Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel

by Konami

Product Features

• Crisp transfer of the great artwork from the comic series, with added music and sound effects
• Features the new MGS Database - While watching the comic, hit a scan button to open a scanning interface. You can then move a target around the art, find a scannable item and look it up in the database.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000FDMUSM
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: June 13, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,606 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

The Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel is an incredible digital adaptation of the Official Metal Gear Solid Comic Book. You'll go deeper than ever into the story behind Metal Gear, learn more about its main players and enjoy a twisting story of espionage and intrigue. The events of Shadow Moses have never been so clear.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great low key fun for comic lovers, June 16, 2006

By 

Lisa Shea "medieval swordfighting enthusiast" - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel (Video Game)

Are you a fan of comics, manga or anime? You should really take a look at the Metal Gear Solid PSP active novel, then. It's like a manga that moves, with hidden secrets.

There are multiple areas to this "game" - and since this is a pretty new style of gaming, it can get confusing. Here's how it works.

First, you have the graphic novel. It's sort of like a cut scene from XIII or the upcoming Metal Gear Portable Ops, with a hand drawn look and subtle motion. It's pretty cool. You sit back and watch the story unfold. It's in essence the Metal Gear Solid I storyline, like the comic book they released of this. You can sit back, not push any buttons, and enjoy the story.

However, press circle. A little graph appears beneath the story. Spikes in the graph indicate the presence of hidden secrets. You can of course search every single scene if you want to - but if you'd rather get some hints, use the graph to figure out where to focus your searches.

Using square, you freeze the action and can now track down the secret items. What these represent are "memory triggers" for Snake. Think of it in this way. If you've forgotten something, you might stand in the kitchen and look arond. You spot the keys on the table and realize that's what you forgot. It's the exact same thing - you are locating memory triggers in the various scenes for Snake to work with.

When you collect a number of these, it's on to the part that most people find complicated - arranging those memories into a logical sequence. You work in groups - so you have one group for support team memories, one group for activity memories and so on. The memories all go into their groups by themselves, so all you do is make the connections. For example, if you see a doctor - and then see a memory about a medical device, you would link them together. If you read the little fact sheets on each memory, it's usually very clear which connect to which. As you link up your memories, it reveals new cut scenes and new groups to work with.

To help you from being overwhelmed, you don't start out with "all memories" in a giant heap. It lets you work on just 2-3 groups. Once you get those sorted out, new groups - with whatever memories you've unlocked so far - become available.

The game is a little frustrating at the beginning, because the manual is pretty pitiful. However, with a little trial and error you get the hang of how it works, and it really is quite fun. The story is a good one, and tracking down the hidden memories can be quite challenging. Certainly this isn't an "action" game with guns and blood. It's more a puzzle solving game - figuring out where the clues are, and then piecing them together. If you're the type of person who enjoys manga and anime, along with puzzles, then this would be just right for you.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, January 26, 2007

By 

R M - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel (Video Game)

Being a huge MGS fan, and loathing MG Acid, I was looking forward to this little game, and for what it is, its not bad: essentially a comic book based on the first game. And while it could have been improved with voice overs, the music and art work was great and brought back fond memories.

That being said, the additional mode, the memory builder, is irritating. The controls are a pain, and the camera never holds still long enough to be helpful. This is definitely nice for the hardcore MGS fan, but otherwise, probably not worth the headaches.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Digital Interactive, January 25, 2007

By 

Brian A Luedtke - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel (Video Game)

The Metal Gear Solid Graphic Novel is a a comic retelling of The Metal Gear Solid game for Playstation. The comic adds small bits of extra information and events that weren't in the original game. This UMD experience is good for road trips or other boring events. This movie isn't exciting to view, it isn't an experience you will be choosing over one of the other Metal Gear "Games" on the PSP. With it being a comic, everything must be read, that's a no duh concept. However, unless your a killer fan this is a watch once and send it back. This is more of a piece of memorabilia than a solid addition to the series.

What adds a small bit of extra life to the digital comic is that most comic frames can be paused and searched for hidden items in the images. Finding these images unlocks them for digital linking in the memory database portion of the game. This part hardly makes the story more clear, infact it actually serves to frustrate and break apart the story as your stuck searching for hard hidden items, in order to make sense of the pieces you do have.

Overall I gave the movie a 7 as it's entertaining as a fan item. But truly missing a soul of it's own to make it the metal gear project it could have been.