Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops - Sony PSP

I made the mistake of buying Portable Ops Plus first instead of this one. Now, I own this one, and boy what a difference! First off, I must admit that the game is much, much more enjoyable when there is an actual story to follow. It just helps to keep your interest, and helps you feel like your accomplishing something besides just wandering around at random. For this review, Ill just cover the basics of what most reviews do. Graphics, Sound, Control, and Replayability. Graphics: I dont know why, but this games graphics seemed much sharper to me than Portable Ops Plus even though they should both be using the same graphics engine. The facial detail on Snakes face and suit are really impressive when you consider that all of this has been squeezed into a system as small as the PSP. Excellent work from Konami. I think the animated cut scenes lend an interesting feel to the story and help you get in the mood for the missions that you will embark on. Sound: The sound is good too. I have a feeling that certain things could have been done better, but I found it to be totally engrossing and nothing sounded cheap. The music matches the feel of the combat/stealthy nature of the game. This is another high mark for this title. Control: This is probably the only area that I have a gripe, and Im sure you can imagine why. Moving Metal Gear to the PSP was undoubtedly a dificult task given the PSPs single analog joystick. But also, the camera will move into the strangest angles all too often and can be downright frustrating when you least need it to be. I personally think that its a small miracle that Konami pulled off what they have with the PSP, but there is room for improvement. The way the camera zooms in and out should be an option, not an automatic feature of movement. It takes getting used to, but once you do its okay. Replayability: Theres a lot to be enjoyed with this game. Even if the levels are limited in size, you feel as though theres a lot to do and discover. Again, the presence of a good story is such a big part of what makes this game so good. Im usually the type who doesnt even need a good story. Ill play a mindless shoot em up as quickly as anyone. But this title actually shines because of the story. It makes you want to know more about the Metal Gear storyline/universe. By all means, BUY THIS GAME!!! Were it not for the control issues, I would have given it 5 stars.

Well I bought the game close to a month ago and so far havent beaten it. Its not that its not fun because it is, its just hard. If you are thinking of buying this game do it. Its a lot of fun, however you should try to get a strategy guide for it.

Ill get to the point very quickly. This game is not as fun as others in the Metal Gear series. The problem isnt the game though, its the PSP. Instead of Sony putting two analog controllers on the PSP, you have to alternate between it and the digital pad. This was a poor implementation by the developer. God of War: COO is the standard by which PS2 games should be ported or translated over to the PSP in every way. The graphics are very good and so is the story that you expect from Kojima and his team. There are other cool features like being able to connect to other PSPs in an Ad-Hoc environment and the story behind Big Boss and Outer Heaven. This game is a must in the series and you should play them all in this order: Metal Gear Solid 3, MGS: PO (this game), MGS1, MGS2 and MGS4. The story will be chronological this way and easier to follow.

I thought that I had never played this game before or at least finished it. I bought it after I realized that I never beat it and never played Peace Walker and TPP was announced and I knew I had to get through these games. Hideo does another great job here. I had a lot of fun even though the game play was different than what most expected out of a MGS games. Turns out by the end, I have beaten it in the past, I had just forgotten about it. Silly me. Still I am glad to own it again.

It was too hard to control Snake and his compatriots in this game. The mission structure was nothing like the console iterations of Metal Gear, as levels were self-contained and not free flowing. However, i do realize this is an important plot point later on in Big Boss life leading to the eventual creation of Outer Heaven. The graphics and animation were excellent however for the portable, but the gameplay is restrictive and frankly boring. But, if youre an avid MGS fan, you must own this game, as it is part of the canon storyline.

Great!

V. Good product & service

Some background about my past experiences with Metal Gear games are as follows, plus some other notes: - I am ONLY INTERESTED in single-player games/features only! So this review is based upon the single-player aspect of MGS:PO. - I returned the game prior to level 3 (after the communications tower level), because I couldnt stand the controls. So based on that... -I absolutely LOVED METAL GEAR SOLID for the PSX. It was challenging, but not overly crazy impossible. There were so many cool, and new gaming techniques (like the controller up to the arm part) that set this game in the upper echelon of game development. The story, the different methods to get past certain areas, etc...A TRUE METAL GEAR CLASSIC! -METAL GEAR SOLID 2 for the PS2, tried to emulate its predecessor, and came up short, but was still a fun game (albeit one that many fans were upset about...Raiden...) Overall, not nearly as good as the PSX game. -METAL GEAR SOLID 3 SNAKE EATER was a pure BOREFEST. Sneaking around the jungle feeding on various vegetation and animals was tedious. Where did all THE FUN AND ACTION GO??? Very big disappointment. So now on to PORTABLE OPS...you can see where this is going, and why I bought this game is beyond me. I will probably never buy another MGS game again. The controls are an absolute disaster! I consider myself pretty good at gaming, but this just did not translate to the PSP very well. When I needed to make quick kills or was in a shootout...forget it! A wrong button or a wrong turn and youre spotted; and once that happens, its over for ya! Again, the game is not very fun. Graphics are subpar, and most environments appear very empty and bare. I did dig the cutscenes, though! They are in a comic-book style fashion, and definitely kept me interested in the game. There is a Metal Gear digital comic available and I would recommend that one, as well as either METAL GEAR AC!D games, both of those are good, as well. Sorry, MGS fans...this ones for the bargain bins!!

While not as smooth as I would have expected a MGS game to play on the PSP, portable ops is still a solid experience. The cut scenes are great although they arent in game. Go check out meta critic for a more in dept reviews.

Metal Gear is a video game series that has stood the test of time better than alot of other video game franchises. Its games have gradually matured and grown into a complex world full of political drama and interesting characters. Thats not to say the attributes that make it a video game have not improved as well, as its gameplay and graphics have reached cinematic levels not yet reached by many games. All these qualities apply to the latest cannonical installment in the series, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. The story picks up six years after the previous installment, Snake Eater/Subsistence, with Naked Snake (now known as Big Boss by many) being kidnapped by his ex-unit FOX in South America. Breaking free from his cell he encounters a young green beret called Roy Campbell (who many fans know will become the Colonel Campbell of later installments) and so with his help, Snake must find out what is the reason for his ex-units rebellion and subsequently put a stop to their plans. Of course, this description reallys sells the events of the game short so as not to spoil anything important but rest assured, if you are a fan of the series or even a rookie in the Metal Gear mythology, you will definantly enjoy the story. The gameplay is the big deal to many about this game. It is a return to the tried and true gameplay of the the first 3 installments in the Solid series (as opposed to the card based strategy AC!D games that were previously released on the psp) and so it involves plently of sneaking around enemy guards and grueling boss battles. However, a key difference in this game is the addition of the recruitment system. While on a mission, if a guard is knocked out and taken back to the base of operations, this enemy will eventually become a fully playable member of your cause and you can make this character either a member of your sneaking squad or spy or tech engineer or medic, each with varying purposes. Despite the initial learning curve that the psp controls might place upon first timers (trust me, I had some trouble initially as well), the game is very addictive once the controls have been mastered and so I dont really see them as a hinderance of any kind. Graphics wise, this game is amazing for a psp game. Kojima Productions somehow managed to shrink the Subsistance game engine for the psp and so with it comes a 3D camera (a second for the Metal Gear series) and so angles are never a problem. Granted, while the psp may be powerful, I doubt it would be able to handle the cutscenes that previous games of the series have established as the norm and so to make up for this fault (if it could even be regarded as that) Kojima and co. hired famed comic book artist Ashley Wood to create the cinematics for this game and I must say they are increidibly meshed with the rest of the game. In sound, this game excels. The voice acting is done by returning actors of Snake Eater and new actors and each have their great moments. David Hayter as always delivers a great performance as a man thrust into a leadership position in the global arena, fitting for the eventual events of future games and Steven Blum is execellent as Gene, the leader of the new Fox Unit. Voice acting aside, the sounds for this game are great (and might I add very loud for a psp game). The score is remarkbly good and the theme song for this game, Calling to the Night, is something I hope video game music fans will have a chance to listen to at some future vg music concert. Overall, this game delivers everything a Metal Gear game is supposed to and even adds a gameplay quirk of its own to the series, and thats saying alot considering the platform upon which this was released. Indeed, perhaps the recruitment system of this game might even play a hand in the forthcoming Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. But until we get that game in our hands, rest assured that Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is an excellent game that will surely entertain on its own right.