I have been getting into my old Xbox 360 as of late, so I thought: why not start with Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker that I have never finished before. Peace Walker was originally a PlayStation Portable (PSP) exclusive, but later remastered for the Xbox 360 in the excellent and well-worth package Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. Now, since it is a PSP game, there are some issues, especially if you treat it as a mainland Metal Gear game on a home console. It’s extremely segmented so you can easily play it on the move, with the missions being very short. The only thing that has any stay is the bosses, which can drag on compared to the usual sneaking and choking out guards. Regardless, it’s an enjoyable stealth game that greatly expands the lore about Big Boss.
Mercenary life
After the mission in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Snake (Big Boss) got disillusioned with life, as he was forced to kill his mentor to save his home country and more. There’s a bit more nuance than that, but let’s just say it affected him greatly, with him losing complete faith in the US government. This led him to creating his own mercenary company with his good military friend Kaz. An army outside nations, that will act as an outer heaven for soldiers.
When doing typical mercenary things, Snake and his team are approached by the “professor” and the cute and friendly Paz. They are asked to investigate and if possible free Costa Rica from a secret army that occupies part of the country. The mercenary group takes on the mission, and in a very classic Metal Gear manner, it’s a story filled with conspiracies, and of course, walking giant machines that can fire nukes. To say that the plot has twists, is to play it light. Almost every single character has their own agenda, but the reveal never feels too convoluted (that the series is known for) or dumb. It all makes sense, and fits into the narrative created for the game.
I enjoyed the story. One reason for this, is how much it takes from Cold War history, and the hostile relations between the East and West, and runs amok with it. It’s a great setting, the 1970s, especially for an espionage thriller. Unfortunately, the Japanese aspect of the tale does feel a bit much at places. Namely, the Metal Gear machines. I know I said the story didn’t feel convoluted, but that was about the characters. These battle machines, however, have always felt somewhat out of place to me. The cause for this is that the plan of creating these nuclear land carriers always fails, and can get taken down by a single man with a LAW (rocket launcher). So much effort has been put into these creations over the years, that you would think that it might be best to try something else for once. To be fair, it’s a staple of the franchise, but still, at some point, it gets particularly weird. When you consider a submarine with nukes would have the same effect as these metal monsters.
Another issue with the story is that it takes precedence over the gameplay. Anyone who has played Metal Gear before probably isn’t too surprised by this. The problem is, while the plot is well-told, the missions are over so quick. Often they have a huge amount of narrative background to them, when that does not matter at all. Sure, it adds to the lore, and authenticity of the tasks ahead of you, but it’s all so pointless when the gameplay never really challenges you. It just adds to the gap between narrative and gameplay, where the story will outweigh your time spent by a massive amount. Regardless, it is what it is, and anyone starting a Metal Gear game, should know by now that half of it will be a “cinematic” experience.
Jungle strangling
If there is something Peace Walker remaster got over Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty from the same HD collection, is the excellent modern streamlined controls and movement. It feels, and plays, almost exactly the same as Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. This means, the controls are great, and has made the sneaking snappy and fun, comparable. Now, I have never played the PSP version, but the other games on the HD collection have not had the same treatment. It still has the same somewhat archaic controls (by now) that it had back in the day. It makes stealth an issue from time to time. So, this was a pleasant surprise, to say the least.
The gameplay consists mostly of you having to sneak through the jungle, and the occasional underground secret base in third-person to dispatch guards, and fulfilling different objectives. You are allowed to do this however you want, but one part of the game is to build an offshore base for your mercenary company. This requires men, which kinda forces you into taking a pacifistic approach, by capturing enemies and making them join your group. This doesn’t mean you can’t screw up, or go full loco and gun everyone down, but it means you will be missing out on valuable soldiers for your base. Yet, going by how Peace Walker is built up, you can do every mission as many times as you like. If you can stomach the loading screens, you can do the same mission over and over to fill up your whole base of loyal mercenaries.
While the skulking and choking out soldiers is excellent fun, the issue, as mentioned, is how short the missions are, and how linear they are with very little exploring allowed. It’s like someone taking away an inviting dinner plate with incredible, yummy food after only one bite. They are that short, and are absolutely drowned in narrative exposition. It’s a real shame, because the frontline experience is fun, but you will only get to do it for a few minutes at the time, unless it’s a boss. Then it’s back to doing random mother base stuff, that does not mean much, and endless loading screens. The boss fights take a longer time to complete, and while they are fairly entertaining, they are not exactly stealth based. You will be fighting giant machines, tanks and helicopters, and they are combat oriented all the way through. I highly recommend you invest into rocket launchers and heavy machine guns for these encounters.
Not to blame
It’s not that I can blame the game for this, since it was made for a completely different machine, than what I played it on. It’s meant to be played in small segments, so that you can easily put it away if something comes up, like having to defend yourself against a crazy knife-wielding hobo on the bus. However, the translation from PSP to the Xbox 360, has not been perfect. That’s not to say, it’s not enjoyable, because it is, but it just feels annoying to get interrupted in your fun constantly. The base section of the game does not feel that interesting either, as the only useful aspect of it is the weapon research. Peace Walker also has a strong focus on multiplayer, with missions being able to be played cooperatively, or against each other. A portion of the game, I didn’t touch at all. You are supposed to trade and make deals, yet, to me, it felt undermined in how easy the game is in general. There is absolutely no need for any of this, as I finished Peace Walker without too many gruesome deaths.
As a complete package, if you don’t expect something revolutionary, and understands the limits of the PSP, it’s still a fun game, well-worth a playthrough. Especially, if you go by presentation and quirkiness alone. It’s a very typical Metal Gear game, in both good and bad, so if your expectations never go behind that, you should be fine in spite of the maddening interruptions in the gameplay.
The jungle look
Since it being a PSP title originally, the textures are not the best. Even so, the visuals are fine. The main problem is the somewhat limiting and small maps. I’m not going to repeat myself here, but it’s the main complaint that runs through the whole experience, both visually and gameplay-wise. Other than that, it looks nice, and runs at 60 FPS on the old Xbox 360, which makes up for some of the shortcomings. I should also mention that cutscenes that are not in-game engine, are made in a cartoon style made famous from the Metal Gear series. They are awesome, and it’s always a pleasure when they start to propel the narrative further.
The audio is top-notch, with all the voice actors coming back to do their role. Everything surrounding the audio is great, and enhances the experience. I have to say, it’s hilarious how much dialogue Peace Walker contains, probably hours of it, considering what the title was originally. I guess, that’s Kojima for you.
Conclusion
If you already like the Metal Gear franchise, and if you haven’t already played Peace Walker, this is a clear recommendation – for at least one playthrough. The amount of lore it provides should be enough to be worth it, regardless of issues with the gameplay. It makes Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (the follow-up) so much easier to understand, since all the essential characters are introduced in Peace Walker. It makes me wish I had played it before diving in, because of the emotional impact of certain scenes in five. These scenes would have been much more impactful, if I knew more about the characters involved. Other than that, it’s part of a collection with two other games that are both of excellent quality, both in gameplay and plot. However, even these games have really lengthy cinematic segments that can take you out of it. It’s a unique experience, let’s just keep it at that.
Thanks for reading.
/Thomas
Tom's Gaming Vault 