After downloading and installing the two updates required to be able to now play the Metal Gear Online Premiere Beta, I was finally able to get my hands on some of the greatest multiplayer online shooting that I have ever played. Please note that this story is the opinion of the editor, and may not express the same feelings as the other editors of the site.

After I had made my Konami ID and was able to log in, I was greeted with an elaborate “Create a Character” dialog, in which I was able to create the person who I was to kill my fellow soldiers as. The options were limited, as I would expect since it is just the Beta, but to be honest, there was enough there to distinguish my character out from the others.

When I was able to finally be able to get into some gameplay, the first thing I noticed was a Training Mode, in which I could learn to use my weapons, move my camera, and shoot some fake targets to get myself accustomed to the game’s control scheme. MGO actually has a quite easy to learn control scheme that works well, so I was able to get the hang of it quickly.

After finishing my training, I was ready to play. The first thing I noticed was the ability to do either Automatchmaking, or to create or join my own or someone else’s created match. That is something that PlayStation 3 owners have been waiting for for quite some time, and finally got to use. After entering a match and hitting that I was ready to play, the match began.

So far, MGO has five different game modes, ranging from Deathmatch, to Team Deathmatch, to a very unique mode called Sneaking Mission, which I did get the chance to participate in. In Sneaking Mission, one player gets to play as Solid Snake and use the Octocamo to be able to neutralize other players and steal their dogtags. I actually did better in that than I had done all night I must admit, when I got the chance to play as Snake.

In-game voice chat was working successfully when I was using it, and there were nothing but very minor bugs in the system it seemed. Load times were minimal, and everyone was having a great time. One more feature that I would like to point out is the easy in-game friends list. If you are in a match and want to add a friend, all you have to do is click the “AddFriend” button and scroll to their name. It will instantly put them on an in-game list, which you can use to find them later on and join whatever match they may be in, as well as send in-game “e-mails” through a Private Message client also built in to the game.

All in all, I would say that Konami and Kojima Productions did an excellent job on Metal Gear Online so far. Even for just a Beta, the gameplay was very smooth, and for someone who is not a major shooter game fan, it has me hooked. If they add more, we’ll be sure to update you all on how it all works, and what it looks like. And for those of you who don’t own a PlayStation 3, this game may be JUST the reason you were looking for to get one.