Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops review (PSP)

The PSP was and still is a very exciting console. Not only is it a sleek, sexy and downright excellent piece of hardware, it's also somewhat representative of how far gaming has come. Essentially a PS2 in a delightfully small package, it serves as more than entertainment on the go; it's a freaking statement.

Nonetheless, a year and a bit after release and the console still hasn't really seen it share of the golden crop. A lot of the titles are PS2 ports, and although this reiterates the true power of the console, it doesn't allow much room for innovation to really take it skyward.

What the console needs is a really in-depth stealth game with a truly enticing storyline, some boundary-pushing visuals and a killer multiplayer to boot. Unfortunately, Portable Ops isn't it...

No, I'm kidding. It is

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops – despite the somewhat unimaginative subtitle – has once again done credit to the already well established franchise. Continuing on from the PS2's 2005 hit, Snake Eater, Portable Ops lands Snake in a South American Soviet base within which, initially, he is a prisoner. With a little help from a fellow inmate, Snake breaks free and is once again back on the intimidating road to overthrowing a small army.

This time around, though, Snake's cardboard box is no longer filled with gravely-voiced renditions of "All By Myself". After the task ahead becomes too great for himself and his inmate to complete by themselves, Snake makes use of the surrounding militants' scepticism towards their goals and recruits them to aid in the prevention of these dastardly doings.

Infiltrate

On top of sneaking and infiltrating, Snake now has to knock-out and abduct enemies to fill the rankings of his own mini army. By dragging the snoozing bodies back to your vehicle, and after some tough persuasion, you gain reinforcements alongside another playable character. Once you've organised your recruits into the necessary mission, you can go about your usual objective, safe in the knowledge that, at any moment, you can dive into a cardboard box and let one of your more habitual characters continue.

This side of the game is managed with a stats menu, whereby information and assignments of your new recruits can be processed. Before a mission start, you can select which team member(s) to delegate to a specific task. Either they're one of your interchangeable bunch on Snake's missions, they're off on reconnaissance missions to further develop the group's understanding of a situation or they're part of the medical or technical sectors. While it's a little odd for Snake, a man of grim solitude, to be gathering and commanding war-buddies, the dynamic works surprisingly well.

The choice of different characters – especially those that used to be, and are consequently dressed like, the enemy – not only allows the player to surround an area with hidden soldiers, it also adds a welcome change of pace. Obviously, though, Snake is still the predominant character. Sporting his trusty MK22 dart/handgun, entering an area and retrieving information is a lot less cumbersome than the un-silenced AK wielding soldiers. When you want to be stealthy, an extremely noisy assault rifle isn't the way to achieve it, and for that reason, the additional soldiers seemed to be nothing but cannon fodder. Although they can execute the same moves as Snake, I felt it prudent to keep them as nothing but back-up because they're just too loud.

Bite Sized

And excessive sound is your one true enemy in PO. Besides some immensely difficult boss fights, the bulk of PO's missions are all information gathering or just point location, both heavily dependent on stealth. The basic formula consists of you being dropped into a location, previously selected on the tactical map, and asked to complete the short but very sweet objective. I'm not sure if it's just the PSP's limitations or a change for MGS, but the missions are very concise. Those of you who are used to MGS's typically epic levels are in for a shock, but it's worthy of a mention that this never pushes the game into the realms of inadequacy.

The fact that the missions in PO are condensed into neat little packages makes it not only a fast-rewarding game – in spite of the hefty learning curve, but also an absolutely quintessential game for the portable generation. The game is completable, and healthily, in short bursts of play, and I for one found this especially useful for train-time entertainment.

Really Crate

That hefty learning curve I referred to earlier is mainly down to the control system. Though there's an element of learning the familiar (for those adept at MGS) enemy artificial intelligence, the bulk of the difficulty comes through navigation and overall management of your player. Again, for those already in the know about MGS, you'll be right at home with his wall-hugs, evasive rolls and shooting since the controls are perfectly transported onto the PSP. However, for someone less experienced with the formula, trouble might come about for the first few levels.

Nonetheless, as far as problems go with PO, that's about it. Graphically the game is stunning. I'm fairly certain it's working the PSP nearly to breaking point since close-up views of Snake and other players respectively display some truly impressive skins and textures – unlike anything I've seen on the PSP to date. Models and animation are no different. Though Snake seems to walk around like Montgomery Burns when sneaking, it's all very fluid and natural. The process of whipping out from behind a corner and stun-darting an unsuspecting foe is not only incredibly fun, but superb to watch.

The terrain is not quite up to the same level, but it still sets a daunting picture for Snake. The game falls victim a little to the crate-dependency syndrome (CDS), but these problems are easily overlooked when the rest of the game is so damn polished.

Win Win

Very much the same applies to sound effects and audio. To compliment the incredibly stylistic but impressive storyboard style narration, the voice-overs are once again legendary. Though there is a lot of talking throughout the game, there isn't as much as previous MGS titles, and what there is is nothing short of superb. Each character hits the mark with striking precision. Kojima Productions sure can pick 'em.

The Metal Gear Solid franchise has earned a colossal fanbase over the years, and rightly so. The truly enticing visuals coupled with a movie-worthy story makes them perfect for gaming consumption, and despite obvious odds, the series can't seem to do wrong. Portable Ops is a difficult game for both newbies and experienced players, but the way in which the whole aura of MGS has been transferred to a portable platform impresses to no extent. To be a fan of the games and not own this title would be a tragedy, because Portable Ops is yet another win.