Metal Gear Solid Mobile Review
Posted by on Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Quick History on MGSM:
During the Game Developers Conference 2009, Hideo Kojima, a Japanese video game designer (Konami), discussed his team’s experience in making a combat game for the MSX. The MSX, according to Mr. Kojima, is very limited and he had a hard time thinking of how he and his team would be able to make a game for the old console. His current task was to create a combat game but the console itself is very limited because it allows you to properly display only 8 sprites horizontally. This would only make room for 3 people (2 sprites each) and can only display 2 bullets with the remaining sprites. This made Mr. Kojima’s mission impossible to create a good combat game so he himself changed his goal from making a combat game to making a stealth game. Back then, this was a revolutionary genre. That drove to the creation of the game “Metal Gear” for the MSX.
The game became popular and continued on. This lead to Metal Gear 2 for the MSX2, Metal Gear Solid for the PSX (commonly referred to as the PS1), and other sequels and ports up to today’s latest Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The game itself was so popular that a Metal Gear game was created for Nokia’s next-generation mobile gaming platform, N-Gage 2.0. The game is called ‘Metal Gear Solid Mobile’ and it is available for purchase in the N-Gage Showroom. Though the game wasn’t produced or designed by Mr. Kojima, he supervised the project so we still have that Metal Gear Solid feel – or do we?
Gameplay:
You play as Solid Snake, a special operations agent, and infiltrate a Metal Gear, a high tech war machine, production facility to find out info about the facility’s production process. Your friend ‘Otacon’ will send you tips and guide you throughout the mission using a special type of radio called the ‘Codec’. Otacon will also tell you what’s going on in the facility to give you a clear idea of the story of the game. Having hints and tips of the game helps the player know what to do. Otacon frequently calls you using Codec and sometimes gets annoying that every room you enter you’d hear the *BEEP BEEP* sound; not to mention most conversations are long. But this isn’t really a problem for the player because the player can skip the transmission. Although skipping the transmission will let the player play the game immediately, the player will skip out important hints and tips to play the game more effectively. This also isn’t a problem because the player can contact Otacon using Codec.
The game itself is 3D but the camera is just a slightly overhead view. The camera also adjusts as you move away from the camera or closer. Basically, you wouldn’t be able to rotate your camera 360o even if the game is in 3D. The camera isn’t a problem for typical gamers because you wouldn’t have a hard time seeing where Solid Snake goes. Sneaking past your enemies and navigating is also easy because you have a map displayed in your User Interface. The Soliton Radar provides you the layout of the room you are currently in as well as displays where the enemies are and their FOV (Field of Vision). Having this feature is great for navigating but sometimes takes the challenge of a stealth game away as you know what the enemies see and when they are looking. If you feel so, you may want to turn Radar Off during your next play through.
Features of this game are enough for a good stealth game. The game lets you stick through walls and knock on them to let guards check on it. Knowing that, you can find another route and get past the guard unseen while he’s going to the position where you knocked. It makes the game more realistic knowing that your enemies can actually hear. Not only when you knock, but also when you fire a gun. You will start with an M9 model tranquilizer pistol with a suppressor so firing that gun wouldn’t make a sound so loud that the enemies can hear you. Although this gun comes with a suppressor, other gun you POS (procure on site) wouldn’t have a suppressor so when you fire your SOCOM or FAMAS, it’ll make a sound and guards will check on it – or even report of an intruder outright. This definitely makes the game challenging to let the player decide to either do a shoot-before-think gameplay method or think-before-shoot method.
To keep stealthy even without your Soliton Radar, you can peek through corners by sticking to the wall and proceed to a corner or gap. The camera will automatically pan through Solid Snake, giving you a man’s eye view of what’s behind that corner or gap. It’s pretty cool that you can do that in the game; it’s pretty much useful when your radar is off so you can navigate manually by searching the whole room for items and doors you can pass. Also, the game features a 3-part alarm stage; when you get detected, you’d get yourself in the ‘Alert Phase’ which enemies in the area will try to kill you. If you manage to hide away, the countdown timer for the Alert Phase will begin thus entering ‘Evasion Phase’ that will send soldiers to look for you. Once the countdown timer for the Evasion Phase is over, you’d reach the Caution Phase which lets the soldiers go back to their stations but any sound or suspicion that you make, you’d reach the Alert Phase again. It’s hard for someone to hide away from the enemies during Alert Phase or Evasion Phase because the radar would be out. This makes the game really challenging especially for players not into stealth games. Hiding is hard because whenever an enemy sees you, he follows you and so does his friends. Sometimes you’d get frustrated about getting into alerts upon playing the game but the fastest way to get out of Alert Phase is to get out of your current room.
A great feature of this game is that you can use Camouflage. Basically, you have a camouflage ‘sensor’ in your weapons menu and you can use that to sample a color of your area, typically a wall, and the color that the sensor gets will be your current uniform color if you choose to accept the color. This is great for hiding in Alert and Evasion Phases as well as sneaking past enemies without cover. Not only camouflage, you can also use a cardboard box to quickly find a hiding spot when the enemy gets close to you.
Controls are kept simple and the layout enables a player remain effective throughout the game. The game’s controls are good enough to be played in Landscape mode (remembering that landscape mode allows you a Directional Pad and 2 Gaming Keys). The controls of this game features your typical movement (directional pad), an options key (softkey), an inventory key (softkey), a first person view key (B) and a use/fire key (A). Your inventory key lets you view either your Items menu or your Weapons menu; it’s practically optimized but not limited.
Finally, there are also your guns. As I have said, you start with an M9 Tranquilizer pistol but you can procure a .45 Handgun (SOCOM), an assault rifle (FAMAS), some explosives (TNT and Chaff Grenades) and a remote controlled rocket launcher (NIKATA). There’s only a limited number of guns in the game which is really not what players expect from a Metal Gear Solid game; hence the name Metal Gear, players expect a lot of guns and whatnot. Though you have a small range of guns to choose from, your M9 pistol is good enough to finish the game, but there are some instances where you will need your NIKATA or C4 to blow targets up.
Gameplay Score: 9/10
Graphics:
The graphics are ok, though they’re not good and optimized for an N-Gage Device game. Wall patterns repeat, textures are simple, guns look low quality, muzzle flash, explosions and bullet holes look cheap – these are just some examples of why the graphics do not look optimized and great. You’d also feel that you have been in a location before, especially since the game has a lot of hallways, because of the same wall patterns or textures.
The game also is like a labyrinth; you feel that you’re a mouse in a maze trying to find cheese – not to mention having claustrophobia. You’d probably feel that the area is “closed”, never to have seen the sun or feel outside.
Graphics Score: 6/10
Sound:
Music is incredibly dull and redundant. Basically there’s only 1 background music that you hear throughout the game when you’re not in Alert Phase (but you’d hear it in Evasion or Caution Phase). This isn’t good for the game because it doesn’t add drama or excitement to the game. The background music itself is very depressing and makes you want to turn the music volume off.
But wait! The background music is just one thing, there’s also that Alert Phase music that you might have heard if you played the original Metal Gear Solid for the PSX; yep, it’s the same Alert Phase track called ‘Encounter’ (search YouTube to hear the sound; or better yet, play the Metal Gear Solid Mobile trial and get yourself in trouble). This track practically gives me a little bit of nostalgia because of playing MGS1 a lot. Even if it was used in the first Metal Gear Solid, the track is fit for the Alert Phase because of the loud entrance it makes. You may sometimes feel a sudden shock especially when you don’t know you’re getting yourself in trouble; the sound practically enters without warning.
Sound effects are soft and terrible; this goes when firing either your silenced M9 Tranquilizer pistol or your loud SOCOM. Whenever you fire a gun, the sound is a bit soft and not in-contrast with the background music – not to mention that it has bad quality. When you shoot your SOCOM, you’d hear a quick *thhshhht* sound that should represent the sound of a handgun. This sound effect doesn’t even give you the feel of having fired a handgun. Also, when you fire the automatic rifle, FAMAS, you’d notice that the sound is just a SOCOM firing continuously. It’s pretty much a cheap way to make a machine gun sound; not exactly a good way to make a player feel a gun firing.
Sound Score: 4/10
Story:
If you haven’t played a Metal Gear Solid game ever in your life, then you wouldn’t know how complex a single game has to do with the whole Metal Gear Solid story and timeline. It’s like if you don’t play Metal Gear Solid 1, then you’d probably be wondering about certain characters or events in this game or other MGS titles and their relation with the story or with Solid Snake; you probably wouldn’t know who Revolver Ocelot or Jack is as mentioned in Metal Gear Solid Mobile.
Anyway, the story of Metal Gear Solid Mobile doesn’t really affect the whole Metal Gear Solid storyline. The game takes place between Metal Gear Solid 1 and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Like what I said, your mission is to infiltrate a Metal Gear production facility and get some info about the facility’s production. Otacon informs you of an informant and meeting with him. You will encounter a lot of WTF’s as the story has a lot of twists and turns and sometimes events that you are not expecting to happen. Future events are mildly foreshadowed through conversations in your Codec but that doesn’t exactly give you a heads-up on what’s going to happen unless you're very keen.
Reading along the Codec conversations will give you more info about what’s happening so players interested in the story of this ‘mysterious’ Metal Gear Solid franchise should read on. Like what I said, the story is complex and things may not go as you expect them to be. This is great for players who like a mildly deep mobile game experience. Obviously, if you are a fan of listening to conversations rather than reading them, then you probably will get bored with this game.
Story Score: 9/10
During the Game Developers Conference 2009, Hideo Kojima, a Japanese video game designer (Konami), discussed his team’s experience in making a combat game for the MSX. The MSX, according to Mr. Kojima, is very limited and he had a hard time thinking of how he and his team would be able to make a game for the old console. His current task was to create a combat game but the console itself is very limited because it allows you to properly display only 8 sprites horizontally. This would only make room for 3 people (2 sprites each) and can only display 2 bullets with the remaining sprites. This made Mr. Kojima’s mission impossible to create a good combat game so he himself changed his goal from making a combat game to making a stealth game. Back then, this was a revolutionary genre. That drove to the creation of the game “Metal Gear” for the MSX.
The game became popular and continued on. This lead to Metal Gear 2 for the MSX2, Metal Gear Solid for the PSX (commonly referred to as the PS1), and other sequels and ports up to today’s latest Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The game itself was so popular that a Metal Gear game was created for Nokia’s next-generation mobile gaming platform, N-Gage 2.0. The game is called ‘Metal Gear Solid Mobile’ and it is available for purchase in the N-Gage Showroom. Though the game wasn’t produced or designed by Mr. Kojima, he supervised the project so we still have that Metal Gear Solid feel – or do we?
Gameplay:
You play as Solid Snake, a special operations agent, and infiltrate a Metal Gear, a high tech war machine, production facility to find out info about the facility’s production process. Your friend ‘Otacon’ will send you tips and guide you throughout the mission using a special type of radio called the ‘Codec’. Otacon will also tell you what’s going on in the facility to give you a clear idea of the story of the game. Having hints and tips of the game helps the player know what to do. Otacon frequently calls you using Codec and sometimes gets annoying that every room you enter you’d hear the *BEEP BEEP* sound; not to mention most conversations are long. But this isn’t really a problem for the player because the player can skip the transmission. Although skipping the transmission will let the player play the game immediately, the player will skip out important hints and tips to play the game more effectively. This also isn’t a problem because the player can contact Otacon using Codec.
The game itself is 3D but the camera is just a slightly overhead view. The camera also adjusts as you move away from the camera or closer. Basically, you wouldn’t be able to rotate your camera 360o even if the game is in 3D. The camera isn’t a problem for typical gamers because you wouldn’t have a hard time seeing where Solid Snake goes. Sneaking past your enemies and navigating is also easy because you have a map displayed in your User Interface. The Soliton Radar provides you the layout of the room you are currently in as well as displays where the enemies are and their FOV (Field of Vision). Having this feature is great for navigating but sometimes takes the challenge of a stealth game away as you know what the enemies see and when they are looking. If you feel so, you may want to turn Radar Off during your next play through.
Features of this game are enough for a good stealth game. The game lets you stick through walls and knock on them to let guards check on it. Knowing that, you can find another route and get past the guard unseen while he’s going to the position where you knocked. It makes the game more realistic knowing that your enemies can actually hear. Not only when you knock, but also when you fire a gun. You will start with an M9 model tranquilizer pistol with a suppressor so firing that gun wouldn’t make a sound so loud that the enemies can hear you. Although this gun comes with a suppressor, other gun you POS (procure on site) wouldn’t have a suppressor so when you fire your SOCOM or FAMAS, it’ll make a sound and guards will check on it – or even report of an intruder outright. This definitely makes the game challenging to let the player decide to either do a shoot-before-think gameplay method or think-before-shoot method.
To keep stealthy even without your Soliton Radar, you can peek through corners by sticking to the wall and proceed to a corner or gap. The camera will automatically pan through Solid Snake, giving you a man’s eye view of what’s behind that corner or gap. It’s pretty cool that you can do that in the game; it’s pretty much useful when your radar is off so you can navigate manually by searching the whole room for items and doors you can pass. Also, the game features a 3-part alarm stage; when you get detected, you’d get yourself in the ‘Alert Phase’ which enemies in the area will try to kill you. If you manage to hide away, the countdown timer for the Alert Phase will begin thus entering ‘Evasion Phase’ that will send soldiers to look for you. Once the countdown timer for the Evasion Phase is over, you’d reach the Caution Phase which lets the soldiers go back to their stations but any sound or suspicion that you make, you’d reach the Alert Phase again. It’s hard for someone to hide away from the enemies during Alert Phase or Evasion Phase because the radar would be out. This makes the game really challenging especially for players not into stealth games. Hiding is hard because whenever an enemy sees you, he follows you and so does his friends. Sometimes you’d get frustrated about getting into alerts upon playing the game but the fastest way to get out of Alert Phase is to get out of your current room.
A great feature of this game is that you can use Camouflage. Basically, you have a camouflage ‘sensor’ in your weapons menu and you can use that to sample a color of your area, typically a wall, and the color that the sensor gets will be your current uniform color if you choose to accept the color. This is great for hiding in Alert and Evasion Phases as well as sneaking past enemies without cover. Not only camouflage, you can also use a cardboard box to quickly find a hiding spot when the enemy gets close to you.
Controls are kept simple and the layout enables a player remain effective throughout the game. The game’s controls are good enough to be played in Landscape mode (remembering that landscape mode allows you a Directional Pad and 2 Gaming Keys). The controls of this game features your typical movement (directional pad), an options key (softkey), an inventory key (softkey), a first person view key (B) and a use/fire key (A). Your inventory key lets you view either your Items menu or your Weapons menu; it’s practically optimized but not limited.
Finally, there are also your guns. As I have said, you start with an M9 Tranquilizer pistol but you can procure a .45 Handgun (SOCOM), an assault rifle (FAMAS), some explosives (TNT and Chaff Grenades) and a remote controlled rocket launcher (NIKATA). There’s only a limited number of guns in the game which is really not what players expect from a Metal Gear Solid game; hence the name Metal Gear, players expect a lot of guns and whatnot. Though you have a small range of guns to choose from, your M9 pistol is good enough to finish the game, but there are some instances where you will need your NIKATA or C4 to blow targets up.
Gameplay Score: 9/10
Graphics:
The graphics are ok, though they’re not good and optimized for an N-Gage Device game. Wall patterns repeat, textures are simple, guns look low quality, muzzle flash, explosions and bullet holes look cheap – these are just some examples of why the graphics do not look optimized and great. You’d also feel that you have been in a location before, especially since the game has a lot of hallways, because of the same wall patterns or textures.
The game also is like a labyrinth; you feel that you’re a mouse in a maze trying to find cheese – not to mention having claustrophobia. You’d probably feel that the area is “closed”, never to have seen the sun or feel outside.
Graphics Score: 6/10
Sound:
Music is incredibly dull and redundant. Basically there’s only 1 background music that you hear throughout the game when you’re not in Alert Phase (but you’d hear it in Evasion or Caution Phase). This isn’t good for the game because it doesn’t add drama or excitement to the game. The background music itself is very depressing and makes you want to turn the music volume off.
But wait! The background music is just one thing, there’s also that Alert Phase music that you might have heard if you played the original Metal Gear Solid for the PSX; yep, it’s the same Alert Phase track called ‘Encounter’ (search YouTube to hear the sound; or better yet, play the Metal Gear Solid Mobile trial and get yourself in trouble). This track practically gives me a little bit of nostalgia because of playing MGS1 a lot. Even if it was used in the first Metal Gear Solid, the track is fit for the Alert Phase because of the loud entrance it makes. You may sometimes feel a sudden shock especially when you don’t know you’re getting yourself in trouble; the sound practically enters without warning.
Sound effects are soft and terrible; this goes when firing either your silenced M9 Tranquilizer pistol or your loud SOCOM. Whenever you fire a gun, the sound is a bit soft and not in-contrast with the background music – not to mention that it has bad quality. When you shoot your SOCOM, you’d hear a quick *thhshhht* sound that should represent the sound of a handgun. This sound effect doesn’t even give you the feel of having fired a handgun. Also, when you fire the automatic rifle, FAMAS, you’d notice that the sound is just a SOCOM firing continuously. It’s pretty much a cheap way to make a machine gun sound; not exactly a good way to make a player feel a gun firing.
Sound Score: 4/10
Story:
If you haven’t played a Metal Gear Solid game ever in your life, then you wouldn’t know how complex a single game has to do with the whole Metal Gear Solid story and timeline. It’s like if you don’t play Metal Gear Solid 1, then you’d probably be wondering about certain characters or events in this game or other MGS titles and their relation with the story or with Solid Snake; you probably wouldn’t know who Revolver Ocelot or Jack is as mentioned in Metal Gear Solid Mobile.
Anyway, the story of Metal Gear Solid Mobile doesn’t really affect the whole Metal Gear Solid storyline. The game takes place between Metal Gear Solid 1 and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Like what I said, your mission is to infiltrate a Metal Gear production facility and get some info about the facility’s production. Otacon informs you of an informant and meeting with him. You will encounter a lot of WTF’s as the story has a lot of twists and turns and sometimes events that you are not expecting to happen. Future events are mildly foreshadowed through conversations in your Codec but that doesn’t exactly give you a heads-up on what’s going to happen unless you're very keen.
Reading along the Codec conversations will give you more info about what’s happening so players interested in the story of this ‘mysterious’ Metal Gear Solid franchise should read on. Like what I said, the story is complex and things may not go as you expect them to be. This is great for players who like a mildly deep mobile game experience. Obviously, if you are a fan of listening to conversations rather than reading them, then you probably will get bored with this game.
Story Score: 9/10
Tags: metal gear solid mobile n-gage review solid snake revolver ocelot
