TOP GAMES REVIEW : METAL GEAR SOLID PORTABLE OPERATION

Developer :
Konami Computer Entertainment Japan /
Kojima Productions

Publisher : Konami

Designer : Masahiro Yamamoto (director), Noriaki Okamura (producer)

Series : Metal Gear.

Platform : PlayStation Portable

System requirements :
Japan PSP Firmware 2.81, Europe 3.03

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops ( MPO ) is a stealth game directed by Masahiro Yamamoto, with series creator Hideo Kojima acting as a producer. Portable Ops was developed by Kojima Productions and published by Konami in 2006 for the PlayStation Portable ( PSP ). It is the third Metal Gear title for the PlayStation Portable and the first one to retain the series' action-based gameplay. Set in 1970 in South America, six years after the events of Snake Eater, the game follows the exploits of Big Boss after his former unit, FOX, goes renegade.The game also chronicles the eventual founding of FOXHOUND, as well as the inspiration of the military state Outer Heaven.

Game Play :

Unlike Metal Gear Acid and its sequel, which were turn-based strategy games with stealth elements, MPO retains the action-based gameplay from the console iterations, drawing heavily from Snake Eater and utilizing the camera system from Subsistence. The main addition to MPO is the "Comrade System."Instead of the solo-based missions that the series is known for, MPO goes for a squad-based approach, with Snake having to recruit his own allies and form his own team of trained specialists. Before each mission, the player must compose a four-man squad, which, at the player's option, includes Snake himself. The desired squad is then sent into the battlefield. Each member of Snake's squad has their own strengths and weaknesses. While some units are best utilized on the battlefield, others may specialize in producing items, healing allies, or providing intel for each of the game's maps.

During gameplay, the player controls only one squad member at a time. The squad members not in use hide themselves inside a cardboard box, and can be swapped into play when the player- controlled character finds a "hiding spot", where they can hide in their own cardboard box.

Characters who are killed in combat are eliminated from the player's squad permanently, unless they are special characters, such as Snake. Special characters also include team mates that are bosses or supporting characters in the story. If a special character's health is reduced to zero, they are sent to the infirmary, in order to recover. The player can also abort the mission whenever it is felt necessary.

A variety of methods can be employed to expand one's squad. If an enemy character is tranquilized or stunned, they can be dragged to a waiting pick-up truck and captured. After a period of game time, the captured soldier will become a member of Snake's team. Also, enemy characters can be dragged to an ally waiting in a cardboard box, where, through the use of a transceiver frequency, they will be ordered to transport the enemy for the player, saving stamina. Alternatively, by accessing the PSP in certain hotspots using the system's Wi-Fi feature, soldiers and even special bonus characters can be recruited. The PSP GPS Receiver can also be used to similar effect. Because some of the player's recruits include former enemy soldiers or personnel, they can walk among the enemy undetected as long as the player avoids suspicious actions.

Another new feature is the surround indicator added to the game's HUD. Similar to the radar in previous titles, the surround indicator allows players to determine the relative proximity of enemy soldiers by the noises they make. The surround indicator is composed of two circles; the outer circle displays the noises made by enemies and inner circle displays noises made by the player himself.

The game also contains a Wi-Fi-enabled multiplayer mode, which is an expansion of the "Metal Gear Online" mode previously featured in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. One's performance in the Online Mode may affect their performance in the single player campaign; the player can recruit and trade soldiers from beaten opponents, or vice-versa. Additionally, certain multiplayer options result in recruits being removed from the one's single player roster permanently.

Character :

Naked Snake (voiced by Akio Ōtsuka in Japanese and David Hayter in English) reprises his role as the protagonist from Snake Eater. While already awarded with the title of Big Boss, he refuses to use that title himself and still goes by his old codename. Snake is forced to fight off his former unit, FOX, after they instigate a revolt in a South American base. Snake's primary ally is Roy Campbell (v.b. Toshio Furukawa and David Agranov), a surviving member of the Green Berets team that was sent to investigate the affair.

The main antagonist is Gene (v.b. Norio Wakamoto and Steve Blum), who became the central member of the FOX unit after Snake's departure and seeks to establish his own military nation. Gene is a product of the Successor Project that aimed to artificially create the perfect commander. The other members of the FOX unit consist of Cunningham (v.b. Daisuke Gōri and Noah Nelson), an expert in the arts of interrogation; Null (v.b. Jun Fukuyama and Larc Spies), a teenage assassin trained to be the perfect soldier; Python (v.b. Yusaku Yara and Dwight Schultz), a former war buddy of Snake who was previously presumed dead during the Vietnam War; and Ursula (v.b. Saori Goto and Tara Strong), a young woman gifted with extraordinary ESP abilities along with her twin sister Elisa (also v.b. the same actresses).

In addition to the above characters, several supporting characters from Metal Gear Solid 3 return in the game as well. Some of them contribute to the main plot, while others are just guest characters who only appear after completing certain side-missions. Virtually every major character in the game can be added to the player's squad either by fulfilling certain requirements or by inputting passwords. Hidden characters can also be recruited, including Teliko Friedman and Venus, the respective heroines from Metal Gear Acid and its sequel.

Story

Six years after the events of "Operation: Snake Eater", portrayed in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Naked Snake's former team, FOX Unit, has broken their allegiance with the CIA and gone renegade. Snake himself is also targeted by the FOX Unit, which sent renegade FOX Unit soldiers to attack and capture him. The game begins with Snake being tortured and interrogated by one of the members of FOX, Lieutenant Cunningham, who's trying to locate the whereabouts of the missing half of the Philosopher's Legacy, with the United States Government having already acquired the other half of the Legacy from the Soviet Union at the conclusion of Snake Eater. Snake is imprisoned in a cell next to Roy Campbell, the sole survivor of an American Green Beret team sent in to investigate the base. Snake learns through Roy that they're on the San Hieronymo Peninsula, the site of an abandoned Soviet missile silo in Colombia. The two escape and Snake makes his way to a communications base, where he attempts to contact his old CO, Major Zero.

Instead, he is greeted by his old FOX comrades Para-Medic and Sigint, who reveal that Snake and Zero are being accused of instigating the revolt and that the only way for Snake to clear their name is to find and apprehend the leader of the rebellion, Gene. To complicate matters, Gene has also convinced most of the Russian soldiers stationed on the base to join their side by simply taking over the chain of command of a former Red Army unit, that was secretly stationed inside the Colombian territory. In order to complete his mission, Snake must persuade enemy soldiers to join his ranks because of the scale of his mission.

Snake and his squad defeat the top members of the FOX unit (if defeated by reducing their stamina to zero instead of their HP, some of the FOX members will join Snake's squad, this includes Null and Python) and eventually they make their way into Gene's guesthouse. Snake learns many things on his way. Cunningham was working for the Pentagon and wanted Snake to push Gene into launching a nuke to Russia to prolong the Cold War (so the Pentagon could keep their importance). Gene was actually aware of this plan the whole time from information from Ocelot. Gene really wanted to launch a nuke at America to destroy the Philosophers and to make his nation of soldiers, "Army's Heaven". Snake destroys an experimental model of Metal Gear codenamed RAXA and eventually defeats Gene, destroying the real Metal Gear itself afterwards. After Gene is defeated he gives Big Boss the funds, equipment, personnel, and all other information regarding Army's Heaven, telling him that one day, he will need to use them. On his return home, Snake is awarded for his actions and establishes FOXHOUND afterwards. In the end it is revealed Ocelot kills the DCI and takes the Philosophers documents to "end them".

After the credits, Ocelot speaks with an unknown man, (it is very possible that this man is Major Zero, since the unknown man referred to earlier by Gene is "the man with the same codename as Null", and Null means Zero, and in a cutscene with Gene and Snake, a mysterious man with a scar on his left eye is referred to as the cunning strategist who planned all of Operation Snake Eater on the phone. Ocelot speaks of using the Legacy to form the Patriots in place of the Philosophers. Ocelot actually wanted the trajectory data of the nuke to point to the DCI so he would bring the documents right to him. Ocelot requests Big Boss be able to 'join' them (he and the man on the phone) in their new endeavor - becoming the Patriots.

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