Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD (PS3) Review

"Peace" Walker.

 Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is nearly upon us, and what better way is to celebrate than taking a look-back and reviewing its predecessor Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, released back in 2010 for the PSP. I'll be going over the features and content it brought to the table. Also, in 2011, Peace Walker was bundled alongside MGS2: Sons of Liberty and MGS3: Snake Eater as the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, with graphical updates and new controls (I'll be covering this edition of Peace Walker). Without further ado, the hunt is on Kaz, assemble the men!

STORY- 1974, 10 years after the events of Snake Eater, Big Boss (formerly known as "Naked Snake") assembled his own mercenary unit Militaires Sans Frontieres (Soldiers Without Borders). They are approahced by Ramon Galvez, a professor from a peace university and his student Paz Ortega Andrade, to investigate an army that are in possession of nuclear weapons in Costa Rica. Snake refuses, but when he heard a recording of his former mentor, The Boss, Snake reluctantly accepts. Like all Metal Gear games, the story is full of plot-twits and turns, so it's best not to spoil anything. Also, Peace Walker's focues on anti-nuke themes and mainly the concept of "Peace", also on Snake's mission ten years prior.

Snake's back and isn't messing around.

GAMEPLAY- Peace Walker plays similarly to other titles in the series. It features the CQC, over-the-shoulder shooting, and the crouching while moving ability from MGS4 and some improved features from Portable Ops. Unlike previous games, the crawling ability isn't present. Also, Peace Walker takes a co-op approach. Two players can play story missions and up to four player can join boss battle missions. Having a second player can be helpful at times because they can provide assistance reaching high places and additional manpower during bosses, just make sure you have a reliable partner. The game can still be finished solo if you're like me, can't find any partners. Aside from the Main Ops (story missions), there are Extra Ops, which are basically side-missions. Some extra ops has you taking a photo of a ghost, another has you popping balloons attached to your soldiers so they don't get abducted by enemies, and another is basically a Monster Hunter mission. If you're looking for new weapons, to improve, or a nice distraction, the extra ops should do well.

The areas are large and detailed.

 Two major additions in Peace Walker are Mother Base and Metal Gear ZEKE, your main hub and your own Metal Gear, respectively. In Mother Base, you can manage your own combat, R&D, medical, etc. units. Higher levels mean new equipment and better performances in missions. For example, if your R&D team are at a high level, new weapons and items can be unlocked, and old weapons can be upgraded as well. The key to expanding Mother Base are to recruit staff. This can be done use the Fulton Recovery System. During missions, you can Fulton knocked out guards and captured prisoners to Mother Base, some specialize in combat and others in medical fields and so on, so pick and choose carefully for a great Mother Base.

Snake sneaking as always.

 For the first time in a Metal Gear game, you can build your very own Metal Gear early in the game. You'll need parts and weapons, as well as A.I. components to fully function, which you'll be getting from boss battles. Speaking of boss battles, Peace Walker is full of them. There are the standard tanks and choppers to defeat, but it's best to neutralizing enemy troops accompanying boss first then go all-out. Enemy tanks and choppers can be used as your own if not fully destroyed in battle. Furthermore, you'll be facing more complex unmanned enemies that have the parts needed for the development of ZEKE. The biggest gripe I found in Peace Walker were the bosses themselves. Unlike, MGS3's The End or MGS1's Gray Fox, the mechs in Peace Walker are just bland and a grind, they lack that charm of previous MGS boss battles. 

Snake fighting an unmanned weapon, The Pupa.

PRESENTATION- Peace Walker is among the best looking and sounding game on the PSP. The comic book-like cutscenes by guest artist Ashley Wood are stunning and neat. The overall visuals are good-looking for a PSP game and the amount of detailed is present. The audio is a another strong aspect of the presentation. The voice work is top-notch as always. David Hayter's performance as Snake/Big Boss is good, though his previous roles sounded a bit better. Robin Atkin Downes does a great job as Miller, the same goes for Steve Blum and Tara Strong as Galvez and Paz, respectively. The soundtrack sounds great. Many of the orchestral and in-game music are done well. "Heavens Divide" by Donna Burke is amazing and probbaly the best track in thhe soundtrack. Also, many songs from previous games make a return. The HD edition of Peace Walker brings graphical and overall improvements to the game. A new feature called "Transfarring" allows Peace Walker HD players to transfer their data to the PSP version of the game. The HD edition is the best way to enjoy Peace Walker, thanks to the improvements it introduced. 

Peace Walker is solid presentation-wise.

OVERALL- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was an amazing game for the PSP, now made even better in HD. Despite the lacking boss battles, I found Peace Walker to be a lot of fun and Metal Gear fans must play it before trying Ground Zeroes and the upcoming The Phantom Pain. 

EXCELLENT