Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker First Impressions

JudoChinX

June 9, 2010

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was a game, like many PSP titles, that flew a little low on my radar. Having almost forgotten about its release until only a few days before it hit shelves, I was a little ashamed, but in hindsight, it's a situation that made me even more delighted to get into the 'tactical espionage operations' that is Peace Walker.

PeaceWalkerSide (12K) Intent on playing the game in the most pure manner possible, I took my trusty PSP 2000 out to my porch where I lit up a cigar to enjoy during play, and put in my ear buds to block out any distractions. Seeing the title screen and hearing the music sent a chill down my spine. It felt so good to be back. I was all ready to jump into the thick of it when I was prompted to install the required game data to my memory stick. Ok, I wasn't thrilled about it, but this probably took under a minute to complete. Then came the bad news. If I wanted to hear sound during radio calls, and who wouldn't want that in a game like this, I had more installing to do. I had the choice of going with either a 320MB or 880MB installation to my memory stick. The larger install promised to reduce load times, so I figured I'd get it out of the way and go with that. The game estimated that this process would take 18 to 20 minutes, but in the end it probably took somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 minutes. I guess I'd rather have the game over estimate than under. Finally, I was ready to play. I started a new game and was greeted with an image of Big Boss smoking a stogie. "Now this is my kind of guy," I thought.

The opening cinematic began, and I was blown away. The music alone was enough to get me excited. My heart raced as a certain intensity flowed throughout my body. Then I saw the comic book-esque cutscenes, and my jaw almost touched the ground. These were some of the most amazing looking cut scenes I'd ever seen. It's not just that they looked good. Technical proficiency is a great thing, but also that they exhibited a level of style that's refreshing.

Metal Gear titles always seem to begin with a little bit of frustration for me. The controls typically take a bit of time to get used to, and although there was a bit of a learning curve in Peace Walker, using the "shooter type" controls seemed to mitigate the problems I'd normally have. For a portable game like this, it feels great to have responsive control over your character as well as the camera. The "shooter type" controls are compared to the style of control found in Metal Gear Solid 4, so if you enjoyed the over-the-shoulder view while having your weapon drawn and the ability to free aim (there is auto aim available which you can toggle on and off as needed, using the select button) you're going to feel right at home.

The game's action has been altered and refined to make hand-to-hand combat (or CQC if you want to use the game's terminology) a viable solution to survive when outnumbered. CQC was a big part of Metal Gear Solid 4, but it's even a bigger part of Peace Walker. Now gameplay includes stringing together a series of grapples, throws, and punches to take care of multiple enemies at once. It works well, and for a change, Snake feels like the warrior the story has always made him out to be.

It's clear that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is not the kind of game you're going to pick up and play for a few minutes while on the bus or something. This is undoubtedly a full blown console experience, and something that you'll want to spend large chunks of time with. Everything about the game is flashy and fun. If you're the least bit interested in the Metal Gear Solid games, then this is a no brainer. This isn't supplemental material. This is very much a major addition to the Metal Gear story.

View the unboxing of the Big Boss Pack.