Metal Gear Acid 2

"Improves over the original ten-fold."

Hey there. If you've read my review on the first Metal Gear Acid you'll see that I didn't give it a very high score. Five out of ten I believe- it was okay, but not great. The music was excellent but the character models left little to be desired, plus the environments were very bland. There was some depth I hadn't noticed to the whole card-battling system, and you did get to meet a whole new cast of characters, plus the plot had some pretty good surprises and plot twists-- standard fare for the name Metal Gear, but knowing that it was a side-story from the rest of the series kind of was a thorn in the players side. Metal Gear Acid 2 is still another side story with all new characters, but it improves upon the original ten-fold.

First of all, the style. This game deserves to be stalking down the catwalk with a bunch of other beautiful leggy super-models, who are also sporting wild-looking paraphernalia that makes you think, "Gee, I'm glad I'm not in the head of the guy who designed that." Everything is striking and shocking which instantly stands out to the player with sheer contrast upon turning on the game, with it's yellow background and black spotted menu, colourful cards and gorgeous graphics-- Very, very nice. Its like your playing in a comic book world. Snake himself is looking quite dapper as well; he's wearing a cool looking colourful outfit (that complements his surroundings) and his face is much more detailed than MGA1, resembling himself from some of the console games. On a huge plus side, David Hayter, the guy who does the voice for Snake and all his incarnations, does his voice as well- but there's little spoken dialogue, only grunts and death cries. But still- it's an authentic Snake here!

The game is now in what I like to call "almost real-time mode." Doors open when you go near them, so you don't have to wait a whole turn to enter a room. You can go from standing to crouching to standing again without adding up any cost-- these are vast improvements over the original. You can use a card to move, then punch, then move again if you haven't used up all the move points that card had to offer. Beauty! By moving the cursor around, Snake will follow your movements along the grid, and if you don't like the place you've guided him to you can cancel the whole thing- that is, unless your spotted by the enemy. Speaking of the enemy, there are all kinds this go around, with different skins/uniforms, and plenty of exciting boss battles. I remember the best parts of the original Metal Gear Acid were the boss fights; thank goodness the developers realized that and added some really cool ones- like Vince and Chaioth Ha Qadesh. If you feel the game was too easy on normal mode, wait until you fight these mothers on extreme.

There is also an arena mode for quick battling, if your on the go. This mode drops you into boss fights against different bosses from the games. You'll be pitting your deck against the likes of Liquid Snake, Lady Luck, Vamp and others! Hoo-ray!

Whats great about the game is that I really feel that I got my money's worth. Its deep and engaging gameplay, with lots of extra features and unlockable content, including dificulty modes and videos. The Solid Eye device is pretty cool; I love to watch Naked Snake jump out of his plane in the opening of MGS3- another great game. MTA2 has over 500 cards, each one with its own effect, and each based off of an element from the Metal Gear universe. There are effects cards and trap cards; equip cards and weapons, as well as my favorite- the character cards. Whenever you use one of these babies, nine times out of ten you'll be treated to a video-- the Fury of Metal Gear Solid 3 is in my deck just for that video. But the great thing is that you can actually go and level up the cards you have, to do more damage or to be more effective. When I leveled up the Fury, I was pleasantly surprised to see I got a new video whenever I use him now. Joy! As stated earlier, there's a whack of unlockable content; including a catagory where you can go and view the videos of the cards without going into battle. Neat.

With anything I recomend, I suggest you try this game out before you buy it. Tactics games like these are definetely not for everyone, and it is a huge offshoot from the Solid series-- if you can't rent this game and really want a killer Metal Gear game on the go, then wait for Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops to come out. There's no way Hideo Kojima could screw that up-- thinking of how great this game is going to be makes me very happy indeedy.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/06