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Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Review

JudoChinX

July 3, 2010

M

etal Gear Solid: Peace Walker snuck up on me, just like any good spy should. Handheld games tend to fly lower on my radar than other games, but in this case, I think it was a good thing. There's nothing more pleasant as a gamer than being pleasantly surprised by a new release and that's exactly what happened with me and this game. The first thing you'll want to know before getting into Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP) is that the game is huge. Though this was released on a portable console, you'll want to enjoy this in long spurts with no distractions. Why? Because this game has so much going on. You'd be doing yourself and the game a disservice if you only gave it 15 minutes of your time. Not only is there a campaign that's just as complete and long as any other Metal Gear Solid title, but you also have plenty of things to do on the side.

Any Metal Gear Solid fan knows that the story, convoluted though it may be, is the star of the franchise. Peace Walker is a sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and follows the story of Big Boss as he leaves the US. He then starts an army in what will be known as Outer Heaven. I won't get into specifics here, but let's just say that old characters return in unexpected ways, and that you meet and work with the father of another very prominent character in the series. The story ties in neatly with all the other games. Nothing here feels tacked on or clumsy, and as is true with the rest of the game, everything found in the story is of the same quality and caliber you've come to expect from the series. To compliment the story comes a fantastic soundtrack, which I can only describe as sweeping, moving, and epic. A game is comprised of many things that make up an experience. When all of these things jive as they do in Peace Walker, you're in for a treat. I dare you to complete the last boss fight and not feel excited that you're making a huge impact on the game's fictional world.

Most Metal Gear Solid games take you from one mission to the next without any real break in the narrative. Peace Walker changes this tradition a bit in that the game is divided into chapters; each with several missions to complete. Each mission lasts anywhere from 15 - 30 minutes, meaning that you can get through the game in bite sized chunks (though I don't recommend it). If you want to take a break from the main story, you'll be pleased to find that there are many other things to do. Though you begin the game with most of these options locked, you will steadily gain access as you make progress. The first thing you can check out is extra ops. These are missions similar to the VR missions found in the first Metal Gear Solid game. Though they don't take place in the same virtual environment as VR missions, they're similar in that the levels are short, with very specific challenges. One mission might ask that you rescue a worker, while another might ask that you defeat a boss, or even go through target practice. Defeating these missions will give you access to new items.

Speaking about getting new soldiers, another thing you'll find yourself doing between missions is managing recruits. You can obtain recruits through a number of ways with the most common way being Fulton extraction. Once you've incapacitated an enemy (not kill them), you can then attach a balloon to them, and away they fly only to be picked up by a helicopter and forced into your army. Yes, it sounds far fetched, but sometimes fact is stranger than fiction. Go ahead and Google Fulton surface-to-air recovery. It's a real thing. Beyond taking your enemies against their will, you'll also have volunteers show up as your reputation grows. Further, you can use wi-fi access points to get recruits, something I did by wandering around my apartment complex.

So, what do you do with all these new soldiers? You build Outer Heaven of course! You'll have several teams on your base including medical, research and development, and combat. Each person you get has different strengths and weaknesses, so your goal is to put them into the role that best fits their strengths. As you build up different teams, you'll get new weapons and items to research, and currency to research them with. If this doesn't seem interesting to you, then you can go ahead and make use of the auto assign option, which will put people where you need them. This option keeps things quick and easy. Staffing things properly is only part of the story however. Between missions you can also go through outer ops. These are little missions in which you create groups of troops and tanks to fight enemy troops and tanks. The actual combat is all done in the background and results of each skirmish can be seen after each mission. Out of all the little additions to the game, I find outer ops to be the least engrossing. You can get some pretty nice rewards for completing these missions, but I found it to be a bit of a pain to actually deploy teams and view stats of previous fights between missions. Had they sped up this process a little bit, I probably would have been more apt to spend time with it.

Overall, I have very few complaints with Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP). The one thing that seemed a bit out of place were the game's boss fights. Part of a Metal Gear Solid game is the crazy bosses, and instead of having anyone memorable like Psycho Mantis or Vamp, you're instead stuck with tanks and other mechanized foes. These boss fights play into outer ops in that if you can defeat the boss without destroying it, you get to use it as part of your force, but still, they're not interesting enough to be worthy of being in a Metal Gear Solid game. The other issue I have is with some of the quick time events during cut scenes. Many of them require you to hammer the same button over and over again for rather long periods of time, and it being 2010 and all, I thought that was something we'd moved past. It's pretty telling that out of the entire game, these are my biggest gripes. They're almost not even worth mentioning, but I think they demonstrate just how nearly flawless this game is. In closing, I'd like to say that this game offers more replay value than any other Metal Gear Solid. There's just no doubt about it. If you're the kind of person who wants the most bang for their buck, then I can't really think of a better game to get than this. I highly recommend you pick this one up.

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