Snake comes for combat with both a SOCOM and a deck of cards in this turn-based action/strategy Metal Gear Game. The game starts with a terrorist takeover of a plane, and (small *Spoiler*) eventually involves a Metal Gear, although I kind of assumed that. The Plot is pretty far-fetched, and pretty weird, but it certainly was engaging, and it’s many twists made a good reason to keep playing

Game Play: 18/20

I have never played any other Metal Gear games then Ac!d, so I don’t have any prefabricated ideas of what a Metal Gear game should be like. Ac!d delivers both a wild and engaging plot, and an in-depth strategy game. Game play is pretty straight forward, although it’s not very well explained in the game. Each player has a deck of cards, and plays with a hand of six cards. A set number of cards may be played per turn (it varies based on the character, Snake can use two) and each card has a “cost” assigned to it. “Cost” represents time in the game, 1 “cost” equals one second, so in order for you to play again, your cost much reach zero. Strategy generally comes in two forms. One, sneak past all enemies to reach the end of the map. Two, Kill all enemies and walk to the end of the map. Certain objectives require you to complete the mission using a certain strategy, but overall those are the two main ways to complete a stage. I found using stealth extremely hard (you are rewarded for it in points that you can later use to buy more cards) so the only form of it I used was, “kill the enemy before he sees you” There are a large amount of cards, and strategies and other nuisances to Metal Gear Ac!d, but it’s certainly one of the most engaging strategy games I\'ve played. The game has an option to replay it at a harder difficulty, which if you enjoyed it, is probably a good idea, since I found this game rather on the easy side. Levels are replayable with different objectives, and replaying them wins you points to buy more packs of cards to boost your deck. I really never had the urge to replay a level more then a couple times, so there really isn’t that much replay value to this game. It does boast a pretty long completion time, I clocked about 30 hours to beating it.

Graphics: 7.5/10

There are 14 “Different” area’s, many of which have several unique sections, and some of which are played over twice with different objectives. The levels look good, but not really astounding. Characters, especially the main characters, have a large amount of detail, but are generally pretty small, so you don’t notice in the overview mode. The “cut scenes” are simply 2D images with text, so nothing really great there, the weapon animations are nice, with some good looking explosions, even if the reactions to being hit look pretty fake. This game didn’t wow me with graphics, but I wasn’t left feeling that it need great graphics to be an enjoyable game.

Sound: 6.5/10

I found the sound to be fine overall. There was no voice acting, just text, the background sounds fit fine, and the music set a good tone. Nothing about the sound really impressed me enough to listen to it, so I spent over half the game with the sound off.

Stability: 5/5

This game has very short load times, and only occasionally slowed a bit during animations. Overall a perfectly stable game.

Controls/Interface: 4/5

Controls were fine, other than the odd choice of using the Circle button to select, and the X button to cancel, which is the exact inverse of the natural system settings, which starts to mess with your head. The interface was easy to use and understand, even if the game was rather complex. There were enough blips of information on various features of the interface that I quickly learned how to use it. Subtotal: 41/50

Violence 4.5/10 RPG Violence (This is where you enter a command and watch it happen Ex. Final Fantasy) Blood Blood sprays when character are hit (in a unrealistic manner to indicate an actual hit), but then disappear. After a character dies, a bloodstain is left on the floor (-2.5 pts) Gore No Gore

Language 7/10 pts Swear Words Acceptable for Prime Time TV are used Once or Twice Generally, Snake uses the D-word and the h-word a lot, once or twice words like, S**t or B*****d are used. Sexual Dialogue/Innuendo No sexual dialog. Note: There are “books” and “cool books” that can be dropped to distract guards, which seem to be referring to dirty magazines, even though there is nothing to really indicate they aren’t just random literature.

Sexual Content/Nudity 8.5/10 pts Nudity Characters clothing is sexy or accentuates their sexuality (Ex. tight clothing or low cleavage Teliko’s outfit is rather lacking in armor around key areas of the body; there is a card with the tag line, “Temptation” which shows a Female in her underwear from MGS 3. Sexual Content No Sexual Content

Occult/Supernatural 7/10 pts Occult/Supernatural in Game Setting - Game takes place in an environment with minor occult references. (-3 pts) Things like a psychic, and mind reading/altering/bend are areas of the plot. Occult Supernatural used by Player - There is no occult or supernatural in the game.

Cultural/Moral/Ethical category 10/10 pts Authority -No authority issues involved with this game. Prejudice - No prejudicial bias in the game. Gross Humor - No gross humor in the game. (-0 pts) Traditional/Family Values Decision Making - Good value decision-making is required to progress in the game. (Your goal is to save to world.) Appropriateness score: 40/50 I was impressed that Konami took the risk of changing a well know series to fit the PSP, over making a non-workable port, or a rushed, under produced IP in the same series. It’s a mobile action/strategy game that serves a good helping of solid game play for gamers.