There is a certain appeal to a game that allows you to grab your opponent’s nutsack as a subduing maneuver — a legitimate military maneuver, I’m sure — or place a naughty skin mag on the ground to distract enemies — again, I’m sure, another valid chapter found in the Soldier’s Handbook of Tactics. The appeal is more comical than anything else. But as I’ve seen with the Snake Eater’s competitive online mode, there is only so much nut grabin’, skin mag, auto-aimin’, close quarters disorientation I can take; it gets old real quick. So you can just imagine my expectations as I try out Konami’s latest beta fray into an online Metal Gear.
As with any beta, I generally make an effort to put on my beta hat, the hat that offers me a certain forgiving perspective. But let me tell you. Konami sure didn’t make it easy with a week long of slow registration and server access as well as a week long delay due to “extraordinary levels of traffic from all around the globe.” Oh those crazy Japanese and their sushi and slow, often times backwards, acceptance of online gaming. Despite it all, I did manage to get a good amount of time with the beta.
First things first as they say. The beta features two playable maps; character customization; customizable skills; the usual game modes such as deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture points etc. A very solid offering — or as my Math geek friend likes to say, “Permutations of fun!” — considering it is just a beta.
The gameplay, on the other hand, is a bit of a mixed bag. The game does a decent job of trying to promote teamwork by allowing players to share or link information; such as position, damage, and even deaths; with other players in close proximity; however, as with most online shooters, everyone is more interested in personal stats to even care to take advantage of what teamwork has to offer.
Some of the things, such as aiming, that made Snake Eater’s online mode so bad is now vastly improved by allowing the player to opt-in for an over the shoulder manual aiming mode; though auto-aiming is still an option in the game and, yes, it still makes the game a rather run-while-gun chaotic mess of players.
At times the gameplay looks like a firefight with teams trying to get the flank on the other, but then you’re reminded what happens when you get to get into close range; the game becomes a disorienting bullet and CQC death dance with players frantically trying to have control mastery over their characters.
I’ll be honest. All I’m looking for from this beta is something to hold me over till next Tuesday when Grand Theft Auto 4 hits. Even though it is just a beta with most likey a fraction of what the final game has to offer, I believe I’ve experienced enough of the base gameplay to be confident this is something I’m not too excited about.
GeekJink
May 1st, 2008