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Metal Gear Solid 2's controls may not seem entirely logical at first, especially not to those who are new to the series. With time, though, the controls will get easier. It just takes practice.

Play­Station Xbox Switch Windows Description
Neutral lstick or Neutral dpad Neutral lstick or Neutral dpad Neutral lstick or Neutral dpad W
ASD
Moves your character around. The further you move the stick, the faster you move. Try not to run on noisy surfaces (like metal grating) - walking slowly will prevent your footsteps from making noise and alerting nearby guards. While crouched, this causes you to crawl.
Neutral rstick Neutral rstick Neutral rstick I
JKL
While against a wall, this will pan the camera around.
Cross button A button B button Space Crouches/stands up.
Circle button B button A button H Executes a punch combo attack.
Square button X button Y button U Fires your current weapon, throws grenades/empty clips, places C4/dirty magazines. See Weapons for more details.
Triangle button Y button X button E Your all-purpose Action button. Climbs ladders, jumps up small ledges (when next to them), and opens lockers and some doors.
R1 button L button (original)
RB button (Series X)
R button F Enters First-Person View. During cinemas, this zooms the camera in.
R2 button RT button ZR button 2 or 0 Hold to open the Weapon Menu. Press to equip/unequip the last weapon you had out.
L1 button LB button (Series X) L button N With your weapon raised, hold this button to lock on to the nearest enemy. Handy for alert situations, but otherwise it's easier to manually aim.
L2 button LT button ZR button 1 or 9 Hold to open the Item Menu. Press to equip/unequip the last item you had out.
Select button/Touchpad button Back button/View button Minus button Esc Codec Menu.
Start button/Options button Start button/Menu button Plus button Tab Pause.

Unarmed Combat[edit]

You can do quite a lot of damage without weapons. You can choke enemies to knock them out, snap their necks, or just beat them up if you need to make a quick getaway.

Play­Station Xbox Switch Windows Description
Circle button B button A button H (repeatedly): Snake unleashes a three-hit combo. Raiden unleashes a four-hit combo.
Square button X button Y button U (repeatedly, while standing still): Grabs a nearby enemy and eventually snaps their neck.
Square button X button Y button U (once, while running): Grabs and throws an enemy. Useful for quick getaways, or throwing people over ledges.
Square button X button Y button U (hold): Grabs an enemy so you can drag them away. If the enemy is dead or unconscious, this will grab their body to drag around. Grabbing and dropping a body repeatedly may cause it to drop ammo and supplies, but doing this too often to knocked-out enemies will cause them to wake up.