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To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, a new mod has been released that adds a third-person camera, similar to Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. While the first two Metal Gear Solid games, and the original release of the third one, featured an overhead camera, the Subsistence release for 3 added in a third-person camera with full rotation, to account for that game's more open environments. Now, modder oct0xor has gone through the arduous task of adding a third-person camera to Substance, titling it The Substance of Subsistence.

According to oct0xor, adding in this camera required reverse-engineering large parts of the game and writing thousands of lines of new code. In order to promote compatibility among mods, he also created the Solid Mods Loader. While it won't work with older mods, hopefully future modders will keep it in mind.

The Substance of Subsistence also adds new controls for the sword segments, mapping the various different attacks to face buttons rather than the right analog stick. For those that might want to try the new controls but don't like the new camera angle, the third-person camera can be disabled at any time in-game. A separate mod, to hide HUD elements, is also included, and can be added through the Solid Mods Loader.

The timing of the mod is somewhat unfortunate as Metal Gear Solid 2 is not currently on sale for PC. While it was officially ported to PC upon release, it was only available on disc until September of 2020 when it was released on GOG. However, in November of 2021, it was delisted as Konami lost the rights to some real-world war footage in the cutscenes. Konami pledged that they are working on bringing them back, but it's unclear when or if that will happen.

The Substance of Subsistence on GitHub
The Substance of Subsistence dev diary video

 

[YuseiFD]

Okay...i guess ?

 

[The Catboy]

It feels like Konami is really doing the bare minimum to pretend to care again

 

[SylverReZ]

Remakes pretty much nowadays lack anything good in quality and performance imo.

 

[SG854]

It feels like Konami is really feels like

 

[The Catboy]

Fix that, thanks

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

People have spent two decades complaining that Twin Snakes camera works against what the maps were designed for but those same people will probably praise this

 

[mrcroket]

People have spent two decades complaining that Twin Snakes camera works against what the maps were designed for but those same people will probably praise this

Twin Snake's problem isn't the camera, it's being able to shoot in first person. So no, it's not the same.

 

[Subtle Demise]

I've been waiting for this. Too bad Konami doesn't want to sell the game anymore. They could have had a boost in sales from this instead of people finding torrents for it.

 

[x65943]

I've been waiting for this. Too bad Konami doesn't want to sell the game anymore. They could have had a boost in sales from this instead of people finding torrents for it.

As another poster above said they lost rights to some of the footage, so I imagine it's a bit of a headache for them to fix that

Also, unrelated, but like these character models have very defined backsides for some reason

 

[Subtle Demise]

As another poster above said they lost rights to some of the footage, so I imagine it's a bit of a headache for them to fix that

Also, unrelated, but like these character models have very defined backsides for some reason

Yes I know that, I just feel that if they actually cared, it would have been done by now.

 

[Justinde75]

The new camera is really nice but i'd personally say mgs2 doesn't need it at all. It mostly plays inside where not much is blocking your vision from above which makes using the overhead camera no problem. Vanilla mgs3 is really hard to play because alot of it plays inside a jungle and the trees block your vision from the top and its really hard to see the enemies. But more options are always nice

 

[Spider_Man]

It feels like Konami is really doing the bare minimum to pretend to care again

Its a mod, nothing to do with Konami.

I saw this few months ago, I slithered finally to here.

 

[SylverReZ]

I saw this few months ago, I slithered finally to here.

Don't you mean, you've spinned a web and flung here.

 

[Spider_Man]

Twin Snake's problem isn't the camera, it's being able to shoot in first person. So no, it's not the same.

And the camera, play the psx version then twin snakes.

The having to plan and be stealthy is ruined in twin snakes.... within the first 10 minutes!

 

[The Catboy]

Its a mod, nothing to do with Konami.

I saw this few months ago, I slithered finally to here.

I should get less high before posting

 

[AxlSt00pid]

Thank god I was able to get all the Metal Gear titles on GOG before they got pulled off from it

I might replay MGS2 with this mod, sounds really interesting

 

[Randy Steele]

I've played a little bit of it on my Aya Neo Air with the MGS V's fix mod to give it proper widescreen and better controls and I gotta say it's quite a treat. It almost feels like I'm playing a new MGS game and I haven't had that feeling in years. It might sound like a tiny thing but being able to see the game world from this perspective really breathes new life into the environments.

 

[Vine-gar]

I played through this game once years ago. I'd love to play through the game again with this mod. Being able to see everything around me is what I always wanted to do in this game! But I can't even buy the game right now? Come on, Konami! Put it back up for sale so I can get the game!

They should pay this dude to bundle this mod with the game! This is a major new feature and it would drive sales.

 

[Naster]

So it’s not for a PS2 version? What the point then nobody plays MGS2 on PC.