"You'll notice the game cover does NOT say "tactical espionage action"."

Metal Gear Acid combines standard Metal Gear-style story and items with a cardgame interface. It took me a long time to start playing this game, as I wasn't sure how good it would be, but now that I have, here's what I think.

Story: 9/10

The story is very good, matching up to the standard that Metal Gear fans expect. It is rather twisted, and can be hard to follow, though, as there are many plot twists and quite a few characters that you don't meet who influence the storyline. Younger players may not fully understand what's going on.

The story revolves around a hijacked flight, and the hijacker announcing that they want an item called "Pythagoras". There is also a scene with a girl named Teliko who seems to be in the middle of a mission-gone-bad (where you see her use cards to attack and evade soldiers), and a scene showing the meeting room for a silk company known as NEKAL.

After every mission, alittle more of the story will be revealed. Each mission also has objectives for you to complete, though, due to the story changing, you will often have to change your mission objectives.

Gameplay: 8/10

As you probably know, this game is card-based where certain cards allow you to preform certain actions. You are allowed to create your own deck of cards to use, and as you progress throughout the game, you will get the chance to obtain a larger variety of cards.

As you start a mission, you receive seven cards. Snake can use two cards per turn, with certain cards increasing how many turns Snake gets. After each turn you will receive two cards to use on your next turn. You also have the option to wait and do nothing, or to turn in 2 cards for 2 different other ones.

Since certain cards are better than others, each card has a cost value, which determines who moves next. The higher your cost is, the longer it will take for you to act next. You have to think carefully if that next card your going to use is worth the wait. Of course you could always play a negative cost card to make up for it. There are many strategies to take advantage of.

In the early portion of the game, your choices for cards is somewhat limited, and it can lead to many turns spent trying to get an ideal card to work with. As you get farther into the game, though, you have no one to blame but yourself if you can't get a card to work with.

There's a fairly good intro to the gameplay system in MGA, which helps quite a bit. I'd also like to note that the available camera angles can be annoying in certain missions (mainly one's that involve two-story buildings), but other than that the camera angles are solid.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics are very good. One thing I noticed right away was the way Snake looked, though, as he looks... different. Being a Psp game, and a MGS title, your expect to get great graphics, which Metal Gear Acid delivers. Everything is crisp and clean. Most of the cutscenes feature character portraits above the text, while occasionally the screen will fill up with a picture. You won't be disappointed with the graphics here.

One special note is that some of the rare/special cards featuring previous MGS characters have a special movie played when you use them. There are also a couple of cards you can get with certain passwords that feature some short movie clips. Great extras.

Music & Sound effects: 7/10

Maybe I was spoiled with the last MGS game I played (Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops), but I really can't remember the "music" in the game. For the first half of the game, you will mostly be hearing the "alert" music, as you try to either battle or evade the enemy. Boss fight music is rather climatic (you'll be hearing alot of it, as the bosses are no pushovers). The sound effects are fairly standard, and will become routine as you play the game.

Re-playability and Extras: 8/10

There isn't too much of a reason to replay through the game, though it is extremely fun to do so (you get to keep all the cards you've collected when you restart, except for a few story-related cards). You also receive two special cards for beating the game once and twice, respectively. Doing this is a must for all of those players who want every card.

There is also a multiplayer option in the game, where you can battle a friend and his card strategies. Some of the cards are disabled in multiplayer to help keep it fair.

Overall: 8/10

Overall, a great game. It really got more addictive (and more enjoyable) the further you get into it. A must have for any strategy fan, especially if you like Solid Snake and own a Psp. Have fun and keep playing! Later..

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/17/07