Man, after Metal Gear Solid 3 I was so excited to play another game as Big Boss, he was left in such an interesting spot at the end of that game and I was really interested to see how a game would be where you're starting to become the bad guy and establish Outer Heaven. However I guess I overestimated what a PSP game is capable of, because this is extremely disappointing, basically all the gameplay and mechanics from the PS2 Metal Gear games have been stripped away into a more basic version, and replaced with awkward gameplay, annoying bosses and for some reason a base-management sim. I didn't mind the Mother Base stuff at first, fulton launching soldiers is pretty fun, and it gives you the chance to unlock items if you're invested enough, but once progression started to get locked behind me needing more soldiers I was pretty annoyed, because it's such obvious filler which breaks up the pace of a game which already has horrible pacing due to how short and unbalanced missions are.
Best part of this game is Naked Snake and to a certain extent Kaz, they've got a fun dynamic which makes me believe they've known each other for a while, but the rest of the characters aren't interesting, with the villains being not anywhere near the quality as the previous games. The cutscene style is pleasant to look at too, even if it makes it feel a bit disjointed going from 30 seconds of 3D models to a few minutes of moving stills and the quick-time events are a good way to keep you paying attention. The game does also have some interesting parts with Snake's character which leads into his Big Boss side, such as admitting he doesn't care for peace, as well as somewhat starting to recruit child-soldiers, but the overall narrative isn't that interesting to me, and the mission structure not really helping with that either as it'll be a 3 minute sneaking session where you can't even crawl, and then 5 minutes of cutscenes.
Overall, my experience with Peace Walker was pretty disappointing, I went in expecting a game like MGS3, but instead got an experience with less depth than Metal Gear Solid 1, and a story which is pretty generic even if it does have some moments that shine through, and I'm not really a fan of using The Boss in the way they did. I really did want to like this game, and I can see why people do really like this game as there are parts I enjoyed, but the mobile phone quality of this game on top of the fact it's too focused on grinding out my army instead of just giving me a good story means I'm not up to finishing it as there's no point in giving hours to a game I don't have any interest in.
Best part of this game is Naked Snake and to a certain extent Kaz, they've got a fun dynamic which makes me believe they've known each other for a while, but the rest of the characters aren't interesting, with the villains being not anywhere near the quality as the previous games. The cutscene style is pleasant to look at too, even if it makes it feel a bit disjointed going from 30 seconds of 3D models to a few minutes of moving stills and the quick-time events are a good way to keep you paying attention. The game does also have some interesting parts with Snake's character which leads into his Big Boss side, such as admitting he doesn't care for peace, as well as somewhat starting to recruit child-soldiers, but the overall narrative isn't that interesting to me, and the mission structure not really helping with that either as it'll be a 3 minute sneaking session where you can't even crawl, and then 5 minutes of cutscenes.
Overall, my experience with Peace Walker was pretty disappointing, I went in expecting a game like MGS3, but instead got an experience with less depth than Metal Gear Solid 1, and a story which is pretty generic even if it does have some moments that shine through, and I'm not really a fan of using The Boss in the way they did. I really did want to like this game, and I can see why people do really like this game as there are parts I enjoyed, but the mobile phone quality of this game on top of the fact it's too focused on grinding out my army instead of just giving me a good story means I'm not up to finishing it as there's no point in giving hours to a game I don't have any interest in.