A Great PSP Game
The story starts out with Snake, after he has returned from a mission, he is arrested by FBI agent Dalton, which forces Snake to infiltrate StrateLogic Inc, to get a file, that can breing the company down. Snake has amesia, and dosen´t know his past, so he goes to StrateLogic Inc, in order to get his past back. It quickly involves through. A man named Wiseman, take over, and he want´s Snake to take care of a nuclar threat. A sicentist named David Koppelthorn demands, that all high ranked officers wil be delivered to him within 10 hours, or else he fires a nuclar weapon. Snake is also helped by a computer hacker who calls himself B.B. Later Snake meet´s Venus, this games heroine, and they must work together. The story is much better then the first one. You don´t have to know the story of the first Ac!d cause Ac!d 2 don´t have anything to do with he first game, besides a small thing, and a little plot twist.
The gameplay is the same as the first Ac!d game, but with improvements. Moving around is much easier. Insted of showing the was Snake will be running, Snake is walking right away. This changes the controls a bit. While walking, the X button, is the cancel button, and make you Snake reset his previous position. The circle button, is confirm, when you want to stop moving. The square button, is used to toggle crawl. The triangle button, is for which way you want Snake to look at. But by pressing circle, while holding down triangle, you can engauge in CQC. It´s just the old punch, punch, kick. You also get a better look on who you want to attack. When you ready your weapon, the camera switchs to behind the shoulder camera, and you can freely toggle between targets. The game also has some great boss battles, which are these test subjects, and a couple of Metal Gears. Those boss battles are leagthey, and are just as great, as those in MGS3. A new things here is intermission, which also has some improvements, in things you can do. Besides you can buy cards, you can also upgrade them, which is a nice thing. Some cards get´s more powerfull, while others simply reduces the cost of the card. Some cards also contain movies, which either is a cut-scene from MGS3, or some footage of hot babes. There are over 500 cards (565 to be precise), so it´s gonna take a while. Side missions also have undergone some improvements. Insted of the game random selects either sneaking mission, or elminate missions, you can freely choose here. The game even has some special missions, which either requires you to kill enemys a special way, or get to a postion, under conditions. Some of these missions are best described as puzzles. But some of these side missions are hard, and since you can´t select the story mission again, it can be hard, to get points, to buy, or upgrade cards. If you are new to the Ac!d series, there is a tortuial at the start of the game, that should help newbies. Another nice addtion, is Solid Eye, which comes with the game. Solid Eye, is glasses, which let´s you see the game in 3D. It´s a nice addtion, which makes the game look cool, and some of the movies is mentioned earlier, are special for the glasses. Through it´s a good idea, not to have them on, while in a driving car. It´s also a good idea not to have them on, in more then 10 minutes, or you could get a massive headace.
The graphics are really nice. The game has switched to cel-shading, which looks awesome, and with anime cut-scenes, the graphics are amost perfect. There is still some frame-rate problems, but that only happens, agasint a Metal Gear.
The sound diden´t get the same improvements as the rest of the game did. The sound effects are used very much, and you will eventulay get sick of it. It´s also clear to hear that they took the sound effects from MGS3. The voice acting is still missing, through there is some. There is voice acting while you are playing, such as when characters get´s hit, or die, or when Snake covers Venus, or when Venus covers Snake. It´s strange that they have chossen to get voice acting, under the game, but not in the cut-scenes, which would have helped. The music through is still as good, as before. Developers have replaced, the Harry Gregson-Williams music with techno, which also sounds great.
The game is about 15-20 hours long, through the game dosen´t fell that long. Ac!d 1 did feel long, but Ac!d 2 dosen´t. That´s due to some characters you meet. Sometimes it feels like you have just meet them, when you finally have killed them. The rescearch lab, is also not as big as, in Ac!d 1. Ac!d has 21 levels, while Ac!d 2 has 18, which really aren´t that long. Many levels, have you exploring them, many times, and in the end, it get´s annoying. The game still has mutilplayer, which is just like the one in Ac!d 1, and it´s also stil slow-paced. But getting all cards should take you days, which gives replay-value.
Overall, Metal Gear Ac!d 2 is a great PSP game. It´s way better then the first Ac!d game, and really deserves sucess. It could please fans a bit, but for stragtey fans, this game will suit their need.