Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP - 1st completion)
Kind of the black sheep of the series, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops didn't have series creator Hideo Kojima's involvement and it kind of shows. Currently, the game's story is the second to take place chronologically in the series (unless they plan future prequel[s]) and sees the return of Naked Snake, aka. Big Boss. A younger Roy Campbell is introduced before became a colonel though he is reserved to being in the background and giving information through the radio as usual. While I won't spoil things, another important character makes his first appearance in this game. There were a number of liberties taken to have this game play on Sony's PSP, especially in the gameplay and control departments. I played on Normal difficulty and beat it once in over 8 hours of gameplay. I used a saved game copied from GameFAQs to play through the game as I was screwing up too much and just want to experience the story. I'm thankful I did as it got rid of a lot of filler and made things much more streamlined.
In 1970, six years after the events of Snake Eater, Naked Snake's former team, FOX unit, has broken their allegiance with the CIA and gone rogue. Snake himself is also targeted by the FOX unit, which sent renegade FOX unit soldiers to attack and capture him. The game begins with Snake being tortured and interrogated by one of the members of FOX, Lieutenant Cunningham (above, WOOF!), who is trying to locate the whereabouts of the missing half of the Philosopher's Legacy, with the United States Government having already acquired the other half of the Legacy from the Soviet Union at the conclusion of Snake Eater. Snake is imprisoned in a cell next to Roy Campbell, the sole survivor of an American Green Beret team sent in to investigate the base. Snake learns through Roy that they are on the San Hieronymo Peninsula (a Russian transliteration of "San Jerónimo Peninsula") or "La Península de los Muertos", the site of an abandoned Soviet missile silo in Colombia. The two escape and Snake makes his way to a communications base, where he attempts to contact his old CO, Major Zero. Instead, he is greeted by his old FOX comrades Para-Medic and Sigint, who reveal that Snake and Zero are being charged for treason and that the only way for Snake to be exonerated from the charges is to find and apprehend the leader of the rebellion, Gene. To complicate matters, Gene has also convinced most of the Russian soldiers stationed at the base to join their side by simply taking over the chain of command belonging to a former Red Army unit, which was secretly stationed inside the Colombian territory. In order to complete his mission, Snake must persuade enemy soldiers to join his ranks due to the scale of his mission.
For the game's opening go here or below:
Click to viewPart 2 is here, and Part 3 is here.
Graphics/Art-9
+ Very impressive on the PSP. Character models look great and so does the animation.
+ In contrast to the console games in the series, the cutscenes that drive the story are not rendered using the usual in-game engine. Instead, they are presented using an animated comic style consisting of hand-drawn artwork by artist Ashley Wood. This style was previously utilized in Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel. It works surprisingly well though a few times, it can be difficult to discern what just happened in a scene.
- Level design is okay but it is a step back from Snake Eater.
- It's a lot more difficult to see enemies because of the camera and having to fumble around with the D-pad to move it. It's like going backwards in the series.
Sound/Music-9
+ Even on the PSP, the game features voice acting, consisting of returning cast members from Snake Eater and new actors. However, the number of cutscenes and in-game voiced sections are minimal, due to the UMD storage capacity constraints. Voice acting is again very good just like in past games.
+ The music is not bad and neither are the sound effects. The ending credits song, "Calling To The Night" is quite good and is used also in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (I was wondering why I recognized it when I heard it).
- Unlike Snake Eater which has some music in its mid-60's vibe, Portable Ops didn't really have anything that sounded like it was around 1970.
Control-7
+ The game does an admirable job of bringing in the gameplay mechanics of past MGS games and mapping them to the PSP's buttons.
- Because there is a lack of two extra shoulder buttons and a right analog stick, there were a few liberties taken in the controls. The main problem is the camera control which is mapped to the D-pad. It is easy to fumble around while sneaking or running from enemies.
- Managing soldiers and items can be confusing.
Gameplay-8
+ The main addition to Portable Ops is the Comrade System. Instead of the solo missions of previous Metal Gear Solid games, Portable Ops goes for a squad-based approach, with Snake having to recruit allies and form a team of trained specialists. Before each mission, you must compose a (maximum) four-man squad. The squad is then sent into battle. Each member of Snake's squad has his own strengths and weaknesses. While some units are best utilized on the battlefield, others may specialize in producing items, healing allies, or providing intel for each of the game's maps.
+ During gameplay, you control only one squad member at a time. The squad members not in use hide themselves inside a cardboard box, and can be swapped into play when the player-controlled character finds a hiding spot, where he can hide in his own cardboard box.
+ A variety of methods can be employed to expand one's squad. If an enemy character is tranquilized or stunned, they can be dragged to a waiting vehicle and captured. After a period of game time, the captured soldier will become a member of Snake's team. Also, enemy characters can be dragged to an ally waiting in a cardboard box, where, through the use of a transceiver frequency, or by giving the cardboard box a "nudge", they will be ordered to transport the enemy for you, saving stamina. Alternatively, by accessing the PSP in certain hotspots using the system's Wi-Fi feature, soldiers and even special bonus characters can be recruited. The PSP GPS Receiver can also be used to similar effect. Because some of your recruits include former enemy soldiers or personnel, they can walk among the enemy undetected as long as you avoid suspicious actions.
+ Another new feature is the surround indicator added to the game's HUD. Similar to the radar in previous titles, the surround indicator allows you to determine the relative proximity of enemy soldiers by the noises they make. The surround indicator is composed of two circles; the outer circle displays the noises made by enemies and inner circle displays noises made by you yourself.
- I find recruiting soldiers with the constant slow dragging and so forth to be one of the game's weaknesses. It gets repetitive pretty quickly.
- Characters who are killed in combat are eliminated from your squad permanently, unless they are "unique characters", such as Snake. Unique characters also include team mates that are bosses or supporting characters in the story. If a special character's health is reduced to zero, they are sent to the infirmary, in order to recover. Which makes no sense... why can't non unique-characters be sent to the infirmary too?
- Your characters can only hold 4 items/weapons! This makes for character swapping and backtracking so unnecessary. Why???
- Because of the issues of the camera, the surround indicator was put in this game but I don't find it that reliable.
- Why can't 2 or more teams go into an area? You can only pick one with up to 4 characters but having more of them would make things easier and recruiting would be less a chore.
- I find that hiding spots are restrictive depending where you are in an area and it's frustrating when you are told there is no place to hide when clearly there is! Also, why can't hiding members help you if they notice you are in trouble (provided they don't blow their cover)? It would be a nice option.
Gameplay videos are here, here, and here.
Fun/Story/Misc-8
+ The story is pretty interesting in how they bridge the events of Snake Eater to this one. Having two major series characters introduced was also a nice touch too.
+ The game also contains a Wi-Fi-enabled multiplayer mode, which is an expansion of the Metal Gear Online mode previously featured in Subsistence. One's performance in the Online Mode may affect his performance in the single player campaign; you can recruit and trade soldiers from beaten opponents, or vice-versa. Additionally, certain multiplayer options result in recruits being removed from the one's single player roster permanently.
- I like the classic gameplay of other MGS games than the mission-based one of Portable Ops. It's not a bad idea but just wasn't executed quite as well as it could have been.
- Not much in post-game content either than replaying the game with everything and everyone you've collected.
Total: 41/50 (Grade level: B)
The main Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops website is here. The Wikipedia article is here and the Gametrailers.com video review is here.
Next Game: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS)
Currently playing: Heavy Rain: Director's Cut (PS3) & Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox)
