My experiences

On Thanksgiving Day, I went up to Grandma's house. After the entire family had dinner, it was time for ll of us to go home, and I had made plans to stay at my Dad's place for 5 days. I rode home with my brother, and on the way there, my brother (Chad, age:20, lives: Berwick, PA) suggested that we go to Blockbuster video and rent some PS2 games. When we got there, we saw a few good games, and we chose MGS2, and Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2, since they cost $6 a piece to rent for 5 days. We went home, and popped in METAL GEAR SOLID 2.

1. I don't think you should BUY this game just because other people SAY it's good. Rent it for a couple days, and you should be able to beat it in about 12 hours. From there, the choice is yours.
2. The people who made this game DEFINATELY have something wrong with their heads, even though some of the stuff they thought up really makes you think.

You start the game out as SNAKE repelling off the Golden Gate Bridge, and landing onto a Marine Destroyer (or some other ship). Your mission is to infiltrate the ship, and take photographic evidence that the military is using METAL GEAR. It took us 3 hours to complete the Ship mission, without any previous knowledge of what to do, or how to control SNAKE. We spent maybe 2 hours shooting stuff, and walking around and figuring out the controls, and an hour watching the cinema scenes/talking on the nanomachines.

The next stage takes place 2 years later on a "Research Thingy" in the ocean. You make it a little way thru the stage, and then you find some guy (who looks exactly like SNAKE), and you take your mask off. It turns out you are just a guy in his early twenties, and that ship stage was just VR Training. The rest is for you to find out.

I beat this game, so if you get stuck or have questions, just email me at kingedgar14@yahoo.com.