Video Game / Metal Gear Ac!d 2

Snake and Venus

Metal Gear Acid 2 (or METAL GEAR AC!D²) is the sequel to Metal Gear Ac!d, released in 2005 for the PSP. ACID 2 has more than twice the amount of cards, cel-shaded graphics, a new Arena Mode, and an add-on for the PSP called the Solid Eye that allows the player to view the game in 3D.

Set sometime after the events of the first game, Snake (now a member of a Resistance force) reluctantly agrees to infiltrate a facility located in an island off the coast of North America, owned by a military contractor named SaintLogic Inc. There, he finds out that SaintLogic has been involved in the development of a new Metal Gear mech.

Following the release of both Acid games, along with Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel, Konami decided to produce a more traditional Metal Gear for the PSP titled Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.

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Metal Gear AC!D 2 provides examples of the following tropes:

• Anti-Frustration Features: You no longer have to stop moving to pick up a card Pack or open a door.
  • Enemy cards that let them dodge attacks only work if they're alerted, armor cards still work but any card that lets them completely dodge an attack only works if they're alerted.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Snake, to Venus' dousing, for the same reasons. He's also a bit skeptical of the second-to-last Boss's psychic powers. Until he walks on the ceiling.
• Art Shift: MGA2 uses a cel-shaded style that makes it stand out from the rest of the series.
• Banana Republic: The Serena Republic is known to be in South America, but there's no specific location.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Venus. For starters, she attempts to kill Snake nearing the end because Wiseman ordered her to. It is also heavily implied that she couldn't refuse his orders as he removed her free will.
  • Snake and the other test subjects were this, but gained amnesia. Venus was one of the more "successful" ones.
• Clear My Name: Snake. Well, technically - Dalton's blackmailing him into investigating SaintLogic, and if he does so, he'll get pardoned and will be a legal immigrant to the US.
• The Dog Bites Back: After Vincent is defeated by Snake and Venus, he learns that Rodzinski is leaving the facility on his getaway chopper and leaving the security forces to take the blame. After a particularly big Kick the Dog moment from Rodzinski, Vincent orders his soldiers to shoot him down, with the soldiers obeying the command without hesitation, presumably agreeing with him about why they should do so.
  Security Forces: Major! We've located Mr. Rodzinski! He's about to leave in a chopper, sir.
  Vince: Put him on.
  Rodzinski: What do you want? Wait. Vince, is that you?
  Vince: Mr. Rodzinski. What are you doing?
  Rodzinski: I'm getting the hell off this island!
  Vince: But what about Koppelthorn?
  Rodzinski: You think I give a damn about that lunatic?! The ICC has decided to carry out their investigation! My deal with those goddamn politicians was worthless! After all the money and assets I invested in this, they abandoned me at the first sign of uncertainty! The ICC is sending an investigation team to the island next week. At this point, they won't let me go even if I get them the Lucinda File. The deal is off, and now I'm facing criminal charges. If I'm tried under the Serena national judicial system, I could be executed!
  Vince: ... What are you going to do?
  Rodzinski: Run like hell! What other options do I have? I can't set foot in this country ever again. ...I never believed this day would come.
  Vince: So you're leaving this whole mess here with us?
  Rodzinski: Spare me the sad story, Vince. You're the big boys. Take care of yourselves for once!
  Vince: ...
  Security Forces: Awaiting your orders, sir.
  Vince: Shoot the bastard down.
  Security Forces: Yes, sir.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Vince is disgusted by his employer's lack of honor trying to evac the site with its personnel left behind when it's clear there's no stopping Koppelthorn and actually orders his men to kill him by blowing his helicopter out of the sky. Before he dies, he requests that Snake and Venus let the rest of his men live.
  • In game, though, he often accidentally kills his own men via rocket launcher or thrown barrels.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Dalton will react if Snake kills someone early on and bring up how many people Snake's killed in that run during an early cutscene, if Snake hasn't killed anyone, then his dialogue will change to account for it.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Lampshaded several times in the sequel - Dalton complains about the CARD system's explanations being confusing and jargon-filled when Wiseman rambles on about them, and while Lucy/Metal Gear gloats, Snake and Venus calmly discuss Metal Gear's "glitch" that allows you to see its drawn cards.
  • During the fight with Venus, you can kick her off the ledge if you're lucky, allowing you to bypass the entire battle. She's back up on the railing in the cutscene though.
• Jiggle Physics: Very noticeable since everyone's jiggle physics are... activated every time a new scene is rendered. They are extremely wobbly.
  • Fun fact: Snake's web belt has the same boobie physics as Venus' and Takiyama's.
• Kudzu Plot: Lampshaded in 2 - Dalton struggles to keep up when something unforeseen gets into the picture.
• Love Makes You Evil: Koppelthorn's entire reason for going batshit insane on his own facility. To some extent, Lucy's motherly drive for her ungodly mutants drives her to use Chaioth to make the world a better place for the test subjects.
• Mirror Boss: The final boss of Metal Gear Ac!d ² is Venus herself, who draws the exact same cards as you do in your deck, but at an increased rate. You're going to have to play very cleverly to gain an advantage.
  • Or, since she uses EXACTLY the same cards you do, fill your deck with movement and healing cards, position yourself towards the edge of the area facing the entrance next to the pit, get Venus right next to the edge, and punch-punch-kick her off for an easy victory.
• No Fourth Wall: Snake and Venus calmly discussing the final boss's weakness as it rants on and on about her motivations.
• Nostalgia Level: The Metal Gear KODOQUE/Pythagoras fight in the second game.
  • Somewhat played with in MGA2's Arena Mode: The levels are based on MGS, MGS2, and MGS3, but aren't based off any one level. On the other hand, you can fight Liquid Snake, Revolver Ocelot, Vamp, Fortune, The End, The Boss, Venus and Teliko (The first and last can kill you in a single turn using a SOCOM which sometimes hits up to twenty times!). The enemy teams in arena mode always contain two people and are not randomly generated. Sometimes you'll get seemingly strange pairings (like two Telikos) but other times you get the standard pairings (e.g. Revolver Ocelot & Liquid Snake).
• Old Save Bonus: If you have photo save files from Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, you can connect your PlayStation Portable to your PlayStation 2 and view the pictures in 3D using the "Solid Eye" viewer in Metal Gear Ac!d 2. Additionally, you can import a limited number of cards from the first game into your deck in the second game.
• Pacifist Run: Much, much harder, especially thanks to the range of tranq weapons, how plentiful lethal weapons are, and CQC's tendency to knock someone off a ledge... with lethal results. Still somewhat encouraged by Dalton, who will mention early on how many people you've killed so far and will note that you will be killed if you are caught, and Vince, who later on asks that Snake and Venus spare some of his soldiers, but beyond that, there's no Videogame Cruelty Punishment, aside from not getting as many bonus points or cards as you do with no kills.
• Parrot Exposition: Mostly absent from both games, but lampshaded in the second game.
  Snake: Metal Gear?!
  Dalton: You've heard of it?
  Snake: Not exactly... But that name sounds familiar.
• Private Military Contractors: SaintLogic has a PMC force of its own, which was used to lock down its facility after a hostile takeover was made.
• Psycho Prototype: All of the Test Subjects in the second game, fulfilling the role of Quirky Miniboss Squad. They include a giant cyborg ape who can shoot his arms at you (and regrow them!), a hypnotist dressed as a traditional Chinese... something... who likes to walk on the ceiling and wielding a grenade launcher, and a man holding a giant fuel container which he drinks out of to breathe fire.
• Riding the Bomb: In the ending for Ac!d ², Snake ends up using the destroyed Metal Gear's missile launching ability to escape by cramming himself into a dummy warhead. It broke every single bone in his body - but he healed, thanks to his status as a super soldier.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Snake uses a railgun to launch himself to safety from an exploding Metal Gear at the end of AC!D2...and as a result breaks damn near every bone in his body. Of course, there's consequences for as extreme an action as that.
• Theme Naming: The names of the Test Subjects and the Metal Gear itself in MGA2 all come from the Kabbalah.
• Those Two Guys and that Girl: The pilots and Consuela, who accompanied Snake to the US before getting caught. They're reunited at the end, but are absent for most of the game (besides some "encouragement" by Dalton and Snake.)
• Three-Dimensional Episode: The second game can be played in 3D, and comes with a "Solid Eye" viewer (a box with separate eyeholes for each half of the screen which shares its name with Old Snake's optical eyepatch from MGS4). Also used for viewing pictures taken from MGS3 and Subsistence in 3D... usually, those of EVA.
• Tomato in the Mirror: "Snake" from Acid 2 is actually a clone from the original Acid, who supposedly died between the events of both games.