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Location: Blogs Shelf Life |
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| Posted by: HCG Musashi |
4/25/2008 10:58 PM |
After an annoying delay due to server stability, the online Beta for Metal Gear Solid 4 is now up and running!
Paco tipped me off early this afternoon that the servers had gone live -I think I knocked over at least 3 baby carriages and a half-dozen elderly people rushing back to the HCG office to get my ass online.
After downloading two annoying update patches (that surprisingly gave you the choice to download via a bittorrent mode) and setting up my Konami ID (speed bump #2), I was up and running...
A modest character customization menu is the first thing that greets you. While you only have the choice of 5 faces for your character (all male), you do have a good bit of control over nearly every piece of clothing your character is wearing, with 5 color variations for each. There's also a good bit of variety to choosing the in-game command voice for your character as well. While it might not be as customizable as Rainbow Six, there's still enough variety to keep everyone from looking and sounding like storm troopers.
On to the most important part - the gameplay. The best way I can describe it is a cross between Call of Duty 4 and Lost Planet. Take the gritty, war-torn environments of CoD and the run-and-gun style of Lost Planet MP and you'll have a pretty good idea of how MGS4 plays. The 2 levels available in the Beta are not huge, but are riddled with tunnels, catwalks and hiding spots a-plenty. As with CoD4 you never feel completely "safe" in any location - there's always another way to get there or a vantage point to put a bullet in your head.
MGS4 MP also uses a unique points system, which allows access to better weapons and equipment. You are awarded points for ever kill you make and at the end of a match, you can acquire bonus points based on your overall performance. These points are what allow you to access the higher-tier weapons and gear. For example: If I want to use incendiary grenades instead of the default, zero-cost frag grenades, I need to have accumulated at least 1,000 points to equip them - once I equip them though, that 1,000 points is deducted from my total. This points system seems to work pretty well since it encourages players to get out there and mix it up if they want better gear. The only aspect of the points system that some players may not like is that it does not carry over from match to match.
Most importantly, all the action that makes has made Metal Gear unique over the years is present in multi-player. There's nothing cooler than sneaking up behind someone shooting at your team-mate, taking them down with a CQC maneuver and capping their ass while they lay helpless on the ground. Every move you can do in the previous MGS games is available online - you can even feign death by lying on the ground and hitting the triangle button!
Overall, the wait was worth it. Metal Gear Solid online is shaping up to be the perfect Multi-Player compliement to one of the most highly anticipated games of all time.
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