Hold a real Metal Gear Solid in a portable console like the PSP is not an overly ambitious goal. After all, Sony's beautiful nomad does well in running GTA easily. But Kojima Productions didn't really give it a shot. Better to be careful about what you expect from this Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, in order to avoid a potentially cruel disappointment. No, Portable Ops is not an authentic episode of the cult saga. Even if it borrows all the routines, it is not strictly speaking an unforgettable adventure like The Twin Snakes, Sons of Liberty et Snake eater but of a production ultimately closer to a new spin-off, responsible for further probing the origins of the immeasurable mythology developed by Hideo Kojima.
I'm still in a dream...
This is how Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops takes us on the trail of Big Boss, shortly after the tragic death toll in Grozny Grad. Devotees of the Kojimesque timeline will be happy to discover more details about the time leading up to Big Boss's capsizing, the creation of his Fox Hound unit, and the betrayal of Outer Heaven, in other words, everything before Metal Gear first of the name. (1983). The chronological frieze of the main episodes is therefore as follows: Snake eater (MGS 3), Portable Ops, (MGS PO), The Twin Snakes (MGS 1) and Sons of Liberty (MGS 2). This PSP episode will deliver its dose of suspense, reversal of the situation, and apology of the plot, as well as revelations about the youth of certain key characters (let us mention without fear of spoiler the future Colonel Roy Campell as a young unshaven and flirtatious rebel inveterate) but will not upset the bases either, and of course will not answer the questions that arise on the identity of the patriots, for example.
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, however, does everything like a good Metal Gear Solid. The specifications include the typical and mystical bosses as well as the charismatic and prolix big bad, or the courageous and beautiful heroine on duty. Playfully, Portable Ops is even the exemplary synthesis of what the saga has accomplished so far. Naked Snake has all its panoply of movement and weapons, and also offers us a more readable camera than the one usually perched on its scalp. But then where is the difference with a living room Metal Gear Solid? It is fundamental. Portable Ops is a game made up of around thirty distinct missions. Each place, superbly modeled, is therefore accessible via the main menu which will also serve us for many other things. Because if it does not offer a real adventure, preferring shorter game sequences, this opus is anything but a pasha game, and Kojima Productions is not used to getting on the customer's nerves. With Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, our beloved Hideo exploits a whole new concept in his solitaire saga, that of group tactics. Charged with leading a rebellion in South America to contradict Gene's atomic objectives, Naked Snake (who obtained the title of Big Boss by taking the life of his mentor) will discover, willy-nilly, innate talents to bring men together. to its cause, all supervised by the indefatigable coach Campbell, with whom you will maintain 98% of relations by codec. Of course, there is no question of upsetting the very principle of infiltration, so do not expect in any case to see several spies evolve at the same time. On the other hand, it is now possible (but not necessary) to go on a mission in a team of four, and to switch at any time. To encourage you to strategize, the number of items each character can carry is now limited to four! At the same time, after stuffing Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater almost entirely with a knife...
Each mission therefore has a very specific objective, mentioned on the map. It's often about getting from point A to point B, or blowing up a few installations, but nothing fundamentally original on that side, and we can't say that the game really rewards strategy. This is all the more obvious as the famous AI of the Metal Gear Solid patrollers is honestly starting to get old, at least as much as the somewhat stiff fights which sometimes lack precision. It is that in fact, the main interest of Portable Ops does not lie strictly speaking in the sequences of play, and it is there all the ingenuity of Kojima Productions. In this game, Big Boss and Campbell are the masters of this enterprise of rebellion which is theirs, and the missions will not necessarily follow one another as if by magic. Rebellion requires multiple element types, bringing together a sum of multiple talents.
Snake's crew
Organized by categories, your troop includes men of action, spies, researchers and doctors. And all these beautiful people will not quietly come ringing at your door to apply! Big Boss must therefore choose his future recruit once on the ground, knock him out and make him captive in the repatriation truck. Which in fact is not the most exciting idea in the world, because if you remember correctly, dragging a body in Metal Gear Solid takes time. This is why Kojima and his team, who love to mix video games with extra-ludic elements (the sunlight needed to play Boktai, for example) are planning other solutions to provide themselves with small staff. The exchange of characters between PSP owners is obviously possible, but the most fun is to use the Scan function everywhere. If your console is connected to Wi-Fi, it will be able to pick up signals from other users, and if the intensity is strong enough, you are the new recruit! If only from my home, I managed to capture two characters in this way, while the game is far from being available in Europe at the time of writing these lines.
You have to understand that this whole story of recruitment is far from trivial since that's all Portable Ops which rests on it like a filigree! Between each mission, you will have to familiarize yourself with the disconcerting at first, then thrilling, management of your troop. It will often be necessary to send spies on reconnaissance, sometimes blindly, to retrieve information that is sometimes optional (presence of a special weapon in the Russian military base), sometimes essential to progress in the story. During this time, you will logically have placed a few white coats in the medical category and overalls in the research ones. These two groups will function automatically, teeming with activity to provide you with health kits, survival rations, or ammunition! Most of your supplies and equipment will therefore come from your own source. To do this, you have to give time to time, and run the three half-days available in the menu, between each mission. If all this may seem frustrating or eccentric, it is not in the end, since this principle is even quite flexible. If you don't have enough care kits for your liking for the next mission, you have every right to enter a place and abort the operation illico to have access again to a period of three half-days additional ones, so that your little ants lay new rescue objects for you, for example. The management of his troop, the pride of seeing it grow rich again and again, inspires Portable Ops a unique identity in the Metal Gear Solid universe. A universe that Kojima Productions has endeavored to preserve within the limits of the medium, with the absence of voices during the codec dialogues, but also by replacing the cut scenes with the dynamic and brutal pencil stroke of Ashley Wood (Metal Gear Solid : Digital Graphic Novel). Despite a real identity and a palpable goodwill on the part of the developers in developing this rich and captivating recruitment system, the game essentially loses a fundamental immersion, Snake no longer being the only character to play a role, even going until you have the opportunity to be captured in the middle of the game! It is in this sense that Portable Ops can hardly be considered fundamentally a Metal Gear Solid, as an entire game whose script and events are carved out with a jeweller's chisel. The production is as striking as the quality of the soundtrack, and if the raw lifespan amounts to 15 hours, that's without counting the infinite richness of the recruitment / management system, as well as the game modes, and online opportunities.
Giving real meaning to the word "wealth" Kojima Productions has also filled the UMD to the core, with tons of game modes, including the network one. Connecting with dozens of other players to go fragger from your game console is now classic on a home machine, but which still retains a surprising connotation on a portable console. Equipped with a Wi-Fi connection, your PSP takes you to meet other players from all over the world for trendy online matches MK22, QCQ, AK47 and other PSG-7. Note, however, the presence of lag during our test, which therefore turned out to be unsuccessful. Already that Metal Gear Solid is not the most precise game with a gun in hand, if in addition the lag is invited, it is a bit dead to hope for balanced games. It should be noted, however, that the fact of putting your own recruits and therefore your own team online provides additional interest in the online mode of Portable Ops compared to that of a classic shooter.
