Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Kojima and co. deliver with one of the PSP's finest. Full review within.
Published: February 12, 2007
When we rattled on earlier about Portable Ops' success in exploring all the nooks and crannies of its chosen hardware, we meant it. In our minds, the shining moments come in wireless recruitment of soldiers. Yes, you can go the tried and true route of manually kidnapping them in the game, but there's also the little-known option of obtaining them via access point scan, where the PSP will actually search for all nearby wireless signals. To every MAC address, a soldier is assigned, and when a nearby signal is detected, it'll ping up on-screen as a pulsating meter. Pushing down the O button repeatedly effectively boosts this meter until it reaches an indicated threshold and bam, you've got yourself a new soldier. Fond, fond memories we have of roaming the office in a frenzy, PSPs aimed in all sorts of corners and crevices, just waiting for that colored meter to pop up so we could hammer on the Circle like crazy in hopes of snagging a new recruit. It's perhaps the most ingenious use of Sony's handheld we've ever encountered.
Then, of course, there's multiplayer. For most, it'll mean taking your strongest squad of four online and taking part in some cutthroat six-player ad hoc matches. The action is divided into either deathmatch, team deathmatch or capture the flag modes, where, if you're actually skilled enough not to get shot in the head every 30 seconds or so, you've got the option of playing "for keeps," where a victory nets you your opponent's fallen soldiers with yours facing the same risk. For us less-risque types, though, there's also the option of game sharing, where you and your PSP-owning buddies can play using a single copy of Portable Ops.
Even if you're more of a strategist, the game has you covered. A unique Cyber-Survival Mode allows you to deploy a team out onto the internet where they will track down and square off against other teams. It plays on an entirely new set of tactical-type, turn-based rules, where your soldiers' positions and the range and weight of their weapons affect things like how often they'll have a turn or how likely they are to use a certain item. Similar to Match mode, teammates can be won and lost, and just who you'll pick up is a mystery in itself.
Like any good Metal Gear Solid title, Portable Ops has its finest to offer on the aural and visual fronts. Unlike its console brethren, the game does not enhance its narration through lifelike cinematics, but instead, we're treated to the comic book-style animation of Ashley Wood. It shouldn't come as too much a surprise, given the MGS Digital Graphic Novel, and it's a welcome change to see scrawled facades atop scrolling panels depict the game's more crucial plot twists. The in-game graphics are also nothing to scuff at, as this is a fully-fleshed Metal Gear Solid experience gone portable. It's all entirely fluid, with the only apparent framerate hiccups taking place during the heat of an all-out shootout against a swarm of soldiers. But do remember, this is a stealth mission.
David Hayter has reprised his role as Snake, and for most, that's enough to make for an authentically-sounding MGS game. Not, of course, to discredit the supporting cast who themselves deliver some pretty great performances (with only Cunningham's gravel feeling just sliiiighty forced sometimes). While cutscenes receive the full voice-over treatment, a good chunk of the in-game dialogue is just straight text, but is hardly at the expense of plot effectiveness. And despite the absence of Harry Gregson-Williams, you'll find the game's electrifying score to be no less engaging than previous efforts. Dare we say, it's even more so, thanks to some eclectic instrumentation and assorted takes on the game's core theme.
Up to this point, several games have certainly tapped into the potential of the PSP -- the Grand Theft Auto games proving an expansive console experience could make the transition to a portable with little or no corner-cutting, a chosen few first-party titles (we're thinking SOCOM and Syphon Filter) flexing the muscle of infrastructure and establishing a respectable online community - but who thought it could all be done under a single game? Portable Ops does the series full justice and then some: the compelling campaign we've grown oh so fond of, coupled with the compulsive recruitment system and the high-stakes multiplayer that should have Subsistence fans grinning like fools. A defining piece of PSP software.
