Be prepared for a long [Snake] blog:
MGO Premiere Beta playtest review
Firstly it is very important to state how different a game this is. It’s not a First Person Shooter (FPS) like CoD4 or R:FoM, it plays a lot slower and requires a lot more strategy and very importantly is team focused.
The game works from the 3rd person like SOCOM, this can be quite difficult to adjust too if you’ve been used to playing FPS. The game also relies heavily on stealth, like The Metal Gear games always have.
The game requires far too many ID’s to be created as has been previously noted and can make it really difficult to locate PSN buddies. It also has a rather absent party creation facility and doesn’t allow buddies to join in on ranked games together. There are options for voice chat but a lot it appear that due to the low audio quality not a lot of people are using it. This makes team gaming very difficult as you cannot share information about enemies easily.
The game has a lot of links via PS3’s web browser for Community pages, Online Instruction manual, MGO homepage. Sadly these links can run rather slowly through the PS3’s browser but are also accessible through a PC browser. I’ve not tried this yet but will add my findings when I do.
When the beta first started we were given access to 2 game maps:
Blood Bath: Small level with gantries and an underground section. Works brilliantly for general death matches but is a little confined for Team games in my opinion.
Grozygrad: (a level from the end of MGS3), with loads of sniping points and two catapults for launching soldiers to higher points. This level is huge and allows for all different menthods of attach from ground warfare, sneaking and sniping. Amazingly detailed and well designed.
Additional Map (added 30/04/08) Midtown Maelstrom: A more varied battle field set in a town, with various locations for snipers and ground troops. A few back alleys that traps can be set in or ambushes be made from..
Game modes:
Death Match (DM) – A free for all, where the person with the highest score wins.
Team Death Match (TDM) – Two teams working against each other for highest number of kills. Each team is allocated Tickets (lives) and these count down as people die. The winner can either be the team with the most number of tickets left when time runs out or if the a team reaches zero first they lose.
Base – The aim is for two teams to dominate a map by capturing bases located around the map. The team with the most number of bases wins or when all bases are captured by one team.
Capture (the frog) – This requires two teams to capture either a yellow rubber duck or a green frog and return it to there base. If a team captures both and takes them to their base the counter ticks down quicker. If both teams capture one of the above items and return it to there base then the ticker resets.
Sneak (added 30/04/08): Two teams fight against each other whilst also on the look out for someone playing as Old Snake (if over 11 player 1 player also controls Metal Gear MKII to assist Old Snake).
The teams win if they either take Snake out a number of times, or Reduce each others tickets to zero. Snake wins if he manages to collect 3 dog tags from the warring factions. This can be done by putting the enemies to sleep either with CQC or via sleeping darts and then searching the body for a dog tag or by doing hold ups. Old Snake is equipped with a stun rifle and pistol, stun knife and M4 Rifle. He also has the wonderful Octo-camo which allows him to blend in near seamlessly with his surroundings.
Metal Gear MKII is the little robot helper of Snake and has digital camo that makes him nearly invisible and the ability to shock enemies thus rendering them unconscious (which disables the camo for a couple of seconds). When used to assist Old Snake it makes the game a lot more intense, but he is easily damaged. Snake is also easily spotted if not in camo or in the wrong type.
This game mode is by far my favourite as it gives you a real feel for how MGS4 is actually going to play like.
Drebin points: Drebin is the arms launder in MGS4 and appears here as a way for you to buy different weapons and add on including scopes and silencers. These are opened as your points increase from kills. These can then be traded to upgrade your tools of destruction. This mode also allows for the most powerful weapon in the game the SOP distabliser. This if planted in a base will incapacitate all of that team. I can tell you it’s not a pleasant experience but I’m yet to use it myself.
Mastery: This like the perks system in CoD4 were by equipping certain traits makes you better with certain weapons or have specific SOP skills. There is a maximum of 4 skills can be equipped. Or upto a maximum of 4 point depending if your skills have gone passed level one. The mastery level is dictated by using the specific skill as it needs to be. So running with Fast move equipped will cause this skill to improve.
SOP:
I’ve no idea what this stands for yet but it’s a way that team mates can be linked together to allow information to be shared with each other. This is brilliant for being able to see team mates through solid surfaces as they appear as a coloured outline. Also the Exposure mastery causes the enemies to appear in their team colour if hit.
This system does have a down side and that is that if everyone is linked, all the opposition have to do is inject a plug into a captured enemy to see where all the enemies team is.
To activate this all you need to do is Hold /\ when not aiming, your character will either salute if stood still or do a forward hand gesture. A nice idea that I’ve never seen implemented in another game yet.
Clan Creation and community:
As I’ve previously stated this game needs a party mode and more easy integration into PSN ID’s. This would help with the creation and maintenance of already active clans.
At the moment you can create / join a clan after playing for 5 hours. When you’ve created a clan you can manage the members and change who can edit logos and who the leader is.
The clan logo is created using either a preset Insignia or by using the Pixel editor to create your own logo. Sadly during the beta you have to wait and extraordinary long time before you can upload and edited logo.
Community side has options for searching for players by the Character name or from your play history. Sadly friends have to added people from both sides it isn’t an automated process and is a little laborious and could lead to digital stalker in the game. Thankfully there is a bloc list, and search options for finding Character names but this requires the person to be logged into the beta before they can be added.
There are also options to send in game messages to each together but only from the menu and not whilst actually taking part in a game but a message icon and noise appears when a message is received. These messages can only be seen when in the game sadly and not on the PSN.
There are also personal stat options to be able to see how you’re achieving as the game progresses in each mode. Sadly I’m not sure this function is fully working as I’ve seen my own Rank move up and down on numerous occasions without any good reason. It’s also not clearly explained how these ranks are calculated. You also have an option to view your rank against everyone else who’s playing. This can some time be a good thing but quite often you file you’re actually at the bottom of a very big pile of players.
The ranking option is also there for clans but is only an activeness ranking at the moment in the beta.
Communication in game:
This can be done with a headset but with VoIP that is worse than a very bad CB radio (poorer quality that both Washawk and CoD4). R:FoM is still the bench make for this, why does every other company find it so difficult?
Text messages can be typed or sent via F keys as shortcuts can be set under the options.
The final option is to use the quick select options. These are done by pressing Select and 2 directions on the digital pad. Sadly I’ve found this a bit faffy and would prefer to chat via Open Mic. But when used in conjunction with SOP system it allows you to see where these messages are coming from and can work really well. Maybe I need to practice with these a bit more to have a better understanding!?
Is stealth the key?
The MGS games always rely heavily on stealth and sneak tactics. This online version is no different and to certain extent is the only way certain matches can be played. You have the option right from the start to equip a cardboard box and hide. This can be great for ambushing enemies as they walk past the box you’re sitting allowing you to take them from behind [pfft].
The oil drum is another piece of stealth equipment that has been added. This allows for the same type of movement but is also slightly more protective due to bullets bouncing off it’s metal surface. Whilst in a drum you can also put it on it’s side and roll through enemies. This can be very effective but leads to your character having to throw up after the experience, which can leave you open to being shot in the head when you stop.
Snake and MKII have camo that can be used to great effect as has been mentioned above.
One of the levels also has stinky bins you can hide in which can be used as a way to surprise enemies by jumping out of them.
Knock out or knock off? You have a choice to make do you put an opponent to sleep, either via Close Quarters Combat (CQC), chocking, A tranquilizer pistol or sniper rifle, stun grenades or gas mines. These can all be used to stop enemies from re-spawning the way you do when killed. In certain capture matches this is the best option.
It’s also the only way as Snake you can collect dog-tags from enemies, because if they’re dead they don’t leave any.
Kill’s can be done by various methods including; handguns, assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, grenades (including white phosphorus), claymore mines, explosive barrels and cars.
These kills are needed to reduce the tickets for DM & TDM games but why not stun people first then kill them. This way you get double the points.
My personal favourite trick is to lay smutty mags down that enemies get entranced by and then stun them with a pistol. They can then be easily picked off with headshots. Which works as a nice way to improve your stats but can leave you open as you try to plant the mags.
Stun knife can be used either to stun enemies when charged up or to stab them to death. You are in theory able to slit a captured enemies throat but sadly I’ve never managed it.
Issues:
There are quite a few issues with this beta that mainly involve lag issues and this seems to be being done deliberately to allow someone to have an advantage and make them virtually unstoppable. This is a real shame as it makes the game frustrating as you fire shots into someone who is actually were they appear and then to get shot / stabbed in the back. There is also an issue with bullet lag in general, this seems to happen in every game I play but not everytime (strangley). You can fire bullets into someone and they don’t die straight away, this can also lead to you dying even after the opponent is dead. As there appears to be a lag from the bullets being fired to them connecting as a hit / kill. This can also see you dying twice once where you were killed and then as soon as you respawn. I have no idea why this happens but is damn frustrating.
CQC doesn’t work properly maybe is due to my pad being broken due to drifting issues on the stick as every time I grab an enemy I simply throw them rather than being able to capture them. I have only managed a gator role once and to little effect. The punch, punch, kick very rarely seems to connect with the enemies. I have never managed to do a throat slit with the knife but I have managed a few human shields. I cannot simply explain these problems away though and they need addressing.
The issues with a lack of party option need to be resolved or people will go back to other games like CoD4 or R:FoM, which have them.
The stats need to be looked into and I’m aiming to do a bit of manual stat counting to see if it’s working as it should be.
The controls take a while to get used to and due to my PS3 pads being far from new thus not everything works as it should. I resorted to using a PS2 pad via an adaptor due to the sticks drifting. But the button on the PS2 pad are passed there best so bit that require specific pressures being used don’t work or aim drops out because the button no longer thinks it’s being pressed.
I’m hoping this game comes packaged with a Dual Shock 3 as I will need to buy a new pad anyway, as all my pads seem to be passed their best.
I think I need octopus hands to be able to play this properly as I’m not fully happy with where all the buttons are mapped to. I really hate having Auto-aim on [] and would prefer this as Reload which is on (). First person mode movement seems slow and having to tap /\ to go into is a bit of a chore. There also appears to be no Six-axis functions that were promised. Whilst on the Six-axis tip I really hate having to wiggle the stick from left to right to escape a capture or wake up, why can’t I shake the pad? I’d rather do that than wear out my sticks more than they already are.
The L2 & R2 buttons are fine as they have always been used in this way since MGS1.
Conclusion:
I really do like this game but the above issues need to be looked into and resolved or I can’t see myself playing as much of this game online as I’d have liked. Currently all my buddies appear to be playing GTA4 so trying to get a good group of buddies to play and communicate together is difficult.
The beta test is due to run until 11/05/08 with MGO being packaged for free with MGS4. This game really is a lot like Marmite and you either like it or hate it. I’d recommend working at the game as it’s a rather different type of game that does work really well at times and makes a change from basic FPS run&gun.
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