This is my review for Metal Gear Solid Touch. It was released on March 8th, 2009 for a price of $7.99. I would like to start off by saying that this is nothing like the Metal Gear Solid series you know. The game is just a shooter and nothing more. Although I do want to mention that Hideo Kojima announced that there will be an update. It will include more action to the game and 8 additional levels.
Metal Gear Solid Touch is a solid game for the iPhone. While to many it does not have much to offer, it still does a really good job of what it’s suppose to do. There are a total of 12 levels in the game. Before each level starts you are shown a picture, followed by text to provide you with the story of the game, and finally a screen that gives you an objective. The objective is usually to take down a certain amount of PMC soldiers. Each level is comprised of picking off PMC soldiers that pop out randomly in the stage. Your weapon choice is limited to an M4 and SVD sniper rifle. Throughout the level little ducks will pop up that you can shoot to regain health. In later levels little frogs will pop up that you can shoot to acquire a rocket launcher. Typically the rocket launcher will be most effective in boss battles. After the completion of each level a screen shows you your stats for that level and gives you a rank. The better you do in each level the more DP (Drebin Points) you are awarded. You can cash in those points in the Drebin shop to get different high quality wallpapers for your iPhone. I’d like to also bring up there is a section on the main screen called Special, which takes you to another screen with the list of all the Metal Gear games. You can click on the titles and they give you an extremely short synopsis of the game.
The controls are really sleek in this game and respond very well. Snake sits behind sand bags to take cover. To aim and shoot in the game, all you have to do is drag your finger to bring snake up from cover. To shoot at enemies you tap the screen where the enemy is. To use the sniper rifle, spread your fingers out and you’ll zoom in. To zoom back out you just pinch the screen. The controls are simple but they make the game fun, especially when you go for headshots.
The music in the game is good. It is repetitive, but it’s Metal Gear Solid music so it will be enjoyable to hardcore fans. I have seen complaints about people wanting to be able to play their own music. Metal Gear Solid requires unique music and listening to Backstreet Boys is not appropriate. Maybe it would work if your playing the Metal Gear Solid 1,2, 3 or 4 albums.. The sound of the shots are perfect and great quality for the iPhone. Overall the sounds and music fit the game well.
Graphics for this game are very good. People have such high expectations in graphics that it’s all they think of. The graphics are 2D sprites with some rendering. Even though the iPhone is capable of so much more in graphics, they still look great no matter what anyone says. If you want to play a full on cinematic looking Metal Gear game, pick up one of the console versions.
Honestly there isn’t a whole lot to the game. It can be finished very fast. Metal Gear Solid Touch is a pick up and play type of game. It is very easy to come back and play through a level to take out some PMC soldiers. If you want to collect all the wallpapers in Drebins shop, you’ll have to put some serious time in. One of the wallpapers cost as high as 100,000 DP. With the announced update of 8 extra levels (free to those who already bought the game) the games value should go up. Unless you are seriously into this game, there isn’t much replay value.
The last thing I would like to bring up in this review are the issues I found with the game. The first one is on the title screen when you try to select an option. The response to tapping an option is kind of funky. If you tap it like normal it won’t respond, but if you tap really fast it will respond. Another issue I found in the game is that there is no pause or quit button during levels. I guess the reason behind this was to keep the action intense? Although it doesn’t take long to beat a level, it would be nice to pause if you have to for whatever reason. The last issue I want to bring up is the price. $7.99 for this app was too high and not necessary. The highest it should have been priced was $4.99. I highly doubt it will drop that much or even at all since it is made by Konami. If you are a hardcore Metal Gear Solid fan, or are willing to take a risk I say pick it up. Even though it is $7.99, it seems it still hasn’t been hurting that much. It is currently number 19 out of a 100 right now on the paid app list.
Overall I give Metal Gear Solid Touch an 8/10
Gameplay and video review soon to come!
Posted by meder87 
