Overview
Merry Gear Solid 2: Ghosts of Christmas Past is a
freeware Metal Gear Solid parody,
independently developed by
Insignificant Studios, released soon after Christmas of 2009 for
PC. The game follows
Solid Snake under the code name 'Cold Snake' and
Otacon, who infiltrate Outer Savin' Shopping Mall to stop the Three Wise Men from activating Merry Gear, a bipedal tank capable of launching presents from any location. The game is fully voiced, featuring solid impersonations of the characters it parodies.
Gameplay
Six buffets. More than enough to fill anything that moves. Merry Gear Solid 2's gameplay is similar to it's predesessor and
Metal Gear. The player moves around a 2D environment, avoiding guards and making their way to the room's exit using items, distraction and speed. Unlike
Metal Gear Solid, where being detected will require the player to evade the enemy and hide, being detected by the enemy will simply end the game. This places an empthasis on puzzle solving, learning the guard's movement and finding the appropriate strategy. The player can obtain items in order to complete the increasingly sophisticated levels, all similar to ones found in other Metal Gear games. Items include the trademark
Cardboard Box, a tranquiliser Nerf gun and a remote-controlled missile launcher, among others.
Like Metal Gear Solid, the game frequently breaks the
fourth wall and the boss battles feature unconventional puzzles that must be solved to defeat the boss. The first boss is a Milkman, defeating him requires the player to set thier PC clock forward 2 weeks to spoil him. The second boss is a delivery man who is against digital distribution, defeating him requires the player to drag and drop a .zip file into the game window itself.
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