Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Official Strategy Guide [Paperback]

Dan Birlew (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bradygames Take Your Games Further | Publication Date: November 7, 2001

BradyGames Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Official Strategy Guide features highly detailed maps that depict every area, pinpoint all items, and even diagram guard patrol patterns! The comprehensive walkthrough guides you through the entire game, providing a Reconnaissance briefing for each area, as well as tactics for achieving your objectives! Guard-by-Guard strategy gives you the option of simply incapacitating enemies or claiming their precious Dog Tags! Expert boss tactics show you how to defeat the members of Dead Cell with cold efficiency! Plus-game secrets revealed, complete equipment and weapon rosters, and much more!

This Signature Series guide is an essential resource that combines high quality design with exclusive content to provide a truly satisfying gaming experience. Some of the features in this guide include a special cover treatment, riveting background on the Metal Gear saga, and an exclusive poster!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

BradyGames Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Official Strategy Guide features a complete walkthrough of the game and comprehensive maps that mark key locations and crucial items. Coverage of the characters, weapons, moves, and infiltration methods are also provided, along with boss strategies for defeating enemies. Game secrets and bonuses revealed!

This guide is part of BradyGames' Signature Series line, a strategy guide format that showcases quality product design to produce true collector's edition books for avid gamers. Some of the features include: heavier paper stock, special cover treatment, and a premium value-add item.

About the Author

Konami of America is a leading developer, publisher and manufacturer of electronic entertainment properties, specializing in the home video game market. Konami's action and adventure titles include the popular franchises Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill and Castlevania, among other top sellers. In addition, the company has an agreement with ESPN to develop and publish sports games. The latest information about Konami can be found on the Web at www.konami.com. Konami Co., Ltd. Is a publicly traded company based in Tokyo, Japan with subsidiary offices, Konami of America, Inc. in the US and Konami of Europe in Frankfurt, Germany.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Brady Games; 1st edition (November 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0744001099
• ISBN-13: 978-0744001099
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #197,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dan Birlew is an author and video game expert who has been writing official, published video game strategy guides since 1999. His original career goals included acting and directing. Video games always excited Dan since he was seven years old, but at the age of twenty-six he began honing his playing skills with the goal of becoming an expert gamer. He enjoyed publishing online documents regarding games, known as "FAQs". Dan inadvertently created an online persona for himself when he wrote and self-published on the Internet a plot analysis of the highly popular survival horror video game, Silent Hill. "The game's story was somewhat vague, and demanded that someone try to explain it," says Birlew.

Upon receiving an overwhelming number of positive responses from other Silent Hill fans, and after some gentle nudging from his wife, Birlew decided to set aside his acting and directing activities to establish a career as a video game strategy guide author. He sent writing samples to several publishing companies. Based on the merits of his very first submission, he was hired by a major publisher within 24 hours. Birlew says, "It was as though I had won the lottery."

Birlew has authored over sixty published video game strategy guides and seeks other methods of publication, such as review columns, articles, and other non-fiction video game-related books. Birlew says of his passion for games, "I love exploring video games, the industry, the culture, the fans -- and there is so much of it about which I can analyze and write." He also bears a strong desire to publish fiction, and is currently working on a novel concerning the paranormal.

Dan Birlew is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, and has lived in Pennsylvania, Texas, and California. He now resides in Las Vegas with his wife of seventeen years. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993. Besides video games, Birlew also enjoys Japanese films and dining with his family and friends in the restaurants and clubs of Las Vegas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very in-depth, November 20, 2001

By 

"jackblackout" (Hilliard, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)

This is a great guide. Very few omissions or errors, very in-depth. Good layout, and great writing (what else would you expect from Dan Birlew, President Evil himself?) Get this guide if you find yourself stuck at any point of MGS2!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an excellent guide if you play through on normal mode, April 16, 2003

By 

Joe Sherry (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)

I was almost finished with Metal Gear Solid 2 when I stopped playing for almost a year. When I went to play again, I realized that I didn't remember the story that well and I didn't remember the layout of the area I was in. I decided to restart the game, but this time use a guide to make sure that I don't miss any items and to quickly get through the areas I had already played. Since this was the only guide available, I picked it up.

Some reviews of this guide make mention that the guide is not actually needed to complete the game and that simply playing the game is all the strategy that one needs. That may very well be, but I don't think that applies in reviewing the guide. What matters is that the guide has all of the necessary information required to complete the game and not miss any items and that it includes tips on how to beat the bosses. This guide has all of that and is very valuable in completing the game. While many things can be discovered by trial and errors, this guide will get you through the game with no trouble (the only trouble may come in actually applying the strategies to beat a boss). The most valuable aspect of this guide comes in that it details on a map the patrol patterns of the guards. Knowing in advance how far a guard will patrol is very useful in planning your path though the level. If capturing the dog tags from the soldiers is important to you (and if you want the bonus items, it should be important), the guide provides useful strategies on how to get every dog tag in the game (on normal mode). I tried out some of them, and it worked just as the guide suggested. I wasn't that interested in collecting the dog tags my first time completing the game, so I didn't spend the time to collect them all. As far as I could tell, the strategies were spot on.

One thing I should mention is that the strategies to get the dog tags and for beating the game apply to the normal difficulty setting. Since some things change on the higher difficulty levels, the guide is probably not as useful for mastering the game on the highest difficulty.

Using this guide for the normal difficulty level, this is an excellent guide that will take you through the game and not spoil and story points. If you feel you need a guide for Metal Gear Solid 2, this one is well worth your money.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great collectors item and good for game info, too, August 31, 2002

By 

Michael (Jupiter, FL, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)

I'll be honest with you. This book is designed really well. It is one of two BradyGames books right now in the "Signature" series -- strategy guides that feature higher-quality paper, very well-designed walkthroughs, and an extra like a poster. Unlike other guides, you don't get lost in all the small text trying to figure out where you were reading when you last looked up from the book. The strategy actually goes guard-by-guard, so you can use it if you're stuck trying to get past a specific guard, or you can use it to walk you through the whole game.

The reason I gave this guide four out of five stars is because it really only contains the minimum information you need to complete the game. Sure, there are blurbs about secrets and stuff, but I just didn't get the feeling that this was a book chock full of "insider's info" on MGS2.