Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Hands-on Impressions of TGS Demo

This year’s Tokyo Game Show was shy on news, but held one tantalizing treat for gamers: a playable demo of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for PSP; the final version due in 2010. Although Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops ushered the classic MGS formula into Sony’s handheld world with great form three years ago, Peace Walker is truer to its big brother console counterparts in just about every way. Furthermore, it mixes things up with new gameplay elements, a fresh story, and groundbreaking co-op functionality. As you might expect, we’re here to give you the hands-on impressions of the demo.

Overview: The demo begins with Snake (Big Boss) parking his motorcycle next to wooden cabin near the beach. The camera focuses in on a sign that reads “Millitaires Sans Frontieres” — the name of Snake’s mercenary group. The grizzled veteran dismounts and, failing to light his cigar in the rain, strolls down to the shoreline where his troops are practicing close-quarters combat. Here you can participate in a CQC tutorial of sorts, or press start to skip to a story scene.

The real-time visuals morph into a familiar graphic novel-esque style we’ve come to love as Snake’s accomplice drives onto the beach. It’s none other than Kazuhira (Master) Miller — the same man who mentors Solid Snake later on in the Metal Gear chronology. Miller and Snake head back to the cabin, where a professor named Galvez and a young girl named Paz await them. Galvez explains that they seek support from Millitaires Sans Frontieres to expel an unknown military force that has essentially taken control of a defenseless Costa Rica. Galvez identifies Central America as the US’s “backyard” and a key piece in establishing world order. His proposition is met with great resistance from Snake, then a few interesting stories are told, and the cutscene ends as Galvez exclaims “Please! Are you not the one… the one they call Big Boss?!” Snake is startled that the professor knows him by that name, and the screen fades to black.

At this point the game becomes playable again. You begin on a beach where you’re treated to some jaw-dropping visuals as the slightly overcast morning sun casts a warm glow over sand and water. You’ll notice the game’s unique lighting system, which is really quite impressive. You can take aim at buoys in the water, shoot down a few coconuts, and so forth to become acquainted with the game’s controls. Moving to the next screen, you can try out some CQC on nearby guards, then sneak through the rest of the area to conclude the tutorial bit of the demo.

Next up is a trip into the jungle. In the first section of this area there are two soldiers patrolling next to a truck. Instead of waiting to figure out their pattern, I shot the farthest guard with Snake’s trusty MK.22 (ammo is not infinite as it was in Portable Ops), then judo-tossed the closer one into submission while the former succumbed to my tranquilizer dart. Progressing through a couple more sections, you end up in a guarded village where you’ll need to take out all the enemies to proceed. I snuck up on a few bad guys to perform CQC knock-outs, and took out the rest with the remaining shots in my MK.22. Along the way I made use of a nifty new item, but there will be more on that later in the preview.

The final area of the demo has you facing off against a tank and an entourage of guards in an open area bordered by a steel warehouse you can take cover in (but not for long or the tank will rip it apart with missiles) and handy crates, strewn about for quick duck-and-cover. Depending on the equipment you brought for this mission (you can choose between four suits, each with different qualities and weapons), you’ll be using whatever firepower is at your disposal to attack the tank’s fuel cells, treads, etc. It all comes down to how well you can dodge missiles and gunfire, getting the occasional potshot of your own in here and there. If you can take the armed vehicle down then congratulations; you’ve completed the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker demo.

New Moves: Peace Walker has a few tricks up its sleeve that are sure to surprise and entertain. If you recall the refined close-quarters-combat from Metal Gear Solid 4, you’ll notice that it’s been streamlined. Tapping the R button busts out the punches and kicks, but holding it reels enemies into an iron-like grip from behind. From hereon Snake can either use his captive as a meat shield or slam him to the ground. This is pretty familiar stuff to MGS players, but the twist is that soldiers can now be heaved into other soldiers, leveling multiple people in one move. Furthermore, you can chain together small combos — grab one guy, bash him into the next, then tap R to lay out the next person in line. It’s seamless and effective.

New Interface: More noticeable than the nuances of combat are the game’s revamped controls. Kojima Productions has downplayed the simplified — but limiting — set-up from Portable Ops in favour of a rather different alternative. The camera is now free-roaming; manipulated via the PSP’s face buttons (triangle, x, o, square), and Snake’s movements are carried out with the analog nub. It’s quite similar to what we saw in Resistance: Retribution and, of course, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, the game that pioneered this innovative PSP control scheme.

Items and weapons are accessed by pushing left or right on the d-pad, respectively, cycled with o and x, and selected with R. Snake can crouch or hit the ground by pressing down, and context-sensitive actions are performed with the d-pad’s up input. Holding down L draws Snake’s weapon and fixes the camera to an over-the-shoulder perspective for easy aiming, and hitting the opposite shoulder button in this mode fires off shots or lobs grenades. Admittedly it takes a little getting used to, but the new controls give players increased freedom when moving about the game world and bring the tactile experience closer to what was achieved in MGS4. There’s also an auto-aim feature for those who prefer simplicity.

Missing In Action: I was quite surprised when I got Snake to hit the ground in the beach section of the demo and tried to crawl under a waist-level tree branch. Why? Because there is no crawling in Peace Walker. At least not in the demo. When I sought — and failed — to hide under a truck in the next area, I became 100% certain that while you can spread-eagle on the ground, it’s not possible to move about in this position. I find it unusual that a game mechanism so congruent with the Metal Gear franchise has been removed, but perhaps it will turn up in the final version. Hiding in vents and scouting new areas on the down-low will be missed if that’s not the case. Similarly, Snake can still press his back against walls and objects, but can no longer move while in this position. Strange indeed.

Whether or not this demo-specific is unclear, but you’re not able to pause during gameplay either. All inventory/weapons changes and even toggling settings or looking at the map are handled in real-time. You’ll need to either act quick or find a good hiding spot. And make sure you hit the bathroom before boss battles.

An Invaluable Tool: I soon discovered that pausing, crawling, and shimmying aren’t all that got the drop. Upon knocking out enemies, you can no longer drag their bodies to a safe hiding spot. That may seem like a crucial design mistake till you stumble upon the “Fulton System” in your inventory. Allow me to explain. Whereas in previous games it was necessary drag bodies out of the way so that nearby soldiers wouldn’t stumble upon their fallen comrades, Peace Walker proposes a simpler solution: fastening your unconscious (or dead) adversaries to self-inflated balloons that blast into the stratosphere. No jokes.

I’m personally a big fan of this change, and not just because it’s extremely funny seeing people rocketed out of sight. It’s quite satisfying to systematically whittle down enemy forces with the Fulton System, as once you knock out a soldier he’s no longer a burden in any way if you launch him out of the map. Just make sure to put bad guys out for the count in a discrete area so that no one walks onto the scene while you’re disposing of them. You’re given a hearty quantity of Fulton System balloons in the demo, but one can bet that they’ll be handed out less bountifully in the final game. Use them as necessary.

New Friends: Co-op is the real deal-sealer that justifies Peace Walker as its own breed of Metal Gear. It’s unlike anything before it. The design isn’t merely about ganging up on bad guys — it truly is about friendship and working together to overcome the odds. Sneaking missions can be tackled by two players, and grand battles (against the tank in the demo, for instance) allow for as many as four players. Each player chooses one of four equipment types for their respective Snake prior to the mission (everyone can choose the same if they wish), and then the action begins. The key is to stick together with your friends, as Peace Walker rewards co-operative play, not co-existing play. By staying close, you’ll be able to share items and weapons with your friends, and your life bars merge into one. You can also grab onto a friend’s shoulder and have him or her lead you around as you focus on taking aim at enemies, just like an on-rails shooter. How awesome is that? It’s very awesome. There’s a lot more to it, but we’ll save an in-depth look for another day.

A Conclusive Wow: Portable Ops was a fine looking game when it came out in 2006, but the Peace Walker demo blows it out of the water. I’d say that Peace Walker stands above the whole PSP library in terms of graphical splendor, to be honest. The scale, detail and luster of the game’s environments are simply unmatched by any portable game on the market, and the character models are just as compelling. Likewise, the sound design is stellar and the gameplay, even at this stage, sets a high bar for future action titles on the PSP (the final version of Peace Walker included. We can only hope — with a fair bit of confidence — that the complete game binds everything together into a cohesive, stunning package. I won’t banter on, though, as nothing speaks louder about the quality of this game than experiencing the demo for yourself. I’d recommend heading over to ign.com and downloading it right now if you haven’t done so already. Let us know what you think!

PS: Clearing the demo areas with a high rank unlocks exclusive wallpapers for your PSP. Enjoy!