Thoughts on the set pieces?

[Departed]

MGS2 has always sat in a very strange place for me.  Back in the day, I used to yo-yo between loving it and hating it.  Today, I can comfortably say that I love all MGS games in spite of their flaws, including MGS2.  For me, it's a game with some genuinely amazing mechanics that make sneaking around bad guys so satisfying, and has some great bosses that really utilize all of those new mechanics beautifully.  But the biggest black eye for me has always been the set pieces.  I love everything about the tanker, especially when playing to bypass enemies instead of knocking everyone out, because the environment is designed so well to provide tons of distractions and little hiding spots.  But the entire photography section always ground my fun to a halt since I've always hated really stringent forced stealth.  The bomb disposal is a great way to get acclimated with the Big Shell in an organic fashion, and I didn't mind the disguise part either.  But the entire sequence escorting Emma, to me, is almost as tedious as the PAL sequence from MGS1, with no parts of it that I can say I enjoy, minus the fun Easter Eggs you can find during the sniping part.

None of that's enough to ruin the game for me, but I'll admit that if MGS2 ever got a remake, I'd be head over heels if those parts got completely overhauled.

How do you all feel about MGS2's leaning into set pieces more than the previous game?  Were there some set pieces or puzzles you liked more than others do you feel like the game would've benefitted from not having those parts, or at least altering them in any way?

[Wayno]

The entire Emma section stops MGS2 being a game I truly love. I think it's far worse than the PAL Card backtracking and the game would be improved by its removal and will never play the game again because of it.

I forgive the PAL section because Kojima has got a four hour story with 206 hours of lore to cramps in  cram in to a game of 90 to 120 minutes and it serves the purpose of enhancing the story.

The Emma section is an escort mission combined with an underwater section with terrible controls, you're bombarded with codes calls and she fucking dies anyway.

I accept that there may be a double standard by myself when comparing the two but I will not listen to any reasoning or facts on this matter to be convinced otherwise.

[NateDog]

I replayed it recently enough and yeah, it's not great. I mean underwater sections in most games that aren't based around that design don't tend to be very enjoyable and this isn't much different. I had forgotten how difficult the Twilight Sniping section was too on extreme (although playing it on Vita this time didn't help).

But it has to be forgiven. After all, how else would we have gotten this gem?

[black king]

Emma's escort is the low point of the game for all the reasons Wayno pointed out. Worse than the PAL key backtrack for me. Honestly I don't love the bomb disposal either. It was fun the first playthrough finding them but it kinda lost the tension when I can tell you to this day where they all are. 

[Gene]

For me set pieces in any game are always pretty fun the first time around, but feel like dragging your ass against sandpaper upon replay. First time round I enjoyed all of the set pieces, but every subsequent playthrough I've felt myself rushing to get through them as quickly as possible. Emma has had a good few jabs and kicks over the years, not gonna lie. One of the biggest appeals of MGS in general for me is how much you can piss about along the way, but it's (obviously) very limited in what you can do when you're going through these sections -which is why I prefer MGS1 over 2.

[BigBrother]

See...I actually didn't hate the Emma stuff? The gameplay....yeah, it isn't great? But for story and character development it adds a ton, and if you lose the Emma section you lose that, and I think the game overall would be worse for it. Then again, I adore the storytelling in MGS2 so I do have a bias towards it.