I don’t want to call this a review because, well, it’s a beta test. To give it a score just wouldn’t be fare. So I’m just going to tell you all what I think about the Metal Gear Online Beta.

After all the shenanigans with the Konami ID signups were ironed out and the play period was delayed, we were finally able to get our hands on with Metal Gear Online. The Beta shipped with two maps, Blood Bath and Groznyj Grad, while a third, Midtown Maelstrom, was recently added to the game. To go with these maps, you have five game types to choose from: Death Match, Team Death Match, Base Mission, Sneaking Mission, and Capture Mission.

The first two game modes are self explanatory. If you don’t know what Death Match is by now, you should find another hobby. Base Mission is a Zone-type gameplay mode where your team will need to secure various points on the map to win the round. Sneaking Mission, also recently added, has one player acting as Solid Snake with all of his equipment and goodies. You go around trying to collect dog tags without being caught and killed, all the while the teams go around killing each other. If you get more than 10 players in the match, one of the players becomes the little rolly Metal Gear Mk II to help Snake collect the dog tags. Finally, Capture Mission is your standard Capture the Flag gametype. Nothing extraordinary and innovative, save the Sneaking Mission.

The maps are all well designed and suit each of the game types nicely. My personal favorite (of the three) is Blood Bath. With it’s multi-tiered elements, there are a lot of places to run and hide, which goes well with the stealth aspects of the game.

When you first start up, you get to customize the look of your character as well as the abilities he specializes in. Notice I said “he”, as there are no female characters in the Beta. Hopefully that’s something that makes the final release, since there are female soldiers in the game. You get four slots to specialize your abilities and can level up each of these by doing well in the game with the weapon or performance in question, such as using your assault rifle to kill the enemy. After you’re done going through the customization options, it’s time to get right to the gameplay.

The controls are solid and similar to most shooters out there today. One thing that bothers me is having Auto Aim turned on every time you start a round. A quick hit of the Square button makes that go away, but I hope this ends up in the Options menu before the game ships. Because it is a stealth tactical game, you need to utilize a lot of teamwork in all game types other than standard Death Match. Unfortunately, in all the games I’ve played, I’ve yet to find a full team using their headsets. It’s tough to relay information about enemy positions and such when no one can hear you. Konami must understand this and has included some pre-written text statements that you can send to your team by hitting the Select button.

In case you aren’t keen on playing with just random strangers, Metal Gear Online supports Clans, even in the Beta test. You can create or join a Clan to get your friends together to team up against whoever might be out there. This is a great feature that I wish more games would support.

Overall, it’s okay. There are some graphical bugs and connection issues, which is to be expected in a Beta test. However, I haven’t found anything other than the recently added Sneaking Mission that really sticks out and grabs my attention. I can find the other game types in any other online shooter on the market. I think Konami needs to come up with more unique game modes that take advantage of the Metal Gear storyline and characters to entice people to hop away from games like Call of Duty 4, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, and Warhawk. There’s still plenty of time left in the Beta period, so I have hopes that Konami will release more modes and maps to give Metal Gear Online the edge it needs to compete in the already saturated online shooter market. For now, though, I’ll just have fun with sneaking around in a cardboard box as Solid Snake.