The pace of MGO takes a bit of getting used to. It’s deliberately slow. Some could say it’s a “realistic pace”, but the lack of sprinting and jumping makes that argument difficult to uphold. I’d say it’s “Metal Gear realistic”. If you’re familiar with Metal Gear’s reality, everything makes sense. You can shoot through certain materials and your gun will be obstructed by physical obstacles. The gunplay, especially, took a while for me to come to grips with. Burst fire and shot selection plays huge roles in MGO; Call of Duty 4 was a lot more forgiving in this respect.

Instead of jumping, MGO is filled with rolling and diving. Leaping across gaps and diving behind cover works well, but if you’re not delicate enough; you may find yourself diving into a prone position. I wouldn’t say the controls are too complex or too cumbersome, but they do require patience, an awareness of pressure sensitivity and a level of comfort with how they work. Despite offering plenty of tweaking options, Konami neglected to offer the one important option to tweak: button layout. I would have loved to assign reloading to the square button. (It’s a force of habit.)

MGO is also very methodological. If you commit to an action, you better know the consequences of those actions. A failed CQC attempt, or missed headshot could leave you wide open to a world of hurt – especially if you are alone. You shouldn’t be alone though since MGO is best played as a team.

Capture the flag, capture point, team deathmatch and other modes involving teams allow players to hookup into the SOP System. I love this system since it doesn’t require voice chat at all to carry out information relay between teammates. If you sync up with your players, you will be able to see a wire-frame silhouettes of them navigating throughout the level in the 3-D world and on the minimap. If you happen to capture an enemy player, you can hack into their team’s SOP System can reveal their locations. The SOP System not only transmits location, but also the status of your comrades. Dead? Unconcious? Being seduced by a magazine. It all gets relayed to you. It also acts as a friendly fire prevention system where your gun will lock for a brief period if you shoot a friend.

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