It’s here! The online component to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Metal Gear Online, has been delivered as promised. What did I think of it after playing for an hour? It’s good for those who enjoyed it in previous Metal Gear Solid games, and kind of “meh” for those who weren’t fans already.
After an initial and brief tutorial, you are place within a hub world in Africa. You can’t really do much here except run around and shoot targets either with one of your firearms or with the conveniently provided Walker Gear. To get things going, you have to pull up your iDroid and launch into missions. You can also choose to customize your character, though in the beginning you have to play as the avatar you made at the beginning of MGSV proper.
The game has you choose one of three classes: Scout, Enforcer, and Infiltrator. Scouts are for beginners and are useful for marking enemies from a long distance. They come equipped with a sniper rifle for long range reconnaissance. Enforcers are for average players. They are the front line units who can use heavy armor, shields, and high grade weapons like the starting assault rifle. Lastly, there is the Infiltrator class which is for expert players. They don’t get much in the way of firepower, but they are best for those who excel at sneaking. Overall the classes do a good job of being balanced and at proving your squad with a well rounded team.
There are three game modes available: Bounty Hunter, Cloak and Dagger, and Comm Control. Bounty Hunter is a typical death match type of mode. What makes it unique is that the more kills a player has, the more his bounty increases. If you manage to knock out and Fulton extract an enemy that has a bounty of 10, those 10 kills will go into your team’s kill count and can potentially turn the tide in your favor. Cloak and Dagger has two teams trying to keep or steal communication devices. The defending team has the ability to attack but the thieves must use stealth tactics to win. Finally, Comm Control has you capturing and holding three areas of the map. You’ll be familiar with all of these modes since they are similar to those from other competitive games… but with a Metal Gear Solid twist of course.
While I can see the appeal of this mode, I personally wasn’t that impressed. This is probably because I’m not a big fan of PvP games, but I got bored of this pretty quickly. Comm Control was probably the mode I found the most fun, but I can’t exactly say I was impressed by Metal Gear Online. I only played for an hour though so things may change after I play it more extensively. Right now however, it’s feeling a lot like MGO from Metal Gear Solid 4 which is a mode I grew tired of fast as well.
So there you have it, my first impressions of Metal Gear Online. While it isn’t exactly my cup of tea, I’m sure that a lot of you guys will love it. And who knows, I may even have a change of heart after pouring more time into it and seeing what sort of cool stuff I can unlock. Expect a full review of Metal Gear Online from us soon!
