Metal Gear Acid 2 Second Trailer Impressions

Metal Gear Acid was one of the most unique games in the PSP launch lineup, with its marriage of tactical stealth action, card-battling, and near-future geopolitical intrigue. Development on the sequel has been proceeding well apace since before the Electronic Entertainment Expo, when we got to see it for the first time. Today Konami showed us a new trailer for Metal Gear Acid 2, which dropped just a couple of tiny new hints about the game. But mostly, it just whetted our appetite to see more.

So far, Konami has revealed just about zero information on the specific storyline and mechanics of Acid 2. It's clear from the trailer that you'll again be playing as Snake, and we were told to expect more boss enemies and more cards to fight them with this time around (big surprise, right?). The trailer showed plenty of new scenes of battles taking place in the new game, which is now cell-shaded and looks far more over the top than its comparatively bland predecessor. In fact, Acid 2 looks a lot like a comic book--in addition to the bright colors and thick outlines on the characters and environments, we noticed some big comic-like "pow!" effects popping up here and there.

The biggest revelations in the trailer were a couple of new characters that Snake engaged in battle with. One of them was a huge dude in a trench coat with some kind of big ugly mask--he had that unmistakable look of "main bad guy" about him. Another was a spindly-limbed enemy wearing a coolie hat and who had the odd ability to perch upside down on the ceiling, which we imagine will make him a bit difficult to fight. We also saw some battle scenes set in what looked like a VR training mode; perhaps the game will have such a tutorial, or even a mission editor. Finally, one last nifty sequence bears mentioning--in it Snake was deftly fighting a number of enemies atop a speeding train.

Konami's talking like it's sitting on plenty of new details on Metal Gear Acid 2--and hey, it's a Metal Gear game, so you know there's got to be a lot of meat to chew on. Exactly when they'll release those details remains to be seen, but it will have to be before the game's vague release date of early 2006. When that time comes, we'll bring the info to you.