The first official Metal Gear Solid game for the PSP is out, and it's a true blast. Set in Latin America in 1974, a decade ofter the events of MGS3, Naked Snake has established a mercenary unit called The Militare Sans Frontiers (Soldiers Without Borders). He and his men are approached by a mysterious professor and student. According to the duo, a mysterious armed force has appeared in Costa Rica (a pivotal piece of land during this part of the Cold War). The professor wants you to find out why this army is in Costa Rica, and then drive them out. However, it will soon be apparent that the professor's true motives are also shrouded in mystery...
Presentation:
The great thing about this game is the quick learning curve. As soon as you boot up the game's single-player, you will be treated to a (optional) training mission which will teach you almost all the necessary controls in the game. As the game progresses, the game slowly starts to unlock more features and menu options when you learn to get used to the previous ones. Basically, it lets a new player take things slow and slowly ease into it. However, when you mastered the bare basics, the game stops holding your hand. Which is a bad thing, because there are so many other things to do which seem too complex to learn without a tutorial. For instance, later in the game you will gain the ability to build and control your own Metal Gear. Apparently, you can change the way it "talks" and "sings", though there never is a tutorial for such a feature. I still have yet to fully learn it on my own. But that's more of a small annoyance than a real problem.
Cutscenes are also pretty well done. The comic-bock style has been improved over that of Portable Ops, and they still deliver as much detail as any other traditional in-game cutscene. But I still wish there can be some more of the in-game, since some of the graphic novel-esque cutscenes feel a tad cheap at times.
Graphics:
Incredible. Sometimes I forget that I'm playing on a PSP system. Environments and character models look very well-detailed. However, there aren't that many environments to marvel. Mostly, you'll find yourself playing in either a jungle or a military base, with a few other varied levels. It looks great and all, but with all that graphical potential, I wanted to see more use of it.
Sound:
Everything is top-notch. When you walk through the jungle, you'll hear your footsteps crunch through leaves and soil. The din of insects will fill the air, and animals will call in the background. Voice acting is also pretty slick. Usually, when a Japanese game gets translated into American, the American voice actors seem to sleepwalk through their lines. Not in the case of Peace Walker. Every character, minor or major, gives it their all. It's as if the voice actors seem to thoroughly enjoy providing the voices. The soundtrack is also incredible, especially during the boss fights. While epic in themselves, boss battles will be twice as awesome with booming battle themes playing in the background. The distinct sound of gunfire and explosions are just icing on the cake
Gameplay:
Whether you like sneaking or shooting, this game will not disappoint. The entire story is broken up into many tied-together mini-missions, each of which you can tackle at your own pace. At the start of each mission, you can choose Snake's weapon loadout and uniform. For instance, in one mission you'll have to quietly sneak through a forest. Time to equip your trusty silenced pistol and tiger-stripe camouflage. When you get to the end of the mission, a helicoptor will suddenly appear and ambush you. That helicoptor boss battle will be in the next mini-mission, where you can trade the pistol for a rocket launcher, and your camouflage for some battle armor. Yes, it doesn't sound realistic, but it's a much better alternative to getting ambushed by an armored vehicle, and your only means of destroying it is a tranquilizer rifle.
There are so many ways you can play each mission. You can shoot people, execute slick martial arts moves, hold them up, and more. And if you knock out or tranq a soldier, you can send them back to your headquarters via a modified version of the Fulton Skyhook Extraction system. In other words, every soldier you knock out can then become your ally. Yes, it seems like every single enemy soldier has a bad case of Stockholm Syndrome, but recruiting enemy soldiers is a pivotal task. Back at your HQ, or "Mother Base", you can then assign that soldier to different departments, depending on that soldier's ability. You can assign him to a Combat Team, the Research and Development team (where they create new and improved weapons), the Mess Hall team (cooking food to raise the morale of all the soldiers), the Medical Team (to treat sick or wounded soldiers, and develop powerful tranquilizers), or the Intel Team (to help aid in supply drops and air strikes). Customizing your Mother Base will change the difficulty of the game, and it adds a whole new layer of gameplay to Peace Walker.
The best part? All of this is on a single UMD disc. I have yet to see a PSP game with this much content stuffed inside.
Lasting Appeal:
The campaign lasts 13 hours. However, there are over 100 extra missions you can tackle alone or with a friend. Yes, Peace Walker supports 4-player co-op. But in co-op, you can also use weapons which only 2 or more people can use (such as a human slingshot), and execute tag team maneuvers. A mic isn't even necessary, since you have to ability to instantly send pre-rendered commands such as "Attack now" or "Follow me".
There is also Versus mode, in which up to eight players can play Free For All, Team Deathmatch, or Base Capture. Unfortunately, there is no Infrastructure. All of the multiplayer is ad hoc. We can only hope that Kojima released Intrastructure utilization in one of the DLCs.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention DLC. Yeah, Peace Walker has that. In fact, there was already a small package of content released, with more to come.
Overall:
One of the best games on PSP. Not only is it fun and good-looking, it is incredibly deep, with so much to do. I've already played 100 hours, and yet I still haven't unlocked all the weapons and uniforms yet. And with DLC, I don't expect to get done with everything anytime soon. The only gripe is a lack of a good tutorial system and Infrastructure mode, but even then this game will without a doubt be playing on PSP systems for a long long time.
Presentation: 8.5
Graphics: 9.5
Sound: 10
Gameplay: 10
Lasting Appeal: 8
Overall: 9.2