Satsu, BRIAN BLESSED, MIGHTY AND WISE Junpei Iori: Ace Detective, Maccaffrickstonson von Lichtenstafford Frabenschnaben, Polite Krogan, Robert Baratheon
Satsu, BRIAN BLESSED, MIGHTY AND WISE Junpei Iori: Ace Detective, Maccaffrickstonson von Lichtenstafford Frabenschnaben, Polite Krogan, Robert Baratheon
Oh man oh god oh man oh god I don't like either double-posting or necro'ing but I am full-to-bursting of stuff to say about this game
To be honest, I don't know the forseeable longevity of the PSP, and I hear from some sources that the console has been pretty much at a plateau in sales/units sold for a long time. I heard the Go was a joke and that the DS, having gone through several incarnations more than the Sony line has obviously outclassed and dominated the rest of the handheld market for the good part of forever in this generation.
So yes, I'll put it out there that I bought a PSP originally solely for the purpose of playing Peace Walker, since the rest of my group are pretty much Nintendo fanboys and don't own anything from Sony past a PSX. Thinking about it, it was probably an impulse buy to account for the idea that these few months in the holidays I'd be travelling around a whole fuckload and Peace Walker would be a nice timesink.
So I bought a nice pre-owned console (because the new ones are about 250 where I'm at and I don't have that much money to waste) and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The console for about 145 AUD, the game for about 60.
Simply put, the game is fantastic. There's just so much in that one single UMD that I will say (in my opinion) that it was worth the 60 bucks. It's a big experience and every bit a Metal Gear Solid game like Snake Eater. I've talked to one or two other people who played Peace Walker, and they told me that this may be Kojima at his best, compared to when they were disappointed in MGS4.
There's not much to say about the combat itself, except for the fact that it's Metal Gear Solid gameplay. There's a lot more leniency to your approach to each level because before each mission (and boss battle) you get to pick and choose what weapons and items you start off with, whereas normally Snake gets a hammerspace for everything and comes equipped for any situation. Initially I thought this would make things a little *too* easy, but as it turns out the only thing that changes is the consistency of the playstyle for that mission. Taking the vanilla stealth approach means that you can be very underequipped for Alert phases, making stealth that much more fun. I was going to say "thrilling" but that is such a cheesy word
There is one thing about the combat, and that is that CQC is woefully clunky. Even touching an enemy soldier by sneaking too close to them causes you to stumble and will almost always trigger an alert, and during actual CQC walking point blank into a soldier will make Snake stumble and uncontrollable for half a second while the enemies can whale on him until he hits the floor. There's also the issue of his punches and kicks looking like absolutely half-arsed limp fishes, but it's moot since the most effective way of taking out guards is to throw them. The hand-to-hand isn't always the nicest thing about the game, but when it works it works nicely.
The one thing I will say about the controls is that aiming using the face buttons is ridiculously unintuitive. It will take a lot of practice to get right, and a stick would be far better to use. Unfortunately, that's just an issue the PSP has. iirc the Go has 2 analog nubs that I assume you would use 1 for aiming, so you may not have that problem if you have a Go
Boss battles aren't bad at all. Some reviewers have said that the constant 'remote-controlled Shagohod' machines aren't all that great compared to some of the battles from the other games, but some of the bosses are huge. Not quite Colossus huge, but one or two of them certainly would take up several screens and one of them does require climbing on and crawling around on top.
Another thing that bugs is the abundance of loading screens for every mission. Starting on a beach that loading screens to a military complex that loading screens to another military complex that loading screens to a warehouse does break a bit of the flow, but again I assume this is just another way to compensate for the PSP. Like I mentioned in a different thread, it's most apparent when each boss battle is a separate mission, ie. 2 loading screens in itself, and the "To be continued" fade out is a bit odd. But the whole game is structured around this format, so it just takes getting used to.
Despite the ridiculosity of Metal Gear writing, the fanboy that I am compels me to say how awesome the story is. Aside from the nuclear non-proliferation philosophy and deterrence theory discussion that is everywhere in this game, a lot of Peace Walker involves Snake still coming to terms with The Boss' death. The whole thing is wrapped up in an initial enigma when his PMC group gets asked to do a job for some clients and they give him a cassette tape recording that suggests The Boss may actually be alive somewhere. Being a Metal Gear Solid story, you can already assume that it's an Ackbar Trap (tm), but Snake goes along for the ridiculous ride anyway.
The art is cool and the interaction in the cutscenes borders from ho-hum QTEs to neat interactions like actually aiming a rocket launcher in the graphic-novel cutscenes to progress that scene. Some of the more difficult QTEs will annoy a bit and take away some of the enjoyment of watching it, but they're kept to a minimum.
And the cutscenes where Snake confronts his demons in flashbacks to his fights with The Boss are absolutely heart-rending. It's actually a little strange watching him go through the motions whenever someone confronts him about him and The Boss and their relationship. I'm still a little confused at this point whether or not he's in serious denial or is really clueless about why The Boss defected.
Even when he gets interrogated in that typical Metal Gear "mash-the-triangle-button-while-you-get-electrocuted-until-your-insides-roast" style, he keeps spouting the same lies that everyone else was supposed to believe about her defection. I know that he was supposed to know by the end of MGS3, but he does a pretty convincing job of pretending that he still doesn't. A neat little piece of emotional paydirt.
Oh yeah and there are so many bite-sized side-missions and things to do even when you're not going through the main storyline. It's almost immersive to build your own army and
build the fucking Metal Gear from the very first game
, as well as keeping the cash flow going by sending your troops to other conflicts, teching your weapons and items and maintaining morale and food stores. I've yet to really get into it, but the Portable Ops idea of recruiting soldiers from actual WLAN ports around where you're playing the game is pretty neat, and this time involves CQC'ing them before you can actually get them into your army.
Overall I've clocked about 30 hours into Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and I've barely reached the 4th chapter of the game. The IGN reviewer said he logged about 35 hours, and that was only for the main story. It really is an immense game to play, and one of the best Metal Gear Solid experiences I've had, with most of its issues caused by the limitations of the PSP. I recommend if you haven't got a PSP and you're into the MGS series, borrow a PSP off someone just so you can play Peace Walker. You won't be entirely disappointed.
Yes, Dacon, that means you you cynical curmudgeon. You won't be entirely disappointed by the game.
Satsu, BRIAN BLESSED, MIGHTY AND WISE Junpei Iori: Ace Detective, Maccaffrickstonson von Lichtenstafford Frabenschnaben, Polite Krogan, Robert Baratheon
This is pretty much the game that definitively joins the prequels to Metal Gear 1, so anything Metal Gear after this game is pretty much unneccessary padding
The game was cheap to get so I bought it after all.
I'm not far into it yet so I can't comment on the story except SINGING VOCALOID AI WEAPONS LOLWUT (but we knew those from trailers already), but the gameplay is fun.
Definitely compensates for the bullshit in Portable Ops. "Finally we can leave that crap in San Hiernonymo behind" indeed.
Although the boss battles are clearly meant for co-op. =/
Satsu, BRIAN BLESSED, MIGHTY AND WISE Junpei Iori: Ace Detective, Maccaffrickstonson von Lichtenstafford Frabenschnaben, Polite Krogan, Robert Baratheon
