Playtesting Peace Walker: A Metal Gear Classic For PSP

Several weeks ago I travelled up to London alongside some colleagues here at OneLastContinue in order to have an in-depth look at the upcoming PlayStation Portable title, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.  I went into that session with high hopes, and came away with something else entirely.Arriving at Fitzroy Square you might have had given voice to the thought that Konami were trying to impress us with lush surroundings, to distract us from the lack of Hideo Kojima who was unable to attend due to the eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland.  Not at all!  Whilst it was unfortunate that this is the second time I’ve managed to not meet Hideo Kojima (the first being last year at Gamescom when scheduling issues arose) it was evident that the surroundings, lunch and general energetic vibe is all down to Konami and Kojima Productions firm belief that they have a triple-A title on their hands.  And boy do they ever.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker takes place ten years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.  The year is 1974 and Snake is living the life of a mercenary, although he despises being thought of as such, after disappearing from the public eye immediately following the events of the aforementioned prequel.  Teaming up with McDonell “Kazuhira” Miller, his second-in-command, he has formed the army without a nation ‘Militaires Sans Frontiers’ based in Colombia before being approached by Gálvez and Paz in order to assist Costa Rica - the country without an army.  It seems that the CIA have moved into the region and without spoiling too much it seems that Snake will be plunged into the middle of a Cold-War confrontation between the communist east, and the idealistic west.  Upon meeting Gálvez it’s fairly obvious that he knows a hell of a lot more about Big Boss than he is letting on, further confirmed when he plays the audio tape on his Sony Walkman…..  Needless to say it’s this meeting in which you receive the keys to your own personal fortress - the Mother Base, which I’ll discuss later.

Settling in further to have my initial hands-on with Peace Walker, as I had avoided the demo which was released some time ago, I found that the first thing which impressed me was the quality of the opening cinematic which I’ve posted above.  The audio output was crisp, clear and sounding close to the quality you would have found with MGS3: Snake Eater on the PlayStation 2.  It might have had something to do with the high quality of the Astro A30 headphones we were using for the session but it’s still impressive how crystal clear the dialogue spoken in the opening tutorial session sounded as opposed to the quality of other titles on the platform.  We did however listen to the audio sans headphones and there was a distinct drop in output quality but kudos to Kojima Productions for managing to push the PSP to its limits in this regard.  This isn’t an endorsement of Astro headphones by any means, just a nod of the head towards a decent pair of any brand which will give you the absolute best experience with this title.

Visuals.  What is there to say about the visuals of Peace Walker which hasn’t been said thus far?  Absolutely astounding  and characters move with an actual sense of weight, something which other titles on PSP seem to lack.  Sure, Kratos might look somewhat impressive on the format but I always felt that the polygons in that title looked and felt like a thin texture on a cardboard cutout.  Whilst not unimpressive by any means Ready At Dawn will have to up their game for the next release of God of War on the platform; and the best way to do that is take pointers from Kojima Productions.  Whilst the in-game engine truly shines on PlayStation Portable I must give praise to the interactive cutscenes which have been crafted with the aid of Ashley Wood, whom you might remember was the driving force behind the Metal Gear Solid digital comics, as well as the cinematic’s of MGS: Portable Ops.  The only drawback from these sequences is that there was no previous instruction to inform you that there were quick time events which required you to push buttons at certain times thus leaving me confused when the sequence began looping.  It’s only a minor flaw, and one which could probably end up resolved before launch but as it stands it’s certainly not game breaking by any means.

There are different control schemes available in Peace Walker, depending on what you’re familiar with on the handheld format, “Action” which takes its lead from Portable Ops, “Shooter” which comes from the MGS4 style of playing and then there is the “Hunter” type - which emulates the style of Monster Hunter.  You’d probably think that was an odd choice to make regarding Metal Gear; why would you need to have a control scheme to match that series from a rival publisher?  Well, obviously you’ve been living under a large rock for the past month then as Konami and Capcom took the covers off a collaborative effort to bring some Monster Hunter style missions, complete with franchise creatures, to Peace Walker.  Whilst we weren’t able to get that far into the title to test these specific missions we did manage to get some hands on with the co-operative missions which you can read here.  Another really interesting collaboration comes from Konami and Ubisoft and the introduction of the Eagle’s Dive manoeuvre from the Assassin’s Creed series.  In certain areas of the game Snake will be able to perform said manoeuvre from rooftops into hay bales at the base of the wall in order to evade soldiers.  Not only that, it can be used as one of the in-game “box” type sneaking items - allowing you to pull in unsuspecting soldiers before knocking them out.  You can check images of both franchise crossovers in our Peace Walker Asset Dump which also went live earlier today.  When playing with colleagues a circle surrounds your character; and when your circles interlock you’re able to trade items and share a health boost; in fact think of it as a proximity detector of sorts - except one which is quite useful (as opposed to the ring detection found in MGS4).

The controls are fairly odd at your first attempt, the face buttons controlling the camera and the D-Pad giving you access to your menus.  The only major thing I didn’t like was being unable to crawl whilst lying down.  It just seems a little crazy that you wouldn’t be able to do such a simple action but given the restrictions the PSP brought to the table for Kojima and company; so considering that I’d say they managed to do pretty well.

Playing through the first batch of missions I certainly found myself moving back into the Metal Gear of memories past.  I’ll go out on a limb here and say that this game might very well be as good, if not better, than Snake Eater.  From the visuals to the audio to the fantastic presentation throughout it is definitely clear that Kojima has put his best foot forward on the console.  I’d hate to spoil the game completely for those who are eagerly anticipating its arrival so I’ll briefly touch on the elements which are integral to the title’s success.  The Fulton Recovery System is an inspired choice of recruiting new soldiers to your already large organisation on the Mother Base.  By knocking out soldiers during the Sneaking Mission, or side missions, you can fasten them to the Fulton and they’ll float upwards via balloon and be transported back to Mother Base and become integrated with your forces.  As I mentioned previously there are side missions which become available the further you progress through the game and these take place alongside Snakes missions meaning that you get to play as other characters during these sessions.  This is why it’s imperative to choose the right person for the right job moving forward in this game.  Each soldier has his own unique look, personality and specialities so building your team up becomes almost tactical as you decide who to send on missions, thus earning them valuable experience points.

The Mother Base - it’s from here where the operation…operates.  Whilst Snake is out on the field doing his thing, Miller runs support from here.  It’s also where you conduct research on new weapons, items, select missions and manage your roster of staff.  Think of it as a central hub for all things Peace Walker and you’ll be on the right side of thinking.  However there’s a difference between the Mother Base and your regular hub-world and that difference is the hub world in this game is essential to your success in the main game.  It’s hard to explain without spending more time going in depth with Peace Walker but we hope to get another look at it quite soon and once we do we’ll be able to give you more of an in-depth explanation of Mother Base.

Overall I found my time with Peace Walker to be one of discovery.  Whilst my fellows were playing the co-operative mode, or talking to the Konami rep on hand I found myself rediscovering those things I felt were missing from the last console release; and whilst Metal Gear Solid 4 certainly ended with a degree of closure for Solid Snake it looks like things are starting to ramp up for Big Boss.  Honestly, I truly can’t wait for the final release which arrives in the United States and Europe on June 18 but one thing I must advise - start working on your friends to get them interested in picking up a copy now!  You’ll need your friends to get the most out of this game.

Check Out:// Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Co-Op Thoughts |  Talking Peace Walker With Konami In London |  Peace Walker:  Asset Dump