Metal Gear Acid 2
Insert clever reference to an acid trip here.
Published: April 13, 2006
The Solid Eye also matched up perfectly with Acid 2's other big change: the art style. I'm not sure if it was because of the lighting at the venue or just that I didn't notice it too well, but the 3D effect really does pop, and boss fights are quite fun with them. This is due in no small part to the game shifting to the more manga-styled end of the art spectrum. Motion lines, a cel-shaded look, and incredibly bright colors all combine to form an image that feels extremely unique.
Even with the new style, the game is gorgeous. A fantastic framerate, plenty of detail on Snake and Venus, as well as bosses and even common enemies. Most of the time you won't really get a chance to take it in save for cutscenes, but when the camera does pull in close, you can see a level of texture detail and clarity that PSP games really don't sport normally, and it's a serious treat.
The cutscenes themselves also benefit from some nice direction. Most of the time you'll just get slow pans but the action scenes are delivered with a nice bit of punch. A special note should be made about the fantastic, almost pop art-style into that Power Graphixx did; when mixed with the game's new theme music from Akihiro Honda, it creates the kind of intro that gets design whores like me all kinds of excited. Yes, all kinds.
The audio pops as well. Most of the sound effects were either carried over from the first game or ported from the MGS series in the first place. This means stuff like the familiar alert sound, footfalls, menu selection and confirmation chimes, and punches and kicks sound very, very good (especially with headphones on), but they're also instantly familiar. Most of the music in the game skirts the line between the slower, prodding stealth stuff and the higher-tempo oh-god-you've-been-spotted tunes from the other games. There's a heavy electronic bent to things, but it fits in quite nicely with the themes of the game, and I dug it.
I dug just about everything in MGA2, which is surprising given how little has really changed. The improvements, small as they were, help lift the game up to where it should have been in the first place. It's more action-driven, the setting feels more natural, and the gameplay has been refined enough that I think it could seriously hook MGS fans looking for something tide them over between Metal Gear Online matches or kill time until MGS4 finally arrives.
It may not be in the title, but unlike the first game (and yes, I'm totally reusing it) this Metal Gear is very, very solid indeed.
