and Night Sight (Night Fright in later versions), an assassin from Vietnam who uses a state of the art stealth suit that renders him invisible to both radar and the human eye.
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake is abandonware and no longer sold or supported by its publishers. Files are archived here for these platforms:
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