Review: Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel (PSP)

It should not surprise anyone, given Hideo Kojima's love of cutscenes (even the trailers of his games are gigantic and have at least three moments in succession at which it could end without anyone as much as raising an eyebrow), this was bound to happen eventually. Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel is a digital version of the comic based on the PlayStation-hit Metal Gear Solid. Yet, instead of giving you all the static pages on a UMD, the comic has been enlivened with sound and animation to turn it into one giant cutscene. At this point it is worth noting that there is a game underneath all of that, but it is so simplistic and redundant to anyone but a fan of Metal Gear Solid, that if you are not one, you can safely skip this title without ever regretting it.

Now if you are a fan of Metal Gear Solid, prepare to be both delighted and horrified.

The trouble with being 'based on' is that you are never going to be as good as the source material. This was more or less proven with Metal Gear Solid's Gamecube-remake Twin Snakes. Although at its heart the same game, certain parts were redone. But some of those changes were so subtle that despite being actually good, anyone who had played the original was constantly reminded of things not being entirely correct. The intonation of voices, a certain graphical glitch, for example, could suddenly spark an emotion of delight and recognition or disgust. Digital Graphic Novel is no different. The comic itself is drawn in the same style as Yoji Shinkawa's artwork, yet it never really comes close. At certain times it looks perfectly acceptable, a terrific tribute even, and then some truly hideous version of Mei Ling pops up and you would love to scream your lungs out. Or it rather annoyingly tends to cut some happenings short.

Getting from A to B which took you half an hour in the game will be compacted to mere seconds here. It is logical from a comic point of view, but at the same time reminds you of the change and breaks the spell of being absorbed by the story. Yet if you can take off those rose-tinted glasses and enjoy the comic for what it is, it will serve up some incredibly memorable scenes. You have not seen the showdown between Solid Snake and Revolver Ocelot until you have seen this version. The added sound and animation turns one of the most cherished battles of the game into an amazing celebration of it. Moments like that make Digital Graphic Novel worth its weight in gold.

So yes, a good comic with some corners cut, but what is the aforementioned game like? Well to call it a game is stretching its definition somewhat. The idea is that during any scene you hit a button to call up a cursor which you can zoom and pan throughout the picture. When you hit interesting objects it will say so and you can 'capture' the 'memory' attached to it. In a separate 'simulation environment' you can then link these memories and unlock their information. Usually a few sentences about how Snake uses, is used by, suffers or talks with the subject at hand. It can be anything from a description of Colonel Campbell to the lethal effects of Foxdie. The catch behind all of this is that a certain subject is only accessible if there is a direct link to Snake. For instance missing Naomi will not allow you access to Foxdie and no connection to Mei Ling will prohibit you from accessing the Soliton Radar 'memory'.

Combined with the tedium of pausing the comic, and searching all corners and layers of the picture for 'memories' it is actually pretty boring. And the only thing you get back for all your work are separate files and scraps of info. Gamestyle is pretty sure reading a Wikipedia-entry will give you more and faster access to information concerning the Metal Gear Solid story than this UMD, and the temptation of just downloading a PSP save file with all the memories unlocked is beyond tangible.

Digital Graphic Novel is a great document and playtoy for the Metal Gear enthusiast. It is a collector's item being both pointless yet essential, at one hand making you revel in its associated experiences and at the other making you wince back crying foul of the imposed changes and its 'game' element. It is gaming's Fabergé egg, delighting you with pleasant surprises if you do not care for its functionality. Ultimately though it is one long drawn out cutscene cut up by little bits of gameplay that do not seem to fit in as well. That at times it feels so painfully close to its source material then, might surprise people. But in all honestly, it never should have. It was bound to happen.

Rating: 6 / 10

Words by Vincent Leeuw