MGO Expands With “GENE”: An Analysis

by Geoff Haugan on July 15, 2008 at 10:03 am

The recent additions of Team Sneaking and Headshot Only modes to Metal Gear Online is just the beginning, since the first of the expected expansion packs is only a few days away. Let’s talk about what’s included, how it indicates some promising MGO evolution and why maybe the price (if it can’t be free) isn’t as bad as it could be.

Originally, Metal Gear Online was possibly going to be a separate game. Thankfully, Kojima Productions wisely gave everyone who purchased MGS4 a good taste of the basics that MGO had to offer in the form of the starter pack—touting coming expansions packs that would add lots more content for those wanting it.

Information on the first of these expansion packs, entitled GENE, has been posted by Konami. As they previously discussed, they look to be hitting all categories with this expansion by adding new characters, maps, a play mode, new customizability and an extra character slot.

Maps

Coppertown Conflict/City of Sorrow: Brown Town? YES! While I can’t be sure, this map almost surely looks like the reappearance of Brown Town from MGO: Subsistence, one of my favorite maps from that game. Hopefully it will find its own personality in the new MGO, as Midtown Maelstrom does hark back to its design with a wide-open street on one edge and more intimate alleyways on the other. I think there’s absolutely room for both.

Tomb of Tubes/Underground Waterway: Reminiscent of the underground Groznyj Grad sewers Snake escapes through in Snake Eater, Tomb of Tubes appears a darker, more intimate indoor affair.

Virtuous Vista/South American Power Station: Adapted from Snake’s latest adventure (MGS4), specifically the South American jungle of Act II. I get a Svyatogornyj East vibe from this one, though likely larger, which would be fantastic.

Characters

One of the things I missed most about MGO: Subsistence was the unique characters leading each squad and the fun, variety and tactics this brought to the game.

I had hoped unique characters might return and it looks like Kojima Productions had the same thing in mind.

Meryl Silverburgh: Meryl’s skills revolve around her role as a team leader.

Enemies she attacks and enemies that attack her will be displayed through SOP (perhaps something akin to Monomania and Narc at level 3).

Allies near her will regain Psyche faster, though as far as I know there’s no way to regain Psyche in MGO so perhaps she will enable this within certain proximity.

She can wake teammates quicker than usual and excels at handgun use (probably Handgun+ at level 3).

Whether or not she’ll be able to use the Desert Eagle, as she carries in MGS4, by default or by choice I’m curious to see.

Johnny (Akiba): Like Meryl, Johnny’s abilities seem tied to his in-game MGS4 persona. He’s an expert at traps.

He can see all traps in a stage and can disarm them in a special way, by pressing triangle, to turn them into items.

While he may be equipped with some special weapons or skills at using traps too, he may be less easily used given that I don’t see many trap users out there in MGO. It’s a shame because I not only had some great fun, but also success, when playing around with the likes of C4 and sleep gas mines. Most hosts sadly turn off many of the weapons.

It’s also possible that Johnny is meant as a weaker character, in-line with at least his early-game persona in MGS4 and his appearance as Johnny Sasaki in all the other MGS games. This would make him similar to Sokolov in Subsistence, who was controlled by the worst scoring player on his squad and who only had a weaker version of the optical camo to aid him.

Konami has added a note that these characters are not freely selectable, meaning that they should function similarly to the “leader” characters in Subsistence. Konami claims they’ll be assigned randomly, which would be a change, as previously the special characters were controlled by the best or worst scoring player on a given squad. To give more people a chance to play as these guys, randomizing it sounds like a good idea.

A similar change was made when deciding who becomes the next Snake in sneaking mode. No longer does the soldier who killed Snake take over his role, alleviating at least some competition within teams.

Customizability

The expansion adds the ability to create female soldiers, and with it adds a new character slot so that you can create and save a second character without having to purchase the atrocious extra character slot add-on for $7.99USD (includes 3 character slots.) You only really need one character I suppose, but still…

The total number of characters you can buy slots for now is apparently eight, if you want to waste money.

New items for your character will also be available in the Reward Shop for purchase with Reward Points.

Survival Mode and Reward Shop

I’m really curious about Survival Mode, but details are scarce. Presumably it revolves around staying alive and will probably be another fairly unique mode, very welcome in MGO. Reward Points can be earned in Survival that can be spent on items in the Reward Shop to further customize your characters. These items can be used in modes other than Survival as well.

Could Survival be a single player or perhaps cooperative experience as opposed to team vs. team? It’s an interesting possibility. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Release Date

You won’t have to wait long though as the Metal Gear Online GENE Expansion will be available for download on July 17, 2008. It will be available through the MGO shop, which probably elicits a groan throughout the world, as Konami has insisted on using their own proprietary online system for their games as opposed to the PlayStation Store.

Not easy to use through the PS3 itself, the MGO Shop is simply a barebones webpage. While only the overpriced character slot and codec pack add-on have been available up until now, the expansion should be its first real test. If possible, try accessing the store via PC and making your purchase that way. I admit though that I do not even know exactly how that works and you may still be required to access the shop to at least start the download on your PS3.

Price

Priced at 9.99EUR for Europe, there has been no revelation yet for North Americans even days ahead of release. That figure is likely to translate directly to $9.99USD, or so I’d hope. If that will be the price, then all I can think is that it could be worse. With three extra character slot running $7.99USD on the MGO Shop, I worried how much an expansion might run if it included stuff that was actually worth getting.

$10 is certainly more reasonable than $15 or $20, but it’s probably the highest price I would consider acceptable. Given the price I paid for MGS4 already and the reliance on Konami’s servers to enjoy MGO, it still gives me pause for thought. Map packs tend to run around $5. There’s more here and it’s interesting content, but Survival mode is still a mystery and with more expansions on the way, the cost of the “full” experience could get pricey.

While I’m not privy to all the intricacies of the industry’s business model, look at what Criterion is doing with Burnout Paradise. There’s a precedent for this stuff to be free, and MGS4 is a full retail game. Clearly a huge amount of work went into it, but are they nickel and diming us with the online portion?

It’s impossible to say, since we don’t know what else the future will bring. I don’t know how many hosts out there will be using the expansion, but Konami is raising the danger that the already niche MGO userbase will be splintered. Of course prices could come down or expansions could be bundled, but the price already seems to be adding up.

Maybe it’s not fair to expect this kind of stuff for free, but as a big Metal Gear Online fan this is giving me pause for thought. And that’s something Konami should be concerned about.

Other companies are releasing impressive add-on content for free, so take notice Konami. It’s in your interest to keep the community strong.

Sources: Konami, Strategy Informer

Share This: