Metal Gear Acid

At best, Acid is a really fun time for a very small percentage of gamers. At worst, it's a good game that a lot of people will find boring.

The card battle experiment was a novel one, but the result is an unbalanced, unforgiving mess that will test your patience while you try to piece through a convoluted story. Strategy fans may dig it, but everyone else will do well to stay away.

As expected, the story is completely convoluted, but the twists are still surprising (if not infuriating), resulting in a worthy but very different addition to the franchise. [May 2005, p.67]

It's turned my head, even if it's not quite the 'trip' that it might have been.

Acid is an interesting new direction for the Metal Gear series. Real time stealth action transforms into a turn based strategy game. The card mechanic, collecting more cards and adjusting your deck keeps player coming back to the action level after level. Still, the story is not on par with other Metal Gear games and playing the game can be an slow and sometimes boring experience. [Sept 2005, p.63]

Personally, I enjoyed the gameplay and story and upon completing it I was left with both satisfaction and the want for more.

It’s also a very original title - you don’t see too many turn-based stealth/strategy games, and we respect the fact that Konami took a big risk with their flagship franchise in an attempt to deliver a true PSP-only game.

It's cerebral and requires special attention, but that might not necessarily be fun -- all that hot PSP technology, just for an experience that's as graceful as a banana slug.

As a game by itself, Metal Gear Acid is alright. But as a Metal Gear game of the series, I much rather prefer the intense action of a third person real time adventure game.

In refusing to let the PSP’s home-console-style graphical capabilities dictate the nature of its gameplay, Acid is a valuable blueprint for future PSP development. [Feb 2005, p.77]

Metal Gear's move from all-out action to turn-based strategy has been handled with style. [JPN Import]

Two things ruin it though; the first is that the seeming blank refusal of the designers to refit the game's format so that it works as a card game. The second is that it's simply dogged by so many wincingly schoolboyish mistakes that it would be unconscionable to score it higher than that "Buy by all means but be forewarned" number six. [JPN Import]

While the card and strategy elements work surprisingly well, they don’t really fit the stealth side of the game for which the series is so highly regarded. [June 2005, p.112]

Fans of turn based strategy games will enjoy this title though, if you aren't a fan then I suggest avoiding this title.