9th March 2005, 10:49 PM
You go too far. Your hot-headedness has again gotten ahead of your initial good sense, OB1! Take a deep breath or something and think... otherwise this discussion is essentially over.
Here is what an actual hands-on preview of the US version has to say about the gameplay.
http://psp.ign.com/articles/583/583313p1.html?fromint=1
And the story.
So where does this comment fit in?
I'd say that it fits in as a description of the kind of story you would find in this game... or the kind of story-telling. I very much doubt that MGA actually PLAYS like a graphic adventure, given how it is described to play as a unique brand of tactical strategy game. But it's certainly plausible, given the MGS games, that the game presents its story in the way a graphic adventure might... that's definitely what I'd take that statement to mean. Not 'graphic adventure' in the sense that it is a graphic adventure game.
On that topic, sorry, but there IS a definite definition of the graphic adventure. It's not a nation-specific one, either... sure, Monkey Island is American, but TLJ is from a team in Finland. Japan? I know they make interactive stories, but they never release them here... but that's the same thing (one Japanese graphic adventure that DID come out over here would be Snatcher, by the way. Or how about Another on the DS?). You go through a story (most often told with dialogue,sometimes by other means), making choices and solving puzzles (of the logic (ex: a sliding tile puzzle) and/or inventory (ex: "find the wrench in the kitchen, add it to your inventory, and use it on the bolt in the attic loft") varieties) along the way. There usually isn't any action and if there is it's almost always minimal or can be avoided.
Here is what an actual hands-on preview of the US version has to say about the gameplay.
http://psp.ign.com/articles/583/583313p1.html?fromint=1
Quote:What the creators of this game want you to understand is that, despite the shift to a new play style, this is still Metal Gear to the core. Konami had the first English language version of the game at its Gamer's Day event to prove this point. The setting is tangential, the control is totally different, and yet, once you go looking, you will find a Metal Gear threatening to conquer gamers yet again.
When you break down the gameplay of a Metal Gear game to the metal, you will find some of the locked-in elements that make this a fine series for a card battler. Enemy AI gets brilliant when it needs to track you down and cease your life, but the majority of play in a Metal Gear game is spent analyzing the patrol routes of enemies and sneaking past leaks in their defenses. Metal Gear Acid simply takes the directional control and the tension of making a controller slip too soon out of the picture.
Instead, Metal Gear Acid has a deck of cards dealt to you on each room of a stage. These cards have specific values for a given technique -- a SOCOM or FAMAS weapon card will allow you to open fire on an enemy, while Ration cards allow healing -- but you can and often will have to sacrifice cards for movement across the stage. You'll want to keep your best cards for when the action gets heavy, but every card has the potential to be useful in certain circumstances, so choose wisely from your deck every time you pull. And don't forget that each card has a value for use, which delays how long a player must wait out while the enemy makes its own maneuvers -- if you're expecting to run and gun with your biggest cards all through the game, you'll be out-timed, outwitted, and out of life long before you learn your lesson.
Tactical techniques from the Metal Gear series have made their way intact to the PSP strategy game. After every move, Snake will have the ability to either stand ready or crouch out of sight as he awaits his next move. Snake can also flatten against walls and other barriers, and can knock on the wall to attract guards towards traps or lure them away from guarded areas. Snake can also make very complicated maneuvers by putting certain cards together in a combo -- for instance, if he tosses a grenade into a crowd of enemies, then quickly uses a few pistol shots to detonate the explosive, there will be no danger from the other soldiers since they have been blown up before it is their turn to react.
And the story.
Quote:As far as the story goes, diehard may have trouble adjusting to this game's narrative concept than they will to the peculiar action. This is precious ground that the team is treading across, and it is doing it as a side-story officially not connected to the real MGS storyline. Fortunately, the ability to play the game in English for the first time at Konami's event allowed us to settle into the break-away style and story concepts more comfortably. It helped that we've already been conditioned for something very different from our experience with the previous handheld Metal Gear Solid on GBC -- that game felt like the Metal Gear story and included many of the characters familiar to fans, but it really was its own entity that continued on in something of an alternate universe from the real MGS series. Metal Gear Acid plays out much the same way, using the ending of the first PlayStation MGS as a jumping-off point for a story that takes its own trip through its own version of what would be Snake's never-ending call to duty instead of peaceful retirement.
The story is played out through animated cut-scenes and striking, almost cartoonish caricatures of the game's regulars -- it's a far break from the ultra-realism of the franchise proper (and is also missing MGS's familiar voiceovers), but in the context of the game itself, the art style is distinct and memorable, and the animated Flash-style cutscenes pack a unique impact. Telling of an airplane hijacking that has given hostages command over a presidential candidate, the story feels less epic than past Metal Gear infiltrations, but the themes of the series quickly rear up, and the way these animatics intercut with the 3D action in the opening scenes we were privy to in this early demo gave the game a style all its own that still felt right for the franchise.
So where does this comment fit in?
Quote:And Metal Gear Ac!d is, well, kind of trippy. No pun intended. It
is, effectively, a Japanese graphic adventure game, with a card-
collecting flavor.
I'd say that it fits in as a description of the kind of story you would find in this game... or the kind of story-telling. I very much doubt that MGA actually PLAYS like a graphic adventure, given how it is described to play as a unique brand of tactical strategy game. But it's certainly plausible, given the MGS games, that the game presents its story in the way a graphic adventure might... that's definitely what I'd take that statement to mean. Not 'graphic adventure' in the sense that it is a graphic adventure game.
On that topic, sorry, but there IS a definite definition of the graphic adventure. It's not a nation-specific one, either... sure, Monkey Island is American, but TLJ is from a team in Finland. Japan? I know they make interactive stories, but they never release them here... but that's the same thing (one Japanese graphic adventure that DID come out over here would be Snatcher, by the way. Or how about Another on the DS?). You go through a story (most often told with dialogue,sometimes by other means), making choices and solving puzzles (of the logic (ex: a sliding tile puzzle) and/or inventory (ex: "find the wrench in the kitchen, add it to your inventory, and use it on the bolt in the attic loft") varieties) along the way. There usually isn't any action and if there is it's almost always minimal or can be avoided.