I saddens me that this game isn't better. I really liked the previous game from the developer a retro sf stealth game named The Chameleon. Metal Gear Solid 1 is one of my favourite games of all times as is the whole series. From the looks this appears very promising and like a love-letter to the original Metal Gear Solid. And indeed it borrows many aspects from that psx game. But the execution is very lackluster and shallow and everything it does differently is to its detrimen, too. The worst part are maybe the controls. Playing with mouse and keyboard is really crappy, with a controller its a bit better but still very very clunky. Gameplay is also very limited. You can lean against a wall but not move left and right on it. You have kind of a radar view, but you have to activate it with an animation every time and often it is useless when trees or other obstacles obstruct the view. You have no leathal weapons, which would be fine, but there is no non-lethal way to take out enemies for more then a few seconds. If and when enemies will or will not spot you is very unintuitive too. The story is told in comic cutscenes, which is ok, but the plot itself is very uninteresing and dialog is mostly just blatant exposition dumping and delivered from mediocre voice actors. The music is also a total disappointment. Levels look very uninspired, the jungle doesn't feel very natural and the insides of buildings look very bland and boring. I was really looking forward to this game and wanted to love it, but it just left me frustrated and disappointed. I couldn't finish it and had to refund it. I just cannot recommend it. If you want the classic MGS experience go back and play those games again. Or play UnMetal, which is a modern really good retro hommage and parody in the style of Metal Gear 2. That is how you do it.
