Great game! definantly worth you time!! dont ignore it, try it, then say its bad!!
First, the Gameplay. The game play IS similar to the MGS series, but it is based on cards. Like in the MGS series you can do things such as sneak up on a guy, and choke him to death without raising any attention. Unfortunately, seeing that the cards are given to you in packs which are unlocked at certain points of the game, you can't access all the awesome moves till later in the game. And even though the good cards become helpful late in the game, you really don't get any introduction to any of them, and therefor looked over. You can do all the cool things in this game!! But you have to do them as you get the card, and this is what causes the game to loose most people's attention.
I believe that almost every person out there that says this game is bad hasn't 'realy' played the game at all. As i said, the good cards and combinations are given to you later in the game, so you realy have to play through over 50% of it to actually get the 'ownage' people lust for. As soon as these cards are possessed the game jumps to a new level, because your weapons can have special attributes that beat the enemies armor for example. You can have the great satisfaction of having a perfectly laid out set of cards, kill an enemy, throw a grenade, shoot the grenade, and then block all the remaining enemies attack.
Unfortunatly this game looses a little of its points for gameplay because of the way you can be over run by the enemy. I experienced multiple points in the game where the enemies 'cheated' by blocking my path, shooting me and using a special card that can attack any one on the map, anywhere. Of course you can easily avoid such situations with a well set out team with good hands of cards, and the like. The game is probably challenging the most just because of the large number of cards, 256 i believe, and arranging a 'perfect hand'. But the perfect hand would be based on how well you are at playing offence, sniper, running.... etc....
The Graphics in this game are Just Right for what you would expect.The designers don't go out of their way to make it look better, but i don't recall ever running into a scene where the screen looked messed up. Through out a battle, you can play special cards that are basically a character from other games, and activating it will let you see a short movie describing the character which is a direct movie clip from another game. These movies look almost exactly like the movies in the MGS games and seem to tie in great with this game, adding a little of the MGS feel to it.
Sound, well its pretty good. Its music isn't perfect, and a little repetitive, but it does have different music when you are detected, which tells you that you basically messed up and put yourself in danger. The weapons, though, have different sounds from each other, so that you dont get bored of a simple "bang, bang, bang" sound each time, and you'll hear your weapons a lot if you play like me.
The game, unfortunately, doesnt have much replay value, unless you enjoy beating the crap out of stupid guards. Well I'm guilty of that myself, but some people arent. This game doesnt add realy anything new on the second replay, besides the ability to try to beat the earlier levels with the new cards you get at the very end. I haven't gotten the chance to play multiplayer so i can't comment there. The game allows you to replay almost every map in the game, but even that leaves something to be desired. Though there is a very small amount of replay value, you may still find yourself playing this game along time just because of the battle lengths. Of course you can quit or pause a battle anywhere making it a perfect portable game, and allows continuous play when you desire it. You probably won't get bored of the cards until late in you second play through though, because there are almost always more cards for you to try. There is enough diversity of cards and card combos to try and watch, it is unlikely that you will get bored very fast after you learn how it works.
I must say this was a great game!! Do yourself the favor of playing through the first 5+ levels before you give up on it, because when you decide that its getting to hard you'll get a team mate soon. Having a team mate unlocks alot in the game, so atleast play through afew levels with a team mate before you give up on this game.