Metal Gear Online

"A great online stealth shooter that suffers from annoying, but forgivable flaws."

To put it simply MGO is an online shooter with elements of stealth thrown in which is set during the timeline of MGS4.

Overview:
MGO is pretty much what the name suggests, you're thrown into a battle with team-mates, you choose your weapons before you spawn, your primary weapons can vary from assault rifles, sniper rifles, light machine guns, and even an RPG! Your secondary weapons are basically handguns with different advantages and weaknesses. Your support weapons consist of hand grenades, claymore mines, sleep gas mines, and even Playboy magazines! The idea is to find your enemy and kill him, this depends on the type of game you choose of course!

Rules of play:
Match types vary from the expected team deathmatch and deathmatch variants, but the developers also bring the sneaking mission, where one player is acting the role of Snake, and if the game has enough players you can be the Mk. II! The objective of Snake and the Mk. II is to knockout enemies and obtain a set amount of dogtags before the end of the round. The other players are put into 2 teams and their objective is to kill each other AND find and kill Snake a set amount of times before the round is over, if Snake gets the set number of dogtags he wins, if one of 2 teams kill Snake the number of times set, they win. Now we come to team sneaking, where one team has stealth camo, and non-lethal weapons (tranquilizer guns, stun grenades etc.), their objective is to knockout capture the target (there are no respawns for either teams), the other team is pretty much the opposite, they get the standard choices in weapons and equipment, and their objective is to find and kill every last member of the opposing team. The base mission is rather simple, capture all of the marked bases and your team wins. There are others which will be left as a surprise to new players.

Gameplay:
The gameplay mechanics are every bit the same as MGS4, my complaints are not about the actual game itself, but more the overall attitude of other players, MGO is a team-based shooter, and unless you're in a game with your clan or your friends, the teamwork element can get thrown out of the window just about as quickly as a headshot will kill you. Though the lack of teamwork in matches with random people has an advantage, ironically the other team has the exact same disadvantage as you! So as they aren't co-ordinated, they split up and it's basically every man for himself, the trick is to catch another player when they are alone or flank the other team (there are alternative ways of getting to places which I will cover in the next section) and get them from behind or the side. My only REAL complaint towards the game is the fact that headshots are really the only way to kill another player effectively, and using a weapon like the assault rifle for instance, makes it extremely difficult to shoot a player in the head from long-range, naturally, the sniper rifle eliminates this problem. The gameplay gets a 9/10.

Maps
MGO has well-designed maps! The starter pack has 5 maps, Midtown Maelstrom, Groznyj Grad (players of MGS3 will know this one), Blood Bath, Ambush Alley and Urban Ultimatum, each expansion pack (which have to be bought) gives the player 3 new maps each, which are extremely diverse and add to the experience. Every map is like a maze in a sense, there are a variety of routes a player can when he/she has spawned, you can go the direct approach and (depending on the opposing players) face your enemy head on, OR you can take an alternative route which is more subtle and attack the enemy from behind or the side, for example, say you're in a Team Deathmatch in Urban Ultimatum, each spawn point has a hidden route you can take via duct, I always crawl through the duct and shoot the enemy from behind, this of course leaves you open to attacks from players who have just respawned, which means when you kill at least one enemy, get the hell out of there! This isn't the only route you can take that is advantagous in that map, in fact, there are MANY routes you can that give you a tactical advantage. The environments are realistic and the attention to detail can be very impressive, I noticed a few other reviewers weren't too happy with the lack of variety of colours in the maps, I think this is to add to the idea that this is the battlefield, it isn't meant to look pretty, it's meant to look desolate and adds to the intensity of the gameplay in my opinion. The maps get 10/10.

Sound:
Konami provided tracks from past MGS games, original songs composed for MGO, and even songs from other Konami games! The sound effects are also extremely good, the guns sound like they do in MGS4, and most importantly the sound is advantagous to players, if you hear footsteps, look at the radar on the top right screen, if you don't see any team-mates near you on there, be ready to ambush your enemy. 10/10.

Other aspects:
My biggest complaint is that when you first log on to MGO, you have to register a Konami ID, this obviously is so that players can purchase the expansion packs, a new character slot and the codec packs, but was it really that difficult to put those packs in the Playstation store?! I mean come on! Another thing I do not like is that when you create a character, that is it! The only customisation is in the clothing and nothing else! You pick a gender, face and voice and that is it! The only way around this is to delete that character and start off with a new one, Konami should have added an editing system. Though, one thing I did like was the skill settings, you have 4 skill slots to choose, if you add a specific skill, it enhances your ability with certain weapons, actions, items etc. The game suffers from lag a lot of the time, and in some cases if a character's health is at zero, it will take seconds for him/her to actually die, which often gives you and your opponents an unfair advantage. Another good aspect is the Reward Points system, you earn Reward Points by either taking part in matches in the Survival lobby or the automatching lobby, and reward points are given to players each day they log on. These reward points can be spent on new clothing, which can vary from your average helmets, goggles, balaclavas and face paint, to Snake's signature bandana, and Big Boss's eyepatch among others. This lets players give their character a unique, though you will encounter a MASSIVE amount of characters who are dressed as much like Snake as possible (my own included lol), though you will encounter a few others who actually look unique.
The main flaw with this game is the attitude of the players really, teamwork and co-ordination is ignored and nearly every match in the free battle lobby is every man for himself, though I have encountered a few engaging in teamwork as well, it depends on the players.

Closing comments:
Despite it's flaws MGO is a great experience for both hardcore fans of the series' and newcomers alike, it's gameplay is deep and it never gets boring, snipers make you jump, grenades are as annoying and handy as they are in any other online shooter, this game gets a 9/10, it would have gotten a 10/10 but the issues with lag and the annoying registration when you first log in hold the game back slightly, but these flaws are forgivable.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/16/09

Game Release: Metal Gear Online (EU, 06/12/08)