Metal Gear Ac!d 2

Metal Gear Ac!d 2 from 2005 follows up on the card-based tactical spin-off for the PSP and expands it in several directions that earn it its own chapter. The core turn-based system built around a deck of cards remains, but the game adds support for the PSP's then-new Go!Cam add-on camera - players could use it to photograph real objects and people and turn them into custom special cards with unique properties, an unusual crossover between the physical world and gameplay for 2005, and nothing like it existed in the previous entry. The story again stands outside the main numbered continuity and moves forward from the events of the first game, with new factions and characters caught up in another conspiracy around secret military technology.

Compared to the first Ac!d, the graphics and the number of cards and their combinations are noticeably improved, and an editor was added that lets players share custom decks and missions through the PSP's local multiplayer and test their strength deck against deck. Turn-based battles are less rough and better balanced thanks to fine-tuned action points and a wider range of special abilities, so the second game feels like a significantly more polished version of the same idea, not just a cosmetic update. New mission types were also added that make more use of the environment and force players to change strategy mid-battle, and the roster of characters players choose from before a mission was expanded as well.

As in the first game, the story stands outside the main numbered timeline and doesn't affect the events around Solid Snake or Big Boss in any way, so both Ac!d games work as a self-contained two-part spin-off with its own world, factions, and ending. It's exactly this self-containment that makes the second game more of an add-on for players of the first Ac!d than a standalone entry point into the series.

Why play it: The second Ac!d is a logical continuation for players of the first game, with a more polished card system and an interesting period gimmick in the form of the camera, which today can only really be tried as a historical curiosity. It's worth it for fans of card-based tactics and collectors of Metal Gear's unusual chapters, not for players looking for a sequel to the action stealth games about hiding in a box.