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Great low key fun for comic lovers

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 31 / 32
Date: June 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Are you a fan of comics, manga or anime? You should really take a look at the Metal Gear Solid PSP active novel, then. It's like a manga that moves, with hidden secrets.

There are multiple areas to this "game" - and since this is a pretty new style of gaming, it can get confusing. Here's how it works.

First, you have the graphic novel. It's sort of like a cut scene from XIII or the upcoming Metal Gear Portable Ops, with a hand drawn look and subtle motion. It's pretty cool. You sit back and watch the story unfold. It's in essence the Metal Gear Solid I storyline, like the comic book they released of this. You can sit back, not push any buttons, and enjoy the story.

However, press circle. A little graph appears beneath the story. Spikes in the graph indicate the presence of hidden secrets. You can of course search every single scene if you want to - but if you'd rather get some hints, use the graph to figure out where to focus your searches.

Using square, you freeze the action and can now track down the secret items. What these represent are "memory triggers" for Snake. Think of it in this way. If you've forgotten something, you might stand in the kitchen and look arond. You spot the keys on the table and realize that's what you forgot. It's the exact same thing - you are locating memory triggers in the various scenes for Snake to work with.

When you collect a number of these, it's on to the part that most people find complicated - arranging those memories into a logical sequence. You work in groups - so you have one group for support team memories, one group for activity memories and so on. The memories all go into their groups by themselves, so all you do is make the connections. For example, if you see a doctor - and then see a memory about a medical device, you would link them together. If you read the little fact sheets on each memory, it's usually very clear which connect to which. As you link up your memories, it reveals new cut scenes and new groups to work with.

To help you from being overwhelmed, you don't start out with "all memories" in a giant heap. It lets you work on just 2-3 groups. Once you get those sorted out, new groups - with whatever memories you've unlocked so far - become available.

The game is a little frustrating at the beginning, because the manual is pretty pitiful. However, with a little trial and error you get the hang of how it works, and it really is quite fun. The story is a good one, and tracking down the hidden memories can be quite challenging. Certainly this isn't an "action" game with guns and blood. It's more a puzzle solving game - figuring out where the clues are, and then piecing them together. If you're the type of person who enjoys manga and anime, along with puzzles, then this would be just right for you.

not a game but an interactive comic

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: August 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I like this title a lot. It isnt a game but a digital graphic novel. Imagine what you would get with a comic that had been created with After Effects and audio.
It has great graphics that are combined with motion effects and sounds and also special hot spots.
I have just started reading it and it will take me a few hours to read and interact in the three different user experience modes. It is a lot like watching a movie that unfolds at your own pace.

satisfied custumer

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 7
Date: July 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

my item arrived in brand new condition and i was very happy with my purchase

great art and sound quality.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Its like a comic book but better. The sound is awesome and the art work is great. A whole new experience. Good job Kojima.

Digital Interactive

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Metal Gear Solid Graphic Novel is a a comic retelling of The Metal Gear Solid game for Playstation. The comic adds small bits of extra information and events that weren't in the original game. This UMD experience is good for road trips or other boring events. This movie isn't exciting to view, it isn't an experience you will be choosing over one of the other Metal Gear "Games" on the PSP. With it being a comic, everything must be read, that's a no duh concept. However, unless your a killer fan this is a watch once and send it back. This is more of a piece of memorabilia than a solid addition to the series.

What adds a small bit of extra life to the digital comic is that most comic frames can be paused and searched for hidden items in the images. Finding these images unlocks them for digital linking in the memory database portion of the game. This part hardly makes the story more clear, infact it actually serves to frustrate and break apart the story as your stuck searching for hard hidden items, in order to make sense of the pieces you do have.

Overall I gave the movie a 7 as it's entertaining as a fan item. But truly missing a soul of it's own to make it the metal gear project it could have been.

Not bad

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Being a huge MGS fan, and loathing MG Acid, I was looking forward to this little game, and for what it is, its not bad: essentially a comic book based on the first game. And while it could have been improved with voice overs, the music and art work was great and brought back fond memories.

That being said, the additional mode, the memory builder, is irritating. The controls are a pain, and the camera never holds still long enough to be helpful. This is definitely nice for the hardcore MGS fan, but otherwise, probably not worth the headaches.

Great linking time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is not a game, but its very fun to find the relationshis between characters and better understanding of the story of MGS. Only for fans

Metal Gear Rocks

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is the only thing better than actually going back and playing MGS1 all over again. That was the best game of its time! This is the best way to relive the game without needing rations or continues. Get this disc you are gonna love it!!

They need to make more of these!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Konami is typically at the forefront of amazing technology, in-depth gameplay and enriching game stories and dialogue, mostly thanks to the genious that is Hideo Kojima, the head of Konami's KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS and mastermind behind the METAL GEAR SOLID series.

This isn't so much a game (as stated before) as an actual comic book. However, the comic book is only a "book" in its form of actual prints that have been brilliantly encoded onto the UMD format with added animation to smooth transistions from one still/frame to another. There is even a soundtrack, with haunting music and sound effects, but sadly no recorded dialogue, just text. The recorded dialogue is indeed missed (especially david hayter's unmistakeable voice of Snake Pliskin), as it worked incredibly well for MGS: PORTABLE OPS for the psp ( another game i'd highly recommend ).

Ashley Wood's beautiful, yet haunting sketches add a stylized look to an already brilliant story, one which may take you anywhere from a half-hour to forty-five minutes to watch straight through. The real extra feature that adds to the replay value is the memory mini-game, in which each still from the comic can be zoomed in on and intelligence can be gathered for a seperate menu where you can link them together.

The story of Metal Gear Solid is what will really propel you to pick up this UMD, if you've not played the original PS1 title, (or its gamecube remake under :The Twin Snakes tag) then this may actually be a great place to start if you do not wish to undertake the 10 hours of gameplay that metal gear will demand from you. However, nothing can really beat the feeling of the original game itself, so i would recommend picking up the original game if you're a completist.

Digital Graphic Novel is really for the more die-hard metal gear fans, but the presentation of the comic book coming to life in your hands is not a one trick pony, as i am very excited for the Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty follow up DGN, and am planning on purchasing the Silent Hill Experience UMD for its inclusion of the silent hill comics.

Indeed a unique UMD for your psp, i highly recommend MGS:DGN!

diffrent and intresting

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

this is a new way to read books i like the consept very well done and original in many ways

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