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TopicSnake's 2010s Gaming Retrospective
Snake5555555555
02/18/20 3:06:03 PM
#27:


Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Played on: PSP & Xbox 360
Release Date: June 8, 2010
Genre: Stealth

THE DAY METAL GEAR SOLID DIED

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, by all accounts a great game packed with loads of content and backed by a slick production, is nonetheless a game I'm not entirely a fan of. The sequel to the often overlooked Portable Ops, Peace Walker has all the gameplay trappings of a traditional MGS game wrapped up in a portable format, and I definitely won't pretend the game doesn't play great. It has all the wacky experimentation that made MGS3 one of my top favorite games of all time, and the game makes use of limited handheld controls for a surprisingly more fluid and intuitive experience. Stealth espionage action is alive and well in Peace Walker! It's what Peace Walker does with these systems though that ironically makes the fun stealth action ultimately boring. Continuing the squad recruitment mechanic from Portable Ops, for me it's about as compelling here as it was there, which is to say, it's not at all. This is not what I look for in an MGS game; I want go in solo, experience a great story, and not have to worry about Fultoning a random mook to my base so I can play as him later or assign him to the mess hall. It has always just felt like a chore to me, especially with the clunky menu system and headache-inducing stats you're made to look at. It has never felt natural to me even if I get its purpose in building Big Boss' character.

That's not even the worst part of Peace Walker for me though. What's even worse here is absolutely atrocious & repetitive mission structure that would come to define what little was left in the series from here on out. While the main missions are mostly okay, the side ops are some of the most tedious busy work you will ever come across. With such exciting missions like "Destroy the Infantry Combat Unit 02" or "Destroy the Attack Chopper Unit 04", Peace Walker does its best to ensure you feel like your doing your daily chore list rather than playing an awesome espionage adventure. To get the true ending of the game, you're pretty much forced to do these too which absolutely sucks. This being a portable game does not excuse this in my eyes, and it's a perfect example of more content not necessarily being for the best.

On to the story, the other of two main pillars of the MGS franchise. Presented mostly in comic-style cutscenes, Peace Walker presents a supporting cast that I actually enjoy quite a bit! Each character is fleshed out well in recordings that definitely feel true to the series. The actual main plot is not the best of the series, especially when it comes to everything surrounding Paz, but the continuing story of Big Boss in his quest to build up MSF with Miller by his side, and trying to do things differently from The Boss, is easily the most compelling part of the whole game. I wish it was presented better, but what we got is still high-quality storytelling you expect from the series.

Peace Walker isn't inherently a bad game. Obviously, others have loved this game and my gripes are mine alone and reflect my gaming tastes as a whole. Hey, I liked this game at least enough to go through it twice both on PSP and Xbox 360, but at the same time I mostly owe that to the story. I think it just set a bad precedent for the series that it never recovered from, not that it had much life in it left anyway unfortunately. But, that's a story for another time!

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