First Impressions: Metal Gear Online Premier Beta

[Disclaimer: These are my first impressions of a game currently at the public beta testing stage. As such, this does not represent the final retail version of the game as it is still in development.]

As I never ventured into the world of online gaming with my PS2, this is the first online Metal Gear game I’ve played on a home console (although I do have experience of the multiplayer in Metal Gear: Portable Ops on the PSP). My first thoughts? Found it slightly weird at first, but now - it’s great. While the controls are awkward in places and the beta features some unfinished graphics, it is an excellent team based multiplayer, blending in stealth with the 3rd person action genre.

At the time of writing, the beta has three playable maps. Blood Bath is a small, square arena with three levels. It offers close and frequent combat with little option for stealth. Groznyj Grad returns as a location from MGS3 and is by far my favourite of the maps. It is large, good for sniping and then theirs the best part - ‘manpults’ (check out the official trailer for Metal Gear Online to see one in action, it’s the bit at the end). The most recently added map is Midtown Maelstrom. It is a middle-eastern setting with long alleyways that the two teams start at either end of. Their are also a few elevated positions.

The beta also comes with a variety of game play modes. You’ve got your standard deathmatch, team deathmatch, base capturing mission and capture the flag (just with a frog!?) like mission and then you have the exciting sneaking mission. When you jump into a sneaking mission match you have your standard two teams, red and blue, but one person is randomly chosen to play as Solid Snake. Yes, you can play as Snake in the beta. Snake’s mission is to retrieve three dogtags from other players by knocking them out and searching them for their tags. Meanwhile the two teams search for snake, aiming to take him down. Not an easy task considering Snake is equipped with his ‘octo-camo’ making him all but invisible when inactive. The two teams also fight against each other, creating a three way battle, similar to that promised in the single player portion of MGS4. If enough people are playing the sneaking mission (11 or more), then someone is chosen to aid Snake as the small Metal Gear Mk II, zapping unsuspecting players unconscious.

A big feature of Metal Gear Online is the SOP system. You ‘log in’ to it by pressing triangle near your team members. You are then linked in to them, seeing a red silhouette of them (including through walls) and are alerted if they are killed or knocked unconscious with a line indicating where they are in relation to you. If used properly, the system can greatly aid teamwork. One game I played had me and two team members all sniping from different locations in the Groznyj Grad level. We could all see each other, and were able to help out should we be alerted to one of us getting attacked. When searching below for a target, we would use the pre made voice commands to alert each other when we saw someone from the opposing team. Using our SOP link we could see where each other were aiming thanks to a red line. The others could then follow the line from the spotter, see where they were aiming and help take the enemy down. Moments like that really get you thinking about how fun it could be when played well.

As I mentioned before, my only real criticism is the controls. To get to a first person view, you have to press L1 to go third person, then triangle to go first person, which is too slow for my liking, particularly as I’m not a fan of the third person view. The weapon/item select menu system is standard for the Metal Gear Solid Series. It works fine in single player as the game pauses when you select your weapons, but obviously this can’t happen online and it just seems to take to long in the heat of battle. I had some issues using the choke mechanic, where I would often release the player when trying to aim my handgun and use them as a shield. Their are some anti-aliasing problems at the minute, as well as poor gun textures in first person view - hopefully issues that will be sorted by the time the game is officially released.

The game also features a skill system, allowing you to specialise your abilities, from improved weapon skills to better SOP sharing abilities. Rest assured that both cardboard boxes and oil drums feature in the beta. It’s surprising how often they actually work, as you watch enemies walk straight past you. The Midtown Maelstrom level offers large bins to hide in, allowing you to poke your head out for a sly shot.

If you’re a fan of Metal Gear you should enjoy the beta (and eventually the full game). Fans of team based multiplayer should also like it, providing they can get used to the controls and game mechanics. I do offer one warning though for those who want to try it. If you start playing after playing a lot of COD4 like I have, it will seem very slow at first, but you will get used to it.