The WereCleaner

While the art style of a game can be enough to pique my curiosity, it can help for it to have a premise and gameplay that can really grab my interest enough to play it. The WereCleaner is a game that filled all three for me, which I found for free while looking through my Steam Recommended. This would also not be the first time I had downloaded a game made by student developers, as I found out later that this game had been published through the USC Games program. Upon playing the game, it not only met my expectations for a fun time, I was also surprised by the amount of replay value for such a small game.

Hitman 3: Ambrose Island (DLC)

Note: The following review contains spoilers for the Hitman World of Assassination Trilogy.

After about eighteen months of single-player content focused largely on Elusive Targets, Contracts and weapon variations, IO Interactive finally added a new level, Ambrose Island, to Hitman 3 in a free update. As someone who enjoyed the base Hitman 3, the announcement of Ambrose Island intrigued me, partly because it acted as a sign that IOI had finally decided to add more meaningful content to increase player retention instead of timed missions. Although Ambrose Island doesn’t actually last that long, it’s still a great step in the right direction for any future Hitman 3 content.

Second Look - Assassin's Creed

Note: This review contains spoilers for Assassin’s Creed.

When I last played the original Assassin’s Creed in 2011, I didn’t think as much of it in comparison to other entries in the series and even wrote a review that, regrettably, didn't go into nearly enough detail. While playing the Sands of Time Trilogy on the PS2, however, I was intrigued by this game’s connection to Prince of Persia. After development of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time finished, director Patrice Désilets started work on another entry for seventh-generation hardware. As more information about those systems came to light, he considered an assassin character in an open world setting and called it Prince of Persia: Assassin. During development, however, the story and gameplay took on its own identity, which resulted in 2007’s Assassin’s Creed. With this knowledge, I replayed the game and found it not only better than I remembered, but a real breath of fresh air after the overly bloated direction of modern Assassin’s Creed titles.

The Novelist

The Novelist is one of those independent games that I heard of when it first came out, in this case in 2013, and thought it sounded interesting, but never got around to playing it. When I obtained a massive itch.io bundle, however, I noticed that it included this game and eventually made the time to finally play it, since I could relate to the struggle of trying to write a novel. While I’m not sure that the experience completely resonated with me on a deep level, I’m glad I finally gave it a chance.

Hitman: Absolution (PS3)

As much as I’ve come to like the Hitman games, my journey didn’t start with any of the more celebrated entries like Silent Assassin, Blood Money or Hitman (2016), but rather the black sheep of the franchise, Hitman: Absolution. Not only was this the first Hitman game I played, it also has the honor as the series’ first installment released exclusively for seventh-gen consoles and the first entry published by Square Enix after they acquired Eidos Interactive. Making my way through the older Hitman titles naturally brought me back to where I had started, which evoked a sense of nostalgia during my most recent playthrough, which, through total happenstance, occurred exactly five years to the day from my first playthrough. That said, revisiting it in the context of everything else got me to reevaluate my opinion and how it stands as a game in a vacuum versus how it stands as a Hitman game.

Hitman: Blood Money (Xbox)

Among the original Hitman games, Hitman: Blood Money is usually considered the best one by both critics and players due to how much it advanced the series’ gameplay. Blood Money’s gameplay remained so iconic, in fact, that the World of Assassination Trilogy took what that game did and refined it even further until Hitman 3 arguably topped it. Although the game was available on the Xbox 360 at launch, I ended up playing it directly after Contracts through the lesser-known Xbox version, which still gave me a good idea of why Blood Money had developed such a reputation. In fact, considering the lengthy development period, which included releasing Contracts to buy more time, I actually agree with it, even if it feels just a little clunky.

Hitman: Contracts (Xbox)

After the release of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, IO Interactive started work on what would become Hitman: Blood Money. During development, however, they realized they wouldn’t be able to get that game out in time to please their investors. With less than a year left to deliver a game, and with the knowledge that only about 10% of Silent Assassin players had actually played the PC-exclusive Codename 47, a small skeleton crew began work on a “Hitman 2.5” that would both buy IOI two more years to develop Blood Money and allow console players an opportunity to experience some of the Codename 47 levels alongside some original content. The result was Hitman: Contracts, which launched in 2004 to general acclaim, though criticized for its similarities to Silent Assassin. Considering the troubled development, which included a nine-month crunch period and all-nighters in freezing cold, Contracts actually turned out pretty well, though its status as essentially a filler arc is nevertheless evident in the final design.

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (Xbox)

Following Codename 47, IO Interactive started development on Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, released in 2002. As the first game in the series with a console release, however, this would also serve as a jumping-on point for a majority of players at the time, since the game ended up as the highest-selling title in the series to this day. Playing through this game on the original Xbox was interesting, since it still provided a memorable experience even without the polish of the World of Assassination games. That said, however, it shows its age, since some of the then-new mechanics feel unrefined by modern standards.

Hitman: Codename 47

After the World of Assassination Trilogy, I had more of an interest in playing the older Hitman titles to see how well they held up and make more sense of references to those titles. I started with the original 2000 PC game, Hitman: Codename 47, which I picked up during a Steam sale where it from $8 to only $1.50. Unfortunately, when I actually played it, I realized just how poorly this game has aged, even with one major bright spot.

Hitman 3 (PS4)

Note: The following review contains spoilers for Hitman 2 (2018).

In January of 2021, IO Interactive independently released the final game in the World of Assassination Trilogy, Hitman 3, bringing the long-running story arc to a close. This results in a more story-driven game that actually enhances the experience more than it detracts from it, as it never once forgets that it’s a video game. Though Hitman 3 is certainly the best way to experience the Trilogy as a whole, it doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s basically an updated version of Hitman 2 (2018), not that that's a bad thing.

Hitman 2 (2018)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Hitman (2016).

After the release of Hitman (2016), IO Interactive split from Square Enix, their previous publisher, and got to keep the rights to the Hitman franchise in an unprecedented move. This led to their partnership with Warner Bros., which resulted in the release of Hitman Steelbook Edition and continued development of the World of Assassination Trilogy, including Hitman 2 (2018). Unlike its predecessor, Hitman 2 (2018) did away with the episodic structure and got a full retail release from the start. While Hitman 2 (2018) does feel very much like an updated version of Hitman (2016), it introduces enough changes to the formula that it feels like a better overall experience.

Hitman (2016)

Though the Hitman franchise has existed since 2000, I didn’t actually play any of the games until 2012’s Hitman: Absolution, which, while flawed, got me interested in playing the World of Assassination Trilogy, starting with Hitman in 2016. Due to the game’s episodic release, however, I waited until the Steelbook Edition, which collected all six episodes onto one disc, before I actually played it. However, I never reviewed any of the Hitman games, so with the release of Hitman 3, I’m going to rectify that starting with Hitman, a highly enjoyable, if flawed, start to the World of Assassination Trilogy.

Untitled Goose Game (PS4)

Since its announcement, Untitled Goose Game became somewhat of an internet meme, largely due to its unusual title and visual style, as well as its premise of annoying a village as a goose. I had seen gameplay of it, but got interested in playing it myself and eventually got a physical PS4 copy from iam8bit that came with a couple bonus items. Although it lives up to the hype, its rather short length for the price left me a little torn.

Sneak King

Of the three Burger King advergames, Sneak King is perhaps the best-known and the most infamous. It’s the only game to not feature any vehicle-based elements and has only one playable character, the King. However, its stealth gameplay is what draws more attention to it, as it does nothing to help the inherent creepiness of the mascot. When I previously played this game, I didn’t manage to get very far due to what I perceive in hindsight to be a lack of skill, so I decided to give it more of a chance after revisiting Big Bumpin’ and Pocketbike Racer. While Sneak King still doesn’t rank very high on the video game totem pole, I found the gameplay to be surprisingly decent for what it was.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - A Hideo Kojima Game

I played the PS3 Day One Edition.

Note: The following review contains spoilers related to Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes.

For one reason or another, I never really got around to reviewing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain when it first came out. Looking back, however, it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t considering the controversy surrounding the dissolving relationship between Konami and Hideo Kojima at the time, which led to less than friendly discussion about the game and its shortcomings, both real and imagined, as a result of the fallout. Since it’s been over a year since the game released, and to celebrate the sixth anniversary of this blog, I figured it was now about time to share my thoughts on this game. I will say now, however, that this review is based mostly on memory and retrospection, since it took me nearly a month to beat it before and I won’t have that same pocket of time to play it for that long again. In addition, I will not be talking about the Kojima/Konami fallout apart from this paragraph, nor will I talk about what may or may not have been cut from the game. I will discuss it for what it is, not what it isn’t.

In the year 1984, nine years after the events of fall of Mother Base at the end of Ground Zeroes, Snake wakes up from a coma and, with the aid of the mysterious Ishmael, escapes a hospital as it is overrun by soldiers looking to capture him. After his successful escape from the hospital, and an ambulance he rode off in that got overturned, he receives aid from Revolver Ocelot in getting to safety. Ocelot helps Snake recover enough to rescue Kazuhira Miller, who has forced new armed force named Diamond Dogs. Together, the three of them work to both rebuild Mother Base and take revenge on the mysterious organization known as Cipher by defeating their leader, Skull Face.

The Prologue also introduces the mysterious Man on Fire.

The rest of the story which follows is actually very compelling and impactful, as it tackles the main themes of Race and Revenge (as explained by Kojima) rather well, though ultimately it feels somewhat unfulfilling thanks to some lingering loose ends. After the prologue chapter, Awakening, a good bulk of the story is contained within the first chapter, Revenge, and the second chapter, Race, has a fairly uneven pace. The length of time it takes to complete Revenge makes it feel like a whole game on its own, and while Race does answer some lingering questions, it is much shorter and requires some interesting conditions to unlock the ending, where you replay the Prologue mission, but with some additional scenes and dialogue added to fill in some of the story gaps and reach a rather controversial twist ending.

In the interest of avoiding spoilers, since it’s the kind of game that’s difficult to talk about otherwise, I will end up having to forgo specifying which questions remain unanswered, but I will address the twist ending, or at least my own reaction to it. Initially, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it and I can understand why some people would be put off by it, especially since it can feel reminiscent of another game in the franchise. However, now that I have had time to reflect on it, it actually makes a lot of sense to the overall story of the franchise, since I’ve come to realize that the entire game basically exists solely to fill in a plot hole from all the way back in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.

During the story, the characters all go through some interesting development, in that players get to see them reveal some of the darker aspects of their personality and how they react to what’s been thrown at them in the past. Kazuhira Miller in particular is much more revenge-driven to where Ocelot acts as a foil for his actions and would much rather be diplomatic about their decisions, though Ocelot does have a sadistic side. Snake, as well, displays a more pacifist approach in his treatment of the Diamond Dogs members, but is also capable of displaying a darker part of himself. These personalities and how they conflict with each other and other characters they encounter help drive the story forward toward their final encounter with Skull Face and with the ultimate decision regarding their conflicting levels of trust with Huey Emmerich.

Skull Face, as a villain, has a plan that’s over-the-top enough for Metal Gear, even revealing the development of the deadly Metal Gear Sahelanthropus, but he’s not as intriguing as previous villains in the series overall. He’ll certainly be talked about within Metal Gear discussions, but despite his importance to some of the later events in the series, he does not capture the imagination in the same way as Big Boss, Liquid Snake, Revolver Ocelot, the Cobra Unit, The Patriots (mainly their involvement in MGS2) or the Winds of Destruction.

Skull Face as he appears in The Phantom Pain.

Two other major characters introduced are Code Talker, an elderly Diné (Navajo) scientist, and Quiet, a scantily-clad mute sniper. Code Talker is important to the story and is an effective character when he is necessary, but in retrospect I only remember him for his optional cassette tape recordings, in which he discusses his past as well as the faults he sees in the ethics and politics of America. I also remember the cassette tapes where despite being critical of America, he unironically, and hypocritically, wants to eat a hamburger. As for Quiet, she came off as the most interesting of the new characters, as she is written in a way that comes off as mysterious, but not in a way that the mystery is tiring. The more the game reveals aspects of her past, the more intriguing she becomes, including the reason why she wears what she does in the first place.

One highlight of the game is the voice acting. Even though Venom Snake doesn’t say very much in the game compared to previous Snakes, Kiefer Sutherland gave an amazing performance by not only conveying the proper emotion in his voice, but also his rather subtle facial expressions. As a result, I couldn’t really imagine anyone else doing Venom Snake, as I had gotten used to Kiefer Sutherland’s fitting delivery. Troy Baker is also good in his role as Revolver Ocelot, serving as a good voice for the character at that chronological point in time and displaying a good range as Ocelot displays a number of emotions. Rounding off the main trio, Robin Atkin Downes provides a memorable performance for Kazuhira Miller. Although he’s prone to hamming up the anger every once in a while, he also shows a good capacity for humor during a particular set of cassette tapes where he interacts with Code Talker in relation to hamburger recipes. As for Skull Face, despite the shortcomings of the character, James Horan delivers a spectacular vocal performance that helps him stand out when he is relevant.

Kiefer Sutherland delivers in the role of Venom Snake.

Now that I’ve mentioned it a couple times, this is probably a good time to mention that The Phantom Pain has a large volume of cassette tapes to collect, be they automatically gathered from story progression or manually gathered out in the field. While it can be fun to collect some of the tapes, particularly ones which increase the selection of music you can listen to, a good majority of them are relevant to the story in some form or another. In retrospect, I have some mixed feelings about this. On one hand, this reduces the amount of time spent the player has to spend viewing cutscenes at various points across the story, an aspect of the franchise which garnered mixed feelings over time and came to a head with MGS4’s nine hours of cutscenes. On the other hand, this means that most of the development, both major and minor, for the story and characters is instead placed within the cassette tapes, meaning that players may have to sit through up to six hours of optional tapes just to learn everything. This is somewhat mitigated by only a certain number being required for story progression, but it can be a damper on things depending on how attached you are to the traditionally lengthy cutscenes of the Metal Gear franchise.

While the execution of the story is uneven, the actual gameplay is simply phenomenal and easily the best in the entire Metal Gear series. For one thing, the shift to Open World gameplay was handled better than expected, with a map that easily dwarfs Ground Zeroes, as well as all of the other Metal Gear games put together. There are a lot of touches of realism which help to sell the open world, including the presence of a day-and-night cycle and dynamic weather, with both systems actually affecting various aspects of the gameplay. For example, nighttime operations will more involve the use of enemy searchlights and the occasional sandstorm can decrease visibility for both enemies and the player. Rain can also help disguise your footsteps and daytime makes it easier to spot enemies, but also for enemies to spot you. There’s a lot to take into consideration as players are encouraged to find the style and approach that works for them. In this sense, it is truly an open world with great freedom of choice.

Of course, there is a downside to the open world. There are two maps the player can explore, one based on Northern Kabul, Afghanistan and one based on the Angola-Zaire Border Region in Africa. The latter is more densely populated by foliage and has a lot of places to hide while the former is vast and more sparsely populated. When not doing any missions, it is possible to freely explore either of these two areas, but due to the placement of everything, it is possible to go for quite a while and not really find anything worthwhile unless you had an exact idea of where to find a particular resource or you wanted to get to side missions the hard way. The only other reason to explore outside of missions, then, is to see the incredible amount of detail put into the world.

Outside of exploration, there are two other ways to interact with the two regions: Main Ops and Side Ops. Main Ops are the ones which propel the story forward and Side Ops are optional, but can help get some extra GMP (Gross Military Product; the currency of the game) or rescue useful soldiers to boost Mother Base’s forces. The Side Ops can feel repetitive at times, but the gains are still mostly worth the effort in the long run. There are even a few Side Ops that are required to continue the story. The Main Ops are generally very good, although Chapter 2 has been, perhaps fairly, criticized for featuring duplicates of Main Ops from Chapter 1, but with different difficulty setting or modifiers placed on them, making these missions feel like filler meant to artificially lengthen the game. Fortunately, none of these duplicate missions are required to advance the story and can be skipped entirely.

However, there is a sort of unevenness to the overall difficulty. By this, I mean that there is a sort of baseline difficulty the game runs on which is fairly manageable, but then there are times when the game feels next to impossible. One standout moment in particular for me was the end of Mission 12, “Hellbound,” in which you have to outrun and sneak away from the new Metal Gear, Metal Gear Sahelanthropus, and escape on a helicopter. Sahelanthropus’ abilities made it feel unnecessarily difficult to escape detection and I was unable to finish the mission until I managed to find a perfect window of opportunity to board the chopper, and even then Sahelanthropus was less than a second away from blowing everything. The inevitable fight against Sahelanthropus was also difficult, but somehow felt more satisfying to outsmart it and achieve victory.

Metal Gear Sahelanthropus

That said, this game still has an unprecedented amount of freedom for a stealth game. During missions, players are capable of approaching the situation with either non-lethal stealth or lethal run-and-gun options based on the loadout they choose to go into the field with. Both approaches alter the skills required from the player and greatly change how they deal with enemy forces. The weapons and tools the player uses also change how they can disrupt enemy technology, one example being a radar; you can short circuit it with water, shoot it with guns or plant an explosive and remotely detonate it. While these choices are present for most of the game, there are times when you will be forced to go on the full offensive in order to survive, including the fight against Metal Gear Sahelanthropus.

As an example of this freedom, my personal loadout worked with my playstyle, emphasizing non-lethal stealth. Just looking at weapons, I used a RENOV-ICKX TP tranquilizing sniper rifle (Grade 3) customized with a suppressor, a UN-ARC-NL non-lethal assault rifle (Grade 3), a Water Pistol (Grade 4) and the Stun Arm (Grade 4); I would also equip Venom Snake with the Sneaking Suit for the health recovery bonus. With this loadout, I could tranquilize enemies from long-range, fire non-lethal rounds at a rapid pace at close range and channel electricity or summon lightning to stun enemies at close range to conserve ammo. The Water Pistol is actually far more versatile than it sounds, especially since it has infinite ammo, as it can put out campfires, temporarily blind enemies with a shot to the face or short out sensitive equipment. This weapons loadout is just one way of approaching the game and you may find something else which works well for you.

Another factor which can alter your approach is the addition of enemies who adapt to your playstyle. What this means is that if you do a lot of headshots, then enemies will start wearing more helmets, or if you attack at night a lot, enemies will start wearing night vision goggles. These are just two examples, but the results really force the player to consider how they may need to change tactics or if they should start mixing up the time of day in which they go after enemies. You can disrupt these tactics by sending your own soldiers out on missions to destroy supplies, a measure which may only be temporary, but is nevertheless effective. Similarly, if you destroy certain equipment within the environment, the game will remember it and when you return to the same area later, the equipment will still be destroyed. After about 72 in-game hours the destruction will be reverted, but this is still something to keep in mind.

Yet another wrinkle is the introduction of the Buddy System. Before going on a mission, you can select from one of four buddies to take with you into the field: D-Horse, D-Dog (aka DD), Quiet or D-Walker. Each has their own strengths that they can carry onto the battlefield, so it depends largely on personal playstyle. D-Horse can traverse long distances, serve as a mobile hiding spot for Venom Snake, distract enemy vehicles or even poop onto the road to cause vehicles to slip up. DD can scout the area via scent to discover items of interest, including enemy and weapon placements, and can even stun or kill enemies depending on what he is equipped with. Quiet can take advantage of various vantage points to scout for enemies by placing a marker on those she sees or she can be ordered to lethally or non-lethally snipe targets from afar. Lastly, D-Walker is a small bipedal robot Venom Snake can pilot, its exact usage being entirely dependent on how the player customizes its equipment.

Venom Snake with DD in the helicopter.

From my experience, D-Horse is useful in the beginning, as he is your only option at first, but as soon as I acquired DD and Quiet as buddies, I quickly shifted my focus to figuring out which of those two would be best suited for a particular mission, sometimes switching between them during a mission should the situation call for it, though more often than not I would choose DD, equipped with the Sneaking Suit (Stun version), for his versatility (plus I actually grew an emotional attachment to him). When I did use Quiet, I would always equip her with the Guilty Butterfly to fit in with my playstyle. I did use D-Walker occasionally, but found it to be more situational due to my playstyle prioritizing non-lethal stealth. I’m sure other players will feel differently about which one is their favorite to use, but I figured I would share my own experience to demonstrate how subjective this feature is.

Two additional gameplay aspects which are fully implemented in this game are the return of the Fulton Recovery System and the inclusion of a Supply Drop system. The Fulton balloons are once again used to extract enemy combatants for recruitment into the Diamond Dogs, but can also extract various wildlife and can also now be upgraded to extract weapon placements, vehicles and large resource containers. Should the player go through the effort to obtain the Wormhole Fulton option, they can even use this system indoors. This improvement to the system makes it more worthwhile to use and is a big step up from its use in Peace Walker.

As for the Supply Drop system, it makes it possible to request certain items, weapons or ammunition to be dropped onto the battlefield for easier access. However, you can also select where the item box will drop, which means you can also use it to knock out anyone unfortunate enough to be standing within the landing zone. This system is rather effective and I found myself using it every so often to change up my tactics and make sure I had plenty of ammo in a tense situation.

It should also be mentioned that this game has a huge wealth of customization options. To name a few, you can customize Mother Base with different colors or a customized Diamond Dogs emblem, customize D-Walker to your liking, alter your Buddy’s equipment, change up the helicopter’s weapons and effectiveness or create customized guns with various abilities based on the parts used. It can be fun to play around with the options from time to time, since this is a feature which allows you to change up the game to your liking, at least to an extent.

Naturally, the sea-based Mother Base makes a return from Peace Walker, although this time located by the Seychelles Archipelago off the coast of Africa. One notable difference from the Peace Walker version of Mother Base is that players can now explore Mother Base on foot and see everything for themselves, as opposed to mainly viewing Mother Base from a menu. This iteration of Mother Base is much larger than one can imagine, although exploring each strut entirely on the ground can take quite a while, as it would take a few minutes to drive across the bridges to each strut. The length of time it takes to travel can be mitigated by taking a helicopter to another strut’s landing zone in less time, though it still takes a while, or by crouching in a cardboard box on a delivery zone to warp to another delivery zone you have already discovered (this form of fast travel also works in the open world Afghanistan and Africa regions).

The game's Fast Travel system.

Each strut of Mother Base covers a different specialization of the Diamond Dogs, with plenty of secrets to be discovered as a reward for exploration. These secrets include hidden diamonds and posters, both of which automatically raise GMP, secret interactions and various challenges to test your skills. There is even a zoo you can visit which houses all of the animals you Fulton out of the battlefield. You are occasionally required to revisit Mother Base every so often, although frequent visits do have their benefits, such as boosting overall morale by passing fellow Diamond Dogs staff. One benefit in particular is returning to shower every so often, which helps Venom Snake feel physically and mentally refreshed. This makes it so Snake can’t be as easily detected by how bad he smells from the stench of blood, since blood can’t be removed unless you shower, and helps his reaction time in Reflex Mode. Visiting Mother Base under special conditions will also allow the player to view special cutscenes, which is its own reward.

But Mother Base is not the only place Venom Snake can be. You may spend a majority of your time away from the battlefield within the Aerial Command Center (ACC), where Snake can take a break in between missions. It also serves as a quieter place where you can listen to cassette tapes and manipulate various aspects of the Diamond Dogs through the iDroid, as well as the only place where you can decide what Ops you will tackle next and how you will go about them. Having this in-between zone is actually very useful and helps to establish a gameplay rhythm for yourself.

Venom Snake in the Aerial Command Center.

One iDroid feature you will use a lot, apart from sorting staff members and sending the Combat Unit on missions, is dealing with the R&D Unit to develop and upgrade various tools. While it is worth it to get that next item, upgrade or Mother Base expansion, the one thing a long-term player will need is commitment, a quality which many players may not be prepared for at first. You need to make sure you have all the requirements fulfilled before you can go through with development, but this may require you to do some grinding in a sense for GMP and resources. You may also need to do some shuffling around with staff members to make sure you have a high enough Staff Level, as well as making sure you Fultoned specific soldiers with specific skills or occasionally upgrade Mother Base strut sizes to make sure you can have the right Staff Level in the first place. Eventually you will need to care about and focus on Fultoning soldiers whose ratings in different areas match or exceed a high threshold, which may require quite a time commitment. In other words, R&D is very useful and a requirement to survival, but prepare for a large time commitment if you want the very best equipment you can get.

What easily deserves praise, however, is the Fox Engine, developed by Kojima Productions. This engine is capable of so much environmental and organic detail that it looks and feels close to real life, even when playing on seventh generation hardware (I played on the PS3 version). There is a lot to praise the engine for, including how it handles weather and lighting, but it would also be enough to say that it is a technical marvel that’s hard to beat.

Apart from the original score, which I found to be good at setting the mood, there are also 16 licensed songs you can listen to in the game by finding their cassette tapes. Since the game takes place in 1984, these are naturally mostly 1980s songs you can listen to through the iDroid. However, you can also use the cassettes to set what music you will hear when the helicopter arrives to assist or transport you. I found this to be a fun feature, since I set it so the helicopter played “The Final Countdown” by Europe (a selection which I personally found pretty fitting during a firefight). While I had played the PS3 version, as I had mentioned previously, I am aware that the PC version allows you to set the helicopter music using any song you happen to have on your computer.

There are a couple other complaints I remember having with the game which I couldn’t fit anywhere else in here. One is the fact that after a certain mission, the game forces you to create a Forward Operating Base, even if you never wanted to. The only way to avoid doing so is to play offline by never accepting the online terms and conditions that pop up whenever you start up the game (playing offline also speeds up the game anyway). The other is that despite making a big deal out of it and even allowing you to advance its progress by checking in on it, the Battle Gear is unusable, becoming more of a tease of something you’ll never be able to use. As a result, it feels like your time is otherwise wasted.

The Battle Gear ultimately goes nowhere.

One final thing to consider about The Phantom Pain is the length. As it is a very large game, it will take quite a while to complete the main story, let alone reach 100% completion (for those who are into that). At the time of this writing, my current playtime is 100:47:10 (aka 100 hours, 47 minutes and 10 seconds) and my completion percentage is 52%. Needless to say, there’s a lot to see and do.

Looking back on Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, it definitely could have used a little more time to develop the story. It felt a little uneven and with a conclusion which leaves some plot threads open to speculation, although I have come to appreciate the twist ending a little more due to its role in filling in a plot hole from Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. The gameplay, however, is simply the best I’ve ever played in any stealth game and its large amount of depth creates a very immersive and engaging experience. The game may be flawed, but I had a lot of fun and found it very hard to put the controller down. In the end, I think that’s what matters the most.

Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection

If you’ve been keeping up with video games in any way, then chances are you’ve heard of the Metal Gear series, one which I have not stopped talking about for a while now. Just around the corner is the release of the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, which makes the series all the more relevant now. For the 25^th anniversary of the franchise in 2012, Konami released, in 2013, a collection of games from the series, appropriately titled Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection. For the Metal Gear veteran this may not seem that exciting, but for the newcomer it is the perfect jumping-on point.

Unlike most other modern game collections, The Legacy Collection has a huge offering of Metal Gear games and videos across two discs, all of which had direct involvement from Hideo Kojima. For those curious, they are:

Metal Gear (via Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD)

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (via Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD)

Metal Gear Solid (via download voucher)

Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions (via download voucher)

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (HD port of Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance)

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (HD port of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence)

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Trophy Edition)

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (HD port of a PSP title)

Metal Gear Solid: Bande Dessinée (non-interactive video)

Metal Gear Solid 2: Bande Dessinée (non-interactive video)

That’s a lot of content, especially considering how relatively cheap the whole package is. It’s worth noting again that the content was chosen specifically because Hideo Kojima worked on them, which explains the absence of Portable Ops (a now ambiguously canon PSP Metal Gear game I have yet to find or play). I’ll admit that the only game I haven’t played on this collection is VR Missions, but that’s because it has no canon relevance and is mainly a ton of training missions of different types. Having reviewed everything else though, I would say that the entire package is worth it, but I do have a couple of minor issues with the collection.

Maybe someday I'll get around to this.

The first, and perhaps most trivial, problem is the way the discs are numbered. Both discs are arranged such that one is on a hinge, which isn’t that big a deal. However, this disc, which contains everything but MGS4 and is seen first, is labeled Disc 2 while the disc behind it, which only contains MGS4, is labeled Disc 1. To me, it would actually be more appropriate for MGS4 to be labeled Disc 2 and the other labeled Disc 1, considering their positions in the case. The other thing would be that first it was pretty difficult for me to figure out how to access the Bande Dessinée content (also displayed as Digital Graphic Novel), since there’s no instruction anywhere on how to do so. I soon figured out that you have to go to the Video section of the PS3’s XMB, so I would recommend doing so if you’d like to see the videos.

It’s also worth mentioning a couple of things, mainly that, due to the content of the collection, the discs are basically rebranded and altered versions of two existing Metal Gear products, those being Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The extra content makes up for this, but I feel that whoever wants to buy this should know anyway. The other thing I wanted to bring up is that, apart from the games and videos, the collection also comes with an art book titled Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Book. It’s a very fascinating read, as it contains various pieces of art and advertisements you wouldn’t normally see outside of Japan; there’s even a couple of teaser posters for Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, both of which seem to set up what’s happening next for the franchise.

Before I end this review, I’d like to offer a couple pieces of advice. If this will be your first experience with Metal Gear, some information will not be readily available to you, so I’d like to share those things with you. When playing Metal Gear Solid, there will be a point where you need a certain Codec number, which is important to the plot, but you won’t have the physical game box, so I’d like to share the number for reference: 140.15. Also, if you decide to play the original Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, be sure to thoroughly read the digital manuals for both of them while Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is loaded. One piece of information that you’ll need for a couple sections in one of them is a Tap Code chart, which you should try to memorize as soon as you find it in the manual. I hope this helps.

The Codec number for MGS1 can also be found here for your convenience.

No matter what kind of fan you are, I would consider Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection a very worthwhile investment and, for newcomers, the perfect starting point. The amount of content for the price is simply astounding and impressive for a collection in general. For veterans who already own every game, the extras are worth an additional investment here and I honestly can’t find a single thing wrong with the overall package (save for the two aforementioned things that bug me a little). With this collection, there is now no excuse at all to not start playing one of gaming’s greatest franchises (and one of my personal favorites). While you’re at it, it might also be good to invest in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance to complete the experience.

Now, with all of that said, it’ll be interesting to see what both Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain have to add to the franchise. I think at this point I’m ready for whatever they can throw at me.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - Tactical Espionage Operations

Note: The following review is based on both the PSP and PS3 versions of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the latter of which was played via Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection.

In about a year’s time, I’ve gone from knowing nothing about the Metal Gear franchise to knowing nearly everything about its story and characters. Since I first played Metal Gear Solid for PS1, I’ve become completely drawn in by the world the games have set up and have now been eagerly anticipating new installments, one of them being the recent Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. My attention has now been drawn to Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, a game which I have been following coverage of since I became more aware of it. However, I realized that in order to understand its events, I’d have to play the previous chronological entry, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. To that end, I got the PSP version and began playing it, but then switched to the PS3 version partway and completed it there. I’ll explain how and why later, but the important thing is that I ended up liking Peace Walker, although I felt some of the gameplay tweaks and revamped mechanics needed a bit of getting used to.

In 1974, ten years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (MSG3), Naked Snake, now known as Big Boss, has created his own army, the Militaires San Frontières (MSF; translates to Soldiers Without Borders), composed of those who have abandoned all ties to their home country. On November 4, at Columbia’s Barranquilla Coast, MSF deputy commander Kazuhira Miller introduces Snake to two potential clients from Costa Rica, Paz Ortega Andrade and Ramón Gálvez Mena. Gálvez explains that since Costa Rica has no army, he was given authority by the Costa Rican government to hire MSF to protect them from an invading armed group. Kaz encourages Snake to send MSF as protection, but Snake is reluctant to do so. As persuasion, Gálvez takes out a SONY Walkman, which he gives to Snake, and plays a cassette tape containing a recent recording of The Boss’ voice. Surprised, Snake agrees to help out and is provided an offshore platform in the Caribbean as a base, which is dubbed Mother Base. Six days later, MSF leaps into action. During his mission, however, Snake learns information revealing that there’s a lot more going on than he initially thought.

Ramón Gálvez Mena as he appears before Snake.

Written by Hideo Kojima, the story of Peace Walker is pretty much a direct continuation of MGS3, since The Boss is an important element of the overall plot. She serves as the motivation for Big Boss’ actions and her past and ideals are frequently brought up and discussed. That said, the story is very well-written. Big Boss’ journey leads him to meeting new characters, all of whom are well-rounded, though we don’t always get a glimpse of their entire personality. Every single character is important to the plot and a couple, Huey Emmerich and Kazuhira Miller, are also important to the events of other games chronologically. The game’s theme of nuclear deterrence is also heavily discussed, with characters Huey Emmerich and Dr. Strangelove at the center of the issue via their creation of the eponymous Peace Walker AI weapon. I like how the search for Peace Walker is played with gradually increasing urgency across four lengthy chapters until it reaches a very emotional climax and ends in a way that caps off the major events of the story perfectly.

Peace Walker as it is first seen.

Of course, I feel I should mention at this point in time that while you do go through four chapters to get to the end, there is a fifth chapter that is only accessible after the credits have rolled. This chapter requires the player to go through certain motions or fulfill requirements to keep it going and it doesn’t take very much time to finish. That said, this chapter is also home to some very major plot twists, which I won’t spoil so that you find out for yourself. If chapter four is the emotional climax, then chapter five is more like an epilogue, which isn’t that bad considering the length. At the same time it hints at future adventures for Big Boss, which makes me all the more curious about the events of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes.

The gameplay in Peace Walker is different from the approach the other games have taken. Rather than simply play through one continuous story, the game is divided into chapters, further subdivided into individual Main Ops missions that take varying lengths of time to complete. As you play through each chapter, you are also encouraged by Kaz to knock out your enemies and use the Fulton Recovery System on them so they’ll end up in Mother Base and expand the MSF’s ranks. By replaying missions, you can not only capture more soldiers for Mother Base, but you can also repeat fights against vehicles to expand your arsenal or have a rematch against one of the AI weapons to obtain parts and AI boards for weapons of your own. Apart from the Main Ops, there are also Extra Ops where you complete different challenges, such as recovering POWs or obtaining classified documents, to gain rewards and further Mother Base’s potential. It gets easy to adapt to this mission setup, but there are a couple elements that will take longer to do so.

Mother Base after a good deal of expansion.

One of these elements is that not only do you have to make sure MSF has a good number of people in it, but you also have to manage Mother Base itself. You are responsible for putting different soldiers into different divisions, like R&D and Combat, with more divisions of Mother Base becoming available as you advance through the story. You can Auto Assign people to these different divisions, but eventually you’ll probably be forced to make some decisions manually and even end up firing those who contribute the least. Your R&D division also relies on GMP from Combat to determine what weapons and items they can develop, with some naturally taking longer than others (completing missions will move time forward). At first I found myself greatly understaffed, which caused me to have low division ranks (which also determine what R&D can do), but when I finished playing I was nearly at capacity, so I would suggest taking some time to figure out who you think really deserves to be at Mother Base to advance development and keep things running as smoothly as possible.

There's also a surprise special guest.

The other element that takes getting used to is the general control scheme. You can choose between three different layouts, with one being based on the earlier Portable Ops, one based on Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (MGS4) and another based on the Monster Hunter game series (which, if my research is accurate, inspired the Mother Base management element). I chose Shooter Type so it would feel more natural, down to adjusting the control scheme to mimic classic Metal Gear gameplay as closely as possible. This helped me get through the game better, but having played both the PSP and PS3 versions (I’ll explain how in a bit), I would suggest playing on PS3 due to the better camera and weapon/item selection controls. On that note, items and weapons can, on PS3, be accessed with L2 and R2, but requires you to still scroll left and right in real time on a menu that takes up a majority of the screen. I’m more used to the action pausing to let me switch, so I needed more time to adjust to this method. I also liked certain changes from MGS3, like not requiring the player to go through menu after menu to heal or change camouflage patterns, since you select one camo to use for the mission and “Ration = Health” is reintroduced, along with more cardboard box options and other healing items. The Psyche gauge makes an appearance from MGS4 in place of Stamina, which results overall in a pretty solid hybrid of MGS3 and MGS4 gameplay. I now wonder where future games will go with this idea.

Since I’ve mentioned Monster Hunter, I’d like to spend a little time on that. By completing certain requirements (listen to all of Chico’s briefing files about mythical creatures, then almost complete Extra Ops 029 but go to the ocean instead of the Fulton Recovery Point, then go to the end of the bridge and watch a cutscene), you can unlock missions where Snake fights different creatures from the Monster Hunter franchise. Having never played Monster Hunter, I still found this crossover idea interesting and actually felt my adrenaline going during combat. However, these missions can also be very difficult depending on your strategy, so I only got to beat the first one, Rathalos. These fights can also get majorly annoying, particularly when you mix persistent Velociprey creatures with relentless attacks from the boss creatures, especially Tigrex (who I died against every single time I challenged it). Still, this offers the game quite a bit of replay value and is a good treat for Monster Hunter fans.

Believe it or not, this is even more challenging than it looks.

Before I go into the technical aspects of the game, I’d like to point out one major continuity error. This has nothing to do with the number of minor retcons, like making it so it wasn’t Huey (Otacons’ dad) but rather his dad (Otacon’s grandfather) that was involved in the Manhattan project, as Metal Gear does it enough that you just have to roll with them for the story to still make sense. This is actually about something that one might overlook that goes through the entire game and some might say that I care too much to point out: Snake’s eye patch. In MGS3, the player gets to see the moment Naked Snake (not yet Big Boss) loses his right eye before gaining his iconic eye patch. This moment is so poignant and important to Naked Snake’s development that the game even alters the First-Person aiming so the player is only seeing out of his left eye, forcing one to try and adjust how they fire to make up for this. In Peace Walker however, no matter who Big Boss is fighting, regardless of it being a cutscene or manual aiming, he is always aiming out of his right eye, which means that he is somehow looking through the eye patch to fire off a weapon. After a while I stopped worrying about it, but I could never really let this little detail go because it goes against everything that should logically happen in a universe that is already very realistic (except for the giant robots and technological marvels of course). Hopefully this is just a one-time thing.

Seriously, how is he doing that? Is it nanomachines or something?

Since I mentioned it before, I’d like to explain how I was able to play both versions of the game for this review. When Metal Gear Solid HD Collection was in production, Kojima Productions developed a new technology that Hideo Kojima called “Transfarring” (a portmanteau of “transferring” and “sharing”). This technology allows someone to begin playing Peace Walker on the PS3 and then transfer their save to the PSP version so they can keep playing it on the go; this mindset also applies to the HD Collection in general since you can move your files to and from the Vita version. For veteran PlayStation users, you may recognize this as the Cross-Play technology introduced to PS3, PS4 and Vita, which is essentially a widespread adoption and integration of the Transfarring technology. In my case, I began on PSP before Transfarring to PS3 for the better control scheme. I may not have any Trophies for doing so, but at the very least I was able to more comfortably play and finish the game.

The Transfarring screen for Peace Walker.

Graphically, Peace Walker is actually pretty good. Of course, the character models on PSP look more akin to an average PS2 game, and the PS3 version, though in HD, is simultaneously better and kind of the same, but the backgrounds are amazing. I never got tired of looking at Costa Rica, with the amazing attention to detail on the flora and fauna of the area. I was reminded quite a bit of MGS3, especially in the background noises, but I can’t fault the game for trying to be as detailed as its brethren and, in some ways, succeeding. As usual, Yoji Shinkawa’s art style is really good in Peace Walker, as the new characters go in with the recurring cast perfectly; Paz in particular is actually pretty cute.

The high art quality actually carries over to the cutscenes, which were actually better than anticipated. Ashley Wood, from what I read, was heavily involved with the art for Portable Ops, but in Peace Walker he is actually credited as a guest artist; the art style used throughout is more akin to Yoji Shinkawa, who led a team of artists for the game. To me, this style suits the game better than Ashley Wood going solo, who I still say is best for horror comics, and I think the game is better off for it.

The general style of the cutscenes (Pictured: Paz).

Peace Walker also features very good voice acting. David Hayter returns as Naked Snake, although his voice sounds raspier than usual. Christopher Randolph also returns to voice Huey Emmerich, which makes sense given that Huey is Hal Emmerich’s father. While his performance is not completely unlike Otacon, there’s something a little different about it to set the two characters apart from each other. Tara Strong and Steve Blum, two of my favorite voice actors in general, also return to the series (having previously appeared in Portable Ops) to voice Paz and Ramón respectively. Both of them give strong performances that lend a lot of depth to their characters, which helps the vocal quality in general. Overall, everyone involved does such a good job and I hope this level of quality carries over to future games.

Lastly, the music is very good as well. There is a lot of range in the compositions with plenty of style changes throughout the course of the game. When there is a sense of urgency or triumph, the music perfectly reflects that, but the lack of music in certain situations is also good as it keeps you on your feet.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is an excellent addition to the Metal Gear franchise. The story directly continues from MGS3 in a brilliant way and nuclear deterrence is discussed in fascinating detail. The gameplay changes things up quite a bit and, while it takes some time to get used to it, it’s a very natural evolution and hybridization of MGS3 and MGS4’s gameplay styles. I would highly recommend existing fans to check it out, but I would also strongly suggest playing it on PS3 for the sake of a better control scheme. Newcomers to Metal Gear shouldn’t even try to start with this one, as they’ll likely become lost by the references to previously existing events. In that case, I’d suggest actually playing the rest of the games first, beginning with Metal Gear Solid and going forward by release order. Considering what’s on the horizon, this is an essential game in the franchise that there is really no excuse for fans to miss.

[Revised 3/27/16]