After spending a little over 3 hours with Metal Gear AC!D, I am conflicted. The game is engrossing but flawed, familiar but different. Approaching Metal Gear AC!D is difficult because there is so much to cover? Do you approach the game as a PSP launch title (Yeah, I know, 4 days after launch isn't really a launch title), as a Metal Gear game, or as a completely new beast? The clear answer is all of the above, but in doing so, the first 3 hours of MGA leave me ambivalent but hopeful.

Producer Masahiro Hinami (responsible for MGS2:Substance, but more importantly Ring of Red and Iron Storm) brings his considerable turn based RPG experience to the table, along with Director Shinta Nojiri's experience working on the script of all the Metal Gear Solid games. According to Konami's Scott Dolph, Metal Gear Solid is a chance to give the series to a young team and take the characters and the world in a different direction. The team has definetely accomplished this task, as MGA is remarkably different from the Solid series, as well as the GBC adventure Metal Gear Ghost Babel.

The most obvious changes to the Metal Gear universe is the implementation of a card system. A deck consists of 30 cards representing 5 different categories: Weapons, Actions, Support, Item, and Character. Cards are seperated into sets, presumably one for each of the Metal Gear Solid games, but other card sets have not been unlocked yet, so it is impossible to say what exactly is included.

Weapons cards feature familiar weapons to the series - SOCOM, FAMAS, and the various grenades used in the games. Also included so far is Ninja/Grey Fox's sword from MGS1. All of the weapons cards include two options, one for usage of the weapon and another to allow your character to move. In fact, most cards allow this dual use, and cards that do not are the exception - not the rule. Action cards work primarily as power ups, allowing quick shots, extended turns, or upped hit percentages. Support cards are more lasting powerups, and must be equipped in your equipment slots. You start with two, but an action card quickly raises this to four. Item cards provide increased interaction with the world and thus also affect Snake's stats. Finally, Character cards can perform tasks similar to all of the previously mentioned cards, and feature the likenesses of your favorite Metal Gear characters. So far, everyone in Metal Gear Solid has been represented, from Sniper Wolf to Naomi. The activation of these cards triggers a short FMV featuring the original likeness of the character. The Metal Gear Solid likenesses are taken from the PSone version, and are a wonderful reminder of how powerful the PSP truly is. Nothing is a greater reminder than seeing the low res low poly world of MGS and being flipped right back into the higher poly beauty on the PSP screen. Character cards also reflect the specific traits the character they represent, with Meryl making things easier for Snake by halving the cost of moves and Sniper Wolf giving Snake deadly accuracy.

All of these cards are arranged in a deck editor that is both robust and easy to use. You can edit your deck, view card by number, cost, or category, browse a gallery of cards, or have the autodeck generator create the strongest deck based on your current inventory. At this early stage in the game, it is unclear whether the auto deck generator is all that useful, but it has not been a hinderence as of yet.

New cards are acquired as packs, either hidden in game or purchased at the card shop with points collected for successfully completing a mission. Points are awarded proportional to ranking and performance, although the exact way they are awarded is not quite clear. A quick side note about the card shop - it has an FMV intro that is like a cross between the propoganda on TV in Paul Verhoven's Starship Troopers and a commercial for Chinpokomon. I nearly dropped my PSP from laughing so hard.

Graphically, MGA is near the middle of the pack of PSP games. It lacks the stunning real world clarity of Ridge Racers, nor the cartoony brightness of Minna no Golf. Featuring art direction with a decidedly anime feel, instead of Solid's Yoji Shinkawa penned designs, the world is rendered in the conventional stealth action genre grays and dark shadows; however, small visual tricks throughout provide a fair amount of realism. The anime style graphics pop up on the cards as well as the revised codec sequences, and are a welcome edition to the character models featured in the PS2 game. Explosions and resulting particle effects are typical Metal Gear fare, not excessive but not ugly either. It would be best to term it as slightly less visually impressive than Twin Snakes or Sons of Liberty.

Gameplay is a blend between standard collectible card game and a strategy RPG. Each turn you are dealt two cards from your deck, and can play those cards or use them for player movement on a SRPG like grid system. The analog nub allows you to look in the immediate area of your character, while the Dpad scrolls the screen and triangle pulls the camera higher for a birds eye view. Players and enemies take turns SRPG style playing their respective cards. All the Metal Gear classics are here, including alert and evasions, which are measure in durations equal to one card being played. Playing the proper card at the proper time is key, as is keeping in mind the orientation of your character. For instance, since it is impossible to enter a crawl space from the standing position (the game requires standing players to use one card to move in front of the crawl space and crouch, then use another card to enter the space) often times it is better to attack enemies from the prone position. Why? The SOCOM may not have the strength to put the enemy down in one card, but the FAMAS will attract the attention of others and require a quick getaway. Careful thought has to be given to the order you play your cards as well. Since MGA allows free melee attacks, it is often better to move towards an enemy, melee attack, and then shoot the enemy while he is on the ground. All in all the card game is well developed and fun, but also injects my first point of ambivalence towards the game... It is way too easy to accidently select the wrong option on a card because you are attempting to play fast. This stems from growing accustomed to Metal Gear Solid and its faster paced gameplay mechanics. However, despite this minor gripe, MGA is the first card based game I have enjoyed since Card Fighters Clash on the Neo Geo Pocket.

The battles are divided up into mission maps, and travelling between them is taken care of on a SRPG style overworld map. During these overworld sequences you can arrange your deck, purchase new cards, save, or set the games only option - text speed. Once you have completed all of your maintainance tasks, you go to map select and resume the action.

The story is insane. There is no better word. For those who could not stomach the strange nature of the Solid series, they will probably require drugs to suspend disbelief in this one. More akin to its handheld cousin Ghost Babel (also featuring a story line likely to get you committed if retold out loud) MGA has an even more pronounced horror bent that Solid, and some of its conclusions are downright creepy. Two talking marionette sisters (who love to bicker) have hijacked a plane carrying a well respected US senator. They gased the passengers with anesthesia and killed both the pilot and copilot with knives, all in an effort to kidnap a scientist named Fleming and steal a bio-weapon called Pythagoras from a physics research facility off the coast of South Africa. The island is in the control a special forces team called HRT, led by a man named Leone who is involved in a civil war in the Republic of Moroni. Snake is assisted by Roger McCoy, in the familiar Colonel/Major/General role, along with an English clairvoiyant named Alice Hazel, who just happens to have a doll fetish. In the role of diving under the desk coward/helper we have a researcher on the island named Gary, whose deicision to wear a stetson and full length coat in the office is slightly dubious at best. The cast of looneys is rounded out by the remarkably well endowed half American/half Japanese Terico Friedman. The Bond girl cliche of large breasted women seems to have carried over from Snake Eater. Confused yet? Don't worry, because while the story may sound confusing now, the hijacking theme and conversations between sisters is sure to cause at least some censorship when localized or befall the wrath of the media and 9/11 groups. Fair or not, I expect AC!D to have serious localization issues.

My first four hours with AC!D have been enjoyable, and I am definetely looking forward to the rest of my time with the game. The compelling, if terribly implausible storyline is a fun distraction, and the card gameplay is foreign but refreshing. Only time will tell if the game can hold up to the standard set by Kojima and the Solid team, but it is entirely possible that AC!D becomes the most compelling story driven launch title for the PSP in Japan and the US. I will be sure to return when I can concretely answer the questions posed at the beginning of this piece, but until then rest assurred that AC!D is worth the price of admission, no matter what the final outcome.

Importing Note: AC!D is pretty heavy on Japanese story content and card descriptions, so unless you have strong kanji skills you may want to wait for the localized versions, no matter the edits made for content.

[ Email JP Kellams ]