Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops - Sony PSP

This is a terrific PSP game not to mention a terrific Metal Gear game. Kudos to Kojima for being willing to support the platform and for doing so with a game rooted in canon. The game does a terrific job of both providing an entertaining narrative as well as excellent gameplay despite the PSPs lack of a second thumbstick. This game serves as a prequel to the original Metal Gear games (on the MSX system) as well as Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2. It is essentially a sequel to MGS3: Snake Eater, following the exploits of Naked Snake prior to his ascension as Big Boss. Im not sure why this game is so rare and difficult to obtain. Japanese publishers like Konami tend be more inclined to discontinuing a game, however, this game is an essential piece of the Metal Gear saga as well as one of the biggest selling and best reviewed PSP titles ever. The good news is, with the forthcoming release of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Sony has finally made this game (as well as its expansion Portable Ops Plus) available for digital download through the Playstation store. For those unable to obtain a reasonably priced copy of the UMD version, I highly suggest you download it for a mere $15. As a PSP owner, youll be glad you did.

To put it simply, Portable Ops is as good as MGS3! The graphics are almost as good as the PS2 game, which is saying a lot for the PSP system, but the game play makes up for it all ten-fold! The ability to recruit soldiers and make up your own teams (all in-game) and send one team at a time on each mission is the major characteristic behind the game. You can drag enemy soldiers back to the truck to recruit them. Over a short period of time, the soldier will be recruited and can join you by fighting in your sneaking team, spying for you in the spy team, making medical advancements in the medical team, or making technical advancements in the tech team. The bosses are as difficult to beat as in the 3rd MGS, so it does provide a good challenge. The same weapons are utilized, in addition to a few more like UZIs and wind-up distraction ducks. The same moves as in MGS3 are used- grabbing, throwing down, interrogating, crawling, and CQC. The only cons that I would give the game are the four weapon/item slots (there is no backpack, and weapons, ammo, and items will each take up one slot). Also, the camera has to always be moved with the directional pad, and cannot just follow your back. And the last thing is that when one of your recruits, who, in the eyes of the red army, is still one of them, makes the slightest noise (e.g. footsteps) and an enemy near by hears it and sees you, then they automatically know that you are an enemy unit. But, I suppose, it makes the game that much more challenging. Despite the cons, the game is one of the best in the MGS series (matching MGS3)! It is definitely worth the price! Even if you havent played any Metal Gear Solid game before, go for it! Make this game the first! Given, references are made to MGS3 throughout the entire game, it nevertheless is one great action/shooter game that will get you hooked on the MGS series and almost force you to try the others!

I LOVE Metal Gear Solid. I grew up on it, and have enjoyed every title in the series that is in line with the canon plot, except for this one. The story may as well be non-canon because it really never comes up again. The sound is bad, the cut scenes kind of awful, and the controls are atrocious to the point of preventing me from playing this game beyond the first hour or so. The graphics, even for the PSP, are fairly sub-par as well. Skip this game, maybe watch the cutscenes online if you need this games story, and get Peace Walker instead. This game is NOT representative of the rest of MGS.

The graphic is good, but for me it is a slow game, I dont recommend this game for persons like shooting and actions....

The game is fairly different from recent MGS titles on the Playstation in that it involves more skill and strategy. At first its a bit woozy, but once you get the hang of it, its really quite fun.

Not as good as Peace Walker but you can definitely tell how it was a stepping stone leading to what Peace Walker became. Its awkward playing any MGS game on PSP due to the limited controls but it wont completely ruin your experience. This is definitely better than MGS Portable Ops Plus since it actually has a plot and a reasonable level progression. Its good but the home console entries are better. I recommend this one to only die-hard fans that have played all of the games in the main series first. This is still a solid experience though. Not a bad game at all.

Metal Gear Portable ops (MG:PO), for the psp is a great game with an awful control scheme. The PSP has a well documented lack of a second analog nub, so I will not beat that dead horse. Instead I will say I wish PO used the same control scheme as peace walker. There are only two faults with this game, the first being the previously mentioned awful control scheme and the second being the awful camera. Without these two problems this game easily would have gotten five out of five! All that being said if you are a metal gear fan or just looking for a great if not flawed psp game, pick this up. 4 out of 5.

love it.

Pros: Yet another great Metal Gear Solid game from Kojima, visually impressive, artistic cut scenes, solid voice acting, excellent story. Cons: Shifts emphasis from lone stealth mission game to commander with squad, controls different compared to ps2 controls but you get use to it, bosses can be difficult/unforgiving but are not impossible. If you are a fan of Kojimas work or are a Metal Gear Solid fan, you cant go wrong with this game. The game still includes the aspect of completing missions using stealth and weapons but because of the new squadron system in place, you also use some Real Time Strategy tactics in how you pick members you want to use for missions. The controls for the game are designed to balance with the level of difficulty the game presents-in other words-the mechanics fit the gameplay. There is a learning curve for how the game plays out and not all of the functions for the game are presented to the user, either in-game or manual, but these things can easily be looked up in places such as [...] or such. And these items are not essential to the overall gameplay experience, more like helpful tips for example the trick with pulling recruits to your hiding boxes rather than all the way back to the truck. But this game is a worthy addition to any MGS collection or playing experience. I bought this game because I wanted a story, whereas the MGSPO+ is a multiplayer expansion, no story just gameplay. Im proud I own a copy. Hope this was helpful.

Came new & sealed as described.