This is not a video game in the strict sense of the word, it really is just what its name says it is a Graphic Novel in a Digital format. The Graphic Novel, for those of you unfamiliar with the concept, is a big comic book that tends to culminate a story line. And in MGSDGN you will get that in spades. Loads of intrigue and back stabbing action awaits you as you delve into the secrets of Metal Gear and Solid Snake. Unlike a standard printed Graphic Novel, this one has a bit of action to it as the story plays out.

The game is drawn in comic book form and even comes with speech bubbles for you to read the interactions between the characters. You will need to be able to read at a pretty good clip though, as some of the pages load and move on before you have a chance to finish reading it all.

After you have finished reading the Graphic Novel, you can then go back to the beginning and play the game.

So, what is the game part of MGSDGN? Well its two fold. First you need to find the clues to missing memories in each of the “pages” of the Graphic Novel. You do this by activating a search control and zooming in and out of the frame looking for the memories. Its something of a “getting warmer, getting colder” style of search as the targeting sensor spins faster as you get closer to the memory.

This part will take you a while as there are a lot of “pages” to look at. And fortunately there is an index screen that will allow you to go to any of the pages that you want to begin your search, or to search again at a later time.

Once you have accumulated these missing memories you then go into the final stage of the game and link the memories together. You do this in a three dimensional box and if you are missing a linking memory you have to return to the book and seek it out.

This is the frustrating part of the game as I’ve found that I’m missing more of the linking memories than I thought and have had to return to the book over and over again to seek out the missing memories that will allow me to complete the puzzle.

What’s the point? Well basically your delving into the deepest darkest recesses of Solid Snake’s memory and trying to uncover the truth and the conspiracy revolving around the Metal Gear project.

”The Truth is Out There” (well actually its In There), heh, just couldn’t resist saying that.

MGSDGN is a good comic book that was interesting to read. The game part is not intuitive and is almost more trouble than its worth to play. I’ve dabbled with it a bit but once I finished reading the story I felt like I was pretty much done with it.

If you’re a fanatic for the Metal Gear Genre, you will probably enjoy delving into the conspiracy and trying to find out what’s really going on. Otherwise if your into comics you will most likely enjoy it for its value as a digital Graphic Novel, but as a game it leaves a lot to be desired.