MetalGearSolid: Peace Walker the game which is said to answer the missing links. Its that game without which the MGS saga would be incomplete. The game is said to be released in Spring 2010.
Recently Kojima productions released an English version demo for the PSP. The demo covers the basic combat techniques to advanced melee attacks (CQC). The CQC schematics have somewhat improved since last time, previously you’d rarely find yourself using CQC but now with the new schematics you won’t be regretting using CQC during a stealth infiltration.
Before the start of the mission you are given the choice to choose your button configuration style. Action Style and Shooter Style, action style resembles the MGS4 controls whereas the shooter style is based on the MGSPO control scheme.
The menus do not pause the gameplay, you don’t have the time to play around with your inventory in the heat of a battle you have to do everything quick!
Snake then goes on to the beach where his comrades are getting their daily training in the small hours on a beach in a heavy rain fall, just visualize this for a moment you throwing enemies on ground at a beach in a rain fall…..Exotic!
A comrade then instructs snake on how to use the controls, it goes from camera control to battle stances to CQC techniques. There are three battle stances; Standing stance, crouch stance and lying down stance which doesn’t allows you to move.
CQC Techniques: A lot of work has been done in this area. You go near an enemy and press the Attack button (square) when the CQC icons appear. If you tilt the analog stick with the press of the attack button snake smashes the enemy into the ground knocking him out cold for good.
Go near an enemy and press the attack button snake will grab hold of the enemy now its upto you how you are gonna use the meat. You can either throw him into another enemy which will knock both of’em out or you can just……..you know what I mean…
The most interesting part of the CQC is that you can now easily play with multiple enemies surrounding you (thinking that they might kill you…heh!). When you are surrounded by multiple enemies go and press the attack button as the CQC icon appears and then when snake is performing the task of awesome pwnage the CQC icon will appear again so you gotta press the action button again to tackle the next enemy in this way you can throw multiple enemies on ground just with a single press of a button, but you might need to work on your timing though!
This time around you’d be finding smashing enemies on their faces much more easier then tranquilizing them with your mk-22.
Btw you pull all these moves on your fellow comrades, and they feel pride in getting their asses kicked hard by snake.
The tutorial ends here and Mr.Miller comes into the scene, with some people in his jeep.
In the cut scene Galvez (Preacher of peace) needs snakes help to make Costa Rica free of these armed men who have entered in the Costa Rican territory.
Right after the cut-scene, you are at the Costa Rica sea shore where Miller explains some basic gunfight techniques; you can either chose Auto Aim or Manual Aim with the press of the select button. I played the demo with Manual Aim, auto is just not that accurate.
The Auto Aim locks on to a target just as you press the Aim button (right shoulder button) but with auto aim you can’t target specific body parts, it does that automatically…duh!
The Manual Aim is much more accurate and the crosshair sticks to certain body parts when it comes close to it, making much easier to blow brain outta those soldiers. You’d be finding certain soldiers wearing helmets, which makes them invulnerable to one shot kills same goes for tranq rounds the first shot will pop their helmet first then you can have a go at blowing the brains out part. So you’d be triggering the alert phase if you try to headshot-tranq helmet wearing soldiers.
At the mission selector screen, the difficulty of the levels is rated as A, B and C. The last mission i.e. the boss fight is rated as A so yeah it’s kinda hardest of all missions.
There are four missions in the demo, each with a different terrain.
The first mission renders a jungle-beach terrain, the second renders a swampy jungle and the third is based on a mountainous area. The fourth mission is a boss fight where you have to take down a tank and renders an open grassy ground with enough places to take cover.
Just like the portable ops version, in this game you can also recruit soldiers to join your cause. But this time you don’t have to drag them back to your truck now its simplified with the Fulton Surface-to-Air Recovery System.
The sounds are spot on, from a bullet ricocheting off a surface to the sound of your and enemy’s footsteps.
The demo also covers the co-op functionality in the first three missions allows two players co-op and the fourth one allows room for four. With strategically planning your every move the co-op functionality can give the advantage over everything.
There is also one more interesting thing in the demo that when you ace a level you are given a wallpaper that you can save, this wallpaper shows your timing, kill count and your Rank.
Before every mission you can change your equipment, thought it doesn’t offer much choices except choosing between four suits. Naked - Jungle Fatigues - Sneaking Suit - Battle Gear
The AI here is kinda easy to predict, though enemies get smarter in alert mode, but I easily knocked down the four guards that are covering the tank without even trigger the alert mode.
I hope these were some easy levels just to show the level of detail that the game offers, I hope they work on the AI to increase the difficulty a bit.
After playing through the demo, it can be observed that Kojima is dedicated to make this game a success. Peace Walker truly feels like a part of MGS saga.
