Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Review

Posted in Gaming, Reviews by Judas, November 2, 2010 at 6:29 pm | 920 views, 9 comments

I have already established, somewhere back there in the morass of articles that I’ve crammed down your throats, that I fucking love Metal Gear Solid. The entire series, front to back, has wowed and amazed me. Even when Kojima shit on us by making us play as Raiden, I still stuck with the series, and still played it as hard and as often as possible.

Then, of course, I finished MGS4 and had nowhere to go. Where else could I go for my fix of enemies with insane names trying to nuke/take over the world? Who else could I turn to in an effort to remember the basics of CQC? It was a dark time, my friends. But then came Peace Walker.

You already know what my favourite PSP game is, but when Peace Walker came out, all I heard about it was that “OMFG IT’S LIKE MONSTER HUNTER WITH METAL GEAR”. I thought this could never work, but I tentatively picked up a copy and was immediately blown away. Right from the get-go, there is no bullshit. This game establishes in the first mission that it is officially not fucking around. Be it the option to CQC combo your foes, creating a never-ending train of unconscious plebs, or the control scheme which manages to somehow feel like you’re using a Dual Shock controller, Peace Walker does it all right.

The graphics look like a slightly more pixely MGS2, which I still find amazing – the PSP is a fucking handheld for Christ’s sake, I am constantly befuddled by its sorcery – and its sound and story are up there with any of of the console iterations of the series. But I know what you’re thinking, “Mark, you dangerously handsome hopeful father of my future children, what is the actual gameplay like?” In a word, kickass.

Every mission is a different slice of the greater game experience. In some main story missions, you’re sneaking around, hoping to avoid detection. In others, you’re knocking out enemies, sending them to your base by strapping balloons to them, and in general raising holy hell. In some, you’re kitted out in full battle armour and you’re obliterating armoured vehicles.

It’s really an astounding mix, and son, that’s only the main story missions. There is over a hundred Extra Ops that you can do, and there are several different categories that are even more eclectic than the story missions. You’ll need to blow away upgraded and more hardcore versions of unmanned AI weapons, all of whom are fueled solely by how much fucking grief they can cause you. You’ll need to take two certain members of your team out on dates, attempting to impress them with your smooth talking, musical choices, and photographic finesse. Shooting down balloons, holding up a certain amount of enemies with only a banana for armament, shooting down choppers, rescuing POWs, defending Mother Base from missile attack…

Oh, didn’t I mention Mother Base? Yeah, this adds that little grindy element that you know I love; a home base, upgraded as you capture and recruit new soldiers, complete with its own R&D department to research new and more terrifying weaponry, and an option to hire out your soldiers as mercenaries to remote areas requesting assistance. It is truly a godsend, and actually does a wonderful job of linking Peace Walker (which takes place in the past) to Metal Gear 1 – the aspects involving Mother Base and the research and capture of new weapons, soldiers and vehicles dovetails perfectly with the story of Metal Gear. I mean, how else did you think Big Boss got to be a powerful, dictator-esque nuclear-arms-wielding threat?

As a final plus to this game, everything – and I mean every mission with the exception of precious few – can be completed cooperatively with as few as one and as many as three other buddies, and, again, you know how I feel about this. The definitive allure of co-op has always been my Achilles heel, and this game is just as perfect as I imagined – taking down a tank with three buddies? Dodging a chopper’s missiles on the way to your downed ally, hoping you can hold out long enough to give him CPR and bring him back into the battle? Syncing up with a team and watching all four of you sneak deep behind enemy lines? Fucking beautiful. Damn near brings tears to my eyes.

Leave it to Kojima to take a handheld device, release a video game for forty bucks, and show up the multimillion dollar blockbuster FPSes on consoles. This game is fucking perfect, and you owe it to yourself (and a couple buds) to pick it up and start building your own Mother Base. This game is off the fucking chain.

Did I mention you can hunt a few of the more notorious creatures from Monster Hunter? Yeah, this is your chance to finally ram a LAW rocket down Tigrex’s gullet.