Reviews

Let's start with a fact - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is the best Metal Gear. It gave us everything we could ever want from a Metal Gear game - great stealth action, top characters, brilliant boss fights, a breathtaking environment and an emotional rollercoaster.

It's true that Kojima doesn't know when to leave Snake alone, having declared he's finished with the series on several occasions now, but we don't care because we don't want him to leave Snake alone. Rather than dragging out MGS4 with another adventure from the aged Snake, Kojima has returned where we wanted him to return the most - Big Boss and the Cold War era, in a sequel to Snake Eater. Did I mention that MGS3 is the best game in the series? Well, Peace Walker is the best game on the PSP. It's entirely up to you whether that makes it the best in the series or not.

So what did Big Boss get up to after becoming Big Boss. It's 1974 and Snake has been called in for a top secret mission in troubled Costa Rica. A military unit, known as the Peace Sentinels have taken up residence in Costa Rica, with top-notch nuclear weapons. Snake needs to sneak in and take care of the problem. As is usual in Metal Gear plot twists are plenty and nothing is ever as it seems.

The game is played out in small mission segments, complete with over-long but super stylish interactive comic book style cut scenes. These involve the odd quick time sequence from firing a rocket launcher to checking out the underwear of a young girl (okay then!). Perversion aside, the cutscenes are brilliantly done in the same art style we've seen before in MGS comics, portraying the action beautifully, and perhaps the best possible way on the PSP.

Once again Kojima is a script editor's nightmare when it comes to over-long scenes. They'd trim that scene and cut this to make 10 minutes of seemingly irrelevance into 20 seconds of quick-fire action, but that's why we love the guy. He respects his characters and makes us respect them more by detailing even minor thing that most people wouldn't consider caring about. They may seem like super strong super heroes at times, but they are only human after all, and as Snake says to one of the young characters, even heroes have to pay the bills.

The missions are the same old sneaking and shooting affairs we've become accustomed to with the console versions, and they've been expertly moved over to the handheld system. Not only will you be sneaking through bases and the jungle again, but you'll be facing off against some big and mean machinery. As is normal with the series, the less you know about the story and action before going in the better. What I will say though, is there's plenty of breathtaking action, great story moments as well as plenty of frustration along the way. Oh, and there's also some Monster Hunter action too!

The frustration comes in three ways. Firstly, although there are three control set-ups, each one of them exposes more challenges to the game. You can choose a layout to suit your needs from three choices - like Portable Ops. Not good. Like Monster Hunter Portable. Not good. Or like Metal Gear Solid 4, but on the PSP. The best of a bad bunch. This will most likely be the set-up you'll choose, but it exposes the PSP's control weaknesses, with lack of a second analogue stick, once again. You move snake with the stick, and change the camera with the face button - never a good thing. The D-Pad is used to select items and weapons. As far as stealth play goes you'll get used to this control set up eventually, but when the action heats up it becomes frustrating, especially in a boss fight.

Not only this, but Peace Walker is sold as co-op game with up to 4 players. The game doesn't care if you have three friends or you're playing alone, the difficulty and fights remain the same. So while a rather lacklustre boss fight will be won easily with a group of you, this isn't the case while playing alone. Sure, there's nothing particularly memorable about Peace Walker's boss fights, like we're used to. All they need is brute force to kill, but it's easier said than done, when henchman are all over you and the controls let you down.

Finally, there are no in-mission checkpoints. Yes that age old annoyance is present in PW, you die and you start the whole level again. Sure, most of the missions are short, but the satisfaction of perfecting one area just to die in the next then have to it all again is annoying, and always will be.

Bad points aside, there are so many things that Peace Walker does brilliantly. The game play is very familiar, making it a true sequel to the console versions with tweaks. For instance, rather than having to hide bodies, you can now shoot them up into the air on a balloon for a helicopter to take them away. The same works for rescued prisoners, doing away with tedious escort missions. The atmosphere is also spot on, particularly if you play it with headphones.

Not only this, but the game, and added extras will give you 40+ hours of entertainment if you stick with it, and why wouldn't you? This is the sequel we all wanted, and perhaps the second chapter to more instalments in the future. As you're playing. you'll often wish to yourself that this was on one of the consoles as Metal Gear Solid 3.1 (not 5). As far as PSP games go, this is the one to have.