Peace Walker is one of the greatest PSP games I have ever played. Its fun, endlessly entertaining, and relentless addicting. It somehow merges the “gotta catch ‘em all” mentality of Pokémon with the trademark tactical espionage action that Metal Gear Solid is renowned for. Kojima Productions tailored the series’ gameplay for portable play, with great results.
The game follows the story of Big Boss and takes place after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3. Big Boss and a cohort, Kazuhira Miller, are in charge of the Militaires Sans Frontières (MSF), an independent army. What follows afterward is an adventure into the jungles of Costa Rica to fight against invading forces that seem to be lead by the CIA. I won’t spoil the story since a large part of the MGS experience is watching the plot unfold through the comic-animated cutscenes. Although the cinematics are no longer in real-time, each character is still fully fleshed out with hours and hours of voice-acting. There are some real gems in the game from audio tapes to hilarious codec conversations, so there isn’t anything lacking from the production values front.
The gameplay is an amalgamation of past Metal Gear games. It incorporates the soldier recruitment mechanic from Portable Ops, a stripped down version of MGS3’s camo system, and the user-friendly controls of MGS4. The level design and enemy AI is modified to suit the mission-based, modular, and compact game design. This is further emphasized with the structure, by breaking the core game modes into Main Ops and Extra Ops. This allows the developers to integrate multiplayer (both competitive and coop) into the main game’s framework. By making the entire game mission-based, it encourages bursts of play and to get the best ranking for each mission (S-rankings as per Japanese custom).
Whereas past Metal Gear games stacked innovation on top of the core mechanics (such as first-person shooting, camo systems, etc), Peace Walker decides to go sideways. The innovation isn’t in the gameplay, which is decidedly simplified compared to its console brethren, but in the packaging of the gameplay. Kojima Productions has created a network of subsystems that work together to create an ecosystem of causes and effects.
Each soldier you recruit has ratings, and you can assign soldiers to different units from combat, R&D, and Medical based on these ratings. By placing soldiers with high ratings in their respective categories in the right departments, you can unlock new weapons and gadgets. In order to unlock the best gadgets, you have to recruit the best soldiers, which are in the hardest missions, which can only be done with the best equipment. Everything goes in a beautiful circle that encourages you to collect the best of the best in everything.
With Peace Walker bundled as part of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid HD collection, there is reason for you not to experience such an excellent entry in the Metal Gear Solid series.
Peace Walker is amazing.
Play it.
