Get Ready to Experience Metal Gear Solid in a Brand New Way (Review)

While Metal Gear first began as a franchise back in 1987, the franchise really stepped into the spotlight with 1987’s Metal Gear Solid, a game that has continued to be one of the all-time greats even 27 years later. While the franchise has gone a number of places since then, there’s something about that original experience that captivated so many fans, and CMON and Asmodee have brought that same energy and legacy to the tabletop realm with Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game. Capturing that same magic was never going to be easy, but they’ve somehow managed to make it happen, even with the few bumps along the way.

Team Effort

Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game is a fully cooperative experience where up to four players take control of the game’s iconic heroes and make their way through the events of the original game. To say the game is thematic would be an understatement, as the mechanics, miniatures, and story feel pulled right from the video game, and that even goes for the quick start rulebook, which is done in full Codec dialogue-style as if you were talking to your team mid-mission.

Those Metal Gear qualities extend to the moment-to-moment gameplay as well, and you’ll get a unique experience that all still feel authentic to the game, depending on which character you choose to play. Players can choose from Snake, Meryl, Otacon, and Gray Fox, and each one comes with a different playstyle, ability set, and Focus Token selection to change up your approach to the mission.

Snake is every bit the well-rounded soldier that you’d expect, with a solid defense and health rating and two abilities that reward lone wolf and silent tactics, as well as the chance to use a cardboard box to sneak around in when the situation calls for it (and it even has a miniature). Snake has to pick up any equipment or items along the way, though other characters start off with some extra elements.

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That includes Meryl, who begins with a Light Assault Rifle to pack some extra punch, but her biggest advantage is actually the ability to don a disguise. Meryl can use one of her action tokens to take a guard’s disguise (as long as they are dead or stunned and she’s not spotted), which allows you to move through an area without alerting guards and get to objectives much quicker. This is then boosted by one of her Focus Tokens, which allows her to take 1 additional action on a turn.

Gray Fox takes the whole starting equipment element to another extreme, as he begins a scenario with Stealth Camouflage, a High-Frequency Blade, and an Arm Cannon. On top of that, he can move incredibly quickly with the help of a specific Focus Token that allows him to move 2 spaces when performing a dash, meaning he can cover 4 spaces of ground in one go. While Snake can hold his own in a fight, Gray Fox is an absolute beast in a throwdown.

Then there’s the fourth and most unique member of the team in Otacon. As you might assume, Otacon is not a beast in terms of combat ability and leans on his computer skills and hacking prowess to get things done instead. Otacon is the only member of the team who can hack terminals, and he has an ability that lets him reroll other people’s black dice, but he’s also the only member of the team who can’t use weapons, so there’s a bit of give and take with him. That’s part of the fun, though, and being able to hack into systems is not only handy but satisfying from a gameplay perspective as well.

Stealth is the Priority

As you might imagine with Metal Gear Solid, even with Gray Fox in tow, there’s still an overall focus on stealth and evasion to make it through levels. While you can incapacitate or kill guards as you make your way through a given scenario in the player phase, the enemy phase can wake them back up, bring in reinforcements, or both, depending on the situation. That means while you can go guns blazing, it’s often more trouble than it’s worth.

Instead, you’ll need to pick and choose when to dash forward and make a bit of noise, while weighing whether taking down that one guard with a non-silenced pistol is the right call. You’ll be navigating changing guard routes and shifting cameras as you make your way to objectives, and there are two levels of alert you’ll need to deal with if you are spotted or make noise to draw attention to yourself. Certain actions will cause you to draw the guard’s attention and change their behavior pattern, and those are represented by the Attention Token being on its Investigate side. If there’s line of sight with someone or a loud action, that will cause you to put the Attention Token on its Alert side, and that pivots the guards’ focus completely on you. All that’s missing is an alert sound, but that’s so ingrained you probably don’t even need it.

This is a cooperative game after all, so there are other important choices to make as you go through the given scenario. Do you split up and try for all the objectives, or stick together and pursue the main objective so you can move on in the campaign? There are additional objectives in most stages, and these will often net you additional weapons and items that will make your missions in the future a bit easier, but you can simply bypass them if you so choose. To that end, the game even lets you tackle VR Missions just like in the original game, and if you complete these, you can unlock weapons and items that will help you in the main campaign.

Boss Fights to Remember

Now, those who have played Metal Gear Solid know that some of the most memorable encounters in the game are with the franchise’s iconic bosses, and thankfully, those are accounted for as well. Each boss shakes up the gameplay in a major way and gives you a welcome change of pace from the stealth-focused objectives. Revolver Ocelot, for instance, is able to ricochet shots and doesn’t require line of sight, and there are also explosives to deal with during the fight.

Another early battle features Raven in his tank outside, and you’ll need to hurl grenades to break it open, though the game creates a sense of chaos and unpredictability with its method of rolling the dice to figure out where the grenade lands on the tank itself or if it misses completely. Sniper Wolf, Psycho Mantis, and Liquid Snake are all accounted for, including the Metal Gear REX.

Final Thoughts

Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game feels like a love letter to the game, especially as it brings the game’s thrilling story to life between scenarios and through the Codecs. The miniatures look fantastic, as does the artwork, which is again pulled right from the general aesthetic of the games. Each character feels unique from the others and satisfying to play, and the boss fights do a lovely job of recreating some of the game’s more iconic moments. Speaking of those iconic moments, if you want to take the game to an even more authentic level, you can play the cutscenes from the original game as you move through the story, and as I learned from watching PaulRollsDice, it really makes a difference.

My experience was predominantly positive, though there are a few issues that turn up from time to time. Just like the world of comics, each board game could be someone’s first, especially with an IP that is so well known, and those who are jumping in for the first time without someone else at the table who has played previously might have a more difficult time getting a grasp on the different phases of Attention and line of sight as a whole.

The game can throw a lot of obstacles at you through reinforcements, terminals, cameras, and traps, and while you will get used to adapting on the fly when you unintentionally bring attention to yourself and perhaps even utilize that to your benefit, the first few games might be a bit confusing as you try to figure out the rules. While the rulebook is quite thematic, there’s a lot to keep in mind, and at times, that rulebook isn’t quite clear enough on some of those smaller details and how everything flows together.

Despite those flaws, Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game still feels like a faithful and thrilling adaptation of one of gaming’s true greats, and the enthusiasm for the franchise comes through loud and clear. If you’re a fan of the franchise yourself, you really can’t go wrong, and owe it to yourself to give it a try. You can find it here on Amazon priced at $109.99.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Published By: CMON, Asmodee
Designed By: Emerson Matsuuchi
Art By: Jose David Lanza Cebrian, Marco Checchetto, Fabio de Castro, Max Duarte, Júlia Ferrari, Mathieu Harlaut, Saeed Jalabi, Sebastian Koziner, Kenneth Loh, Henning Ludvigsen, Aragorn Marks, and Francesco Orrù

Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game is available at game stores and online platforms.

What did you think of the Metal Gear Solid board game, and would you like to see CMON adapt the rest of the series? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things Metal Gear and tabletop with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!