Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel

Metal Gear goes graphic novel in this ambitious take on interactive entertainment.

While I love the Metal Gear series, I have to admit that the past couple of games have often left me scratching my head. Their gameplay have always been rock-solid, but convoluted storylines and bizarre plot twists always made their a bit more of a chore to understand than they should have been. Enter Konami's newest Metal Gear offering -- Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel. While it's not technically a game per say, it does feature quite a bit of Metal Gear Solid goodness for the die-hard fans out there. But, it also features perhaps the most confusing storyline system ever created, making for a decidedly weird experience. (Check out 71 screens by clicking right here!)

If you're a fan of the celebrated IDW Metal Gear Solid comic book series, prepare to experience them in a whole new way. True, much of MGS: Digital Graphic Novel is simply "watching" your comics, but they have been outfitted with some bells and whistles to make things interesting. First off, there's some pretty engaging music that accompanies the story, giving gripping scenes a nice dose of tension. The comics also feature some nice sound effects that help make the more action-oriented scenes a bit more "action packed." But, when you really get down to it, you are watching a graphic novel play out, so take the entire experience with a grain of salt.

The actual watching portion of MGS: Digital Graphic Novel is dubbed VR Simulation Mode. To give that mode a bit more weight, Konami has included a couple other features. The first is Mental Search Mode. In this mode you can utilize a special camera-like device and actually scan the pages of the graphic novel for things called memory elements. That's right, you heard me correctly. As you watching VR Simulation Mode, you can stop the action and scan scenes for memory elements. When you find one, it's added to a special database.

This database, or Memory Building Simulation Mode, houses all of your discovered memory units. The real kicker, however, is that those memory elements can actually be strung together to create flashback. These flashbacks then give you extra story content that helps round out the graphic novel plot a bit more. Think of it like going hunting for memories, finding them, mounting them, and then putting them together like a giant puzzle. When you successfully string together key memory units, you'll be able to watch the flashback and even find new and undiscovered memory units in that plotline. There are a ton of memory units to find and even more ways to connect them all together, giving die-hard fans of the series quite a bit of content to search for.

If MGS: Digital Graphic Novel had come from any other developer than Kojima Productions, I would have thought it pretentious and overly complicated. But, given Hideo Kojima's penchant for creating twisted and downright confusing storylines, this title is a bit easier to digest. Keep in mind, unless you're really a devout fan of the series, much of what's contained in MGS: Digital Graphic Novel will probably confuse the heck out of you. Searching for memory elements and stringing them together to form flashbacks is a truly unique idea, but the implementation can be downright confusing, thanks to a clunky interface. But, if you're one of those gamers that can't seem to get enough Metal Gear Solid, you're probably up to the task.

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