A unique playing experience; weird and cool all at the same time; for strategy fans and serious Metal Gear fans
User Rating: 8.3 | Metal Gear Acid PSP
Metal Gear Ac!d is the new game from Konami for the PSP. One of about 25 launch titles to come out for the new handheld unit, MGA is a new twist of a great franchise. MGA is filled with flavor and fun that we come to expect from Metal Gear. This game takes place sometime after MGS2. You'll play as Solid Snake, the series' main hero (and eventually other characters as well) and you must complete a series of missions that are turn-based. In each mission, you'll use cards with abilities on them to move, hide, fight, and sneak, as well as a bunch of other varied actions. It's a new twist on this Pokemonesque genre. Let's start with the story (Out of ten I've give the story about a 5, the weakest category of the game) Frankly, the story makes no sense what-so-ever. This is nothing new in this series of complicated and strange storylines. Basically, a plane is captured and taken hostage. On the plane is an important presidential canadate and you've got to save him. In order to do that, you must go to an island research facility (are they all on islands in Metal Gear games? I mean, really!). On the island you're searching for plans to a top secret research project known as "Pythagoras". You'll search much of the island and eventually meet up with another playable character, codenamed "Swallowtail". Together you'll both explore the island and try to find the scientist who made "Pythagoras" and find out more about it. Gameplay (8) To move around in the game you'll use cards. At the start of a mission, Snake is given 6 cards shuffled at random from a 30 card deck (this can get bigger as you play the game). Almost all the cards can be scrapped for movement points instead of their printed actions and this is how Snake gets around. If you don't need the bazooka card, for example, you just sacrifice it and convert it to movement points instead. When moving, all of the classic Snake actions are present. You can crawl on the ground and hide under desks and in air ducts. You can flatten yourself against a wall and knock on it to draw enemies toward your position. You can (with the right cards) climb onto objects or hang over the side of others. With the right combinations of cards just about anything is possible. And the enemies in the game have decks of their own as well. They have a turn and use the cards available to them just as you do. As the game progresses this makes things quite challenging! Each card as a "cost" associated with it that you must pay to activate the card. You start with only being able to play two cards per turn, but that can be raised as you play. When you play a card, the cost of that card is added to your current cost. So for example: You start with 0 cost at the beginning of your turn. Let's say you move forward and to do that you scrapped a card with a 6 cost. As you complete the action your cost goes up to 6 (0+6=6). As your second action, you throw a nade at an enemy which costs 7. Snake will lob the grenade where you wanted it and your code goes up to 13 (7+6=13). When you end your turn, your cost will be at 13. This is a timer that determines when you get to make your next action. All characters, enemies and Snake alike, have this value. The cost meter ticks down until any character in range of Snake (or Snake) gets to zero. It is then that players turn to move. If there is no one in range, Snake's cost meter goes quickly back to zero to keep the game moving. Even when the enemies on the screen get to go, you can speed their turn up with the fast forward button (the triangle). It personally took me a while to master how to best use my cost attribute, but once I got the hang of it, it was a snap. One last thought on gameplay: It takes about 15 to 20 minutes to really get to play for the first time. The game is a little too fatherly to you in the beginning. Every five seconds someone is telling you what to do or you're watching the crazy storyline. It takes a while for the game to let you go on your own. Once it does the game gets more comfortable and you can have a good time with it. Sound (7) The sound for the game is good. For Metal Gear fans there are a lot of sound effects we've come to expect from this series. When you're spotted by the enemies there's that familiar alert sound. And of course Snake still has his codec which makes its familiar ringing noise when someone is calling. Over all they did a good job of maintaining the universe that Snake inhabits. Graphics (9) The game really looks great, I have to say. The PSP is really amazing. The detail on the textures is very well done. When you play certain specialty cards you get brief clips from earlier Metal Gear games. They quality is just as high on PSP as it was on PS2! They did a really nice job. Over all I think Metal Gear Ac!d is a very enjoyable game with a lot of replay value to it. It's not your standard Metal Gear title but all the flavor and thought that went into earlier titles is here as well. If you like the idea of planning out your moves and turn-based combat then this could be a good fit for you. I like the older titles and I'm enjoying this one a lot too. If you're uncertain about whether this game is right for you, you can always rent it from your local video story or use Gamefly, which is what I recommend. Jack
