(Before we begin, I’ve never played Peace Walker on the PSP, so I don’t know if it’s better or worse then the PS3 port.)
MGS: Peace Walker vs. MGS 3: Snake Eater
As I’ve said in the past, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, is one of my favorite games of all time. Everything about it — The music, the story, the gameplay, even the visuals — are polished to perfection, and the whole experience sticks with you after you play it. But does it’s PSP sequel, Peace Walker, live up to it’s legacy?
That depends on what you think that legacy is.
Story wise, the game starts out REALLY slowly. I almost didn’t play it due to the opening hour. But progress past the first mission (And the cutscenes preceding it) and you’ll find yourself engrossed in a story about peace, and the many ways — some moral, some not — that it is achieved, until you and you alone stand between the world and Armageddon.
The stakes are higher, the characters more creative, the gameplay more involving. There’s more to do, more to find, and more to keep you playing.
But somehow, even though it is objectively better than Snake Eater, I find myself remembering Snake Eater more fondly.
Maybe it’s the fact that the stealth in Peace Walker feels so much more shallow, or the fact that the boss fights are much less creative, memorable, or unique. Maybe it’s the limitations brought on by the PSP leaving cutscenes in a less impactful (But beautiful) comic book format. Or maybe it’s the fact that it’s broken up into individual missions instead of one prolonged story. Or perhaps it’s all of these.
However, I could spend all day arguing the good and the bad of these two games. So let’s just jump straight into the review.
Core/Single Player Gameplay
You control a military company called the Militaires Sans Frontieres (Soldiers without Borders — sorry if my spellings off.) set in Central America. You have cut off all ties with the United States after the events of MGS3. The MSF makes up the core gameplay element of the game — expanding your crew, upgrading weapons and items, and some other, more spoilerific things. Unlike MGS3, where you had less then a dozen guns, in Peace Walker, you have multiple dozens — but you can only equip two.
Part of the strategy in the game is choosing which items to equip — normally, it’s 2 Main Weapons, 4-6 Secondary Weapons, and 7-8 Items.
You only get this many guns at once towards the end of the game.
This makes for a very nice compromise system, where you have to think about what you plan to do on the mission. You also get to choose your Uniform, but most of the time you’ll be using either the Sneaking Suit or the Combat Suit (Seen Above) depending on the nature of the mission. However, you always have the option to go in as Rambo, or in a Tuxedo.
There’s also a lot more… er… variety in terms of the boxes you can use.
Yes. That is, in fact, a cardboard box tank. Yes, two people can fit inside it. And yes, the pink “Love Box” does end up living up to it’s name.
Missions vary greatly in length — The late game missions tend to take around a half hour each, but the earlier ones are only 5-10 minutes each, and a couple later game missions are only a couple minutes long if you do them right. There are 30-ish missions in the main story of the game (Not counting the bonus missions after beating the game) and a VERY large amount of side missions. If you play through the main story, do the Extra Ops, and do some online co-op, you’ll probably get 20-40 hours out of the game by the time you finish the story (As long as you don’t do them in segments, and alternate between them as you play). I got about 31-32 hours out of the game before beating it, and there’s still so much more to do! There’s still Outer Ops, Extra Ops, Co-Ops, and the bonus chapter. This game is huge, and you should get more than your money’s worth out of it.
However, there is a flaw in the Single Player portion of the game. The Bosses.
Although the last 5 bosses in the game are amazing both in Singleplayer and Multiplayer, the first few bosses in the game are slow, long, and boring in Singleplayer. It’s more a battle of patience then a battle of skill. However, if you can make it past the early bosses (Especially that god-damned tank…) you will reach bosses that are actually bosses, with abilities and a persistent weak point, as opposed to just random vehicles.
However, these same bosses are transformed in one simple way…
Co-Ops
Now we’re talking.
Believe it or not, the Co-op is not just a tacked on afterthought — if anything, it’s more entertaining than the singleplayer, and is almost essential to making significant progress in the game without serious grinding. The way this Co-op mode emphasizes teamwork is interesting — when you get very close to an ally, you get a “Co-op In” which creates a large, orange circle around you. If you and your other teammates stay in that circle, then you all get significant bonuses.
I remember my first Co-ops match. It was against a helicopter, modified to be INSANELY tough to kill. When we were nearing our deaths, we ended up holing up in a large storage building, whilst enemies poured in from holes in the walls caused by the chopper’s missiles. Eventually, we were forced outside, and I was downed. Using the in game Co-Ops Communications (Pre-set phrases that you can assign to speak to your teammates without a headset) I shouted out “Give me a hand!” to the one guy left alive. He sprinted towards me as bullets are rockets flew by our heads, and replied “Don’t you die on me!”
The two of us fought to the bitter end against that chopper. And that was the most fun I had ever had with an online game.
Most of the Co-ops you’ll find will be boss fights, but you can find normal missions too — the boss fights are just so much more entertaining in groups that you’ll keep coming back for more every time.
Story
I don’t want to get too far into the story of the game, since it will spoil a lot of MGS3 for you. But a vague outline of the plot is as follows:
As the leader of MSF — An Army Without a Nation — you are approached by a few rebels from Costa Rica — A Nation Without an Army — in order to deal with an unknown group that has been discovered there. You arrive to discover that not only is this group the proud owner of AI-controlled attack crafts, but that they are also bringing nuclear weapons into Costa Rica!
Suddenly, you’re thrust into an alliance with the rebels as you try to save the world from the apocalypse, whilst facing shadows from your past, as you try to bring peace to the world and stop a machine even more dangerous than the Shagohod — The Peacewalker. The Perfect Deterrent — and the bringer of the apocalypse.
The Verdict
This is a great game, as is to be expected from the Metal Gear Solid series by now. However, this game will not be nearly as worth it without PSN. If you pick this up, make sure you can go online to get the full experience.
Gameplay: 8/10 without Multiplayer, 9/10 with Multiplayer
Story: 10/10
Overall: 9/10
I strongly suggest you pick this game up, especially if you have online for your PSP/PS3 (If you’re using the HD Collection like I am). If you liked Snake Eater, you will love this game — It continues the story of Big Boss perfectly.
EDIT
With as few spoilers as I can manage, I am here to tell you that I have bumped the story of the game up to 10, for the amazing twist ending after you beat the bonus chapter.
Once you defeat the ‘final’ boss, you will be left to dabble in the other aspects of the game. DO NOT QUIT. Keep playing. A certain prisoner you acquire at the end of the game will escape 7 times — the first 6 times to random locations in preset times, and the seventh time inside Extra Ops [01] (Telling you this so you’ll actually know what to do.)
After this, you reach the strangest/most amazing boss fight of all time, in which a woman in her underwear controls a nuclear-armed robot whilst you control Outer Heaven support systems to rain death upon her, as a strange mix between orchestral and J-Pop plays in the background.
Beat this boss, and the game ceases to be simply a good sequel to 3, but a good prequel to the series as a whole — even the NES game, Metal Gear, makes more sense after playing this game.
So, in standard MGS confusion, this game has 2 final bosses, 2 endings, 2 credit sequences, and is a prequel to both the first and last games in the series, but only those games.
Stay tuned for the MGS2 review!
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