Game #2 – Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Kojima Productions
Platform: PSP
2010 was a weird year for the PSP. On one hand, it was reporting fantastic sales and high quality games in Japan, while everywhere else, it became the cool thing to hate on the PSP, before talk of PSP 2 suddenly began. It was also the year that I finally took the plunge and purchased one, thanks to two factors. First off, was an extremely affordable price of around $200 AUD for a 3000 Model. The other? MGS: Peace Walker.
Peace Walker takes place 10 years after the events of 2004's Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater/Subsistence, and unlike the previous MGS game on the PSP (that'd be MGS: Portable Ops), sets itself up as a sequel to MGS3. The setup is that Naked Snake/Big Boss is heading up a military organization known as Militaries San Frontiers, which was the genesis to the Outer Heaven group. He gets contacted by two refugees from Costa Rica, whom ask him and the group to intervene in an invasion in the country; because Costa Rica officially has no army, they cannot defend themselves. Snake agrees to the job, and from then on, things get interesting.
The biggest change up from previous games is that it follows more of a mission structure – missions normally don't take longer than 5 or so minutes, and there's a tonne to do. Sure, you can waltz through the story, but there's so much else to do – such as building up your base to allow for better weaponary or items.
Of course, being a PSP game developed in Japan – there's a tonne of influence from Monster Hunter. Ignoring the fact that there's a dedicated Monster Hunter island you can visit, co-op plays a huge role in the game, and is quite the way to play the game. The missions also feel good to grind along to, and you can thankfully get by without having to spend too much time doing so.
But the thing that's really impressed me? The fact that it feels like a complete MGS experience. It doesn't feel like KojiPro pulled anything because it wouldn't fit the PSP game, and sure – it does play quite differently to the console games, but for what it is, it doesn't feel at all out of place, which is hugely impressive to me. Aside from the forced combat stuff (the weakest part of the game, by far), Peace Walker is essential playing. It continues on from one of the best stories in the whole series, feels like an MGS experience without losing anything, and the structure works. If you have one reason to check out a PSP, it'd be this.
Mrspro started that this week. Sounds great, looks like Snake Eater (in the beginning at least).
for some reason it seems like a waste to put big game efforts such as this and ghost of sparta on the psp at this stage. it shouldn't do but it does. i know this is beside the point though, I'm sure it's another quality game i won't get to play due to massive backlog (including some canon MGS games) and different gaming priorities.. i have a feeling it will be largely ignored in end-of-year-lists solely because of the platform it found itself on. Glad at least it got a mention here
Japan made up for any deficiences in the west (for Snake Eater at least), and the first God of War PSP game actually sold well in the west, so they are being appreciated by some paying customers (and probably four time more pirates). Not sure this last God of War sold anywhere though.
Although I have to say that Peace Walker's lack of a story structure and focus on multiplayer was a slight letdown, since I prefer the linear story telling the past MGS games, I do still think that PW is one of the best PSP games, arguably, the best if you think about the quality and production values put into it.