The colonel is annoying.

[Lucas NOT the Pope]

Does this guy ever shut up? He spends half the game telling Raiden what to do by Codec for 5 minutes at a time, most of which are basic actions that the player could already intuit, and then calling him back to congratulate him doing it in the amount of time it took me to finish this sentence. Chill out, dude. If I wanted your consolation for accomplishing the simplest of tasks, then I would've called you myself. You're not my mom.

[Gonzo850]

He won't shut up. But he does get very weird. Then at the end he goes on a very depressing rant that is kinda scary how it applies to things happening today.

[Lucas NOT the Pope]

Originally posted by Gonzo850:

Then at the end he goes on a very depressing rant that is kinda scary how it applies to things happening today.

That's a given.

[Deathraven13]

He ne scissors.

[Nanaki]

Originally posted by Deathraven13:

He ne scissors.

61

[Kyo Tanaka]

Turn the game console off

[Lucas NOT the Pope]

Originally posted by Kyo Tanaka:

Turn the game console off

It's PC now lol

[PlebNC (UK)]

Originally posted by Lucas NOT the Pope:

Does this guy ever shut up? He spends half the game telling Raiden what to do by Codec for 5 minutes at a time.

Gee, it's almost like he's your commanding officer or something.

[PlebNC (UK)]

Originally posted by Lucas NOT the Pope:

Originally posted by Kyo Tanaka:

Turn the game console off

It's PC now lol

You'll damage your eyes!

[Lucas NOT the Pope]

Originally posted by PlebNC (UK):

Gee, it's almost like he's your commanding officer or something.

Major Zero wasn't this obnoxious...

[PlebNC (UK)]

Originally posted by Lucas NOT the Pope:

Originally posted by PlebNC (UK):

Gee, it's almost like he's your commanding officer or something.

Major Zero wasn't this obnoxious...

Major Zero has a personal friendship with Jack so he know his capabilities enough to not need to overbear.
Whereas Raiden and the Colonel have never even met in person.
Plus, again, the Colonel is a CO. Them telling you when to jump and how high is literally their job.

[Lucas NOT the Pope]

Originally posted by PlebNC (UK):

Major Zero has a personal friendship with Jack so he know his capabilities enough to not need to overbear.
Whereas Raiden and the Colonel have never even met in person.

Mmmm, that is actually a very good point.

[Deathraven13]

Originally posted by PlebNC (UK):

Plus, again, the Colonel is a CO. Them telling you when to jump and how high is literally their job.

That sound like a mom of someone I know.

[PlebNC (UK)]

Originally posted by Lucas NOT the Pope:

Originally posted by PlebNC (UK):

Major Zero has a personal friendship with Jack so he know his capabilities enough to not need to overbear.
Whereas Raiden and the Colonel have never even met in person.

Mmmm, that is actually a very good point.

Also it's worth noting the game is designed to allow playing the Tanker and Plant chapters separately so game design wise the Colonel needs to repeat alot of tutorial stuff from the Tanker chapter in case the player decides they want play just the Plant chapter.
I tend to rationalise it as Raiden being a complete rookie to field work so he'd need the handholding. Fortunately by the time you meet Stillman most of it stops.
Then you have to deal with Rose asking about the day tomorrow is, lol.

[ViviSected]

Originally posted by PlebNC (UK):

Originally posted by Lucas NOT the Pope:

Mmmm, that is actually a very good point.

Also it's worth noting the game is designed to allow playing the Tanker and Plant chapters separately so game design wise the Colonel needs to repeat alot of tutorial stuff from the Tanker chapter in case the player decides they want play just the Plant chapter.
I tend to rationalise it as Raiden being a complete rookie to field work so he'd need the handholding. Fortunately by the time you meet Stillman most of it stops.
Then you have to deal with Rose asking about the day tomorrow is, lol.

There's a few things I'd add.

Major Zero has nothing to do with the story of MGS2. He had not even been conceived of as a character yet. Trying to understand Metal Gear as one long epic story isn't useful, because it was never conceived of or written that way. Perfect example is MG2 to MGS1: they made Big Boss Snake's father in a retcon. In MGS1 Snake and the Colonel mention Big Boss saying he was Snake's father at Zanzibar Land, but if you play MG2 that never happens. When playing MGS2 it's best not to think about Zero or The Boss or anything from the later games, since none of that stuff existed yet. Every MGS from 2 on was marketed as the conclusion to the series as well, so it's not like there was ever a grand plan, the team just kept making the most groundbreaking video games of all time like 7 times in a row. Oops. Sometimes stuff lines up in a way that a prequel "explains" something in a later game chronologically, but that's really more like an easter egg than anything actually important about the story.

But also, I think OP is approaching things wrong. Maybe ask yourself: why did the developers make the game like this? What are they trying to accomplish? And keep your questions in mind as you get through the story. Think about the context the game came out in, the movies and real life events that influenced it, and just what is going on in the story. It's definitely the Metal Gear game with the most wild possible interpretations. For instance: a lot of people believe at least some of the game takes place in a VR simulation. Weather there's such a thing as objective reality and how we discern the "truth" in a digital world with constant information streams are major themes of the game, and they do a good job creating a sense of unreality and confusion in the late-game. Personally I think the whole thing is in VR, even the Tanker mission, but I can't really say so for certain. It's a deep game that gives you what you put in, so I'd encourage everyone to have an open mind, and maybe check out some written and video analysis of the game, it's really interesting!

[Lucas NOT the Pope]

Originally posted by ViviSected:

Major Zero has nothing to do with the story of MGS2. He had not even been conceived of as a character yet.

OBVIOUSLY that's not what I was saying. The point was that Campbell and Zero have the same Codec role of informing the player what to do and where to go, but that the ladder wasn't nearly as irritating and gameplay disruptive as the former. They literally have the same frequency, for crying out loud. The fact that Zero wasn't a character in the franchise yet has nothing to do with what I was talking about.