A portable title that puts big budgets to shame.
Without a doubt, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is the greatest psp game ever, and perhaps the greatest Metal Gear in the decade-long, award-winning series by Hideo Kojima.
Gameplay has remained the same as previous titles, with a few subtle touches that give Peace Walker its own unique feel. For example, Big Boss (not Solid Snake) can chain together multiple CQC attacks if his enemies are close enough with a simple tap of the R button, leading to cool action sequences. However, this wouldn't matter if the controls were bad. But do not fear, Kojima has ingeniously implemented the depth of a Metal Gear control scheme onto the limitations of a psp. My only complaint of the game comes here, with controls being occasionally picky in some of the games most epic moments, costing perhaps the player's life and the classic "SNAAAAAAAAAKE!!!". Multiple gadgets like the Soliton radar, coupled with a large variety of weapons, and different costumes allow for lots of customization options to fit certain play styles, from the pure sneak to the Rambo.
However, this is only part of the sheer depth included in the game. With a certain device known as the Fulton Recovery System, Big Boss can "acquire" enemy soldiers in order to build up his Mother Base, home of the "Soldiers Without Borders" (the Militaires Sans Frontieres, a big part of the story). These troops can be assigned to different parts of the base in order to develop new weapons, go into combat zones around the world, and even keep the morale of the entire organization up with sufficient provisions. All that, and much, much more. I'm not going to divulge everything here (it would take another three pages), but the unusually large amount of content will keep players completely engrossed for hours, days, weeks, and even months to come. $40 for this game, Kojima? I would have gladly paid $60.
A good story drives any media form. Peace Walker has a simple, easy-to-follow narrative, while retaining the depth the series is acclaimed for. No longer present are hour-long cutscenes, but instead, digestable snippets executed in a fantastic art style that fits in perfectly with the overall tone of the game. Big Boss is approached by a peace-loving schoolgirl and a professor in a Costa Rican university to ask for help from the MSF in driving the CIA out of Costa Rica, the nation without a military. As Big Boss ventures into enemy territory, he finds more than he ever expected. The narrative flows with understandable dialogue and strong thematic elements, and also filled with enough twists and turns to leave anyone emotionally satisfied and even teary-eyed after the game's truly epic ending.
That's Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker in a nutshell. I didn't go over the hundreds of extra missions available after the game's completion, the cooperative and competitive multiplayer, easter eggs... Well, you know what I mean.
This game is insanely deep.
This game proves, once again, the genius of developer Hideo Kojima, raises the bar for portable gaming, and is destined to become known as one of, if not the greatest Metal Gear Solid game of all time.