A ghost in the machine
I finished Peace Walker last night in a frenzy of awesomeness. At about 2 AM. Three years since I was this invested in a series and completely worth it.
Tell you what, I was going to rant about the futility of sneaking past armed prison guards bare-handed, about how all the triangle-mashing has destroyed my fingers for a week, about that suicidal trek through a base crawling with hostiles on permanent alert, or how the last regular fight took me a full hour after I finally managed not to screw up within the first minute... but now I'm done and I can't really bring myself to. The ride sure was something, but in the end it's got nothing on the story and the way it's told. If I had to rate this game? I'd give it eleven stars of ten.
I loved how the final chapter (4, that is) was a perfect mix of epic and understated.
But you can kindly pretend for a while that I know where to start, m'dear reader.
--They did a brilliant job on the cutscenes in general. It's handled so well it doesn't even matter they're not traditional cinematics on the PSP like they are on the "big" platforms - they fine-tuned the illustrated aspect of it so nicely that you don't expect or want anything else. It has a sort of timeless feel to it.
--The moment when Big Boss came this close to becoming "another Che, dead at thirty-nine", I did an unabashed double-take. Hey, ever feel like a reference has been taken too far on your expense? Think of Big Boss and count yourself lucky.
--Strangelove is such an amazing character. Whatever scene she's in, emotionally charged electrotorture or a quiet agreement with the former victim, her presence makes it better. And her relationship with The Boss is no less involved than the one Big Boss has with her - there's more to it than just similarity. It's like everyone who managed to get close to The Boss while she was alive ended up with a lifelong contract.
--SPEAKING OF THE BOSS. Oh, Boss. Way to make me actually feel sorry for rocket-launching that machine into oblivion.
--I'd go as far as to say this game is an even worse time to be in Big Boss's skin than Snake Eater. Just consider: he finds himself with no choice but to kill The Boss all over again - the point about this Boss being an AI is rendered incredibly moot in the final analysis - he's there in that claustrophobic cylinder core with her voice all around, pulling her virtual mind apart on a freaking time limit, oh and did I mention the voice deteriorates and throws about random lines as the AI gets disassembled? Still, he goes through with it only because there's nothing else that can cut that data transmission - except wait, it DOESN'T go offline. The guy has just relived his worst nightmare and it leaves his fate still in the hands of some unreachable board of bureaucrats who are apparently not as hesitant to launch a counter-strike against fake nukes as the asshat who had first input the data (now dead) estimated. IF THIS IS NOT FUCKED UP, YOU TELL ME WHAT IS.
(As an aside to the "random lines" I mentioned, not all of them are random. One could even be read as a warning to Big Boss: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" changes into "The lonely fox chases the one-eyed hound". Why hello there, Major Zero.)
--And that's another thing I like about MGS: it's not linear, and it doesn't buy into the cliché of a single hero who always saves the day. (Come to think of it, this is even more pronounced in the Big Boss storyline since it puts such emphasis on his supporters.) Not going to lie, though, it was beyond badass when he sort of rebounded and was all, "Then get me Washington on the phone, THEY'RE THE ONES WHO GAVE ME THIS TITLE AND THEY ARE GOING TO LISTEN TO BIG BOSS IF THEY KNOW WHAT'S FUCKING GOOD FOR THEM, NOW." (Not a direct quote here, obviously. He's not that full of himself.) But leave it to realism that he managed to convince the one guy on the committee he spoke to and nobody else. And then the American Commie Scare of the Cold War(TM) took over when the rest of the board jumped up, determined to take those Russian fiends with them and who'd believe some impostor over in Nicaragua and his insane claim those missiles clearly showing on the screen aren't real, right? Right?!
Suffice to say, I headdesked and applauded Kojima.
--I'm not kidding; Kojima knows how to incorporate even the freaking load screen into the overall story. The sky is ever the limit here.
--Further fourth wall-breaking things! MGS is fantastic in the way it's not just a "game": the characters are like these people you know (with pretty extensive life stories at this point as well) and there's always something in the interactive aspect of the whole thing that engages you. When I first finished MGS4, for instance, I thought it was awesome there was no "health bar" at the end (and for the last few minutes before it was disposed of, it served more as an indicator of which characters came to the foreground). Made it so much more meaningful. In Peace Walker... they give you free rein to demolish the machine. Yep, the Boss one after that hour-long battle and AI issues. No indication how it's working, except that you see it gradually fall apart with each hit. It doesn't have a human shape but rest assured that it's disturbingly lifelike, with that likeness becoming even more pronounced when said machine's just standing there shaking and seems to have bleeding wounds from the artillery blasts. Even though this didn't take too long, I spent the entire time going, "I don't want to do this, why do I have to do this, Boss, those fucking nukes!"
--AND THEN. Nah, I am not summing up the key point of the story - you have to experience that scene. All I'm going to say is that it has a lot to do with this entry's title, and turns the expected conclusion upside down.
--As for the very ending, I'm still torn. On the one hand, I'm happy for Strangelove finally getting her answer and being at some semblance of peace with The Boss's life. But then there's the matter of Big Boss that only really hits home when he puts it to words himself. I'm not going to spoil that either, but... augh.
--Next I'm off to catch up with all the convos/library files, since there's a lot I haven't heard yet and no doubt there will be some new ones. Got a couple special people to join, after all! See, even the potential replay is arranged to fit in.