Metal Gear Online

Developer: Kojima Productions
Year of release: 2008
Platform: Playstation 3
Official website: http://www.konami.jp/mgo/us/hd/

Metal Gear Online comes on the same blue ray disk as Metal Gear Solid 4. I really liked MGS4 so after I had finished MGS4 I started playing MGO. I played it for 2.5 weeks, almost 2-3 hours a day and got to level 6. I'm a big fan of the MG series, but I mixed feelings about MGO.

In most games when you play the online mode, you know that you will get a different game play experience than the single player off line mode. Most games will tell you that when you play online. I have played quite some online games that also have a offline story mode. They usually are slightly different than the offline mode, but with MGO it really feels completely different than MGS4.

MGO is a realistic slow 3rd/1st person shooter. Like other online shooters it has the DM, TDM, CTF and other modes that are often seen in online shooters. The main goal is to kill as many opponents and that is exactly what the MG series did not stand for to me. I have always liked the MG games because it required sneaking and clever thinking to pass by your enemies without being noticed. I would kill my enemies only if it was necessary. Even in MGS4 which can be played as a shooter, I tried to hide and sneak as much as possible and only use guns when I had no other option.

MG to me stands for 'tactical espionage action' games, but MGO isn't that kind of game. MGO does have some resemblance with MGS4, it has the same graphics, controls and weapons. Some of the items that you have in MGS4 are also in MGO, but the most impressive items, the optical camo, the mark 2 and the solid eye, the items which really defined MGS4's sneaking game play can only be used rarely in MGO. You have the Stealth Death Match mode in which everyone has the optical camo, so why would you try sneaking if you can't even see your enemies?
Than there is the Team Sneaking mode which is the mode that comes the closest to MGS4. In this mode there are 3 factions, blue, red and yellow; blue and red are players with standard items and yellow is Snake and the mark2, Snake has all the stealth items. In this mode red and blue have to kill snake an amount of times or be the team that has the most kills when the time is over. Snake and the mark 2 have to stun players and obtain their dog tags. When Snake has collected the amount of dog tags he wins.

MGO is a difficult shooter if you would compare it with other online shooters:

1. The controls. MGS4 wasn't really praised for its controlls and this only gets worse in MGO. The controls are the same as in MGS4, but since MGO is a shooter, you really want good controlls especially for aiming. It really takes time to get used to the controls even when you have played MGS4, any mistake or slowdown with the controls often gets you killed in MGO.
2. The locations/maps. There are 5 maps in MGO, you can get more if you buy the expansion packs. In these 5 maps there are a lot of good camping spots for snipers. So if you walk around recklessly you often get sniped. A good understanding of the maps and its surroundings is important in MGO.
3. The killing. We all know that head shots are usually an instant kill in shooters and MGO is no exception. In MGO it is really important to know the effective range of your weapon. If you are out of the effective range aiming well will be hard and it will require a lot of shots before you have killed the target. It often happens in MGO that you see an enemies' back facing you and you start shooting while moving towards the target, because you couldn't aim perfectly the target has only taken light damage, so the target turns around and kills you with a head shot.
   
4. The kill and be killed ratio. In most shooters it's only about the kills that you make and not about the amount of being killed, which makes death less hard and less important and you can be more reckless. In MGO killing and being killed has almost the same importance; killing gives you 3 points and being killed minus 2 points and you can't have less than 0 points. After each match the ranking is shown and it is ranked with the person with the most points on top. So being killed in MGO does feel pretty painful.

In MGO you have a level up system and a skill system. You gain level up when you have a certain amount points, which you receive when you kill someone and lose when you are being killed. You don't get anything from levelling up, it's only the reputation. You have to maintain the good play to keep your level. If you just went up one level and you are playing very poorly the next match you can drop a level. It also depends on the level of your opponents. If you rank high in a match with high level opponents you will level up quicker, but if you end low in the rankings against opponents with a lower level you will drop level faster and I have read on forums that you can drop multiple levels at once when you play really bad against low level players.

The skill system is something completely different than the level up system. Each character has 4 slots to put skills in. There are different kind of skills; skills for different types of weapons (which give you less recoil, faster reload etc, but not more damage), skills for CQC, faster movement etc. Each skill can level up to level 3 and when a skill levels up it will take more slots. So with the 4 slots that you have you could put 4 level 1 skills in there or 2 level 2 skills etc. The skills level up by using them during play and you can only level up the skills that you have equipped. With the skill system you can specialise your character to be a better sniper or better attacker or other job.


The good:

• Level up system and skill system, I like the way that the levelling up is a reputation only and that the skills will give you a slightly more extra in handling or speed or other things and not in damage. This keeps the game balanced and gives everyone the same opportunities during play.
• It feels really good when you finally get the hang of it. It is the feeling that you get when you have spend so many houres in something difficult and finally seeing some rewarding results.
  

The bad:

• The controls, they are hard to master and feel 'chunky', in MGS4 it was good enough but for a shooter like MGO it's often frustrating. Especially the slow aiming. In the options menu you can set the sensitivity higher so you can look around and aim faster, but setting this on max is still awfully slow compared to other shooters.
• Too hardcore/difficult, I already explained 4 reasons why MGO is difficult especially for starters. Most people that I know who have played MGO only played a few times because it was too difficult.
  
• Gameplay is completely different than other Metal Gear games. MGO is an online shooter and has less to do with 'tactical espionage action'.
  

MGO is really for the hardcore fans of Metal Gear. I have also counted my self as a hardcore fan of the Metal Gear solid games, but MGO just doesn't fit in the series if you ask me. After playing MGO for 2.5 week it does get more enjoyable when you get the hang of it. But the first tries can be so difficult and frustrating that even I who usually likes difficult games was thinking of quitting in the first week. I was quite disappointed the first week and probably would have dropped the game if it wasn't related to 'Metal Gear'. But I'm glad that I didn't drop it and could still enjoy it the 2nd week. The 2nd week went so well that I was quite addicted to the game.
One advice for MGO starters even when you have finished MGS4 on the hardest setting, play against other new MGO players, because the higher level MGO players really are good, without any MGO experience you would be handing your ass over to them, ^_^.

6.9/10

Metal Gear Solid 4

Developer: Kojima Productions
Year of release: 2008
Platform: Playstation 3
Official website: http://www.konami.jp/mgs4/us/index.html

Metal Gear Solid 4 is one of those games that every hardcore gamer should play ... IF you have played the previous MGS games in the series. I myself have played the 1st (psx), 2nd and 3rd (PS2). I loved all of them. I have tried playing the NES versions, but I just couldn't get into it, it was too old for me. Since the 1st MGS on the PSX, I have been a big fan of the series. The game has everything that I like. A mature and deep story, Mecha, cool cutscene with great camera angles and superb voice acting and ofcourse exciting and thrilling gameplay. There aren't that many games out there that have all these good elements in them.

A lot of my collegues say that you should never buy a console just for one game. I share this opinion, but when MGS4 got released I was really thinking of buying a PS3. It was the price back then that made me think twice. Later on I did buy the PS3 in October '08 and MGS4 was one of the games that I bought on the same day as my PS3, together with PES 09, Dead Space and Armored Core For Answers.

Of the games that I bought I wanted to play MGS4 the most, but I just knew if I would play MGS4 after work, I would not have any night of sleep. So I just waited for the X-mas holiday, so that I could spend all day and night on MGS4. It toke me 3 sessions to finish the game on hard mode. Each session was more than 10 houres. I can remember that when I saved for the first time, I had played for 12 houres. There are just so many good things in the game, I just couldn't stop playing. It toke me 30 houres to finish the game. I got the eagle emblem. After that I was like, What now!? I want more MGS!

The biggest difference between MGS4 and the first 3 games is that you can play it as an action shooter instead of a stealth espionage game. You can play the game in different styles, you can run into the action and kill everything that moves in 3rd person or first person style or you can play it the original style, stealthy and sneaking. That is what I did, sneaking around waiting for an opportunity to sneak by or surprise an NPC and grab them from behind. The only thing that contradicts is that when you sneak alot, you'll might miss the beauty of the environment. While sneaking you stay low on the ground and close to walls, you avoid big open area's in which you might miss some of the good stuff.

The sneaking play style got me 30 houres of gameplay. When you do a more action shooting playstyle you can probably finish the game under 25 houres. Having the sneaking element in your gameplay is an easy way to extend the gameplay duration. While sneaking you will move slowely, stand still and hide for a few seconds or more, while as a player you still have as much fun and excitement when sneaking by an NPC.

Making the game an action shooter has defenitly appealed to a wider audiance. Action shooters are 'in' these days. By going in 1st person mode, you can really see how nice the graphics are.

MGS4 ties the first 3 games together and puts an end to the interesting and deep story of the saga. I have never seen another game that would cover so much of the story of previous games in the serie. All the characters that were in the previous games are introduced with flashbacks during the cutscene.
The story is so complex and detailed that they could easily make a movie trilogy or more out of it.



There are just so many good things with MGS4 I could go on for a while with all the remarkable events that are in this game. The game has many remarkable moments.

The good:

• Excellent and detailed story, I haven't seen a game before with so much story and tying previous games together to an ultimate climax.
• Amazing cutscenes, nice camera positions, always interesting and often epic. Some might say that they are too long and that games don't need cutscenes, I say be happy that they have put so much effort in making these cutscenes so well.
• Different play styles, you can play the game as an action shooter or sneaking and any style in between. There are just so many ways to pass by enemies, shoot them, sneak, use CQC to take them out or use your Mark 2, a remote controlled small robot to stun your enemies.
• Mini games and easter eggs, in the game there a lot of mini games, riding on the back of a bike, controlling Metal Gear Rex, riding the mark 2 around during mission briefings,and even a 1 vs 1 fighting mini game. Same goes for easter eggs, there often reference to other games, posters of stars, photo shoots with the beauty and beasts and even the playboy magazine is in the game.
  

The bad:
In my opinion there is nothing bad about MGS4 only some small improvements that would make the game even better.

• AI, the AI is good in most cases but it could be better when concerning the detection of shooting sounds. I could shoot somebody down as long as another NPC did not see the target being shot at, while you would expect that the other NPC would notice the shooting sound and go investigate.
• The controlls could be tweaked better. MGS4 uses every button on your controller and some people find it really hard to do the exact action at the right time. I have heared stories of people messing up because they pressed the wrong button. I did not have much problems with the controlls but more with the movement. Sometimes it felt chunky and 'old' a little more tweaking should fix that up.
• Some boss fights could be more 'next-gen', there were a few boss fights where I had the feeling that they were too 'normal' especially the fight with Raging raven and Vamp could have been more refreshing.
  

In overall MGS4 is an excellent game with great story, awesome cutscenes, different play styles and lots of mini games and easter eggs. It is all worked out so well, making the game unique with so many memberable moments. To me it is the best game of 2008.

9.5/10