Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker

I was very hesitant to buy this game as I did not like the previous Metal Gear games on PSP that much, but then Hideo Kojima said he was deeply involved in this project and the reviewers gave it pretty good scores so I recently decided to give it a shot. After playing it and finishing it once with most of the extra missions (25+ hrs and still playing), here is what I thought.****************PROS.****************AN ACTUAL MGS TYPE OF GAMEPLAY ON PSP: The best thing about Metal Gear Solid games is its gameplay. Unlike most games where run and gun gameplay is promoted, in metal gear games sneaking gameplay is highly encouraged, but if you are not big on sneaking then you can always run and gun. I am so happy to see that Peace Walker carries on this legacy and allows player to choose how they want to play.SMARTLY DESIGNED CONTROLS: So how do you play third person shooter on PSP which only has one analogue stick? Well this game has very smartly designed shooter controls that make use of (O, X, Square, Triange) buttons as second analogue stick and still delivers shooter type of experience. At first you may find it difficult to use, but once you get used to them, you will love them. If not, there are two other control formats, so chances are at least one of them will work for you.VARIETY IN MISSIONS AND SCENARY: The story of this game progresses through you completing different missions. I have to say these missions are very nicely designed. While completing the game you will go through jungles, villages, factories and more (don't want to spoil). While going through these areas you will encounter variety of enemies and will be forced to do many different tasks to progress through the story. I have to say there hasn't been a single time I felt why I am doing this or that mission. For most part they were quite fun.PLENTY OF SIDE MISSIONS: In additions to main missions, you will be encouraged to do plenty of side missions. Completing these side missions will reward you with variety of things. See the below section for more detail.LOADS AND LOADS OF EXTRA GAMEPLAY: So throughout the games doing missions and side missions you are expected recruit people and create your own army. The major characters will get recruited in your army automatically as you progress through the game. As for the rest of them, you have to knock out enemy soldiers and prisoners and send them using helium balloon. I know it sounds corny, but it is quite humorous when you play it. And then you can use these recruits to complete different missions, develop different weapons, wage wars etc. etc. There is just so much to do. This game will truly surprise and please you.ENJOYABLE BOSS FIGHTS: Bosses in this game are simply spectacular. They will range from military vehicles such as tanks and choppers to devastating Metal Gears. Simply put boss fights are strategic in nature and defeating them is quite rewarding. And when I say rewarding it is just not as entertainment value, but depending on how you defeat these bosses you can make use out of them. For example, if you defeat military vehicles the right way you can salvage them, add them to your army and deploy them in extra missions. Same with defeating Metal Gear, depending on how you defeat them you can salvage their parts and use them to make your own Metal Gear. Awesome right?WEAPONS AND GADGETS: To complete these different missions and side missions, you will have access to variety of weapons and gadgets. Some of these include but are not limited to tranquilizer gun, sniper rifle, various machine guns and heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, radar, sound indicator and the list goes on. Not all of them are available in the beginning. You will have to unlock them of course by growing your army.UPGRADES: All of these weapons as well as your staff can be upgraded. This adds an RPG element to the game and really encourages you to replay your missions, do better on them and grow your staff. This adds a whole new dimension to the gameplay.GREAT STORY, DECENT VOICE ACTING AND COMIC BOOK STYLE CUTSCENES: If you have played other MGS games than you know all the Hideo Kojima games have amazing stories. They won't always make sense, but as you go through them you sure as hell enjoy them. In this game such story is accompanied by decent voice acting and portrayed mainly through comic-book style depiction. I personally loved it and found it quite artistic.REPLAY ANYTHING YOU WANT: To me this is an awesome addition. You can replay any mission or any cutscene over again. So if you missed something or if you didn't perform well in a cutscene you can relive those moments and collect anything you have missed without having to play whole game again. Marvelous just marvelous!ONLINE CO-OP GAMEPLAY: I am not much into online play, but if you have a buddy with PS3, you can co-op play a lot of the missions, trade your soldiers and do a whole lot of things.KOJIMA HUMOR: This can be hit or miss. There are many moments in the game where you will encounter weird humor. I would describe it to you, but truly don't want to ruin it for you guys. I personally found it funny, but I can't say for sure for you.**************CONS.*******************MEANT TO BE MUCH BIGGER (OUTER OPS): Don't get me wrong this game is amazing and you will love it. But while playing it you will get the feeling that this game was meant to be much bigger than it is. It could have been meant for PS3 with a lot more stuff added to it. For example, in outer ops section you simply deploy your troops/mechs/metal gear and do nothing else. Knowing Kojima he probably planned something better for it (i.e. deploy it and then strategically use them to beat enemies). It is hard to describe, but if you are a Kojima fan, you will see what I am saying.****************CONCLUSION********************Simply put, I have enjoyed Peace Walker as much if not more as any other MGS. It is a must buy for MGS fans and if you are not a fan you should still give it a shot. Chances are it will sweep you off your feet. Contrary to the con I described, I give it 10/10. Giving it anything less just seems very unfair. Bravo Kojima Bravo.

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker exceeded my expectations. I have played and own MGS1, 2, 3, Portable Ops as well as MGS:Ghost Babel for the Game Boy Color and love them all. But the things you can do in Peace Walker is unbelievable. What Hideo Kojima and Konami did with this game is combining the best elements of MGS3 Snake Eater, Portable Ops, MGS4, some RPG elements like leveling up your weapons and items plus made a lot of side missions called extra ops which is suited for a handheld. The cool thing is after playing it for awhile, you forget your playing this on a handheld. It's really that deep.In this game you play as Naked Snake, aka Big Boss and is the followup to MGS3 Snakeater and Portable Ops. The recruitment feature is similar to Portable Ops but more organized and better menus. You'll have staff rosters like Combat Unit, R&D team, Medical Team, etc. and the way to do this is using the fulton recovery system to get enemy soldiers and prisoners while they are lying down and parachute them in the air which is cool. Better than Portable Ops dragging the body to the truck. Each one you get is different and has a specialty feature. For example, if you get a prisoner that has a high medical level, put him/her in the Medical Team.There's also mechs that you can collect by defeating them without completely damaging the mechs. There's armored vehicles, tanks, and helicopters. They are tough to beat since you have to take out the soliders and the commander. Once you get them, you can use it for outer ops to defeat other group of enemies. You can even develop Metal Gear called the ZEKE. You have to have a high level R&D team to develop them and defeat the more powerful mech weapons boss battles like the Puppa, Chrysalis, Cocoon, and finally the Peace Walker to assemble the parts like the head, armor, railgun, leg parts, etc. As long as you have all the main parts, you can use Metal Gear ZEKE for Outer Ops battles.The level design is amazing as there's the jungle, facilities, little towns, Mine base, prison facilities and much more. The details are incredible. The settings does take place in Central America and feels like your in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Even the character models are highly detailed. Their look, movements, uniforms, etc. are all high quality. The controls are solid and is more polished than Portable Ops. Sneaking using stealth is fun and the run and gun battles is good although my left hand did tend to tire and sore a bit using the analog stick during those intense boss battles. Not the controls fault though, its the way the analog stick was designed on the PSP. The voice acting is also top notch just like the other Metal Gear games. The soundtrack, amazing. Feels like a blockbuster motion picture soundtrack.The only downside for me personally is the story and the high difficulty of most of the mech boss battles. Peace Walker is the better game overall to Portable Ops but the story in Portable Ops is better than Peace Walker. The whole The Bosses AI and the way those mech make those eerie music is cheesy and a bit ridiculous. But the ending is a bit better than MGS2 Sons of Liberty. The plot overall was meh to me. The comic book cutscenes were cool though. I know some would want a full motion cut scenes like the console versions but realize that it would take space on the UMD. Some of those cutscenes are interactive (Quick Time Events) and have to press the right buttons quickly. Since this game was made specifically for co-op play with a friend, playing this game and trying to beat this game by yourself will be tough but not impossible. I beat it by myself since I don't have anyone around me that has this game or a PSP. My advice it to level up your weapons the best you can by redoing missions you have previously done in case your stuck on the newer missions and increase your R&D level, increase your Heroism, try to complete all the Extra Ops missions (most are fun), recruit soldiers and prisoners and you'll be well on your way. If you have a tough time beating some of the boss battles, just watch some of the youtube videos and see how it's done. Just have patience.It took me about 37 hours to beat the game including the REAL ending and yeah, that is a lot of hours but you'll get your moneys worth. Hint: To get the real ending, complete all of Chapter 5 by finding Zadornov a couple of times, get Intel level to Level 40, get mission support to Rank 2, get all the parts to Metal Gear ZEKE including the railgun (that's important) and expand the motherbase.Overall this is one of my favorite PSP games and this game proves what a PSP can do. A must have now that it's cheap in price.