Review: Metal Gear Acid (AC!D)

[David]

Konami brings back our all-time favorite, Solid Snake, for the PSP launch in North America. With the recent release of Metal Gear Solid 3 (Snake Eater) for the Playstation 2 console, Konami jumps on the bandwagon to support Sony\'s kicking PlayStation Portal (PSP). Konami Japan has already released this game in Japan (of course), and I have my hands on it.

Metal Gear Acid (MGA) has a new and unique system for you to play with; unlike the other sequels/off-breeds of the series itself. Instead of sneaking around and ripping your opponents to shreds without being caught, you\'re doing the same thing but on a huge board game of a map. That\'s right, you\'re no longer manually controlling Solid Snake - it\'s a card game to determine where you\'re moving, what attacks you can do, and what defense you\'ll have if your opponent is attacking. While many Metal Gear fans will probably shun this game at first, after a few levels of gameplay you\'ll enjoy it all the same. You have weapon-specific cards, ration cards (there are a few, to regenerate your character\'s health), and other cards that will surprise even the veteran card-game player. The problem is that you\'re going to have to give up some of your best cards just to move around on the board (the map).

With that being said, the AI of your opponents become increasingly difficult per-level. This is mainly because the AI starts using more complicated arrays of card combinations. Not only does the AI becoming insane, but your luck with the cards will become scarce as well. In the beginning, the luck with the cards will be rather amazing - almost clearing a level in matter of minutes. However, later on you\'ll be faced with the most challenging draws of the cards that\'ll make strategy necessary. No matter how skilled you think you are, the next level will always prove the be even more challenging. Many levels will draw players away from continued play - as they may become too frustrated to keep on playing.

When it comes to characters, you\'ll always have your trusty Solid Snake. On several maps you may have an ally of some sort (many are from the MGS storyline; but several are not). You\'ll be face with new faces and old faces, but you\'ll soon realize that this game has nothing to do with the ongoing story of Metal Gear Solid itself. The storyline is completely seperate, and some maps will have a different task altogether. Sadly, I haven\'t played enough of MGA to be able to tell you if there is a \"Final Enemy\" - and seeing as my copy is from Japan (and my japanese kanji understanding isn\'t fluent either) - I won\'t be able to tell you until the game comes out for North America.

Supposively, the North American version will have a wireless two-player option. When playing the Japanese version, I was under the impression that it was necessary for them to add something like a two-player system; as it\'s just one of those games you want to challenge your friend to play. The voice-overs that made MGS so popular (from Metal Gear Solid 2 for PS2) aren\'t as impressive as they used to be and aren\'t used as much as they were in the past (I\'ve only heard the voice-overs once or twice and I\'ve got to map 7 so far). The OST itself is incredible, but dull when you\'ve heard it too long (for those challenging maps).

Overall, you\'ll be faced with a game you either cannot put down - or one that isn\'t your cup o\' soup.

[fuseku]

Hmm, it sounds different, although a lot of games have been striving to be different in the past two years. -shrug- I\'m still undecisive on buying the PSP, but if I do then I would love to try this out as i\'m a big MGS fan. ^^,

[Michael]

Nice review <img src=\'http://www.killanet.net/forum3/public/s ... /smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':)\' />