Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops Review

The Metal Gear Solid series has been around since its glory days on the original Playstation, to the excellent Playstation 2 sequels, and the fourth incarnation in the series is set to be released on the Playstation 3. This highly lauded and critically acclaimed series has seen its share of different consoles, but has never ventured into the realm of portable gaming. Sure, there have been a few spin off titles for portable consoles in the past, and there have been the recent Metal Gear AC!D games on the Playstation Portable, but never a Metal Gear Solid game. Well, for Metal Gear Solid fans who quite get their fix with the two previous games, Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops is about as close as to a true Metal Gear Solid adventure as you can get on a portable system.

This new adventure takes place in 1970, six years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Naked Snake, also known as “Big Boss” has been attacked and captured by his former team, the FOX Unit. The game begins with a short cutscene involving Snake being interrogated and tortured by a member of the FOX Unit, looking for the other half of the Philosopher’s legacy. After this cutscene concludes, Snake discovers he is imprisoned in a cell next to a lone surviving member of the Green Beret squad deployed in the area to neutralize the FOX Unit, and he turns out to be none other than Roy Campbell. After a brief conversation between the two, the player gains control of Snake and the game begins.

The story alone makes this a must play for fans of the series, as it fills in a lot of the series’ already complicated storyline. After the thought provoking storyline of Metal Gear Solid 3, Kojima and company once again puts together an excellent narrative, rich with incredible plot twists and political intrigue without coming off as over wrought or forced. The story is told incredibly well throughout the game, through the cutscenes that pop up every now and then.

As a sharp contrast with the console games in the series, the story is told through hand drawn, mostly black and white images presented panel by panel, in the style of an animated comic, instead of being rendered by the game’s graphics engine. These highly stylized scenes present the game’s excellent story in a way never seen before in the Metal Gear Solid games. This gives the cutscenes a very unique look that is highly attractive. It’s also worth noting that the cutscenes are a lot more balanced with gameplay than in previous Metal Gear Solid games, which were rather longwinded by comparison. These scenes, while appropriately heavy with narrative, don’t drag on endlessly, which is good, and fitting with the game’s portable nature.

Unlike the previous Metal Gear AC!D games on the Playstation Portable, this looks and plays more like a traditional Metal Gear Solid adventure seen on consoles. The crisp and highly detailed graphics are some of the best you’ll see on the PSP and really show what the system is capable of. The control scheme is vastly similar to that of Metal Gear Solid 3. Although shoehorning the series’ complex controls of that game onto the PSP’s limited (at least by comparison) button layout was likely rather difficult, the developers have done an admirable job. Simple actions such as walking around, crouching, placing your back to a wall, and shooting are performed easily, but once you step into the arena of aiming in the first person view and moving at the same time, a new feature, things can get a bit difficult. Performing complex actions such as the aforementioned moving while in first person view is hand cramp inducing, and don’t come off nearly as easily as they should. But, even with these minor control issues, this is still one of the better control schemes I’ve encountered on the PSP.

Even though this is pretty much the direct Sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3, many of that game’s key elements are gone, most for the better. In Metal Gear Solid 3, much of the time spent playing was in menus, curing Snake’s many wounds and injuries and eating food you’ve found or hunted for in the jungle. It was a wise choice for the developers to ditch those elements of the game for Snake’s portable outing, as they likely would’ve taken up to much of the player’s time. The camera system from Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence has thankfully found its way into this game too. Using the D pad, you can freely manipulate the camera to give you a better view of the action and with a press of the L trigger, the camera will center behind you. Instead of that particular gameplay mechanic, MGS PO has its own unique draw, which differentiates it from the rest of the games in the series. Soldier recruitment. Early in the game, you will be tasked with recruiting a soldier to your cause. After you knock out and bring back your first soldier, you are treated to a quick and very well done interrogation and recruitment cutscene in which you gain the trust and cooperation of the captive soldier. This becomes a major aspect of the gameplay from then on.

Recruiting soldiers within missions is as easy (or as difficult, depending on the situation) as knocking them out and dragging them back to your truck. From there, they are sent to the prison, where they will remain for a set period of time until they are convinced to join your squad. Besides the previously explained method of acquiring soldiers, there is another way, one that is incredibly addictive and simple to perform. Using the PSP’s wireless capabilities, this game allows you to scan Wi-Fi hotspots new soldiers to add to your crew. Using unique IP addresses to generate soldiers, the scan system is likely the easiest method of adding soldiers to your roster. In addition, using the PSP GPS receiver, which is currently only sold in Japan, you can recruit soldiers based on your geographical location.

In between missions, you can assign recruited soldiers to one of six squads, each with a different purpose, such as the medical unit, which develops healing items and speeds the healing of your soldiers in between missions and the spy unit, which locates weapons within their assigned territory and can supply you with vital intel. The most important unit to develop is the sneaking unit. This is the unit that is actually deployed in the field. Placing captured soldiers in this unit can really give you a tactile advantage when it comes to tackling these missions, because in some cases, the soldiers will blend right in with their former comrades, as long as they aren’t discovered performing any out of the ordinary actions. Adversely, placing your soldiers on the battlefield is a risk. If a major story character, such as Snake, is killed in a mission, they are sent off to the infirmary to recover and will be unable to participate in the next mission without time to recover. If a recruited soldier dies in the field, they are gone forever. This gives you reason to remain stealthy and keep your soldiers in good health. If you choose to forego stealth and wind up getting one of your valuable soldiers killed on the battlefield, there is always the option of restarting or aborting the mission, should the loss be too difficult to bear.

The missions themselves are presented in an instant action sort of manner, once again, fitting with the game’s portable nature, giving you five to ten minute bursts of play. Although the story is presented in a linear fashion, Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops takes a much more open ended approach than any other Metal Gear Solid game, giving you total control over which missions you take and when. From the menu between missions you are given the opportunity to redeploy to any location you have previously encountered. One of the major strengths of this game is its wealth of missions, perfect for portable play. There’s never a shortage of missions to play, and having the option to pick and choose which of them to play is a great addition. Keeping with the tradition of previous Metal Gear Solid games, boss encounters are just as exciting and epic as they are in other games in the series, each fight boasting its own unique charm. These battles are challenging though, requiring you to think outside of the box in order to come out victorious.

In addition to the single player campaign, there is a satisfying multiplayer component. There are options for up to 6 player play via an ad hoc network and even a game sharing option which allows up to five additional players to play even if they don’t have a copy of the disc and you can even trade your soldiers with friends. All of that aside, the real draw here is the online multiplayer modes. Using the Metal Gear Online infrastructure established in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, players face off against each other in a standard array of multiplayer modes, such as deathmatch and team deathmatch. The online modes are directly tied in with your progression in the single player campaign. Before battle, you choose one of your four groups from the sneaking unit to send into the field. Before jumping into an online match, you are given the option to choose between a “virtual” or “real” match. When participating in the latter, if your soldiers die in battle, they will no longer appear in your roster, as they have “died” on the battlefield, just like the single player campaign and your opponent can then recruit the soldiers you have lost. To save your valuable soldiers and prevent them from being killed and subsequently captured, you have the option of waving a white flag and withdrawing that soldier from the field and sending out a new one, giving them time to recover and wait until the next deployment.

The problem with this is that these modes don’t have much staying power. There are already a slim number of modes to choose from in the first place and you can add that to some rather shallow third person shooting. Sure there are the stealth aspects from the single player game, but they are often overlooked by the majority of players in lieu of locking on to their closest target and blasting it to hell. There’s very little strategy involved and the small number of modes don't bode well in terms of replay value, meaning the online modes are just fairly decent at best.

More interestingly, one of the best multiplayer modes is one you don’t directly control. The cyber-survival mode is sort of like an online simulated strategy game, in which you choose one of your sneaking units to deploy into the field. From there, they will do battle with other players’ teams. Your team will fare better or worse depending on your soldiers’ stats and equipment, so performing well is conducive with your own pre-battle planning. Also, keeping with the general theme of the rest of the game, if your soldiers are killed in cyber survival, they will not return. If they fare well, you might be presented with captured soldiers to recruit upon their safe return.

In the end, the fresh and unique single player campaign does wonders to differentiate this from other Metal Gear Solid games and proves to be a worthwhile and engaging experience. Metal Gear Solid fans will get the most from this game due to its excellent story and plot development, but non fans can enjoy it all the same because of the classic Metal Gear Solid gameplay and solid suite of enjoyable modes. Soldier recruitment makes for an entertaining little minigame and the squad management options set this apart from the crowd. Bottom line, this is truly one of the best PSP games to date and can easily hold its own with any of its console predecessors.

Graphics - 9
Gameplay - 9
Sound - 9
Value - 9
Tilt - 9
Overall Score: 9.0