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Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops
MGS Portable ops
Solid Snake shoots his way onto the
PlayStation Portable in the latest addition to the Metal Gear Solid
franchise that returns to the original gameplay of the PS2 and PSOne
rather than the turn based trading card games on the PSP called Metal
Gear Acid. As the title is back to original incarnation, the gamer must
use stealth, combat and
strategy to successfully complete the missions. The title is also a
combination of action,
adventure and strategy that create an addictive title that fits perfectly
with the current MGS mythology.
The story of Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops
is set in the 70’s and transforms gamers into Naked Snake, the hero of
MGS3 who has been taken captive a South American militia. Fortunately
our hero manages to escape and is intertwined in a world of espionage,
double-crosses and an extremely in-depth tale that only Kojima could
have pulled it off.
The average gamer should successfully complete this title in around 15
hours and for those that have played the previous title on the
PlayStation 2 will be pleased to know that Snake still has the same
moves which have been successfully implemented on the PSP control
system.
The only downside of the title is the camera angle which
although not fixed, the player still has the ability to reset the camera
angle by pushing the left shoulder button. The missions have also been
slightly scaled down and make most of the goals quite reachable which is
perfect for the handheld market.
The game also supports a variety of new
features to the MGS mythology that allows you to recruit new soldiers
for your unit by scanning the area around you for wireless networks, the
game generates new soldiers based on the networks the PSP can see around
it, and it's possible to find some extremely powerful allies in this
way, although of course, it's not actually required that you do this to
complete the game.
When you take Portable Ops online, the battles work
out in broadly the same way as they did in MGS3: Subsistence for the
most part there's also a single-UMD multiplayer option for local
wireless play, which is a nice addition, although it's somewhat less
fully featured than the proper multiplayer modes but there's the
option to fight a squad-based battle against someone. Soldiers that die,
stay dead and your rival has the ability to nab them and add them to
his own collection. Of course, you can do the same to his goons, too.
Graphically, Portable Ops certainly pushes the PSP; it doesn't look as
good as its big brothers on the PS2, and blood effects have been removed
for some reason but it's still a visual treat. The character models, in
particular, are very detailed and well animated; the environments,
however, can be a little disappointing, since they tend to involve a lot
of concrete and crates.
Beautifully rendered concrete and crates, mind.
The audio, too, is worthy of praise, the music echoes Harry Gregson-Williams' score very well and the voice acting is very slick and professional, with
David Hayter reprising his role as Snake and a number of other talented
actors lending their tones to a cast of extremely well realised
villains.
In conclusion, MGS Portal Ops is a damn fine game that features
state-of-the-art gameplay for the PSP and is a definite must to lovers
of this genre or series. Great graphics and the lot! |
