• Review: Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker

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    IlluminatiRex
    Published on August 30, 2015 05:43 PM  Sort - Number of Views: 2694  
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    Single Issue XV (Written by IlluminatiRex)


    I’m done looking for the truth.
    Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
    Reviewer's Note: Played on a Playstation 3.

    Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker takes place 10 years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3. It's 1974, and you play as Big Boss, who still isn't fully over what he had to do in 1964 – and in order to attempt to achieve the Boss’s dream he creates a Private Military Company named “"Militaires Sans Frontiéres" (French for "Soldiers Without Borders"), or MSF for short. MSF is then contacted by a KGB agent (His real name is Zadornov) posing as a professor at Costa Rica’s “University for Peace”, along with one of his students, requesting MSF’s help in identifying and dealing with a mysterious armed group that has recently taken hold in Costa Rica and been making trouble.


    Big Boss sneaking in the jungles of Costa Rica

    This armed group turns out to be "La Cia", otherwise known as the CIA. As an incentive for Big Boss to accept this mission, Zadornov provides Big Boss with a casette tape. This tape is a mysterious recording of the Boss's voice, accomponied by a contemporary song. Big Boss is both shocked and confused, and accepts Zadornov's mission hoping to find an answer as to why her voice was there.

    Thus starts Peace Walker, and you are thrust into a structure unlike any other Metal Gear Solid game prior. Your mission is not a long, continuous one – the game is comprised of many smaller missions, accessed through a mission select screen. Missions are then separated into two main categories: Main Ops (story) and Side Ops. Main ops are unlocked as you go, so once you complete a Main Op, the next one is unlocked. Side Ops get a bit more tricky, as some are unlocked by completing Main Ops, and others are unlocked by completing various groups of Side Ops. These Side-Ops can range from rescuing POW’s to collecting items while avoiding ghosts of dead guards. I really like the structure, as it fits in with the entire PMC/Mercenary theme they have going – by selecting specific missions and what not. The first time you play a Main Op you are required to play as Snake, but once you complete them you are able to play them as other members of the MSF. Side Ops are able to be played with any character from the get go; though Big Boss is always a solid choice.


    Proper mangement of Mother Base is crucial to its growth and success

    The other major difference from prior MGS games is the management of Mother Base. Mother Base was given to Big Boss by Zadornov as an extra incentive to take the assignment. It is an old reasearch platform situated in the Caribbean Sea and can be upgraded with new struts. During the course of the missions you have the option of kidnapping enemy soldiers to join MSF. You do this by knocking them out, or sneaking up on them and holding them up and they are whisked back to Mother Base via baloon to Mother Base. Each of these soldiers has their own stats; and their stats determine what portion of Mother Base they would be best suited to work in. The Combat Unit, R&D Unit, Mess Hall Unit, Medical Unit, or the Intel Unit. Assigning the correct soldiers to the correct unit is essential to expanding Mother Base itself, and your Research and Development capabilities.

    Your R&D team is able to develop new equipment and weapons. The weapons and equipment you are able to develop depends on the level of each team. For example, some items are not able to be developed before the Intel Team and the R&D team are both at a high enough level. Each of the unit’s level’s goes up as you assign more staff to them; and more able bodied staff. The ranks for staff go in this order: E, D, C, B, A, S. Soldiers with "S" ranked skills are incredibly rare, and can only be found in certain Main Ops or Side Ops. You will eventually have to fire low-ranking soldiers to free up space for those with higher ranked skills.


    Creating better weapons and equipment is key if Snake wishes to survive the brutal bosses

    You develop items with a currency called “GMP” which is an abstraction of your combat ability. Your total “GMP” is calculated from the soldiers in your Combat Unit and the more GMP you have, the more things you can develop. Every time you complete a mission, progress is made upon what you are developing. These developments are crucial for finishing the game, and many of the Side Ops. For example, developing the Mk22 Mod 0 "Hush Puppy" tranquilizer gun is crucial if you wish to go through missions stealthily, as each new development increases the durability of its suppressor, allowing for more shots to be fired before it breaks. This was by far my favorite aspect of Peace Walker. Managing Mother Base was fun and interesting; you got to see the fruits of your labor and it made me feel like I was actually running a mercenary company.

    The bosses can be near impossible without the right equipment. They seem to have been designed to be fought with at least one co-op partner, and as such have massive amounts of health; the player is forced to use Supply Markers to get more ammo. Peace Walker allows you to play most missions with at least one other person, which can make many of the difficult missions easier. I did end up finishing them by myself, but it was tough. The bosses weren’t fun to fight, and ended up feeling tedious and frustrating. The Extra Ops boss battles are even worse, with ludicrous health, increased damage, and more soldiers.


    An example of one of the game's many bosses - a tank

    Peace Walker is built off of the engine used for the PSP Monster Hunter games, so in some regards I should not be surprised by how it ended up. At the same time however, it was extremely frustrating to see a damage counter come up when hitting regular enemies. Enemies who in previous MGS games had no damage counter and would just take a one or two shots to take down. Some enemines in Peace Walker require many shots from a high level machine gun to kill. It’s frustrating. And again, the boss battles end up being huge bullet sponges because of this, and it takes away a lot of the fun. However, I did enjoy the sneaking a lot. In many ways, it is much more similar to the older MGS games and relies a bit more on avoidance; especially compared to MGS3 and MGS4. This is in part due to the fact you cannot crawl, only lay down on your stomach – your only options for movement are standing upright or crouching.

    The missions themselves tend to be on the short side, since it was meant to be played in short chunks. This is both a blessing and a curse, because some missions are just too short – while others are just long enough. I liked the interesting cutscene style as well – being done as a partially animated comic book with interactive segments. Although, this game has what is the hardest of the torture sequences in any of the MGS games, and I had to try many times to succeed in it.


    One of the game's many comicbook style cutscenes

    I was glad to have played this as part of the Legacy Collection on the PS3, as the improved controls and graphics make it a much better experience than the original on PSP. The extra control stick for camera movement also makes a huge difference.

    Overall, Peace Walker is a game I can recommend to those who enjoy MGS. It features the most ridiculously named character of the whole series (Hot Coldman), but is the buildup to Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain. It’s important story wise, and TPP will be similar in terms of its structure and basic gameplay mechanics (An example being the management of Mother Base). It’s not a good place to jump into the series, but it is a good entry MGS series; albeit frustrating at times.
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