It is that time of the week again Lusipurr.com readers! Once again it is I, PierBlitzmageson, here today with a review for the latest game in the Metal Gear Solid series, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD! This version is the one found on the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection which also includes Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.
Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker Logo
Set in the midst of Costa Rica during the Cold War, Metal Gear Solid‘s story starts up this time with the infamous and legendary Big Boss, which players soon come to find out that he just wants to go back his original code name Naked Snake! But before I go further into the story be forewarned that the original Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was released April, 2010; so while I will try to avoid massive spoilers there might be a couple sprinkled throughout! So the story is as follows, Naked Snake (aka Big Boss) has left FOXHOUND and The Patriots to form his own mercenary group entitled Militaires San Frontieres or more commonly known as MSF. The player also sees the first chronological appearance of Kazuhira Miller who is the very same “Master Miller” in the first Metal Gear Solid. So whilst there fledgling group are training Kaz drives up with a couple “visitors” for Snake, these visitors turn out to be Paz Andrade and “Professor” Galvez, both of which claim to be from the University of Peace. They claim that one of Paz’s friends has been captured by a CIA run Military group that for some unknown reason are in Costa Rica and to further thicken the plot Paz also has a tape of her “friend”” running away from said Military group but on this tape a strangely familiar female voice catches Snakes attention. It is the voice of his old mentor The Boss who he killed ten years ago during the events of Metal Gear Solid 3. The two ambassadors of peace then offer Kaz and Snake that if they help them out the two can provide them with an off shore base to expand and grow MSF. Kaz wants to accept right away but Snake very hesitantly accepts even though he has already figured out that the “Professor” is really KGB. So from here on out Naked Snake and the men/women of MSF go out on “Tactical Espionage Operations” to get the CIA out of Costa Rica!
Professor Galvez Art Work
In terms of the gameplay in Peace Walker everything is entirely pick and choose mission based with more missions unlocking as the player clears missions. There are two sets of missions: the Main Operations, which contains all the story based missions, and the Extra Operations which are all sidequests and have very little to do with completing the main story line. The Extra Ops are really where skills as a stealth action player are tested, with multiple perfect stealth, marksmanship, increased difficulty boss fight missions await. In addition to the Extra Ops and Main Ops there are also NPC run Ops called Outer Ops which you can send the solider of MSF into battle. As previously mentioned Snake and MSF received an offshore plant that they christen “Mother Base”. The player can go on missions and forcefully recruit enemy soldiers to join MSF, and through the recruitment can put soldiers into one of many departments of Mother Base which include Combat, Research/Development, Mess Hall, Medical, and Intel. As these departments level up players will have access to more advanced weapons and items to put to use on the battlefield.
As it comes to controls I must say that any issues that were brought up in the PlayStation Portable version have been addressed and are gone thanks to the PS3’s second analog stick now being put to use unlike when players tried to use their PS3 controllers with the PSP edition. Also during the course of the story MSF starts to build their own Metal Gear to combat the Peace Walker units that plague the nation. Players are also able to trade items, weapons and soldiers with friends via the PlayStation Network and go on verse ops together to see who has the better Mother Base.
On the topic of the HD upscaling the game does have many moments where one can tell some textures were not upscaled and are still the same from the PSP version, but overall this is still a good looking game.The story overall does have some of the Metal Gear plot confusion but Peace Walker does more clarification then trying to confuse fans unlike the past couple of entries. It gives fans a better look at Big Boss and begs the question “Is he a villain or a good guy?” Overall the game is an excellent port and and instant classic in the franchise, if a fan of the Metal Gear series passed the game up because of one reason or another they should really pick up the HD Collection and start playing!
