For those unfamiliar with the first game, Ac!d 2 follows the same core principles. As the game goes on, you gain access to an increasing variety of cards to build your collection. The cards all relate to something from the Metal Gear series, be they characters, items, special skills or similar. From the whole collection, you select a limited number of cards to actually take into missions as your deck. This makes it possible to develop a very personal playing style, emphasising all-out action rather than stealth by employing lots of weaponry, for example. In each turn, cards are randomly drawn from your deck to make up your hand of six. The tactics and the skill come in deciding what to play and when, as cards can either be used according to their main purpose, or can be converted to movement points. To make things even more complicated, every card carries a hold value. The better the skill in question, the higher the number of hold points it incurs, and the total amount of hold points you amass in a turn dictates how long you wait until you get to move again. Each turn, the game charges the player with the task of weighing up which cards are best used at that moment and which ones you might need later, all the while keeping tabs on where enemy characters are and what their next move will be if their hold number counts down before yours.

If this sounds at all complicated, don’t worry, because it is, and it takes some getting used to. Ac!d 2 streamlines the process slightly by giving you much more direct control over Snake’s positioning when moving, making control slightly less laborious, but the system is still basically the same: use the cards at your disposal in the best possible way to achieve the classic Metal Gear objectives of stealth and evasion. As such, it doesn’t seem overly glib to note that Ac!d 2 is firmly for fans of the original or those who never got around to the original. If you weren’t a big fan of the first entry in this relatively radical offshoot, the second is unlikely to be the cause of your conversion. To what extent this can be seen as a bad thing is, unfortunately, rather subjective. One of the main complaints levelled at the first game is that over time, especially once you have a large complement of cards at your disposal, things can become repetitive, a problem that has in no way been rectified in this release.

In fairness to Konami, they haven’t been resting on their laurels. The now cel-shaded graphics look gorgeous and the environments are bigger and more detailed, reflecting just how powerful the PSP really is in a purely technical sense. Sure, you’re not exactly in direct control, but at least your actions produce attractive results. An intriguing addition is the bundled Solideye Tobidac!d contraption, a very cheap looking funnel like overlay that you slide over the PSP and look through. Via a bit of technical trickery, you then see the game in pseudo-3D, and it really does work surprisingly well, like 3D glasses only even better and with real colour. The downside? Prolonged usage is guaranteed to give you eyestrain, and you look unbelievably silly using the damn things. Beyond the technical improvements, the game is also a fair chunk bigger than the original, with almost double the number of available cards. And ultimately, given the plot-driven nature of the Metal Gear series, a brand-new storyline to play through is in many ways reason enough to re-enter the Ac!d world. As with the first game, the story is disconnected from the Metal Gear Solid series, seeing Snake returning from a mission with amnesia, suddenly being taken hostage by a man purporting to be from the FBI and then being forced to infiltrate a weapons facility to steal evidence against a rogue scientist. Slightly less freakish than the demonic-mannequin-heavy first game, suffice it to say things are still not as they seem. The conversations are typically lengthy, but by this point, surely everyone knows what to expect from Metal Gear plot direction? To round out the package, there are additional modes like Arena, which allows players to tackle conquered bosses, and Ad-Hoc multiplayer battles that pit two players against each other in a card deathmatch.

A quick word of caution before getting to the final thoughts: non-English versions of the game are completely impenetrable for those without a strong grasp of Japanese et al, given the density of text in the plot and the written out descriptions of card functions. Unless you particularly feel that the game needs that extra challenge, best stick with the US and European versions. The bigger question, that of whether Metal Gear Ac!d 2 is worth owning, can ultimately only be answered evasively at best. Gorgeous throughout and with the inevitably high Kojima production values, Ac!d 2 is a more rounded and competent technical package than the first game, with a brand new story, but which otherwise plays near identically. What changes that have been made to the formula are welcome, but far from revolutionary. If you played and enjoyed the first game, then this is for you. For those unsure, the game is tactical, thoughtful and unfortunately still not free of repetition and frustration. Unquestionably a good game, but still arguably more niche than it necessarily has to be. Give it a chance, however, and you might well be pleasantly surprised.