Here's my updated review for this title.
Well, if you played MGS4, the controls will feel right at home. Some design decisions are questionable, like how much work it takes just to stab someone or the odd weapon switch systems, but it's manageable. The controls overall are very easy to get used to, but they all come straight from MGS4, which obviously will bring you to asking a few questions. You can, for example, still fire from First-Person View or the Over The Shoulder view, or just lockon to people with Auto-Aim.
There's nothing here that really screams "I'm Metal Gear Online! I'm related to the main series!" That's not horribly bad, but you'd expect more characters from the series. You'll see some familiar weapons, locations, and a few unique characters, but that's it. Graphically, the game is just like MGS4, some nice crisp visuals with startling attention to detail in some areas. No complaints with the visuals. The game maintains a constant 30fps, and even goes to 60fps at random moments. And, as always, the sound is very clear and stunning, awesome as it always was.
The gameplay itself is where the game falls short. We've all seen pre-release trailers and concepts, where you're encouraged to use teamwork. There are character-specific codec commands, the ability to use the in-game keyboard or a commercial USB/Bluetooth keyboard for text chat, and mic support. You can do things like boost people up to higher places, use SOP to link together, and more, but finding people actively using teamwork is rare. Most players treat the game like another run of the mill shooter. This is a bummer for those looking for classic MGS gameplay, but it's still fun just running and gunning at times.
The setup for the game is odd and annoying. The game is completely separate from the PlayStation Network. Konami uses it's own servers for EVERYTHING. This means that, yes, you'll have to register a new account. Not a PSN account, a Konami ID, which you'll need to create a character for MGO, and to buy things from the MGO Shop. This takes a while and you're lucky to get through without some form of errors getting in your way. This kills the flow of any fluid transition from MGS4-to-MGO, but once all is said and done, you'll just login with your character and find a match to play in.
Unfortunately, this also means you'll encounter more lag than in other games, but it's never bad enough to make you chuck your controller across the room. OK, so maybe it can be that bad.
There's not a lot to do or access at first, such as there being only 5 maps to play on. Kojima Productions aims to expand on this with updates, such as the recently released GENE Expansion. I don't know if I'll stick around long enough for any of the cooler updates, but as it stands, this game will be great for hardcore Metal Gear heads, but for newcomers, you might be swayed away by the overall presentation.
I give the game an overall 7.0, bumped up from my original score of 6.0. Kojima and crew plan to keep this game alive for 10 years. That's the rest of the PS3's lifespan. Good luck with that Kojima, seriously. I wonder how far it'll go.