Game Review(s) - Part 2 : Metal Gear Solid - Peace Walker

Here's part 2 of my game review updates , & it's a psp title which was released last year ,
of which I've always eager to play it once it's released , but I wasn't be able to do so as I don't have a psp at my disposal at that time ...but finally I get to play it during CNY =p

The Metal Gear series has a history of almost 25 years in the gaming industry since the 1st title released & consist of more than half dozen of titles since then.
However I'm not going to write about the history of the series or any of the back stories of any of the previous titles in this post right now because that'd be a long long story to write about...
(maybe next time =p)

So long story short, this particular title , is actually a sequel to a prequel of the series...
...get it?
...no?
Ok maybe I should touch briefly about the previous titles of the series in order to clarify the facts of this title..
Simply put ,the storyline in Peace Walker happens before the very 1st title of the series ,simply called 'Metal Gear' ,so chronologically in terms of the storyline ,it is a prequel..
However,this is not the 1st & only prequel being released to the series ,(in fact,it's the 3rd one)
as the 1st prequel is "Metal Gear Solid 3 : Snake Eater" , this title continues the storyline of that prequel so in a way ,it's the sequel to that prequel...

So in this title , you get to play as Big Boss (again) ,
& it continues the chapters on the forming of his very own private mercenary company ,which he started in "Metal Gear Solid : Portable Ops".
This time around , he has a more organized private army & even a proper mother base .

In terms of gameplay mechanic , the entire recruiting new soldiers & managing your mother base elements of the game has improved quite a lot compared to MGS:PO , & it is becoming more fun as well.

For starters ,you recruit new bloods by either capturing enemy soldiers on the field
(you need to knock them unconscious with non-lethal attacks ,then use the new fulton recovery system , which basically is strapping an instant inflate hot air balloon on the some one's back & lift them to the the sky & let the helicopter to do the pick up in mid-air (Batman used it to 'recover' Lau in the 'Dark Knight').

It has ease up the the entire process of recruitment compared to Portable Ops ,
where you actually have to drag the unconscious enemy soldiers all the way to destinated truck locations or box loactions in order to send them to your base.
Besides recruiting enemy patrols , another way is to rescue POW (prisoner or wars) on certain missions , they are some bearded dude being helplessly tied up & laying on the ground waiting for help,much like the ones found in the Metal Slug series , to save them,simply walk over them & the same recovery action prompt will appear.

However do keep in mind that the number of person you can capture or save on each mission depends on the number of fulton recovery balloons you can carry in your inventory loadout
(you can increase the maximum capacity when you unlock higher levels for that particular item or weapon trough R&D done in your mother base , which is another new feature I'm going to talk about later)

So if you are low in fulton balloons & there are still a lot of enemies out there for you to capture , you may use a scanner to scan through the enemies to reveal their levels of various skills to help you decide whom to recover with the remaining fulton balloons.

As more people are joining you little private military group ,
your mother base will actually get expanded , you now can see a visual 3D model of your base rather than just simple menu interface , so you can really see & feel the expansion of your glorious mother base.

The next thing to do is to assign your recruits to departments that best suits their respective skills in order to increase the productivity of each departments effectively & efficiently .
For example ,soldiers with a higher level in R&D ,(represented simply with a wrench icon) ,
you can get the idea that his place belongs to the R&D dept , so upon assigning him to there ,
the overall R&D level of your mother base will increase as well , & it will carry out its functions better .

Each departments has their own purposes & functions that contributes to the expansion and developments of the mother base , so in the case of R&D ,it unlocks & produces new weapons
and items and constantly replenish your ammunition after each missions.

There are more than hundreds of weapons & items to unlock compared with the previous titles of the series (perhaps only less than MGS4), & each with various levels (increase capacity ,damage & other bonus functions with each subsequent levels)

Besides assigning your recruits to the more passive "desk jobs" within your mother base ,
you may also assign them in the battle squads , in which you may then choose to play as one of them during missions (only playable during the side missions , you can only play as big boss in story missions)

Or you may send them to participate in global military contracts , sort of like a war mini game , with only statistics & figures appearing on the screenindicating the outcomes of the battle.
But either you play them manually or send them to war , if they manage to survive & complete the missions ,they will gain experience points & level up as well.

Another bigger aspect beside the mother base management in Peace Walker
is the number & variety of side missions available .
As you proceed through the story missions , side missions will get unlocked ,
& more will be unlocked if you completed these initial side missions ,
though some of the side missions ,especially the more 'interesting ones' , have specific requirements to unlock
(such as the Monster Hunter camoe missions, where you can fight the legendary dragons
from the Monster Hunter series , with firearms !!...still that doesn't make the fight any easy than it was...)

All these extra stuff are optional though , they keeps you playing the game even though
you have finished the main story missions ...however like some other games out there ,
having a bunch of side quests & stuffs to collect will actually comes with some sort of rewards if you do manage to complete them ( aside from rewarding you with those achievements/trophies system on XBOX360 & PS3 ,which I don't really give a fuck about them...)

A meaningful reward ,to me ,at least the ones I preferred & actually feel motivated
to try to complete all those extra challenges in order to get that reward ,
it should be some sort of story-related hidden cutscenes or the so-called secret endings .
So in this case ,IT IS such a reward , you can only unlock the final mission which leads
to the final ending of Peace Walker if you manage to fulfill the requirements
(which involves beating some of the tough optional boss fights and collecting parts )

Perhaps the biggest feature of this title is the co-op feature ,
most missions allow 2 players to join the game and complete together ,
with certain boss battles allow up to 4 players co-op play ,
which really ease up the challenge & more fun to do so.
In fact , most of level designs are designed with co-op play in mind & many of the optional boss fights' difficulty level are meant to be tackled with more than one player ,as these fights are really ,really hard to win if fight alone.

However ,I'm not fortunate enough to enjoy this feature , though I do have friends who enjoy the MGS series as much as I do & they do own and even has completed this game , but my friend was playing the Japanese version of this game , so the game won't link .

But still , this game is awesome enough even if you are playing it alone , & the story is again ,
another quality audio-visual presentation from Mr Hideo Kojima .
It is filled with emotional voice acting just as expected and with beautiful art works as well.
Just like Portable Ops , animated comic (& at certain scene ,it's interactive as well) is used instead of CG cutscene to narrate the story ,with additions of audio recordings covering the back stories , much like the codec conversations in previous titles.

Gameplay wise ,the missions structure & designs were better than portable ops ,
the boss fights were awesome and challenging as always , & with the tremendous amount of weaponry & gadgets at your disposal (provided if you do unlock them all) , this just makes the game much more enjoyable.
This game , for a psp title ,is truly a master piece , & a great entry to the already epic series