For those who have not had the opportunity to play the original, MGS2: Sons of Liberty, you have missed a milestone in gaming. While most games can be easily plugged into one genre, MGS2 cannot. Its creators call the game Tactical Espionage Action. MGS2 is all of these and more. The game can be played by focusing on stealth, or conversely there is enough ammunition for one to blast their way through the game. Both strategies have their challenges and neither can be played without resorting to a little of the other. However, MGS2's genre bending doesn't stop there. The game's story is key and is infused with elements of sci-fi, politics, espionage, and, buried deep at its paranoid heart, is a creepy conspiracy theory. Though not an RPG in the classic sense, all the depth of story is there. MGS2 takes time to evolve its intricate story through cinematics and dialogue over CODEC, a Metal Gear classic feature, which is essentially an internal radio.

Though the basic game has not changed, Substance remains an incredibly sleek game. Quite simply the graphics, despite the original game's age, remain some of the best on the PS2. The game's controls may seem confusing at first but are quite easy to pick up. Movement is a very smooth analogue control. Shooting is slightly more complex, one quick button tap quickly fires a single shot (or burst, depending on the weapon equipped), or if the square button is held some guns emit laser targets. Aiming is made easier by the option to shift into first-person point of view, however the drawback is that one cannot move in first person. Direct hand to hand combat is an option but is rarely effective as it takes quite a few punches to knock an enemy out and they won't hesitate to shoot you. The controls get more complex allowing you to sneak up on enemies and break their necks, dangle from railings, peek around corners, and shoot from cover.

Substance's UI is very similar to that of the PlayStation's original Metal Gear Solid. The item inventory pops up on the bottom left side of the screen and the weapon inventory on the right. The game pauses when the inventories are scrolled through. Substance's other feature from the original is the radar screen that appears in the top right corner and displays a mini-map with enemy locations and their sight cones. Depending on the difficulty level, the radar will never disappear, will vanish if an enemy sees you, or you can play without it at all. During the second act of the game you must log in to a computer in each separate area to get the radar.

The main "Sons of Liberty" game of MGS2 is presented in two separate acts. In the first act you play as the classic character Solid Snake, a veteran of the Special Forces unit FOXHOUND. You have infiltrated a tanker ship carrying the game's namesake, a Metal Gear. Metal Gear is basically a mech, though the game puts a realistic spin on a sci-fi standard and describes the weapon as a bipedal tank with nuclear capabilities - hyping its threat to global peace. Unfortunately, this tanker has just been taken over by terrorists as well. The second chapter of the game begins two years after the Tanker episode. You are now playing Raiden, a rookie FOXHOUND agent whose only experience to date has been virtual reality training. As Raiden, your mission is to infiltrate the facility that was built to aid the environmental cleanup of the tanker disaster two years previous. Terrorists have taken over this facility, called the Big Shell, on the day that the President of the USA was visiting. To top it all off, you are told that the fabled Solid Snake is the leader of the terrorists (say it ain't so Snake).

And then there is the purpose of the special edition: Substance's extras. There are sundry (350) V.R. missions where you can hone your skills, as Snake or Raiden, in stealth or weapons, or the two combined. The V.R. missions are both easy, in that they're a good place for a player to get a better handle on the controls before progressing to the game, and difficult, in that getting high scores requires advanced skills. The V.R. missions also have decent replay value as you can unlock other skins.

Along with V.R. there are Alternative Missions that take place in the game's environments rather than the "Tron-ish" looking V.R.. Alternative missions focus on some of the mini-missions you perform in the game such as bomb-disposal, picture taking, and holding up terrorists. This extra is definitely geared towards hardcore fans that want more playtime with smaller features in the game.

Next are the Snake Tales. They are one of the most interesting features of the special version of MSG2. The Snake Tales focus on alternate events at the Big Shell and the Tanker with Solid Snake as the protagonist. The new stories are told through text pages rather than with new animated cut scenes. Though fun, the Snake Tales are akin to playing the game on hard mode because they lack the radar screen and as such involve a good deal more care when sneaking. The other downside to the Snake Tales is that you can only save during the text cut scenes.

There are two smaller features called Boss Survival, which, depending on how much you enjoy the game can be fun or frustrating, and the amusing Casting Theatre where you can replay major fights but switch the characters' skins around for a giggle.

Lastly there is the Skateboarding Mode. This is the worst of the new features mainly because it is so very out of place. While the majority of the other features keep the atmosphere of MSG2, skateboarding around seems contradictory. The controls were hard to get a grasp of and the feature lost its novelty very quickly and doesn't possess the replay value of other features.

If you already own the original "Sons of Liberty" and it didn't thrill you and leave you wanting more, Substance may not be worth the purchase. Otherwise MGS2: Substance is a must have. You can see what you missed with the original or just enjoy the sheer volume of high-quality special features that add many hours to the playtime and offer new opportunities for replay.

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