Do you have what it takes to get a review published right here on Kotaku? Matt does, as he sneaks in post-modern commentary on the military-industrial complex.
Yes, that’s right, we’re now publishing reader reviews here on Kotaku. This is your chance to deliver sensible game purchasing advice to the rest of the Kotaku community.
And thanks to the very kind chaps at Madman Entertainment, purveyor of all kinds of cool, indie and esoteric film, the best reader review we publish each month will win a prize pack containing ten of the latest Madman DVD releases.
This review was submitted by Matt Hunter. If you’ve played Peace Walker, or just want to ask Matt more about it, leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP)
Peace Walker continues to follow the story of Snake as he makes his way through life under the clever disguise of a cardboard box. This time the game is set in Costa Rica, with a nice little military struggle around to attract the attention of the new “Big Boss”. You will see some new and old faces throughout the story, and the missions that crossover with Monster Hunter means that Snake will never be short of work.
Loved
Controls: Now to be honest, I haven’t played all that many MGS games, but the controls used for this game are really easy to pick up, so it really doesn’t matter if you are an MGS veteran or new to the series, the simple control layout is just that, simple and easy to pick up. Mastering the controls doesn’t take all that much effort, but being able to utilise them to their devastating best takes a bit of time.
Customisability & Development: Very early in the game you are gifted a nice little offshore oilrig which you end up turning into your home and base. This place, as you progress through to game, develops and grows as you recruit more staff to one of the five units which take care of different aspects of the base (Combat, R&D, Food, Medical, Intel). Being able to choose which areas you want to focus on, and what kind of weaponry you want to develop through R&D, is really quite a nice way of making sure that you are able to go into each mission knowing that you have the items and weapons that you feel are going to suit your style the best.
Story & Characters: As you take Snake through Costa Rica, completing missions and hopefully developing you base and armoury, you will get to see the detailed and carefully constructed storyline and characters unfold in front of you. You will get to see how they interact with one another, and how they all seem to fit into the overall scheme of things, and end up piecing together the puzzle that is made up of revolution, nuclear war, capture and a hell of a lot of lies.
Hated
Lack of Difficulty Setting: This isn’t such a major issue, but when you aren’t able to do co-op with a friend or at least drop the difficulty to a tame level when it comes to some of the major bosses, it can become quite frustrating and involves a hell of a lot of healing and supply drops, and sometimes over half a bloody hour to take out just one enemy.
Not Being Given a Direction! There were several points in the game where you must go into some non-relevant missions to progress the story, which you wouldn’t really pick up on unless you got bored trying to find it and accidentally stumble into the right mission. I only managed to get through them because I consulted a friend.
Overall, whether you are able to play co-op with a friend or not, a seasoned Metal Gear veteran or just someone with a PSP looking for a good game, Peace Walker is a great game that can easily get you through quite a few hours while on the run. With the amount of quality content within this game, it’s no real surprise that Famitsu ended up giving it a perfect review score. Kojima has produced another ripper of a game, and he even ends up being quite helpful while in the game…
Reviewed by: Matt Hunter
You can have your Reader Review published on Kotaku. Send your review to us at the usual address. Make sure it’s written in the same format as above and in under 500 words – yes, we’ve upped the word limit. We’ll publish the best ones we get and the best of the month will win a Madman DVD prize pack.
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