Metal Gear producer Hideo Kojima is the standard go-to when discussing game creators who practice a film-like auteur approach to game design, and ten years after its launch Metal Gear Solid 2 remains his most decidedly auteurist turn. Few games have ever commanded as high a profile or represented so much for the future and direction of an entire platform as MGS2. But even within that rarified company, Kojima's PlayStation 2 blockbuster remains unique. Never before or since has a game producer seized on his visibility and clout to so radically transform a tentpole production into an elaborate soapbox statement...
No one quite knows who or what they are. The memories you have and the role you were assigned are burdens you have to carry. It doesn't matter if they were real or not. That's never the point. There's no such thing in the world as absolute reality... We can tell other people about—having faith. What we had faith in. What we found important enough to fight for. It's not whether you were right or wrong, but how much faith you were willing to have, that decides the future.
- Solid Snake
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is one of the most controversial games of all time. It's also one of the most critically-praised. Selling over 7 million copies worldwide, Metal Gear Solid 2 arguably set the bar for what Sony's PlayStation 2 system could accomplish, both in terms of graphical superiority and in interactive storytelling.
