MGA: METAL GEAR AC!D

[Dirty Duck]

Lobito Island and FAR was a really great setting that captured the feeling of MGS1 but had a mood all its own and gets progressively weirder by the end.

I think that sums up Acid's vibe really well. It's MGS1 through the looking glass. The transition from those early stages that are quite tame and normal to the Tower where guards of different colours are executing one another is great. It feels more akin to 90's comic books compared to MGS1's blockbuster film feel-and it's a great fit for Metal Gear. This is partly why the story's conclusion felt like a bit of a let down

MGA Story Spoilers:

I found the idea that Snake actually was this Hans Davis character really compelling. A Solid Snake who had actually done unspeakable things and was doing everything in his power to shove them down, the total opposite to mainline Snake who was definitely not a bad person but who spent all of his time verbally acknowledging the wrongs he had committed. I thought it was great to have Teliko fill the sort of Raiden style character but she meets her hero and rather than him just being this larger than life mentor she finds out there's maybe this darkness to him. Due to all of the gradual Neoteny reveals as well as the early mention of name-knowers, the doubt casted towards Roger for being the one to insist Snake was brought onto this mission, and a few other things I thought what was going on was as follows:
Alice was experimented on and Gary Flemming and Hans Davis (Snake) were part of this. Davis eventually got cold feet about the whole thing and ran away, starting a new life and doing everything in his power to repress his memories of FAR. Roger at some point was involved, representing CIA interests in the research being done. Alice eventually became the Neoteny but her powers being purely of the mind she couldn't escape FAR on her own. She controlled Roger into escorting her out of FAR and used him to create a "mission" for Solid Snake to be called in for. This was all done to bring Hans Davis out of hiding and put him somewhere where Alice could have revenge on him, with Flemming's involvement all part of it. The mission intends to awaken Hans Davis within Snake by putting him in control of PYTHAGORAS and having him believe he can make the nuclear strike, with whether or not he does so deciding his fate. A child's game of bluff devised by Alice. I thought the conclusion would be about accountability and recompense, and involve Snake, Teliko, and Alice all deciding whether he should live for his heroism as Solid Snake or die for his sins as Hans Davis.

Obviously that is quite far from what happened, which is fine! It's a bit out there as a plot but I thought it made sense with the vibe and feel of the game in general-kind of dark, kind of weird, very left field and "new." But I felt the ending being "oh actually Snake I just wanted to control you because I think you're cool so I needed you to believe you're Hans Davis but dw you're not. I'm gonna pass out now for psychic reasons." was a bit lacklustre after all the cool build up and peppering of misinformation and doubt. It felt good to really not know what was going on as the player.

Ac!d 2 is one of my favorite games in the series.  It is such an insanely replayable and enjoyable game that streamlines everything from the first game and improves on its gameplay in every way.  Way more boss fights, some really fun bonus mode that I wish was used in other MGS games, more varied enemies, way more cards and an insanely colorful and vibrant weird science facility.  It's easily the most colorful and unabashedly weird Metal Gear game that just throws canon out the window, but it's so much fun for it.

It's great that they got the chance to double down and delve even deeper, I can't wait to find some time for it.

It honestly breaks my heart that we never got an Ac!d 3.  Closest was an iPhone card game that never released outside of Japan.

I would love to see Acid return...even as a modern mobile game (The deckbuilding gameplay means a greedy free to play model could make the most out of whales who will buy any MTX currency Konami wants to throw in there). It would be far better to have a console revival but I don't see anything quite so bold in Metal Gear's near future.

I started playing Ac!d last year but fell off of it with the first escort mission and I hated the section, especially as I felt the game didn't explain well how to properly utilise what they had. Need to get back to it at some stage though as I really enjoyed it up until that point.

I don't even really remember an escort mission. Is it just when you first meet Teliko? But yeah Nate get back on it, it took me a long time to get through it. I think I started around a similar time to you? Where I'm playing on the PSP it's very easy to put it down and not return to it for months and months.