Let’s bounce back in time a couple of weeks to talk about CMON Expo again and talk about one of the highlight games for me. I ended up playing this one twice, but Metal Gear Solid was one of the games that stood out to me. And it is available, still, for pre-order, at least for a little bit longer. So let’s see why this game caught my eye and made me glad that I had pre-ordered it.

How To Play Metal Gear Solid

Game Modes

So, let me start with saying, there are two game modes. One of them, the one that I played, is not a campaign. There are one off scenarios that are an option to play. The other is a campaign, I’ll need to review that aspect when my copy comes in and I can play it.

But in the mode I played, if I remember correctly VR mode is what it is called currently, is built as one off scenarios. So you pick your player count, set it up for as such and go in and play that mission without any repercussions to what you are doing in an overall story.

Actions

The game itself, though doesn’t change much. Each player, on their turn, has four action points to allot to actions. It might be a single action of moving or dashing. Attacking or interacting with an object, or doing something unique to that character. But you always have up to four action points to spend. And not all actions cost a single point. You find that a better attack uses multiple action points. Or some of the special powers use multiple action points as well.

And then completing an action isn’t always just expending those points. Often time you need to roll some dice as well. You see how successful your attack was and possibly how noisy it was. And that will determine what happens if you succeed or not.

Attack vs Stealth

One element of this game that is and isn’t baked into the mechanics is stealth versus all out attack. The game uses a noise system. If you make noise the enemies on patrol might come and investigate. So actions like dashing are considered noisy actions. That means that you might have made a small noise that one of the guards will investigate.

Or you might fire off a gun. Then all the patrols know where you are, and they’ll start flocking to you. Which, if you’ve already taken out most of them isn’t the end of the world. But it is also possible that more patrols will show up. So the game is really balancing that noise and your ability to sneak around.

And, why not kill everyone, or at least knock them out? Because they come to over time. And depending on how many are active in a zone, it’s possible that more will spawn there, and now you might end up with more patrols to avoid.

Patrol AI

One nice thing about CMON Expo is that while Emerson Matsuuchi, the designer wasn’t there, one of the developers was. So we got to hear about one of the harder parts of the game, the AI system. And I think that it’s worth noting the AI system is likely to take about half a game to get figured out. But it is a slick system that makes sense with that the enemy is doing.

When they don’t know you are there, they just patrol. They walk, they come to walls or if they stop on certain spots on the floor, they turn and they walk some more. So it’s possible to guess their patterns at least to some range.

But when you make a small noise and they think they might know where you are, one of them will beeline to checkout that noise. The others will still patrol. And if they find you, well, they know where you are, and all of them will come to get you. But if you make a big noise, they are all just coming.

Metal Gear Solid Final Thoughts

I really like this system. I think that it works smoothly and you got some of the highlights over it. And I didn’t go over items too much, but they are fun and give you some powerful options. And sometimes you might just need to make some noise, draw enemies and tank a situation.

I ended up playing this twice at CMON Expo. And the first time through Metal Gear Solid, we stumbled into a great strategy that let us win. The second time, because of choices, and I was sitting back some to let other players take the lead, we did a different strategy. And I will say, we got close, but couldn’t quite make it. Things were definitely hairier than the first time though.

So clearly, I like this game enough to play it twice in a weekend. And I also like it enough to have pre-ordered it. Granted, the pre-order did come first, but I could have canceled that. This game is fun. And it isn’t like your normal CMON Zombicide type game, though it might look like that, a little bit. But as you go, you’ll quickly start to realize that you can’t just kill or knock out everything. So this is a very fun game.

Are you interested in Metal Gear Solid?

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