Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

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Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

NTSC-U cover
Game general and emulation properties:
CERO rating: C (Violence)
ESRB rating: M (Animated Blood, Animated Violence)
PEGI rating: 16+
GRB rating: 18
Widescreen patch available
GPU intensive game
CPU intensive game
Languages supported:
English: SLES-50383 & SLUS-20144 & SLED-50117 & SLUS-29003 & SLUS-20144GH
Japanese: SLPM-65077 & SLPM-62043 & SLPM-65078 & VW069-J1 & VW066-J1 & SLPM-68503 & SLPM-66503 & VW066-J6 & SLPM-65754 & VW066-J4 & SLPM-66792 & VW351-J1 & SLPM-66793 & SLPM-74255 & VW066-J2 & SLPM-74256
German: SLES-50383
French: SLES-50383
Spanish: SLES-50385
Italian: SLES-50384
Korean: SLPM-67515
Region NTSC-U:
Serial numbers: SLUS-20144
SLUS-20144GH (Greatest Hits)
SLUS-29003 (Demo)
Release date: November 12, 2001
November 2002 (Greatest Hits)
CRCs: BFBBB524
Windows Status: Playable
Linux Status: ?
Mac Status: ?
Region PAL:
Serial numbers: SLES-50383
SLES-50384 (Italian)
SLES-50385 (Spanish)
SLED-50117 (Demo)
SLES-50383-P
Release date: March 8, 2002 (Dutch; French; German; Italian; Spanish; UK)
March 22, 2002 (PlayStation 2 Bundle Pack)
November 12, 2003 (UK - Platinum)
2003 (German - Platinum)
CRCs: A630B37E
Windows Status: Playable
Linux Status: ?
Mac Status: ?
Region NTSC-J/C/K:
Serial numbers: SLPM-65078
VW066-J1
SLPM-65077 (Premium Package)
VW069-J1 (Premium Package)
SLPM-68503 (Shareholder Edition)
SLPM-66503 (Mega Hits!)
VW066-J6 (Mega Hits!)
SLPM-65754 (Konami Dendou Collection)
VW066-J4 (Konami Dendou Collection)
SLPM-66792 (Metal Gear 20th Anniversary, disc 1)
SLPM-66793 (Metal Gear 20th Anniversary, disc 2)
VW351-J1 (Metal Gear 20th Anniversary)
SLPM-74255 (PlayStation 2 the Best, disc 1)
SLPM-74256 (PlayStation 2 the Best, disc 2)
VW066-J2 (PlayStation 2 the Best)
SLPM-62043 (Trial Version)
SLPM-67515 (BigHit)
Release date: November 29, 2001
May 30, 2002 (Korea)
September 12, 2002 (Mega Hits!)
October 21, 2004 (Konami Dendou Collection)
July 26, 2007 (Metal Gear 20th Anniversary)
November 29, 2007 (PlayStation 2 the Best)
April 29, 2010 (BigHit Series, Korea)
Windows Status: ?
Linux Status: ?
Mac Status: ?

Developer(s): KCEJ
Publisher(s): Konami (US, JP, EU, KO), SCEE (EU)
Genre: Action, Adventure
Wikipedia: Link
Game review links: IGN9.7/10, Metacritic96/100, GameSpot9.6/10, Eurogamer9/10
Game description: Snake returns in the stealthy action title, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Take on the role of a one-man army determined to stop a deadly high-tech weapon from falling into the hands of a highly elite resistance group called Dead Cell. Encounter familiar faces including Revolver Ocelot and battle the new war machine, Metal Gear Ray. This time around, enemies are more aware and agile, so you must use your skills in stealth, weaponry, and counter-terrorism to fight off the competing powers.


Test configurations on Windows:


Environment Configurations Comments Tester
Region OS CPU/GPU Revision Graphics Sound/Pad
NTSC-U/PAL ?
  • Intel Core i7-920 @ 3.40 GHz
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285
0.9.8 (RC r4563) GSdx (r4459)
  • SPU2-X 1.4.0
  • LilyPad 0.10.0
BIOS: USA v2.00, running near full speed. Requires a powerful PC. It's worth mention that MGS2:SoL requires PS2's pressure sensitive controls, so a PS2 controller is almost a necessity. Machina
NTSC-U Windows
  • Intel Core i7 @ 3.40 GHz
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 768MB
1.1.0 (r5492) GSdx SSE41 (r5464)
  • SPU2-X 2.0.0
  • LilyPad 0.11.0
Runs above full speed.
NTSC-U Windows
  • Intel Core2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66 GHz
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB
1.1.0 (r5800) GSdx SSSE3 (r5800)
  • SPU2-X 2.0.0 (r5800)
  • LilyPad 0.11.0 (r5800)
Game works at decent speed and stable.
PAL Windows
  • Intel Core i7 @ 3.80 GHz
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1368MB
1.1.0 (r5829) GSdx
  • SPU2-X
  • ?
Europe v01.70(27/02/2003), Goes from Ingame to Playable. Game is quite GS heavy, so a powerful graphics card is recommended. Slowdowns seem limited to cutscenes.
NTSC-U Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (SP1)
  • Intel Core i5-4670K @ 3.40 GHz
  • AMD Radeon HD 7850
1.3.0 (git 704)
  • LilyPad 0.11.0
BIOS: USA 2.30, ASUS MAXIMUS VI HERO, 6GB DDR3-1333, Requires a powerful computer to run at fullspeed, and even then there's still some slowdowns. Also requires fiddling with sensitivity on controller settings as well if you want to properly play this game. (When holding up enemies, etc). Pressure-sensitive controller recommended! Ryudo
NTSC-U Windows 10 x64 1909
  • Intel Core i5-3450 @ 3.1 GHz
  • NVIDIA GeForce 1050 Ti (4GB VRAM)
1.7.0-20200609215006 GSdx 20160105132032 (MSVC 19.00, AVX)
  • SPU2-X 20200609215006 2.0.0
  • LilyPad (20200609215006) 0.12.1
BIOS: USA v02.00, Full playthrough is possible (with Xbox 360 wireless controller via Steam Link, with some workarounds due to the lack of pressure sensitive buttons), awful slowdowns during some cutscenes (sometimes for inexplicable reasons because not much seems to be happening on screen), strange slowdowns (to about 45fps) when holding the girl's hand, some boss fights slow down to about 15 to 45fps, and slowdowns when the attack team comes storming in. kontenterrorist
NTSC-U Windows 10 x64
  • Intel Core i5-3570k (3rd gen) @ 3.4 GHz (Overclocked to 4.7 GHz)
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 (2GB VRAM)
1.7.3152 (SSE4) GSdx 1.2.0
  • SPU2-X 2.0.0 (Cubeb, Gaussian)
  • LilyPad 0.12.1
Intro FMV froze about halfway through with speedhacks enabled. Disabling speedhacks fixed this but the opening cutscene initially had no audio (though this may have been due to enabling Dolby Digital 5.1). Disabling this setting fixed the lack of audio but the cutscene afterwards (when Snake boards the tanker) also crashed. I don't know what caused this as the cutscene didn't crash after a reset. Lag is mostly limited to cutscenes and is only very brief and not particularly noticeable during gameplay (I only noticed it when using the Stinger and in the "Fission Mailed" room towards the end). Cutscenes sometimes drop to as low as 50% speed but this is usually during zoomed-out shots where there often isn't any dialogue or music, so it's not particularly noticeable. The cutscene with Fortune on the bridge was the only time the game lagged noticeably for a long time. Although they claim to be fixed in the build I used, blur still only affected the left side of the screen and Ocelot and Fatman's skin was still too dark. Setting blending accuracy to high fixed this but made the game unplayably laggy. There was also some warping/stretching on certain models in the codec (most notably Rose), often when FMVs were playing. Fully playable. PandoraGTX


Trivia

  • Original names: メタルギアソリッド2 サンズ・オブ・リバティ (SLPM-65078) & (SLPM-65077) & (SLPM-66503) & (SLPM-65754), 메탈 기어 솔리드 2 선즈 오브 리버티 (SLPM-67515)

Known Issues

Codec stretching/warping

  • Status: Active
  • Type: Minor
  • Description: Some models (most notably Rose) stretch/warp in codec scenes, especially when FMVs are shown.
  • Workaround: No known solution.

Olga's mouth doesn't animate

  • Status: Active
  • Type: Minor
  • Description: During the boss fight with Olga in the Tanker chapter, when Olga talks in the brief combat mini-cutscenes while in cover, her mouth doesn't animate (tested both US and European version). This issue isn't present in the Substance version (Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance) or any other version on original hardware or emulated. This happens in PCSX2 v1.7.5535, YouTube videos show it happens in v1.6 too.
  • Workaround: No known solution.

Fixed Issues

Color issue

  • Type: Note (not an issue)
  • Description: Ocelot and Fatman's skin textures are darker than normal.
  • Workaround: Set Blending Unit Accuracy to "High". Or switch to Software mode by setting Renderer to any of the "(Software)" options.

Thermal goggles

  • Status: Fixed
  • Type: Serious
  • Description: On hardware mode, the thermal goggles shader is broken and just displays a blank scanline texture when equipped, making it impossible to see. There is at least one segment requiring the use of thermal goggles to progress.
  • Workaround: Use Software mode.

Camera pictures mission

  • Status: Fixed
  • Type: Serious
  • Description: Taking usually right pictures in the tanker part fails.
  • Workaround: Has been resolved since PCSX2 0.9.9 r4657 development build. For older versions go to Config > Emulation Settings > VUs tab, and set VU0 to superVU Recompiler.

Dragging corpses fall sometimes

  • Status: Fixed
  • Type: Serious
  • Description: The enemy bodies sometimes fall before you release them.
  • Workaround: Has been resolved since PCSX2 0.9.9 r4657 development build. For older versions go to Config > Emulation Settings > VUs tab, and set VU0 to superVU Recompiler.

Left side is blurred during cutscenes

  • Status: Fixed
  • Type: Minor
  • Description: Some cutscenes are rendered at 10fps with motion blur to give a dramatic slow-motion effect but the effect is only shown on a small portion at the left side of the screen.
  • Workaround: Switch to Software mode. Fixed in latest dev versions.

Transparency issue

  • Status: Fixed
  • Type: Minor
  • Description: The water surface in the swim areas and Otacon's glasses are completely reflective.
  • Workaround: No known solution. Fixed in 1.7.x dev versions.

Twitching on gun aiming

  • Status: Fixed
  • Type: Minor
  • Description: Sometimes aiming guns just make the arm twitch.
  • Workaround: Has been resolved since PCSX2 0.9.9 r4657 development build. For older versions go to Config > Emulation Settings > VUs tab, and set VU0 to superVU Recompiler.

The gallery


Public compatibility forum links