PSP - Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops

Format
PSP
Publisher
Konami
Developer
Konami
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
Stealth

Whispers of Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops

By David Rasmussen
10th Dec 06

Before I go any further I have a little personal business to set aside first.
On behalf of myself, and no doubt the rest of you out there who CANNOT drop $500 to $600 for a damnable Playstation 3, and thus will be unable to play Kojima Productions newest Metal Gear Solid game, Metal Gear Solid 4 : Guns of the Patriots, I want to thank Kojima Productions for providing those of us who don’t have a $1000 sitting around for a game system (or those of us Internet Media grunt without that all important connection with Sony for a free PS3 to review PS3 games on upon the launch of said PS3) with the ability to say that we want for Christmas (or our Birthdays next year depending on the release date) a copy of Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops for review!

To you and every last hard working individual over at Kojima, as well as whatever hot looking female models might provide the fan service in this game as they did in Metal Gear Acid 2 (Kojima! Don‘t listen to those naysayers dammit! I loved Metal Gear Acid 2!), I’m giving each and everyone of you a personal shoutout of a 5... Out of 5! You earned it, each and everyone of you. Solid work, everyone!

Now onto the look at Portable Ops. As I finish this book, Kojima Productions is being tight lipped about the first true Metal Gear Solid game coming for the PSP. With all things considered (that this game is going to tide over us fans who can’t, or won’t, get ahold of a PS3 in the coming days) you can understand why Kojima is not going to be so very sharing with the game’s info this early in the game.
The game, slated for either a Christmas 2006 or Winter 2007 release (August it was supposed to be Christmas, but this recent Playstation magazine I’m looking at says Winter 2007), will no doubt be the game to own on the PSP in the coming months (just as Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy XII will be games to own for the Nintendo DS), so you can understand why the secrecy over it.
Here’s what little I do know as of this time.

1-This game features the so-called “Naked Snake” (aka Big Boss) from Metal Gear Solid 3... Yes, that means this isn’t a sequel to Metal Gear Acid (first hint to what’s going on). That also means no more card battle combat, this will be the kind of combat you’re familiar with from your usual Metal Gear game (from what I heard about this game). (On a personal note I hope they do release a Metal Gear Acid 3 sometime in 2007.)

2-From an X-Play preview of this game I heard this is supposed to take place 3 years after Snake Eater (or so), so it’s a definite sequel to Snake Eater.

3-You were the former leader of the elite military unit FOX… oh, but your pals have gone and decided to turn corrupt and steal a bunch of nuclear warheads (nice people). That makes you (Snake of the Nudity variety… I mean Naked Snake) form a new organization to hunt down your former allies called FOXHOUND.

4-You are going to go at this game alone (in Single Player mode in anycase) though there is a promise of multiplayer action as well as the ability to recruit people to help you in single player mode (and not just your pals in multiplayer).

5-Nothing good will come of this game as you go all whiney Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode III and finally watch Snake become a bad guy in this game. Oh, and as if to point out the becoming evil thing Snake seems to emote more in this game than maybe seen previously, much more also than your average American Idol contestant after being voted off the show.

(Though on a personal note I’d like to thank somebody out there for NOT developing an American Idol game for either the PSP or Nintendo DS… one (bleep)y game series for the PS2 and GBA was enough, thank you very much.)

6-The ability to download new characters off of Wi-Fi connection is supposed to be one of the things that keeps the game fresh and replayable, but that is something I’d like to see in action before I say more about it (I never seem capable of finding a good online link here in my hometown).

7-The game is also supposed to feature a “wealth” of online battle modes to go with the wealth of character types in this game that you can use during the game (or download into the game).

8-You seemingly pick up a method to pick up the sounds of your rivals (multiplayer) so you can track them by the noise they make (a sonar mode). That is another thing that has to be seen to be believed.

9-Oh, and there’s supposed to be an evil spooky voiced character in this game called “The Anti-Snake”… whatever that is.

I went over online next to see if I could find anything on this game, over at Playstation’s website to be precise… what did I find? Let’s see… looking… here’s a few more facts on the game from Playstation’s online site.

1-Online multiplayer is supposed to be squad based combat, sounds interesting.

2-Comic Artist Ashley Wood is supposed to be doing the cutscene artwork. Also expect full on game voiceover acting (sounds good).

3-The “Sound Radar” system, where you can track the sounds made by enemies (rival players), is all new to this game (a first for the MGS franchise).

4-The game promises free roaming control, a robust storyline, a fully orchestrated soundtrack (worthy no doubt of a MGSPortable Ops CD), full voiceover talent including David Hayter, and an “Anime” style storyboard which is supposed to be animated “fluidly” (by the aforementioned Ashley Wood no doubt).

5-The story is set in 1970, not 3 but SIX years after Snake Eater. Well, I got it half right.

6-The game seemingly emphasizes 3rd Person Combat and 1st Person Shooting, should be interesting once it comes out (especially how the PSP can handle this kind of action). Also the game seems to show off some of Snake’s abilities like his ability to scale structures in order to get the drop on enemies, or his ability to go into sniper mode to take out a distant target.

7-One possible misgiving is possibly a loss of visual “refinement” as opposed to the PS2 counterpart… but considering you are playing the PSP that is to be expected. Texture resolution and polygon count loss is also to be expected, but again a small loss for a solid game (which this promises to be in the long run).

8-The game promises a quick pace, involving a multitude of classic characters that has a decidedly more western feel to it all.

9-The ability to “convert” enemies by dragging them back to a truck for “interrogation” (where you’ll work your JedI… uh… I mean Snake Mind Tricks to convert them from the dark side to join your side) is a solid trick that sounds like abit of fun! Should be cool to convert the evil into your army of do-gooders… wait, aren’t you supposed to go all Darth Vader in this game? Anyway you can swap between your new “grunts” by tapping the Select button, which allows you to add spies, espionage savvy soldiers (capable of spotting items and enemies on the game maps when other characters can’t), medics, engineers and more for your personal usage. Nice.

9a-One downside of this system is that these are all throwaway characters. You will be unable to groom and expand their abilities through level progression, and once they die they die forever (ala a certain well known trick from the Fire Emblem series).

I don’t suppose it’s too late to implore Kojima to go back and refine this to make your chosen “grunts” keepers by allowing you to upgrade them, level them up, and revive them if they fall so they serve a more long term use, eh? Damn.

10-Random hotspot problems? Like me since I can’t find a stable Wi-Fi hotspot to do online with? That might work to my advantage (and yours) as this game promises a randomly generating character adder to your game (which is randomly generated depending on what “hot spot” you happen to connect to via your PSP). However this is a double bladed bonus because while it does generate characters randomly, in order to gain SPECIFIC characters (Ocelot for instance) you’ll have to travel to a VERY SPECIFIC HOTSPOT in order to gain this character.

This means eventually we’ll see a list (either through Playstation’s website or, more likely, game info sites like GameFaq) of all hotspots and what characters will be generated from what hotspots.
Color me curious, though, but I’m betting specific hotspots that have ties to Sony in either advertising dollars or promotional ties (something that makes the site a better option than other possible choices in Sony’s mindset) may have the best links to the most wanted characters.

11-Finally we have Multiplayer which features the obvious gameplay options seen in many other games with multiplayer such as Team Deathmatch and Capture the Frog. Yup, 100% the stuff you’ve seen before but that won’t make it any… did this just say “Capture the Frog”…?!? What the…??
Oh-kay… Capture the Frog… that’s… uh… different? Stay tuned.

Well we have a while yet before this game hits. Be it a month or a few months we’re going to be seeing this soon enough. Bookwise, however, it won’t be out until Volume 2 of Pocket Passions.
Stay tuned!

-- David Rasmussen 10th Dec 06

PSP Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops Images