There are even a few of MGS' more humorous items that have made the transition through to Online. Players have a Cardboard Box in their inventory, which initially seems silly - until you realise that many levels are littered with the things, making them into a surprisingly good disguise that can sometimes see enemies walking right past you without noticing. The adult magazine, too, makes a return - throwing it on the ground can force other players' characters to glance in that direction, distracting them from what you're doing. They're clever, light-hearted touches that give the game a unique flavour, as well as a few new tactics to exploit.
Base Missions give rise to some great chokepoints, with both teams piling in for the offence or defence of a vital area. The engine handles it all with aplomb.
The game's menus give the strong impression that Kojima Productions isn't skimping on Metal Gear Online's functionality outside the game, either. Game-types range from flag-style missions (where you actually end up competing over a small, floating, cheerful-looking rubber duck, which bobs above the head of the player carrying it) such as CTF and flag defence, through to "base missions" (where you capture and hold locations on the map, either to earn points towards victory or to win outright as the first team to hold all the locations) and simple, straightforward deathmatch. The server browser is pretty comprehensive, offering plenty of information about the games you're joining (or setting up), and we especially like the ability to give a server a rating out of five stars when you leave. Those games by control-freak or kick-happy players should quickly get booted to the bottom of the lists as a result.
A quick survey of the rest of the menus reveals further tantalising options. Photographs taken in-game can be stored on the PS3 hard drive (shades of Halo 3 here, perhaps?), while there are menu options hinting at proper support for Clans, an in-game email-style messaging system, proper support for friends lists, and of course, the MGO shop - although this sadly wasn't working, so we couldn't go in for a sneaky peek around.
Whether Metal Gear Online can succeed at being seen as anything other than the online mode of MGS4 remains to be seen - but the promise of ongoing downloadable content releases and perhaps even full online distribution for the game is very promising, assuming Konami can get the price point right. Either way, we had a huge amount of fun with an afternoon spent playing Metal Gear Online - which, after being spoiled by the likes of Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4's magnificent online modes in recent months, strikes us as extremely promising. Whatever they think of Kojima's storytelling, every fan of online shooters should be keeping a close eye on MGO.
Especially as I missed MGS3 and MPO online.