For all the PSP owners who were unsatisfied with Metal Gear Ac!d and just couldn’t get into the heavily strategic gameplay, than you’re in luck. Konami has just announced a new title that takes Snake back to his roots of action-orientated stealth: Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. Not only did Konami announce the game, they also had a fully playable demo featuring a free-roaming control scheme and a robust storyline. The game was featured at Games Convention held by Konami in San Francisco just yesterday.
Presentation has been stepped up considerably from the last PSP outing and provides the player with an almost complete console feel. Snake’s handiwork is generously complimented with a fully orchestrated soundtrack with likewise detailed story advancements. Although the gameplay will feel like a typical Metal Gear Solid game, the story and its presentation is unfamiliar territory. The storyboard will feature a new anime style sequence that is actually pretty fluid and doesn’t degrade the atmosphere of what you are used to.
In some scenes from the playable demo, you can see an almost comic book style, hand sketched, scenario of Snake firing shots from his weapon – complete with text to support the “sound” his weapon would make. From a fan’s standpoint, this would be anything but a good thing, but in all actuality, it makes for a very strong and rewarding game experience that even hardcore fans won’t stay away from for long.
Portable Ops is set to take place in 1970, some six years after the events of Snake Eater. As seen in the trailer released by Konami, Snake stealthily moves within an enemy camp and kills enemy upon enemy; sometimes in the typical third person view, and others in the gun-playing first person view. Snakes movement is also noted in the showcase, wherein he is capable of some dramatic building scaling and some serious windpipe crushing. The trailer, although short, was able to show off some very awesome features that the PSP will be bringing to the world.
While presentation is top-notch, the graphical quality is still behind what the consoles typically delve out. While this is not unexpected, being a portable and all, it seems it could still use a bit of polish on the blocky textures here and there. However, Konami has done a phenomenal job overall of recreating the basic environments and characters that the consoles have brought us in the past. Characters still animate rather fluidly and the lighting and visual effects are indeed well done when considering, again, that it’s for the Playstation Portable.
It’s very apparent that Konami is happy with the new story and they assure us that players will likewise feel the same. Along with the new story, there are also new player features: Snake can now “convince” enemies to turn against their respective organization and fight on his side. Players can have up to three characters in the stage at a time. Each character, whether it’s a medic or a spy, can be accessed at any time by pressing the select button. This entirely new, but arguably unconventional gameplay feature can be highly beneficial and will be integral to the game’s completion. Consequently, Konami has stated that these characters never level up and if they die they stay dead and can’t be revived or used again. It’s a good thing Snake is a master at sneaking up on enemies, as well as thoroughly capable of interrogation or it would be a very lonely road for his new venture. Oh, did I forget to mention that Big Boss will be a playable character -- must have slipped my mind. "There can be only one Boss"...
Another cool feature is the multiplayer option via the PSP’s Wi-Fi connectivity. Each “hot spot” will sport a random, yet distinct character that you can play with online. Apparently the system used can create an almost infinite amount of random characters at hot spots around the world. It is also reported that key characters, like Ocelot, can be accessed at specific hot spots. That would mean you would either be a very lucky individual, or you would have to travel to the area just to get play with a feature character. Although the latter doesn’t sound very plausible, the concept is quite original and could ultimately put a fresh and unique spin on the multiplayer mode.
With many fresh ideas and a very unique multiplayer option, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is shaping up to be an extremely rewarding new game…at least it isn’t another Metal Gear ACiD.
