Look at the level of detail on Old Snake's gear, or the texture resolution on his face, and you can easily tell that the older, outdated MGS4 actually has way better graphics. Of course we must keep in mind that Peace Walker is still a work in progress (this is just a demo, after all) so I made sure to pick a pre-release screenshot from an MGS4 trailer for comparison; in the name of fairness. Whether it manages to surpass its predecessor's graphics by the time of release is unknown, but doubtful.
The Heads Up Display (HUD) is also worse, being squished off to the side and hardly readable. Like MGS4, it's still vital to pay attention to your ammunition, camo index, radar, and health; but in this game the HUD simply does not lend itself to be easily read. You may find yourself struggling to keep track of the action on screen and the statistics on the side at the same time. A higher resolution, and not limiting gameplay to the small PSP screen, would allow for better spacing and readability.
Cinematic graphics, on the other hand, take after Portable Ops, but with significant improvements. I was never a fan of Ashley Wood's still artwork, but when it's animated it can be pretty refreshing, especially when Shinkawa's artwork is incorporated. The ability to zoom in and peek underneath the clothes of a scarred 16 year old girl is welcomed, too, since it shows that Kojima has not lost his touch for mixing disturbing nonsense into pretty much every potential object of desire in the series. Graphically, the cinematics are sure to be the biggest treat, but who knows how many of these animations are actually going to be in the final product.
STORY
Speaking of cutscenes, it just so happens that they reveal part of the Peace Walker story!
Big Boss has presumably finished fighting Gene and blowing up Mexico (or whatever happened during Portable Ops,) and is now the leader of the "Soldiers Without Borders"; an obvious precursor to Outer Heaven mercenaries. A suspicious, robot-handed professor approaches Naked Snake, accompanied by a suspicious, Little Red Riding Hood -like student, and begs him to fight for the freedom of Costa Rica — a country without a military of its own. Master Miller is helping Big Boss at this point, and they agree to help on condition that they are granted an offshore military base and a helicopter. Miller's appearance is in keeping with the MGS1 retcon which changed the original darker-skinned version to someone who looks like Liquid Snake.
Rather than analyzing the story's particulars, I want to point out that making a prequel connecting MGS3 to the original MSX Metal Gear is exactly what "canon story" Portable Ops promised to do, but obviously failed at. And thanks to Metal Gear Solid 4 it doesn't really matter what happens in Peace Walker, since Big Boss ultimately winds up being a Snatcher finished off by Snake's nanomachine-supervirus-Foxdie-thingy. In other words, even if the story is amazing, it's just depressing to know how it all ends; it's like going on a really cool roller coaster that you know will include a horrible crippling disaster by the end. Storywise.
Frankly, I'm guessing that Kojima's work on Peace Walker is motivated solely by the desire to close all of the major "gaps" in the story so that he can finally leave it to the "Metal Gear Solid Rising" team. The alternative is that he had some random inspiration to make an unnecessary prequel, but which one is more likely? He knows that Portable Ops only served to convolute shit, so now he's taking it into his own hands and finishing the task.
Hopefully this means it'll contain significant character development and bridge the gap in a satisfying way, but judging by the quality of the "twists" and "explanations" in Guns of the Patriots, I'm not getting my hopes up. Character designs are likeable and the premise is straightforward, but there needs to be a lot more than that to earn the unofficial label of "MGS5". Will Coldman, Strangelove and Otacon's father be enough to put it on par with MGS1, for example? Enough to make it feel superior to a glorified spinoff? Hmm.
CONTROLS
As I played through the tutorial section of Peace Walker I got the impression that this game was biting off way more than it could chew when it came to gameplay, and the rest of the demo proved me correct. 3D over-the-shoulder camera controls? The first five 
games in the Metal Gear series had standard top-down camera, with only limited first person view in certain situations, and they were great! Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence toyed with First Person Shooting and a 3D camera, but they were gimmicky add-ons for those who wanted to see what it would be like. Portable Ops did a horrible job of porting the Subsistence controls to the PSP, and the gameplay sucked because of it. The problem wasn't the porting, however, it was the very fact that there was 3D camera controls on a finnicky little handheld.
All the areas are extremely small and linear, so it's not like you'll be wandering through some huge seamless jungle, where such a feature would help the immersion (like MGS3 originally promised). The classic top-down view of MGS1 was simple and effective, and placed emphasis on using corners and hiding spots to plan a Course Of Action. Enemy guards had bad vision, while you had the Soliton Radar, so there was no reason why the camera needed to be dynamic and complicated. The same things are all true in Peace Walker, except that the radar has been neutered for no better reason than to force you to use the 3D camera. Ruining old aspects to emphasize a newer, worse one, is stupid.
I know there's going to be lots of players who manage to master the controls and defend it as being "better than the old top-down kind", but they are full of shit. There will always be a percentage of players who can adapt to a stupid control scheme and make it seem like a good idea, but all that proves is that humans are versitile. Eskimos can survive in the arctic, but that doesn't mean it's a smart lifestyle to choose. Usually when a game has a harsh learning curve its because there'll be some big payoff once you get the hang of it, but in Peace Walker it's just a constant reminder that the PSP isn't designed for this kind of gameplay.
Super Mario 64 figured out that you still need to see your character when the view is obsured. This game could afford to learn from the oldies.
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Two joysticks are required for over-the-shoulder nowadays, plain and simple. A top-down view would also allow you to see everywhere around you constantly, rather than having to steer a poorly implemented camera around 360° just to stay aware of your surroundings. I hate that.
I was carefully sneaking past a truck where two guards were located, and suddenly this big clump of leaves got between my character and the camera. Those few moments of confusion can make the difference between life and death, especially in a stealth action game like this. It's 3D Gaming 101, Kojima. |
GAMEPLAY
Sneaking and fighting are both unsatisfying in Peace Walker. Stealth is ruined by the simple fact that running creates so much noise. My ability to tilt the PSP's shitty little "nub" with delicate precision should not be what determines my success, so why do I constantly find myself paranoid about my pace? I want to feel like motherf**king Big Boss on a mission here, not some retard that doesn't know when to walk or run. It totally breaks the stealth experience, and the fact that it's in a "jungle" is no excuse. Just design the movement so players have to hold a button to run if nothing else. That way you could safely walk around without accidentally giving yourself away! Use game design to help players have fun. It's not a revolutionary concept, guys!
Now I suppose it wouldn't be such a big deal if the fighting aspect of the game was solid, but it's not. Enemies are stupid and blind when their not alerted, but they transform into superhuman monsters in a gunfight. Everything you do is hit-and-miss, from manually aiming, to auto-aiming, to CQC, to throwing grenades. It might work, but it might not. For a game with such aggravating stealth shortcomings, you could at least make it so the enemies died after one or two gunshots. I've unloaded an entire clip into some enemies, only to watch them crawl back onto their knees and use first aid to recover or some shit. I can see the little damage indicator telling me that I'm doing thousands of damage, but the prick won't stay down.
On the flip side, some parts are stupidly easy when you learn the right trick. Tranquilizing enemies and using the Fulton Recovery System, for example, allows you to quietly take down an enemy and then instantly remove him from the battlefield, for recruitment no less! I cleared an entire area using this ridiculous tactic, and didn't feel the least bit satisfied afterwards. Even if you ignore the logistics of hooking up such a system on a body in under two seconds, or having your very own helicopter instantly available to fly over enemy airspace and somehow intercept them, it's just not a cool gameplay feature. Remember the interrogation feature of MGS3? Why not recruit soldiers by putting a knife to their throat or drugging them or something? Then maybe they could do something useful on the spot, rather than just disappearing. It would make the feature feel personal, cool and important.
Invisible boundaries are also stupid. We are living in an age where a big open area suggests that you can walk there, but look at this beach scene. Our legendary master of infiltration can't scale this gentle slope? The same thing happens all over the place, with no better excuse than the fact that it's a PSP game. Which is fine... as long as you don't try to call it "MGS5". I've had my own rockets explode in my face because — to my amusement — the innocent corner I was crouched beside had a larger invisible boundary than it appeared! Ha ha ha, that never gets old!
Then there's the inability to pause. What a patently insane decision. I realize that the game is designed to be played cooperatively, but guess what: Starcraft had a limited pause system back in 1998 for just such a reason. Other players could exit the pause, and it had a time limit, meaning that it only stayed paused if other players agreed. We are now in 2010, and Peace Walker has no pause whatsoever. Is this any kind of progress? This is guaranteed to be a game-killing flaw for many players, no doubt about it, and for good reason: there have been common sense solutions to these issues for years. Just because you're a Metal Gear game and you've always had quirks, that doesn't entitle you to be stupid. Especially when you're desperately trying to imitate Western game design anyway!
CONCLUSION
Since I haven't played the game cooperatively I suppose I don't have the right to pass a final verdict on this demo, but I'm going to anyway, since it's a crappy feature. Metal Gear is a solo experience, and it always has been. The tension of being one man against a million... sneaking and killing deeper inside enemy territory with nothing but what you find along the way... That's the real thrill of Metal Gear, and it always has been. As I said in Cinderella on an Acid Trip, I look forward to reading the words "Best played with other people" as a caveat for bad design. If it has problems as a solo game, it has problems, period.
Admittedly, there were some moments where I was reminded why Metal Gear is such an amazing series. Knocking on walls in order to perfectly avoid an enemy guard; learning about various real-life events as I watch the cutscenes; stupid Easter Eggs such as peeking at Paz's underwear. But it doesn't take long before those moments are crushed under a wave of lameness, and I return to disappointment.
If Kojima and company admitted that this was a spinoff, or at least not worthy of being called MGS5, some of these faults would be tolerable. As it stands, it feels like an overhyped exploitation of the series and an embarrassment. Canon story is not enough to redeem the fundamental issues with the gameplay, and neither is being for the PSP. Unless dramatic improvements happen by the time of release, or unless the story is a truly unforgettable masterpiece, this demo is enough to tell me that Peace Walker will be unworthy of its crown.
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