Game of the Year Awards 2010 Day 5

PSP received one of the best Metal Solid game in recent years in 2010 with Peace Walker which also makes it to number 7 on my Game of the Year Awards 2010

6:

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP):

Last time Snake ventured on the PSP (Portable Ops), it was met with mixed reaction on my part. I could not get used to the camera angles and a few wonky control issues. So when Peace Walker was announced I was a little skeptical, yet excited at the same time, I mean come on, this is Metal Gear Solid!. I was hoping that Hideo Kojima may have worked on the issues from the previous game and to my relief he had which made the game more than playable. Using the 70's era and the Banana Republic phenomena of Central America as a driving force for the plot, Peace Walker became the PSP game to play in 2010.

Peace Walker has a really tightly wrought storyline with the right amount of political intrigue of the 70's and its global ramifications. Peace Walker also puts the ball in motion for the Metal Gear sage and it became fascinatining to see how Snake slowly become the main villan of the future games of series. And thank God for that as MGS series has been know to have pretty convoluted storyline as was evident with MGS 2 and MGS4. But with Peace Walker Kojima kept every thing pretty simple in lieu with MGS 3 and in end the game had the same emotional impact MGS 3 had on me. With the plot centering around the mystery for a certain person from the MGS mythos, you can't help but be impressed by the direction taken by Kojima-san.

The game play is classic MGS fodder and it shows that the developer have put in the effort in making a perfect MGS game. There is sneaking, A LOT of sneaking, more sneaking than found in MGS 4 (which was a bit a mess in my opinion). And the forest environs once again become the perfect setting for the tried and tested stealth action. The camera angles which were a pain to get used to in Portable Ops, have been tuned very well for the PSP and the control schemes felt reminiscent of Syphon Filter games for the PSP. Its an achievement for Hideo Kojima and his team that they have made many small changes to the mechanics but their effects are very clear which made the game shine rather than chruning out the same engine from Portable Ops.

But perphaps the most amazing thing about Peace Walker for me was how it spun such a story which made me actually wiki many of the names and events from the 70s. There are huge references to Che Guevara, the Sandinista from the Nicaragua Revolution and the repercussion of the Cold War from the scary days of the 60's (Cuban crisis and all). I mean this game made me watch some of the best movies based on the Cold War and getting my attention to read Confessions of the Economic Hitman. There aren't many games which feel very relevant to real life events.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is a really well made game with huge amount of content and some great characters. For me MGS 4 kinda killed the attachment from the series with its sterile settings (and the art designs, I mean I am sorry but the MGS magic was missing from the game, plain and simple) and a very (needlessly) complex storyline. But Peace Walker rectified the issues I had with both Portable Ops and MGS 4 and delivered a very bright and tightly woven MGS game.