Let's Talk About Metal Gear AC!D
 

Okay, I know AC!D is really old, but I only just barely got a chance to start playing it.

AC!D 1 & 2 both take place in the same continuity as Ghost Babel. I hear Ghost Babel was really good, so it's nice that it gets its own continuity instead of just being a one-off non-canon game like Snake's Revenge.

I'm... not sure how I feel about this game. It's like if you combined Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories with an SRPG and Metal Gear Solid and I'm too busy what-the-fucking over the result to come to a decision about whether or not I actually enjoy it.

Even the plot is particularly bizarre, cutting over between missions to a scene of two mannequin doll things murdering passengers on an airplane.

Also, Snake looks like an animu.

Anyone else play this game? Have any tips for me? Is AC!D 2 much better?

I am an expert researcher
 

I saw a thread about Metal Gear and I got all excited. I've been wanting to have a MGS thread in awhile. But... it's about the only Metal Gear games I haven't played. D:

Talk about Ghost Babel and I will be there though.

But I did some research for you in the form of asking my fellow MGS fans:

Me: hey have any of you guys played Metal Gear Acid?
or acid 2
Person A: I have played some Acid, yeah
teeeeeny bit, though
Me: is it good :V
Person A: nn... n...
n...?
Person B: isnt it turn based
Person A: it is
but, Acid 2 is apparently pretty awesome

So there you go! apparently Acid 2 is pretty awesome.

I am a little curious about Ac!d if it's in the same continuity as Ghost Babel. Out of curiosity, are the puppet things named Osan and Kohal?

No, they're named Elise and Frances.

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__...mmon/blank.gifhttp://i47.tinypic.com/dykv4g.gif
This one is Frances. Elise looks more or less the same, but has a bad eye.

AC!D has some stuff going for it. The gameplay is interesting, it's just hard to get past its flaws to enjoy what's good about it.

Like, turn order is determined by cost running down. Cost goes up as you use cards, and different cards have different cost. Each turn has two actions to it though, and Snake can use items that will increase his number of actions per turn. Of course, if he gets more actions per turn, that'll make his cost increase more per turn, meaning the enemies will get more turns between his. The problem is figuring out how to get through using the items you have, since you also have to use up cards to be able to move, while avoiding the path the enemy will follow when it's their turn, and to make it all worse the game has to grade you at the end of each mission. That's just mean. I *think* I'll like it more once I'm further in, it's just one of those things that takes a lot of getting used to.

Of course, I have to love getting MGS characters as cards. "You got Naomi Hunter!"

Let's talk about cards, actually. Right now, I can only have thirty cards in my deck. No more, no less. You can have no more than four of a particular card. Seeing as I only have one type of silenced weapon, only being able to carry four of them in a deck of thirty kinda sucks. You have two equip spots, but you can get things to increase it to four, or possibly more. Special use items and equips wear off after a certain amount of time, and it costs one of your actions to use or equip things, so you have to plan this out. You can only have six cards maximum in your hand as well, and what you get in your hand is randomized. You can discard two cards and get two new ones once per turn, but that has a cost of six. Once you run through your deck once, there is a cost of ten to reshuffle it, something the game does automatically.

Can you see how this might start to become a clusterfuck?

Now about weapons. Weapons have range, accuracy, and damage. Range determines at what range the guns accuracy starts to go down. You can equip things to improve this stat. There are also cost affecting items you can use with weapons and the like. Accuracy is how likely the weapon is to hit the person. Damage is how much damage it does. Damage increases depening on where you're aiming from. Above or behind, and you'll do 1.5 times as much damage. From the side is 1.2 times as much. Most weapons are fired several times when used, and before you fire, it'll show all these stats for this particular use, like how much damage each hit with the weapon will do, and how likely each shot is to hit the enemy. Using a weapon costs an action and increases your cost by the number on the card. Some things, like grenades, will only go off after a certain amount of cost has passed. Obviously, you'd prefer that to happen on your turn and not give the enemy time to get out of the way, which means you'll actually want to do a high cost action after throwing a grenade, if you can have a spare action to do so.

Snake can do several things when moving. He can crawl, decreasing his distance, but letting him get through tight areas. He can press against a wall and knock on it. He can also punch enemies when he is next to them. Moving will cost a card, and most every card can be used to move, though they only have a move of three. Genome Soldier cards have a move of four, but that's all they're good for. Doing the special actions like punching don't use a card, but they create cost. You can also punch only once per turn. The benefit is that it'll knock a soldier down and get rid of one of their cards. If you get rid of all their cards, they'll lose a turn. Punching can also get rid of ceramic armor, making sure you don't waste a weapon card.

Keep in mind there are cards that increase Snake's dodging in general or from certain directional attacks, items that heal, items that affects cost, equip space, or actions per turn, character cards with special abilities, cards that he can equip to decrease damage or prevent damage. Etc. All these generally have their own cost unless stated otherwise on the card.

And then my head exploded.

AC!D is fun, it's not as awesome as AC!D 2 but I enjoyed it when I played it. It's more limited in comparison to what you can do in AC!D 2 but considering it was the first attempted by them at turn-based/trading card based game they did a good job. It's got a decent story. I played it after playing the second game and found it hard to go from AC!D 2 to AC!D 1 do to the missing of certain cool little things AC!D 2 has.

Mine too

And then the plot committed honorable seppuku...

It looked like it was going to go in an interesting direction for a bit, but this... this is just... dumb. There are so many reasons this is the stupidest thing ever. I do not have enough fingers to count them. I'm hoping the plot will salvage itself by it turning out this twist is total bullshit, but I doubt it.

Come on, man, don't leave us hanging and spoiler that for us? Pretty please? I do so love reading about plot clusterfucks.

Okay...

Now, keep in mind, the game still has the chance to tell me that this didn't actually happen, but...

This scientist just revealed that Solid Snake is actually some guy named Hans Davis. He's a scientist who did experiments on children for this company because they were trying to do... something that hasn't been revealed yet. Also, Hans was working on a Metal Gear.

Hans was actually an alias Snake took when he started working for the company. Why did the company want Snake working for them as their head scientist? Because the kids they were experimenting on would see him as a role model or something.

Why is Snake a scientist? ...Because the plot says so. Why did Snake choose to join an evil company? ...Because the plot says so.

So, why doesn't Snake remember any of this? Well, he's starting to remember small things, but he got amnesia for some unexplained reason and may have implanted false memories in his head about being Solid Snake during the years he was Hans.

Well... Maybe it's all a lie! Maybe Kojima can back his way out of this terrible plot thread... But there's a problem with the idea that none of this is true, other than Snake starting to remember stuff.

The product of their experiment is killing people on an airplane with little marionette doll things and carving numbers into their chest. The numbers are 19, 14, 1, 11, and 5... SNAKE...

It's still theoretically possible that they'll find a way of making none of this true, but to do that would require even dumber plot points than we're getting already.

AUGH

AC!D is about as non-canonical as you can get outside of Big Boss turning into a robot.

Metal Gear Ac!d is meant to be Counter-Metal Gear, hence the "Acid".

Let's just say....THAT NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS!

Particularly, as Snake gets no outside info for the majority of his mission, and the command crew and villains are free to just spout BS as much as they please.

Only in the sequel is the big "WHAT?" moment true, and it's implied by basic logic that the circumstances surrounding it are untrue, resulting in fridge logic of awesomeness. TWO SNAKES?

Another connection to the Ghost Babel Game (which is metal gear solid for the GBC, and excellently done) is the Snake Tales missions for Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance.

Oh Dr. Kopplethorn, you've scienced up a reality all to yourself!