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Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

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Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Developer(s)Kojima Productions
Publisher(s)Konami
Designer(s)Hideo Kojima (producer, director)[3]
Artist(s)Yoji Shinkawa
Writer(s)Hideo Kojima
Composer(s)See Music
SeriesMetal Gear
Platform(s)PlayStation Portable
Genre(s)Stealth, action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player,
multiplayer (cooperative)

Template:Nihongo title is a video game produced by Konami and Kojima Productions that was released for the PlayStation Portable in 2010.[4] Peace Walker is the fifth Metal Gear title for the PSP, although it is only the second to be considered part of the series' main canon. It is also the first game in the series for a portable platform to be directed by series' creator Hideo Kojima.[3] The story takes place after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, both prequels to the original Metal Gear, and features Naked Snake as the protagonist once again.[5] Peace Walker's original title was Metal Gear Solid 5: Peace Walker.[6] The development team that worked on Peace Walker is as large as the team that worked on Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.[7]

Gameplay

Some changes are made to the standard Metal Gear Solid formula. Movement is done on the analog stick; actions such as co-op actions use the directional-pad; melee actions, which include multiple throws into crowds of enemies, use the R button; and weapons use the L button with the R button. Players will be unable to move or shoot while lying down and while pinned on a wall. The player can set the control system according to that of Portable Ops[8], Guns of the Patriots, or Capcom's Monster Hunter.

The Comrade System from Portable Ops has been removed in favor of cooperative gameplay, with two players in main missions and up to four players in boss missions, called Co-Ops. Players can choose one of various different loadouts including one's camouflage.

  • Naked Snake - Moves fast and carries more items at the cost of stealth, defense.
  • Jungle Fatigues Snake - A balance of stealth, defense, weapons and inventory.
  • Stealth Suit Snake - Allows one to make no noise when running opposed to the usual racket.
  • Battle Dress Snake - Allows one to carry an additional firearm and take significantly less damage, but at the cost of less items, slow movement speed and low camouflage.

There are several actions that can take place when two Snakes are next to each other. 'Snake-in' allows players to hold on to each other as one player leads the way, also allowing the players to fire on the move. Other co-operative actions include holding up closing doors, performing CPR on fallen comrades, sharing items, and acting as a spotter for other players whose vision is obscured. There is an updated CQC system and a new prisoner evacuation system (using the Fulton Skyhook) along with the ability to move while crouched and the over-the-shoulder shooting view as seen in Metal Gear Solid 4. The cardboard box used to hide from enemy soldiers is now available in one- or two-man versions, each with their own purpose. The sonar system in Portable Ops can also be used only when it is equipped in item box and players will also use an early version of the Soliton radar system from Metal Gear Solid. The game will feature the camouflage index system from Snake Eater, but the player will not have the ability to change camouflage uniforms during a mission as it will be entirely based on movement and position.

Some of the game's cut-scenes will require control outputs from the player to advance the plot and can count towards the rating for completing a mission.

The crew management system from Portable Ops also returns through a feature called the Mother Base, an abandoned OTEC research platform in the Caribbean that serves as the MSF's headquarters. Aside from managing the combat, medical, intelligence, and technology research teams, the player will also have to assign personnel to the mess hall crew to feed the troops and keep up their morale. Rebellious or injured personnel can be brought to the brig and sickbay, respectively. As more personnel are recruited (up to 350 total), new modules will be built into the Mother Base, which can be viewed in the game's main menu. The player will also have a chance to capture military vehicles that appear in the game as minor boss opponents.

Outer Ops

Outer Ops is a new game mechanic, where players can deploy their soldiers (with the exception of Snake) on certain missions against computer opponents. Each assault force codenamed from Alpha to Hotel has eight slots for assigning units, which can gain additional hit points, Psyche points, and income. Depending on the type of firepower used by the enemy, MSF soldiers who are defeated during the battle can either die or be brought to sickbay for treatment. Damaged vehicles will be taken off the front for repairs.

Extra Ops

Extra Ops are a series of stand-alone challenges which will be unlocked as the game progresses depending on the player's mission rating. The challenges vary from shooting exercises to full-blown battles featuring custom versions of the game's mechanoid bosses.

Story

A mysterious military force equipped with the latest weapons, called the Peace Sentinels, has established a presence in Costa Rica in late 1974. The Costa Rican government cannot do anything about them because the country's constitution does not allow the creation of an armed forces. The nation has secretly tapped Naked Snake and his Militaires Sans Frontières (Soldiers without Borders; Outer Heaven's predecessor) mercenary group to turn back the threat, which could endanger the balance of power between the East and West.[9]

Characters

Japanese voice actor for each character are listed first, followed by their English voice actor.[10]

  • Naked Snake / Big Boss (Akio Ōtsuka/David Hayter) - Former member of the CIA special forces unit FOX and the founder of FOXHOUND. An expert in combat and stealth infiltration, Snake has spent some time in Colombia leading a mercenary group known as the Militaires Sans Frontières (MSF). He is also struggling with the guilt of killing his mentor, The Boss.
  • Kazuhira Miller (Tomokazu Sugita/Robin Atkin Downes) - Miller is involved in the management of the MSF. The child of an American officer and a Japanese woman, he was born during the US military's occupation of Japan and was given the name Kazuhira (和平, an inversion of the word heiwa, Japanese for "peace"). He serves in the Japan Self-Defense Force after graduating from college in the US, but is eventually discharged and works as a mercenary. His travels eventually lead him to meet Snake in Colombia.
  • Paz Ortega Andrade (Nana Mizuki/Tara Strong) - A sixteen-year-old Costa Rican girl who is an advocate of peace, per her Spanish first name. She is studying her country's Peace Constitution under Gálvez at the University for Peace. They hire the MSF to eliminate the Peace Sentinels and restore peace to the nation.
  • Ramón Gálvez Mena/Zadornov (Hōchū Ōtsuka/Steve Blum) - Paz's former instructor. A professor of peace studies, Gálvez currently teaches at Costa Rica's University for Peace. He accepts Paz's request to seek help from the "Soldiers Without Borders," with clandestine support from the Costa Rican government. However, Gálvez may have some motives of his own.
  • Amanda Valenciano Libre (Romi Park/Grey Delisle) - The daughter of the commandante of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) and a guerrilla fighter who aims to spark a revolution in Nicaragua. She fled to Costa Rica to escape persecution, but her father was killed by a mysterious armed group leaving Amanda to lead the FSLN along with her kid brother, Chico.
  • Huey Emmerich (Hideyuki Tanaka/Christopher Randolph) - The wheelchair-bound creator of the Peace Walker, he is the future father of Hal Emmerich, a character from previous installments.[11][12]
  • Chico (Kikuko Inoue/Antony Del Rio) - Younger brother of Amanda, obsessed with UMAs and the legend of the Isla de Monstruo. Wants to prove his worth as a fighter despite his sister's concerns for his safety.
  • Dr Strangelove (Yumi Kikuchi/Vanessa Marshall) - an AI expert assigned to work in the Peace Walker Project. It is revealed that she has fully researched The Boss' entire career and attempted to recreate her personality in a massive AI core.
  • Hot Coldman (Mugihito/H. Richard Greene) - The head of the CIA's Central America station, Coldman is overseeing the Peace Walker Project. Behind his bald head, he has a tattoo of a wolf with the peace symbol with the Latin phrase homo homini lupus transcribed underneath.
  • Cécile Cosima Caminades (Yū Kobayashi/Catherine Taber) - A French ornithologist caught while trying to record quetzal sounds near an Incan ruin where the Peace Walker Project's AI laboratory is located. Her name in the Japanese version is pronounced Seshiiru Kojima Kaminandesu (セシール・コジマ・カミナンデス), a play on the phrase Kojima, kami nan desu (小島、神なんです, "Kojima, he's definitely a god").[13] She is also named after and visually based on Cécile Caminades, an employee from the Paris branch of Konami Digital Entertainment.[14]

Promotion

On March 27, 2010, Japanese beverage firm Suntory released a special line of eight cans in Japan that have images of various Peace Walker characters for the Mountain Dew and Pepsi Nex lines.[15][16] The drinks will also be promoted in the game as health items, with Snake possibly getting a Mountain Dew shirt after the player inputs a special code found in the actual cans. Japanese apparel brand Uniqlo is also running a similar promotion. The player can also use Sony Walkmans to listen to the game's background music [17] and Sony will also release a limited-edition W Series Walkman with a skin from the game. [18]

On April 1, 2010, Konami released a short promotional video with Patrice Desilets, the creative director of Assassins Creed 2. The clip, which was an April Fool's Day joke, features Snake performing Altair's Leap of Faith move into a large pile of hay (the Assassin's Straw Box) and stealthily knocking out enemies. The Easter egg is part of the game as a special Love Box that players can use to capture enemies, but it can also deteriorate the more it is used.[19] Konami and Ubisoft earlier produced an Assassins Creed-themed April Fool's Day joke for MGS in 2008, which featured Snake wearing an Altair costume.[17]

On April 7, 2010, Konami and Square Enix unveiled a new line of action figures based on the game. To be released under Square's Play Arts Kai series later in the year, the line will feature the Sneaking Suit and Jungle Fatigues Naked Snakes and four new vehicles operated by the Peace Sentinels- Chrysalis (the VTOL aircraft featured in the original E3 trailer), Pupa (a derivative of the Shagohod), Basilisk (the mech being carried by Chrysalis in the TGS09 trailer), and the Cocoon (a large mobile fortress with multiple turrets). In addition, mech parts from Front Mission Evolved can be used in the game.[20][21]

To build interest for the game's North American release, Konami, Best Buy, and Sony Online Entertainment launched a code-collecting contest on May 5, 2010. The "Code Hunt," which is exclusive to United States customers of PlayStation Home, will have contestants scouring locations for elusive Peace Walker codes, each of which gets them closer and closer to the grand prize.[22]

With the game's Japan release on April 29, Konami embarked on a world tour to promote the game. The Asian leg started simultaneously in Tokyo and Yokohama, followed by events in Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Seoul, Taipei and Hong Kong. The US leg had events in Los Angeles and New York, with the European legs to be held in Paris and London, to coincide with the EU release of the game. [23]

The game also features a special section devoted to Capcom's Monster Hunter franchise, where players will be brought to an island to face characters from the series and be rewarded with items unique to the series.[17]

Demo Ops

A nine-minute video was shown at Gamescom, which strongly emphasized its co-operative play (the term Co-Ops was used frequently, obviously mirroring Portable Ops, which utilized a solo sneaking motif for its story mode).[24] The game made its playable debut at Tokyo Game Show 2009, and IGN released a demo version to the public. The demo is in Japanese.[25]

On December 17, 2009, the official English demo of the game was released on the PlayStation Network, containing the levels from the 2009 Tokyo Game Show Japanese demo along with an all-new boss battle.[26][27] A survey was made available on Konami's website for the rest of the month after December 17.[28]

Versions and releases

Japan is scheduled to have two Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Bundle versions, one consists of the game with a camouflaged PSP-3000, leather pouch, leather wrist strap, cloth, dog tags, numbered collectable stands and a booklet for ¥36,980 or US$404 with 1,974 copies only being made when the game is released on March 18, 2010, from the Konami Style Store.[29][30][31] The other bundle offer includes the camouflaged PSP-3000, a pouch, a wrist strap, a camouflaged cleaning cloth and the Peace Walker UMD for ¥26,980 or US$295.[29]

For North and South America players, Sony will release a special Big Boss Pack that features a camouflaged PSP-3000 with the UMD game, a downloadable movie voucher for the PlayStation Network, a code to unlock special in-game content and a 2GB Memory Stick PRO Duo. It will be a GameStop exclusive.[32] This pack will be available on June 8, 2010 for US$199.[33][34][35] Among the exclusive items included, is a FOX Unit camouflage and a Stealth Gun.[32]

Music

The Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Original Soundtrack was released on Apr 14, 2010.[36] The soundtrack is primarily composed by Kojima Productions' Kazuma Jinnouchi and Nobuko Toda, while Akihiro Honda provides the orchestral theme and the theme songs, "Heaven's Divide" (performed in English by Donna Burke) and "Koi No Yokushi Ryoku (Love Deterrence)" (performed in Japanese by Nana Mizuki). GEM Impact's Norihiko Hibino, Yoshitaka Suzuki and Takahiro Izutani as well as Soundelux Design Music Group's Todd Haberman and Jeremy Soule also provide compositions to the soundtrack.[37]

Reception

Peace Walker has met with generally positive reviews with an aggregate of 88.06% on Gamerankings.[45] It was given a perfect score of 40/40 in the May 5, 2010 issue of Japanese magazine Weekly Famitsu[46]; making it the fourteenth game to achieve a perfect score, as well as the first title for the PSP. However, gaming blog Kotaku pointed out that there is potential conflict of interest for Famitsu in giving the review because the magazine appears in the game and former Famitsu Editor-in-Chief Hirokazu Hamamura appears in print ads and on a Konami website actively promoting the game.[47] PSM3 awarded the game 91%, commenting on the game's ability to "take the best bits from every Metal Gear Solid game - the recruitment tricks... from Portable Ops, the camouflage and multi-player from MGS3: Snake Eater, the stripped-down controls from Metal Gear Solid 4 and the bonus missions... from VR Missions".[48] IGN gave the game a score of 9.5/10, stating that it "is probably the biggest game in the Metal Gear series, and it's only on Sony's smallest system".[49] EuroGamer awarded the game a score of 8/10. G4 gave the game 5/5. Gamespot gave it 9 out of 10.

Awards

Peace Walker received the Best of Show and Best PSP Game awards during the 2009 Tokyo Game Show.

References

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  2. ^ a b [2][dead link]
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  4. ^ "Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Announced". Edge. June 2, 2009. Retrieved June 2, 2009.
  5. ^ "Metal Gear Saga page from the official Metal Gear Portal" (in Japanese).
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  10. ^ "The KP Report Session 102".
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  12. ^ "『メタルギア ソリッド ピースウォーカー』2010年3月18日開戦 - ファミ通.com" (in Japanese). 車椅子に乗った科学者風の男性。胸にストレンジラブと色違いの認識票をつけていることから、同じ組織の所属だと思われる。時代的にはオタコンの父親あたりの世代だが……。
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  48. ^ "Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker review - 91% in PSM3".
  49. ^ var authorId = "78864510". "Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Review - PlayStation Portable Review at IGN". Psp.ign.com. Retrieved 2010-06-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)