“Solid” translation
The Metal Gear Solid series of games has long been cherished by gamers for its deep, involving
story, and is generally credited as being one of the first iterations of the
“stealth action” genre. Such a classic series now has a canon version of it, Portable Ops, on Sony’s struggling
PlayStation Portable in the hopes of revitalizing the platform. Is it good
enough to warrant purchasing a PSP to play the game? Maybe not, but it’s at
least good enough for existing PSP owners to give Portable Ops a shot, even if it does have its frustrating moments.
Portable Ops takes
place six years after the events of the Cold War-based Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and finds Naked Snake, the
precursor to Solid Snake, imprisoned in a secret Soviet base taken over by
rogue American and Soviet troops. In order to survive and escape, Snake must
convince the soldiers on the base to fight alongside him, and find out what’s
really going on. To this end, Portable
Ops deviates radically from the Metal
Gear Solid formula, as the player is tasked with assembling a whole squad
of soldiers, and assigning them to various roles, from the playable sneaking
missions to support roles such as spy, medic, or arms technician. This new
system combines with a more open-ended story to create a whole realm of
tactical possibilities, giving Portable
Ops much of its fun factor.
The main problem with Portable
Ops is the controls — even with several options to tweak them, they are
clunky and vexing, which hampers the immersion factor and makes the sneaking
seem less like sneaking. However, the tactics involved in assembling your squad
and support, as well as the compelling, well-written story,
givePortable Ops enough fun
to counter its shortcomings. Metal Gear
Solid: Portable Ops is a PSP exclusive, and is rated M for Mature.
This article appears in Jan 17-23, 2007.
