Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD Edition Review

It Feels and Plays Like a Numbered MGS Title

MGS: Peace Walker is a sequel to MGS3: Snake Eater and the second PSP MGS game (not counting Metal Gear Acid) after the non-canon game, Portable Ops. Peace Walker received an HD treatment and is included in the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection/Legacy Collection.

STORY

The game's story takes place 10 years after the events of Operation Snake Eater. Naked Snake/Big Boss, left his country to wander to the battlefield as a mercenary soldier. There he met Kazuhira "Kaz" Miller and they established a mercenary business called Militaires Sans Frontieres (MSF). In a rainy night, a man named Galvez with a little girl named Paz asked for Snake's help to settle a turf war between the CIA and the guerillas. To convince Snake, Galvez brought a trump card: a cassette tape with a recorded voice that sounded like The Boss, Snake's mentor that he killed as his main objective in Operation Snake Eater.

GAMEPLAY

Being a handheld game, Peace Walker have limitations. Cutscenes are mostly hand-drawn animated comic strips illustraded by Ashley Wood, the same person that made the cutscenes in Portable Ops and the MGS1 and MGS2 digital novels. Some cutscenes are interactive, there are scenes that you can zoom in to view stuff and some have QTE's. There are, but very few, in-game 3D cutscenes too.

The game is mission-based. You can select missions in the Mission Select menu, there you can customize your character from camouflage to items and weapons/sub-weapons. You can also listen to the briefing files before going on a mission. There are two types of missions: main and side missions. Missions takes place in small maps with few area segments. You are rated depending on your performance after each mission. Every mission felt episodic. 

Snake's actions is limited, he cannot crawl, drag bodies or do CQC techniques like he does in MGS3 or Old Snake in MGS4. But the shooting mechanic is the same as MGS4, modern 3rd person shooter style, but it doesn't have a first person mode except for few items/weapons.

CQC is simplified. You can still interrogate enemies by pressing UP (or Triangle), choke them by holding the R1 button and/or throw them down by tilting the analog stick. You can take down multiple enemies by using CQC. The the R1 icon apears everytime you take down one enemy, if you see that icon, press the R1 button to take down another enemy.

Boss battles are intense. This time you're not fighting enhanced soldiers, but an aggressive mech with strong escort units. You can capture a mech. To do that, get rid of the escort units first, do some damage on the mech and wait for the leader/driver to show himself then knock him down or kill him. It's up to you on how to get rid of the enemies, either kill them or capture/recruit them all.

MSF have a Mother Base. There you can manage your recruits (STAFF), create new weapons/items (R&D), send/receive items (DELIVERY), trade units (TRADE), recruit volunteers (RECRUIT), dispatch soldiers to battle (OUTER OPS), go to multiplayer mode (VERSUS OPS), check your base status (MOTHER BASE INFO) and player data (LOG). And lastly create your own Metal Gear (METAL GEAR). It makes you feel like a boss. Mother Base will grow over time as you recruit more soldiers and as you progress through the story.

STAFF menu lets you manage your recruits and put them to the right department where their skills/strengths will be useful. You can assign them in the Combat Unit, Mess Hall, R&D, Medical and Intel. Instead of Snake, you can also use one of your Combat Unit soldiers in missions and make them stronger through field experience.

You can build your own Metal Gear by obtaining scrap parts from the unmaned AI weapons you've defeated. If you earned enough scrap, it turns to a main/optional Metal Gear part that you can install.

VERSUS OPS is a 6-player multiplayer mode that you can select while you're in Mother Base. It have different modes like the standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. Other modes are Capture Mission and Base Mission.

Some missions, main or side missions, have co-op mode. Up to 4 players can participate on a mission. The number of participants that can join depends on the mission. The mission's difficulty increases when in co-op mode.

The multiplayer mode of this game focuses on team work. You can let your team members borrow your items while on the field. You and your team can also move as a single unit and you can revive dying comrades by performing CPR.

I played this game first on the PSP so I know that the controls are solid even for a handheld game because it has minimal/handheld-friendly controls and aim assist. The controls in the HD version are much better. Having the right analog stick to look around and aim makes things easier. The extra pair of shoulder buttons makes weapon/item selection much easier too.

The HD edition have "Transfarring" where you import your PSP save file to the home console (PS3 only). You can do this vice-versa so that you can bring and play your Peace Walker saved game on-the-go.

GRAPHICS

MGS: Peace Walker looks good on PSP and playing this game more makes me think that I'm playing on a home console. It looks even better in HD. The game runs at 60 FPS and got clearer visuals. Some areas look sharp but some look muddy and bland. Mechs/AI weapons have more polygon counts. Human models looks good too and doesn't appear to be flat and stiff. But why use two in-game models for Snake - gameplay and cutscene model - while they can just use the cutscene model as a gameplay model. Snake's gameplay model lacks some details, a better example is his bandana. Anyway, the game looks great overall.

MUSIC/AUDIO

Harry Gregson-Williams made the soundtrack for this game. His soundtrack sounds different for each MGS game which is great. Most of the music for Peace Walker are intense and makes your blood boil (in a good way) for more action. Voice acting, as always, is superb and top-notch, it gives more life to the comic book style cutscene.

REPLAY VALUE

I played the game for more than 200 hours in my PSP. Since the save transfer will not unlock trophies for the HD version, I played the game again, this time for 150+ hours because I already know what I'm doing. Finishing the main story will unlock more side missions. You can also replay the main/side mission by selecting it again in mission select menu. Mother Base management can be addicting because you want to recruit more and much better units, capture stronger mechs, develop new items/weapons and create a Metal Gear. You can also go to VERSUS OPS for more play time.

CLOSING REMARKS

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is a handheld game that provides a home console gaming experience. It felt like a numbered title because of its solid gameplay, new mechanics and a story with lots of twists. It also have hilarious parts in some scenes, or you (and your team mates) can make your own funny stuff in the game (example: try grabing an enemy and let your buddy tase him with a stun rod). The high replayability of this game will eat up most of your game and spare time. This game is available for PSP and the HD version is available for PS3 and XBox 360 as part of Metal Gear Solid HD Collection.