Originally released as part of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, an augmented version of Snake Eater that hit PS2 the following year, Metal Gear Online was a strange beast. The online take on MGS’ stealth gameplay would receive a few other iterations, with one accompanying Metal Gear Solid 4, another a part of the PSP titles Portable Ops and Peace Walker, and lastly with Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. (Let’s not talk about Survive. It doesn’t count.) For me, MGO was at its best in the version that accompanied MGS4, but in all the iterations I played, MGO remained something special, a celebration of MGS’ tendency to be a little goofy and, of course, an engaging multiplayer stealth game when it (and the players) wanted it to be.
MGO arguably ushered in a new perspective for Metal Gear as it forced the series to adopt a now-standard moveable 3D camera that pivots around the character. Prior to its release, MGS used fixed camera angles, usually in a top-down or isometric perspective. That perspective wasn’t ideal for a multiplayer game. At the same time, MGS is far from a fast-paced shooter. It’s slower, encouraging a more methodical approach even if you’re responding to threats with lethal force. And that’s one aspect that made both traditional, single-player MGS and its online offshoots so special. Some modes of MGO encouraged a relatively hectic play style. Others, meanwhile, were almost entirely about stealth. Take “Sneaking MIssion,” in which one player would take on the role of Snake as he stealthfully tried to knock out and steal dog tags from other players. Trying to stay hidden from actual flesh-and-blood players offered a kind of thrill that was quite distinct from what you’d get in the single-player games.
Naturally, being a Metal Gear game, cardboard boxes, naughty magazines, exaggerated death screams, the ability to play as characters from the series, and more made the game feel like an appropriately absurd celebration of what so many of us love about these games. MGS’ charm was and is never about one singular thing. It’s the sum of all of its wildly eccentric parts. That carried through in the various online modes it received over the years. I mean, just look at this nonsense. Where else would you see something like this?
Modders have recently made incredible strides in their efforts to resurrect the MGS4 iteration of Metal Gear Online on PC, so this experience is not totally lost to time. And technically you can still play MGSV’s online mode, though every time I’ve tried recently, I spend more time waiting for a match than I do playing. I also never cared for its class-based character selection.
Metal Gear Online is due to return later this year though. “Fox Hunt” is expected to launch in the fall as a part of the upcoming remake of MGS3, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Not a whole lot about this mode is known right now, though the game’s dedicated page promises “hide-and-seek based” gameplay “that utilizes the central elements of the base game–camouflage and survival.”
MGO was always a niche experience, of interest to only the most passionate of us MGS dorks. Hopefully Fox Hunt will provide new, quirky experiences that’ll satisfy this discerning crowd of stealth fans.
