Title: Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel

Date: 09.18.2006

Genre: Digital Comic

Platform: Sony PSP

Developer: Konami

Publisher: Konami

For Metal Gear Solid fans, this title is worth collecting, but for gamers that aren't too familiar with the series, this may not suit them. MGS:DGN could be a good start for people who are interested in quickly getting into the series, but there's also the option of playing Metal Gear Solid1 (PS1), Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (GC), and even perhaps on the PSP when Sony releases their Firmware that allows you to play PS1 games on their handheld system. All three released titles of MGS1 right now are inexpensive, so it's up to you to decide the direction you want to take to begin the series. DGN is the story without the gameplay. The cutscenes are taken from the Official Metal Gear Solid comic books, which was mostly based off of TTS. The actual comic books comprised of twelve issues, 25-32 pages long, but what makes DGN so interesting are the special effects, sound effects, and extras.

Solid Snake Simulation (S3)
This is the mode for watching the story of MGS1/TTS. Each page from the comic books blended nicely with neat special effects. Sometimes it would seem as if you were watching an animation, but then you keep reminding yourself it's only a digital graphic novel. The section from a page flows very well to the next and from page to page. The pace of the story is somewhat slow, but once it gets to the action scenes from the comic book, you'll be amazed how it plays out. Don't think you can fly through S3 from beginning to end quickly. It actually takes a lot longer to watch and read, than the actual comic books. You have the choice of selecting "Auto" to allow S3 go through the story at its set pace, or "Stop," which will pause at the point where you have to turn the page to see what's up ahead. Not only does S3 look so animated, but it has sound effects from the games and some of the music.

Cons
No voice-overs -- A lot of the lines are taken from the game, with some new or changed dialogues. I guess it wouldn't work to lift the voice-overs from MGS1/TTS and add it to DGN because of the changes in dialog. Bringing back the voice actors and re-recording some of the lines would cost too much money and time for a low budget title, so that couldn't work.

Pros
Besides watching MGS1 -- You can stop and save on a page if you want to take a break from S3 mode. Once you have gone through the entire S3, you can go back and choose whatever page you want to watch again. There's also the Scanning mode, during which, when you push the [] button, you can scan a section of a page to uncover data memories. There are many data memories to unlock, some of which has to be linked to other data memories to make a whole new data. With these data memories you can read elements that weren't given out in the story, characters' past, hidden meanings of things that were talked about by a character, etc.

Memory Building Simulation (MBS)
This is the best mode for the MGS fans that follow the games, interviews and buying extra items to learn more about the story. However, for some of the really hard core MGS fans out there, MBS may not make you say, "Oh, I did not know that..." MBS reveals a good amount of information about Metal Gear (MSX) to Metal Gear Solid 3. Be warned, however, that DGN will spoil many parts of the series, especially MGS2.

Cons
The Navigation -- It's really frustrating trying to move from one data to another. Sometimes when you want to move and read about a specific data, you might have a hard time trying to select it and the cursor will just keep placing you on a data you don't want to look at. The camera continuously rotates slowly, even as you bring up the screen to read a data, so to pan back out to the main MBS screen, you may have to rotate the camera back into the correct position if it bothers you.

Pros
The information -- What can I say? For the MGS fans out there who want to learn more about the series, you now have the chance, especially if you didn't keep up with interviews, the Official MGS1 Hand Book, the Document of MGS2, etc. It may not give you every bit of information of what I just listed, but it's just as good.

Game Score

B-

Reviewed By: Contributed