Metal Gear Online

Metal Gear Online, commonly abbreviated MGO is an online multiplayer spinoff of the Metal Gear series. The game was officially unveiled in Kojima Productions' 20th Anniversary Part of the Metal Gear series. While Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops featured optional online game modes that were both dubbed Metal Gear Online, this incarnation of the online game was initially announced as a separate stand-alone product based on the Metal Gear Solid 4 gameplay and setting, but has since been announced as part of MGS4. A stand-alone version has been announced for Japanese release, however it is unlikely it will see a physical release in the United States or Europe.

Gameplay
The game features 16-player online battles. Players can upgrade skills that their character can use such as hacking SOP, CQC mastery, enhanced lock-on, and more, all of which can be leveled up. The player can keep tabs on allies and enemies with nanomachines.

Players have the ability to "hack" another player's character to steal information from their nanomachines, such as the locations of his/her allies. This is how the SOP system from Metal Gear Solid 4 is implemented as a gameplay feature in MGO.

Beta testing
An online beta test was released exclusively in Japan, which occurred from August 20, 2007 through September 3, 2007. The beta was only open to 3,000 players. In addition to announcing a ship date and hardware bundle for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, SCEA revealed that a beta for the game's online component will happen before the June release. MGS4 will come with a "starter pack" that will be expanded upon with extra content.

In North America, the multiplayer beta test for Metal Gear Online was made available to download on April 16th. The beta test was originally scheduled to begin on April 21st and end on May 6th, but high levels of server traffic had forced Konami to delay the start of the beta until the servers were stabilized.

On April 11th 2008, Konami announced an open Metal Gear Online beta for Europe and will be available for download from April 17 and will be entirely open to everyone who downloads it until May 6.

On April 21, the open beta was launched in Japan and Europe. Due to mass appeal, many gamers applied to participate in the beta, but the servers were met with severe user traffic within the opening minutes, resulting in a system wide crash. The beta therefore, had been postponed in Japan and Europe, as well as the launch of the North America beta, so Konami could fix and stabilize the servers. According to the Metal Gear Online teaser website, the beta was aimed to begin at midnight of April 25th, with a comment mentioning a possible further delay if the solution hadn't then been resolved. Konami had also set the new beta test closure date on May 11, 2008.

Release
Metal Gear Online went live on June 12th, 2008, the release day of Metal Gear Solid 4. It featured all the same levels and gameplay modes as the Beta, as well as adding two extra stages, totaling five stages, and a new gameplay mode, totaling at seven gameplay modes.

Gameplay Modes
{|class="wikitable" ! Mode ! Description
 * Deathmatch
 * Play a free-for-all match with no teams. Defeat other players for points. The player with the most points when the tickets reach zero, or when time ends, wins. The SOP System causes the character with the most points to glow.
 * Team Deathmatch
 * Play a Red Team vs. Blue Team match. The object is to defeat opposing players. The team that reduces the other team's tickets to zero first, wins.
 * Capture Mission
 * Race to capture KEROTAN and GA-KO targets. After capturing one of the targets, each team must take it back to their team's goal and protect it until the timer reaches zero to win.
 * Base Mission
 * Battle to control bases located throughout the map. The first team to capture all bases, or the team with the most bases when time runs out, wins.
 * Sneaking Mission
 * One player controls Snake, fully equipped with OctoCamo! If sixteen players join, one player becomes Metal Gear Mk.II and can support Snake. The MK.II is a stealth reconaissance unit very useful for this match type, and asides from cloaking itself it can pick up dogtags and drop them in another place, instantly knock out players with an electric shock, display an image from Playboy magazines on its display (acting like a Playboy) and disarm and pick up traps. Snake wins if he collects a set number of dogtags. To obtain dog tags, Snake must knock out or hold up other players and then do a body search by pressing the triangle button. The other players win by taking down Snake a specified number of times. If the time expires first, the team that has killed more players from the opposing team wins.
 * Rescue Mission
 * Battle over the fate of GA-KO! The defending team guards GA-KO. The attacking team must bring GA-KO back to its goal to win. No re-spawning in this match type.
 * Team Sneaking
 * A battle between two teams with different gear. The sneaking team is stealth-equipped and must eliminate all enemies, or bring KEROTAN or GA-KO to their goal to win. The defending team must defeat all enemies or keep KEROTAN and GA-KO safe to win.
 * Stealth Deathmatch
 * Stealth deathmatch is a game mode released with the MEME expansion pack. It is a free-for-all based game. It consists of every player in the game (16 max) equipped with Stealth Camouflage. However, unlike Team Sneaking mode, all players have lethal weapons instead of non-lethal. The game area recedes towards the center as time passes; standing outside the shrinking boundary causes the player to steadily take damage. Each player has an alarm that activates when near another player. The winner is the last person standing. It should be noted that despite being released with the MEME expansion pack, this match type is free for players who have not purchased it.
 * Interval
 * Interval is merely a break from the stress of MGO matches. Similar to the Lecture Mode of Combat Training, everyone is divided into two teams and is unable to die by gunfire or be knocked out. Automatching hides this feature in its desired rules section until your soldier has entered one. A bomb can be taken and used to kill your soldier if held for more than twenty seconds. Stealing the bomb can be accomplished via CQC, grenades, or RPG fire. Your soldier's stats will not be affected by what you experience in Interval, nor will it enable skills to grow.
 * Bomb Mission
 * A battle to destroy or protect target areas on the map.The attacking team will claim victory if they can plant time bombs in the target areas and protect them until any one of them detonates.The defending team can win by protecting all of the target areas on the map until the timer expires.
 * A battle between two teams with different gear. The sneaking team is stealth-equipped and must eliminate all enemies, or bring KEROTAN or GA-KO to their goal to win. The defending team must defeat all enemies or keep KEROTAN and GA-KO safe to win.
 * Stealth Deathmatch
 * Stealth deathmatch is a game mode released with the MEME expansion pack. It is a free-for-all based game. It consists of every player in the game (16 max) equipped with Stealth Camouflage. However, unlike Team Sneaking mode, all players have lethal weapons instead of non-lethal. The game area recedes towards the center as time passes; standing outside the shrinking boundary causes the player to steadily take damage. Each player has an alarm that activates when near another player. The winner is the last person standing. It should be noted that despite being released with the MEME expansion pack, this match type is free for players who have not purchased it.
 * Interval
 * Interval is merely a break from the stress of MGO matches. Similar to the Lecture Mode of Combat Training, everyone is divided into two teams and is unable to die by gunfire or be knocked out. Automatching hides this feature in its desired rules section until your soldier has entered one. A bomb can be taken and used to kill your soldier if held for more than twenty seconds. Stealing the bomb can be accomplished via CQC, grenades, or RPG fire. Your soldier's stats will not be affected by what you experience in Interval, nor will it enable skills to grow.
 * Bomb Mission
 * A battle to destroy or protect target areas on the map.The attacking team will claim victory if they can plant time bombs in the target areas and protect them until any one of them detonates.The defending team can win by protecting all of the target areas on the map until the timer expires.
 * Bomb Mission
 * A battle to destroy or protect target areas on the map.The attacking team will claim victory if they can plant time bombs in the target areas and protect them until any one of them detonates.The defending team can win by protecting all of the target areas on the map until the timer expires.
 * A battle to destroy or protect target areas on the map.The attacking team will claim victory if they can plant time bombs in the target areas and protect them until any one of them detonates.The defending team can win by protecting all of the target areas on the map until the timer expires.

Skills
Key: * = Unlockable Skill ' = Preset Skill

Expansions
Expansions add functionality, such as new characters and maps, to Metal Gear Online. Konami plans to release expansion packs periodically. The Expansions appear to be named after the theme's of each Metal Gear game that has been released.

Gene Expansion
The first expansion pack for Metal Gear Online, titled "Gene Expansion", was officially announced at Metal Gear Online's homepage and was released on July 17, 2008 at a cost of $11.99 US or $14.99 US with an additional character slot. Gene Expansion features three new maps, titled Coppertown Conflict, Tomb of Tubes, and Virtuous Vista; two new playable characters (Meryl and Johnny), each with their own special abilities; a new game mode called "Survival"; and a new reward system. The reward system will award players points for playing the new game mode which they can exchange for items to customize their character in the new Reward Shop. Players will also be able to create female characters. Also, the skills feature has two new additions: "Box Move" which allows the character to move faster while hiding in a box, and "Quick Recovery" that increases the speed at which the character can help teammates recover from being knocked out.

Meme Expansion
The second expansion pack for Metal Gear Online, titled "Meme Expansion", was announced on Metal Gear Online's homepage and was released on 25th November 2008. It costs £6.49 for British users. It comes with two new characters (Liquid Ocelot and Mei Ling) each with their own special abilities. Three new maps were released Silo Sunset, Winter Warehouse and Forest Firefight. In addition to this a new game mode was released called Stealth Deathmatch. Also included with the update was a slight change to the user interface and the Rosemary lobby replaced with the Meryl lobby. The Meme expansion does however require the user to purchase the previous Gene Expansion. Meme's new maps have also been added to the Survival mode. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLmWPcZk9Ao

Scene Expansion
The third expansion pack for Metal Gear Online, titles "Scene Expansion", was announced on playstation.blog and will be released sometime in March. It will feature two new characters (Raiden and Vamp), each with their own special abilities. The Scene Expansion pack also features 3 new maps, titled Outer Outlet, Hazard Hourse, and Ravaged Riverfront. There are more details regarding the pack to come!

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Subsistence
The game is made up primarily of games in which players compete against each other for points. the following modes are featured:

Portable Ops
In the single player game, players will be able to recruit soldiers into their unit as part of the story. These soldiers will then be able to be used in the online portion of the game. However characters that die in the RC mode die permanently and can not be used in single player. These characters are then offered to the opponent, to become part of their team. Because of this you can surrender a match to save the rest of your unit. Characters that die in VR are not killed permanently.