A sleeker, more accessable Metal Gear Solid that perfectly utilizes and adapts to the PSP's limitations.
Pros:
+Exciting, superbly told story
+Great controls
+Large variety of missions
+Lots of post-game content
+Great voice-acting and score
+Smooth and detailed visuals
Cons:
-Drab boss fights
-Less flair in the story itself
The Metal Gear Solid series had a rough start on the PlayStation Portable (PSP). The first entry, Portable Ops, was too ambitious for its own good and came out as a smaller, inferior version of a home console MGS. Peace Walker, in contrast, does everything right. It brings in many new, fantastic additions while smoothing the controls and adapting to the system's limitations. From the insane variety of missions to the fantastic story, PW is a complete package like no other on the PSP. It's a textbook definition of an essential purchase and no fan of the series should pass this game up.
Big Boss is quite a busy man. 10 years after the events of Snake Eater (aka MGS3), he's well on his way to making his own team of mercenaries called Militaires Sans Frontières (or MSF). This occurrence is intertwined with the recent struggles in Costa Rica, where special Peace Sentinels have invaded for unknown reasons. It doesn't take long before Big Boss is thrown into the conflict and in the way solidifies his place as the world's best soldier. In the story department, Peace Walker doesn't disappoint. The script is something you could find in a prestigious novel and the characters are as appealing and smart as ever. In terms of cut-scenes and exposition, Peace Walker has considerably less of it. Instead, the key story moments are presented in a special gritty art styIe and it really augments the story's cool and realistic motif. It even shakes stuff up with some interactive moments. Meanwhile, the meat of the character progression and story details can be found in special audio tapes, which are as appealing as they are well-done. They offer considerable depth without coming off as forced. Possibly the only downside is that there's noticeably less of the traditional "Kojima flavor". That's not to say that the story isn't brilliant, it without a doubt is. However, there's less individuality, less craziness and less subtle humor. This is generally only a problem if you go in with preset expectations, but it at times feels a bit too familiar to what you've seen before elsewhere. Regardless, this is a story of endless cIass and can hold its head up high among the best the medium has to offer.
Changes don't stop there, since PW changes the MGS formula in many ways. It draws inspiration from many places, especially the famous Monster Hunter franchise, and makes it fit perfectly within the series' mechanics. At its core, PW plays like a traditional MGS title. It's a stealth-based shooter where you can pretty much control how you complete the missions you're presented with. A particularly pleasurable aspect of the game is how fantastic the controls are. Gone are the tank-like controls of Portable Ops, and instead come three different control styIes: the inferior PO controls, the smooth and tactile Guns of the Patriots controls (note: GotP is MGS4) and then the Monster Hunter controls, which are for those that are accustomed to the MH franchise and wish to be more acquainted with the controls from the start. The primary control styIe, the GotP one, works incredibly well. The D-pad controls various actions, the L and R buttons choose equipment, the control stick is for movement and the face buttons control the camera. This all blends to make for a surprisingly accessible experience that's easy to understand and a lot of fun to play.
The main difference in PW, however, is that there are far more nuances and options. The game is completely mission-based and you choose equipment layouts right before battle. Not only that, at your main base, you can allocate members of the MSF to specific jobs to upgrade equipment, make new items, add to your revenue and more. These members can be recruited in a particularly entertaining manner. Once you knock out an enemy, you can use a special Fulton Skyhook to shoot the enemies into the air on a balloon to be fetched by your associates. Not only is this easy to do, it just never gets old to see their limp bodies fly into the air like lifeless marionettes. On top of all that, you can also play as these soldiers in a number of missions and this becomes especially relevant when it comes to the multiplayer aspect of the game. At the time of writing, this reviewer has not tried out the MP side of PW but it shows promise and many of the missions seem to be tailor-made for multiple players. What is most commendable about the MP aspect is that it doesn't affect or hinder the single-player experience at all and that's always a good thing.
The missions themselves are contained and designed well. Once again, the developers are aware of the PSP's technical limitations and aren't afraid to rather work around it instead of trying to exceed them. There's a lot of variety in terms of missions, e.g. tense boss battles, pure stealth missions, search-and-destroy missions and even a particular "date mission", which might be the most challenging of them all! You get the same eclectic wealth of choices as in any other MGS game and don't feel limited to only one path or method. You can use a standard MK. 22 Mod 0 Hush Puppy to silently send your foes to dream land. You can also take a LAW or RPG-7 to just explode everything you see in front of you. Each path has its own pros and cons and it's important to gauge what is important in every situation. Then there's the cIassic close-quarters combat (CQC) system, which has seen more than a few changes throughout the years. Peace Walker genuinely fixes the problem many of the former games in the series had with hand-to-hand combat. It's actually advantageous at times, particularly with a new judo over-the-shoulder throw that is satisfying and quick, not to mention powerful. The sheer amount of strategies you can concoct are too many to count up here, so suffice it to say that everyone will find their own way to play the game.
The story's more serious focus reflects most heavily on the boss fights. Most MGS veterans surely remember Sniper Wolf, The End, Laughing Octopus and other insane but smart boss fights that Big Boss and his "son", Snake, have fought through the years. However, the bosses in Peace Walker are exclusively of the mechanic kind. Some deviate slightly in nature, but mostly, you'll just be facing tanks, helicopters and attack planes by the truckload, with pretty much nothing different about each iteration. The fights themselves (that remind of Monster Hunter-esque battles) are fun and often tense but monotony sets in rather quick. It becomes a chore, unfortunately, and detracts from the usually seamless flow of the missions.
This is really the only place where PW truly disappoints, though, since it fires on all cylinders in pretty much every other department. Presentation has never been a problem for the MGS series and neither is it so here. The game looks absolutely brilliant and can easily be compared to the best you've seen on the PSP. Draw distance is wonderful, the frame rate is smooth and detail abounds in every aspect of the game. As mentioned before, the cut-scene styIe is absolutely brilliant and feels right at home with the cold war-torn world of PW. Likewise, the game excels in the sound department. Voice acting is brilliant throughout, with every role being portrayed with the utmost panache and polish. The soundtrack fits with the game's story and levels but it also knows when to lay low and let the sounds of wildlife transport the player to wherever Big Boss is at. There's also some cleverly implemented licensed music which works very well.
The game in its entirety will easily last you over 20 hours, especially if you decide to listen to all of the ace audio tapes to understand the circumstances more. Not only that, there's a huge amount of extra missions after the credits roll, literally over a hundred, in fact. Add to that the multiplayer component and you have a PSP game which is worth its price tag from day one.
It's simply a joy to see a developer successfully transfer a series from a home console to a handheld console and not make it a smaller, toned-down version. Peace Walker stands proud both as a part of the MGS series and as a stand-alone masterpiece for anyone interested in stealth gameplay at its finest. Kojima Productions (the developers) actually learned from their mistakes on PO and improved on them with genuine intent to offer a superb product to all of the MGS fans out there. Not many developers even take the time to receive constructive criticism, making this a particularly refreshing title. However, MGS: PW can easily be summed up as this: one of, if not the best, game on the PSP today.
Story: 9.6/10.0
Gameplay: 9.3/10.0
Graphics: 9.2/10.0
Sound: 9.4/10.0
Replayability: 9.5/10.0
Final score: 9.3/10.0