It's an online team-based game (with free-for-all modes if you insist) where you control your character just as you would Solid Snake in any normal Metal Gear title. It uses the MGS4 game engine, and gameplay-wise, it plays like 3D Metal Gear Solid always did, only with more confrontation. And everything you love about Metal Gear is here, from cardboard boxes to first-person aiming - even the gentlemen's magazines make an appearance. There's nothing more MGS than finally making it to a base you need to capture but seeing your character stop and start swooning at the girls in the magazine he's found at his feet. It's hilarious.
When starting the game, you'll get to create your own character. There weren't many types to choose from in the test build we played, but it was fun to switch costume accessories and try on balaclavas and baseball caps. More importantly, the next step sees you selecting four special abilities. These ranged from increased movement speed (a very good idea as running feels quite slow) to improved rifle use and more. After that, there was the option to try some training or go straight into a match, with the usual create/select options found in most online games. We noticed an option to go into the MGS shop to 'buy new maps' so expect plenty of premium content when the game finally arrives.
We played several levels and were impressed with the graphics, but not blown away. It's typical Metal Gear, really - the same style of character clothing and skin texture, the same tight animation routines, the solid, well-constructed environments. Of course we were playing unfinished code and we appreciate online play in titles like CoD4 needs a slight graphical compromise to maintain game speed, but it is slightly unspectacular at present. Far from ugly, though.
The gameplay is very tactical, but there's no faffing around with team tactics in preparation screens. You can wade in with your gun blazing, or adopt a more cerebral approach - it's your choice while you play. Push select at any time to bring up communication options to talk to your team-mates with preset phrases, or by type in your own message. This works well and, thanks to a voice pitch slider bar when designingyour character, there are plenty of funny moments when a butch character shouts 'sorry' to his teammates in a girly, high-pitched voice.
The game rewards experimentation with the various weapon/skill combinations. Players carry a main weapon, a secondary weapon/item (including claymores, jazz mags and various grenades) and a pistol. Reloading takes several seconds, so switching to your pistol after a rifle burst in a one-on-one encounter is a smart move. Pistols do lots of damage close-up, and you can see your enemy's energy bar when you lock onto them. Aiming can be set to auto-lock or free at the touch of a button, and you can also hold down triangle while aiming to get a down-the-sights view (or look through the sniper scope). Switching weapons without bringing up the full menu is just a case of tapping the right trigger to cycle through your three options. Easy.
After experimenting pretty unsuccessfully with the sniper rifle, we switched to a standard assault rifle and stun grenade combination. This worked much better. Stunning enemies works really well - provided you don't look at the explosion yourself (shtoopid), you'll be able to attack your opponent while they stare at a white screen. They can still move and shoot, they just won't be able to see - unless they picked goggles as a weapon option before the match.
You can also reselect your weapons every time you respawn, so you're not stuck with a duff choice for the whole game. Extra ammo and even armour can be found in the field, but you'll likely be shot before you run out. It'll be interesting to see how the best players approach the game - sneaking requires patience, but could it really make you invisible to human players? That would be the ultimate Metal Gear experience.
Above: Sneaking up on a sniper while he wonders where you are is so much fun
Possible down-points? Collision detection is iffy at present, especially when the server is lagging, making apparent hits pass through flesh without so much as a scratch. A smaller game fixed this problem for our demo and we're sure the finished servers will cope with the 16 player battles we tried, or more. Kickback on weapons in first-person makes it a bit too hard to aim, as the sight rises continuously, and the environments we saw lacked variety. 'He's by the brown building' said one player, sarcastically. Sure, it's got personality, but the levels tend to be one main colour.
The bottom line, however, is that Metal Gear Online is a lot of fun. Without doubt one of the best gaming experiences we've had yet this year. Maybe it's not as responsive or in-your-face as Call of Duty 4, but it's an absolute blast with friends and the potential for clever play is huge. Apart from some placeholder text, it looks pretty finished to us, so the wait may not be as long as expected. It looks likely to arrive in both boxed and downloadable form. Either way, mark us down for a copy - we can't wait.
Above: Team communication through shortcuts works well. This one means "Go ahead! Release the game already!"
http://www.gamesradar.com/ps3/metal-gear-solid-online/preview/metal-gear-online/a-20080218112411343067/g-20070724111634842013/p-3
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