Part 24: Metal Gear 2 Part Five: Events So Unremarkable That I Originally Forgot to Title Them

Metal Gear 2 Part Five: Events So Unremarkable That I Originally Forgot to Title Them

Last time on Metal Gear 2, we met the world's fastest mercenary and killed him in the world's most anticlimactic bossfight.



After killing Running Man and grabbing his ID, I run back across the swamp maze. It sucks both ways, but there's nothing new going on there.



Now back through the jungle to the first building! Metal Gear 2 is full of backtracking. It's not so bad right now, but it will be.


You can see here that the green beret man has come back to life. He doesn't go out into the jungle anymore, though. Now he just patrols these tanks.


Our destination, though, is this area. You can see that the Zanzibar administration decided to throw in a little covered area so we can hide from the surveillance camera and one guard in the area.

The gameplay may be refined from Metal Gear, but the level design still hasn't come together entirely.



This is what we're looking for, by the way. Stinger missiles.


Stinger missiles work a little bit differently than other weapons. When they're equipped, a sight appears over the radar and you can aim it at any of those nine screens. It's hard to explain, and you'll see it in action in just a little bit. Stingers are a very specialised weapon and don't see a lot of use in the game.



In another room in the first building, we find the red ID card.

It replaces cards 1-3, which means we don't have to shuffle through all the cards to find the one we need. There are similar cards for 4-6 and 7-9 when we get there, too. A step in the right direction for sure, but the card system still isn't quite optimal.






There are trash chutes that you can jump down in the game, and sometimes you'll find an item. Other times you'll find trash (like the TV guide shown) and Snake will just toss it, so it's a crapshoot to jump down there. Your time in the garbage is also limited by a rolling pin that chases Snake into the trash compactor (an instant kill if you get in there).

Not a lot of point in going down here right now, but I figured I'd show it off.


After grabbing the red card and Stinger missiles, we get to run back to the desert. We have to go north to find Marv, and this place is in the way.


I've hidden under one of these trucks.


And done the same here, too. It's kind of nice to just be able to crawl under things as opposed to having to wait for enemies to look away all the time. It's a small thing, but it really speeds up the gameplay and opens up enemy route construction.


I'm not actually hiding from anything here, but I wonder why they used these little box things instead of just having more trucks on this screen.


This is the reason that we had to go back to the first building and grab the Stingers, by the way. I could have come here straight after the jungle, but I wouldn't have been able to do anything about this helicopter.



Once Snake shows up, the Hind D spins up its rotor and just sort of slides back because the MSX couldn't handle a separation of the helicopter and its shadow. Unfortunately, I missed recording this and couldn't find the save to go back to it. Sorry, everyone.

This next bit is the Hind D's description from the manual and it's a whole lotta about useless information.
I don't know why there's so much about it.

Boss fight against the Hind D! More exciting than Running Man, but not by much!

Let's call Kessler before we get into the nitty-gritty, of course.


: Can carry 12000 kilos, max speed is 250kph, max altitude 4500m armed with missiles and vulcan guns. It can shoot you from high above. You haven't got a chance... ...Unless you have some anti-air missiles. ...Over.

Unlike Running Man's deep and moving backstory, the Hind D is without pathos. It's a helicopter, we're a man. Good thing we have anti-air missiles, eh?

To beat the Hind D, you equip the Stingers, aim the target just in front of the chopper (the best place I found for this was the dividing line between screens), then fire. If you hit it, the screen flashes. If you don't, try again. In between shots, you crawl under the boxes and wait until the gunship passes. It takes 4 hits to scrap the Hind and you can only carry 6 missiles, so if you miss more than twice you're SOL and have to run back to the building to get more. The Hind does a lot of damage and fires a lot when it's on the same screen as you, so it's more threatening than Running Man, but it's still not too much of an issue.


And now, we can proceed north!


This is the Tower Building (the first was actually called the Zanzibar Building). Snake cannot, however, just walk in through the front door. Running over to the next screen...


Campbell calls and tells us to dress up like a suitcase!

: Use your old favorite - the cardboard box. From now on, contact me at 140.66. ...Over.

He also changes his radio frequency, just because!



A nearby truck holds a handy cardboard box, almost like it was placed here specifically to help Snake sneak in.

The cardboard box can hide you from guards, just like in the first game. I sort of remember it being less effective in this game, but I might be mistaken.



From the truck, we head over to the conveyor belt and hop on.


A second later, we're inside the Tower Building and ready to look for a scientist!

Which is not what we'll be doing next time, because nothing is ever that simple, is it?