Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

The Metal Gear game series is one that used to be one of the biggest names in the industry. For over 20 years, game after game, The series delivered more complex and bigger games and built an incredible story. Series director Hideo Kojima directed most of the games in the series and earned himself a name in the halls of gaming history that won't be easily forgotten. Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker was the fourth entry for the series to be released on Sony's first portable console the PSP. The first two being the infamous Metal Gear Ac!d games, then followed by the incredible Metal Gear Portable Ops.

However, out of all these games released for the PSP, PPeace Walker is the project Hideo Kojima holds dearest and worked closest with. But is it really that good?

Chronological Order

Anyone that's ever played any of the Metal Gear games knows that they are never released in chronological order, and Peace Walker is no exception. Being released after Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots outsiders to the series would expect it to be at least closely related. The truth is that Guns of the Patriots takes place in 2014, while Peace Walker is set i8n 1974. And while both protagonists are really similar, they are not even the same, But believe it or not, you can actually play it before or after playing Metal Gear Solid 4. It doesn't directly affect the events there, it does give a bit more context to the whole series though.

About the game

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker is one of the biggest games in the series even up until its release. Even though it was released for the PSP the visuals and gameplay are amazing, it’s a full-blown Metal Gear Solid game right there in your pocket.

After the death of The Boss, Snake leaves the United States and is set to start a new mercenary team called Militaires Sans Frontiéres. An unknown army called Peace Sentinels has taken over the country and they are heavily equipped. Since the Costa Rican constitution forbids them to have their own army, they are left completely defenseless against these attacks. The Peace Sentinels use a new nuclear warhead labeled Peace Walker, and highly technological AI commanded weapons.

In the meanwhile, the MSF facilities Ramon Galvez Mena, professor at the University of Peace, and his Student Paz Ortega Andrade are visiting and helping at the operation. But there are many secrets hidden behind the Peace Sentinels, much more than meets the eye.

Not only is Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker one of the best games for the PSP, but it's also one of the best games in the series. It is definitely a technical masterpiece, with such amazing visuals and incredible sound quality. You'll easily forget that you're playing a portable console when you're sucked into the incredible adventure of Peace Walker.

The quality of the writing is simply incredible, as it sits to be one of the most important games in the development of the Big Boss character. The fights are huge, the soundtrack is incredible, there’s a lot of infiltration, and the missions are big and complex. There’s also the added element of building your own MSF base and taking care of it.

It's incredible what they've achieved here, and even after coming from the basically perfect Metal Gear Solid 4 the bar was really high. Amazingly enough, they actually managed to keep it up. Even the artistic decisions are incredible, and there is a lot made here to make the game portable.

Pros

• Great visuals
• Excellent story
• Incredible art direction
• Amazing soundtrack
• Tons of complex mechanics
• A lot of missions
• Dozens of hours of content
• One of the best games in the series

Cons

• The controls could be a bit more fluid
• The animations are a little stiff compared to Portable Ops