The first Metal Gear video game was released way back in 1987. I played it on the NES and actually revisited it last year for a little trip down nostalgia lane. While that game was well received, the real star of the Metal Gear series has to be Metal Gear Solid. Published in 1998, this action-adventure stealth video game was full of iconic moments that are still talked about to this day.
So why am I talking about a 20+ year old video game? Recently, publisher CMON (in a roundabout way from the now-defunct IDW Games) has put out a tabletop adaptation called Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game. Designed by Emerson Matsuuchi (Foundations of Rome), this game seeks to bring this much-loved video game to your tabletop. Did he succeed? Let’s find out.
Gameplay Overview:
Metal Gear Solid is a campaign-style, mission-based game that will have players working together to infiltrate the base and save the world. The game can also be played in what’s called VR Missions, which are a set of standalone scenarios.
But the main way to play is to jump into the campaign. Each mission will be either a stealth mission or a boss fight. In a stealth mission, each player chooses a character (once they are unlocked): Solid Snake, Meryl, Otacon, and Gray Fox. Each has special abilities and equipment, such as Otacon’s hacking deck or Gray Fox’s cyber ninja equipment.
In turns, players spend 4 action points on things like moving, running, attacking, or interacting. Some actions are quiet, while others are noisy (like running or shooting). If you make a noisy action, you have the roll the noise dice at the end of your turn. If a “!” comes up, you alert the guards to your presence and place your alert token blue side up. This means the guards will be moving to investigate.
If you attack a guard and don’t take them down, or move in a guard’s line of sight, you get the alert token on the red side, which means every enemy will make a beeline for you. After each player has taken a turn, it’s the enemies’ turn. If there are no alert tokens on the board, then a guard card is drawn and shows how they patrol (and some events may happen). If there is a token on the board, the guards move to check out the disturbance.
Boss battles are handled a little different, which each having a unique setup and flair based on the boss you are fighting. But for these, stealth is out the window ,and it’s more of a slugfest. Many times, much like the video game, you’ll need to figure out the specific trick of how to defeat the boss.
Game Experience:
In the Venn diagram of board games I enjoy, dividing the world into cooperative, stealth action, and video game IP would place Metal Gear Solid comfortably in the center. So, of course, I had to check it out.
And while it’s not perfect, it absolutely is the best stealth action board game I’ve ever played. There are a few reasons for that, but chief among those is that it finally figures out what to do when a player fails a stealth check. In many games, when you fail a stealth check, you move on to the action phase, and you have wave after wave of guards spawning after you (Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood of Venice, SAS Rogue Regiment). It usually turns into a grind, which is not very fun. Now, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy those games, but the highlight in playing them has always been the stealth phase, not facing off against tons of spawning guards.
However, in Metal Gear Solid, you have a chance to reset things. You have an alert token, and if you can move away from it and break line of sight to the guards, they will go back to patrolling (much like in the video game). This is great because one errant roll doesn’t necessarily sink your mission. This allows players to have the tension of the dice roll and potential for failure, but still gives them a chance to recover into stealth should they push their luck too far.
While I was a really big fan of the stealth missions, the boss battles were kind of hit or miss for me. Some were fun, but others were really difficult and relied too much on random rolls of the dice. I was able to beat all of them (eventually), but some took a few too many tries, and I wasn’t enjoying the ones that turned into a bullet sponge or relied too much on random luck. That being said, all the VR missions are stealth-based, so once you beat the boss ones, you don’t have to play them again (and the bosses can be used in VR missions in dialed-back versions).
Game Designer Emerson Matsuuchi was clearly a fan of the video game, as there are many, many call-backs in this tabletop game. If you’ve played the video game, you can expect lots of easter eggs, bosses who thematically match the original, and plot points you’ll remember. However, if you have never played the video game, some missions might be a bit more confusing as to how you proceed. The game, in general, does a good job of leading you where you need to go, so I don’t expect even the biggest newbie to get completely stuck, but those familiar with the source material will have an easier time with the puzzles.
Finally, let’s talk player scaling. I think Metal Gear Solid is a fantastic solo game and that was the main way I played the campaign. I did try it with 2 and 3 players, which also worked just fine. The one thing to know about multiplayer is that if you aren’t doing VR Missions, the early missions have a maximum of 2 characters to control (with the first mission being just Solid Snake). So if you have a group of 4 wanting to do the campaign, you’ll just need to make group decisions on what Snake or Meryl does in those early missions.
Final Thoughts:
I tore through Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game, beating the campaign, and am now working my way through the VR missions. This is easily one of my favorite games of the year so far. While I didn’t love the boss battles, the stealth missions are the best of the genre and set the gold standard going forward. I absolutely want more content for this game, so fingers crossed that CMON has an expansion on the way.
If you are a fan of the video game, this is an easy purchase. For those not familiar with the IP, it’s still worth trying out if you like the stealth action genre.
Final Score: 4.5 Stars – A genre-defining stealth action board game that’s a great call back to its source material.
Hits:
• Best version of stealth in a board game yet
• Great use of the source material
• Excellent solo game
• Things to unlock, puzzles to solve, campaign or one-off play
Misses:
• Boss battles feel a bit too random and difficult
• Early campaign games don’t have more than 1 or 2 characters
Source: Board Game Quest
