Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP;Kojima Productions)
The PSP (PlayStation Portable) has been out for almost 2 years now. I purchased mine about 2 months after the release, and since then, I've only purchased (or received as gifts) 7 games. Hell, up until this Christmas, I only owned 5 games for Sony's "monster" handheld.
Suffice it to say, I've spent more time checking my email and listening to music on my PSP than I have actually playing games. But for the better part of a year, my PSP has been sitting in my bottom drawer collecting dust.
The Nintendo DS has been dominating the handheld war (if you can even call it a war.) Nintendo's market share has risen exponentially since the release of the DS, and it's only gotten bigger with the release of the Wii.
With the failed UMD media format, it's outrageous price point ($199 for a core PSP, $249 for the system and a couple games), and lack of a second analog stick (nub), Sony has gone in way over their head with the PSP. Never mind the fact that Nintendo's own GameBoy has been the best selling system of all time. A lot of people keep asking themselves "What was Sony thinking?"
I, too, have been pondering that question for quite a while now. The vast majority of PSP games have either been ports of games you can play on the PS2, or dreadfully mediocre original titles. With just a scant few exceptions, the PSP is a seriously overpriced, underutilized handheld.
But something happened in '06. A fairly steady wave of quality games have appeared on Sony's failing handheld.
Killzone: Liberation,
EXIT,
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror (arguably my favorite game on the system), just to name a few.
On October 31, 2006, Rockstar Games released it's follow-up to their '05 smash, (
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories) with the release of
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. I'll talk more at length about that game at a later time, but suffice it to say, that game alone is reason enough to purchase a PSP (unless they release it for PS2 like they did with
LCS.)
As great as
VCS was, though...there's one game that completely blows all other PSP games out of the water, for me.
As a PSP owner, and an avid
Metal Gear fan, I'd been wondering when Konami was gonna release a true
Metal Gear Solid for the PSP. Sony has been very good to Hideo Kojima and crew, and vice versa, so it was only a matter of time. With two new games in the
Metal Gear franchise (the
Metal Gear Ac!d games), it seemed as if they were all we could ever hope for on Sony's handheld. Don't get me wrong, they're very good games, but
VERY different from any
Metal Gear game you've ever played (the
Ac!d games are card-based, in the same vein as
D&D or
Yu-Gi-Oh!)
Then at E3 '06, Kojima Productions announced
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops for the PSP. Little was known about the game at the time. But soon enough, we found out it would be the official sequel to 2004's absolutely stellar
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and that it would feature the "tactical espionage action" we've all grown to love. And it would have online play!
The game was released stateside on December 5, 2006. I've played it. I love it. And if you'll indulge me just a bit longer, I'll tell you why.
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (
MPO for short) is a game that is very much like it's console predecessors. I won't provide any spoilers in this review, so anyone who wants to know any backstory can look
here. Proceed at your own caution when reading, though. For there are spoilers in the link provided.
As mentioned above,
MPO is the sequel to
MGS3: Snake Eater. It picks up 6 years after the events in
Snake Eater. Snake wakes up in a prison cell, and soon finds out he's been arrested for treason. A handful of soldiers from his unit have gone rogue, and he's been framed for the same crime. That's the extent of the information I'll provide for the story.
Let's talk about the gameplay. The game runs on a modified version of the
MGS3: Subsistence engine (consider
Subsistence the "ultimate edition: of
Snake Eater). Whereas
Snake Eater had an annoying fixed camera,
Subsistence fixed that by providing a 360ยบ, user controlled camera, not unlike the camera used in
Metal Gear Solid's closest rival...
Splinter Cell. The player uses the right analog stick to control the camera.
Now obviously you can't do that on the PSP, as it only has one analog stick. Kojima Productions has offered a solution that works rather well, all things considered. The default control set-up has you moving with the analog nub, and controlling the camera with a D-Pad. Now this only really works when you're standing still, so they added a function that allows you to snap the camera back to the "behind the back" view with the press of a button. It takes a little getting used to, but it works.
The biggest change in the gameplay, however, is the all-new "recruiting" system. You can capture any enemy and recruit them to your ever-growing "army." This encourages the player to not kill the enemies. This adds an entirely new dynamic to the gameplay.
There are different areas that you can place said recruits. You have four tactical teams that actually go out on the missions (Alpha team, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta). You can assign 4 soldiers to each team. You can only deploy the team that you have Snake placed in.
Besides the TAC teams, you've also got an area for Spies, Medics, and Technicians. You'll deploy each soldier based on what they're rankings are, and what their specialty is. For instance, if they've got an A or an S grade in Technician, obviously you place them in the Technician category. An A or an S in Medic? Place them on your medical team. And if their specialty is spying, you place them in your spy unit. Spies can decrease the health and ammo of enemies in whichever location you place them, and they can also scout for new weapons and other items. If you have a good enough medical team, they increase the speed in which you regain health and stamina between missions. And your technicians develop new weapons and equipment.
Unlike previous games in the series,
MPO is mission based. After you complete a mission, you're brought back to the briefing screen. Here, you manage your squads and other teams, and select your missions.
Because of the space limitations of the UMD disc, the dialogue has been reduced to cut-scenes only. Speaking of cut-scenes, Kojima Productions has traded the fully-animated cut-scenes from previous games to hand-drawn, comic style. Renown artist Ashley Wood provides the illustrations (he was the guy who illustrated the
Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel, along with other comics.) The effect is a bit jarring at first, but it really suits the story, and the illustrations are beautiful (and they're also animated a bit.)
The graphics are fantastic. Kojima Productions have always set the bar when it comes to graphics, and they've done an absolutely remarkable job with the PSPs limited hardware. Superb animations, great explosion effects. Just an all around pretty game.
The soundtrack is great, as it's always been. And the sound effects are very well done for a portable game.
The online play is a refined version of [i]Subsistence's online game. It supports up to 6 players via ad-hoc or Wi-Fi Infrastructure.
There are 3 modes. Real Combat/Virtual Combat mode. In real combat mode, any of your squadmates that are killed in action, you'll lose, and your opponent will gain them as their own new recruit. Virtual Combat is the opposite. You could die a million times, but you won't lose any squadmates.
In free versus mode, you can freely participate in versus battles, even if you don't have a squad. This mode is only available through ad-hoc, though.
There's also a game sharing mode. Basically, if you've got a bunch of friends over with PSPs, you can activate the game-sharing mode and participate in versus matches with only one disc.
There are four variations to each match. You've got deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture mission, and team capture mission. They're all pretty self-explanatory.
When a soldier is defeated, the next soldier in line will be deployed. In virtual combat, the defeated soldier awaits their next deployment. In real combat, the defeated soldier is not resurrected.
There's a retreat and white flag option, as well. You can activate the Fulton extraction system by pressing the L button while holding SELECT. You cannot use this while inside a building, however.
If you successfully retreat, the next soldier in line will be deployed, and the extracted soldier will regain health and await their next deployment.
If you think you're gonna lose, you can throw in the white flag. Any solider killed in action will be resurrected and places in the ICU. But you'll lose any points you earned during the match.
The online play is a bit more fast paced than it was on
Subsistence, and its a better game for it. But the PSP controls don't work quite as well online. Whereas AI enemies will back off a bit, human players will be relentless. So you have to have twitch-like reflexes if your opponent gets the drop on you. With the lack of a second analog stick, this is not an easy feat.
Overall,
MPO is an outstanding achievement in portable gaming, and a worthy sequel to
MGS3. I could whole-heartedly recommend purchasing a PSP just for this game. It's arguably the best game on the PSP, with a great story, superb graphics, and fun online play. It's a game not to be missed.
10/10
