Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
I have actually played every Metal Gear game by order of release; MG, MG2, MGS, MGS2 and MGS3 and now MGS
O. Even if MGS
O is a sequel to MGS3, both MGS3 and MGS
O are prequels to the first Metal Gear on MSX. MGS3 begun the story of how the first snake got to be Big Boss (the villain of MG) but it didn't go far enough. MGS
O does a better job to tie the two together even if it leaves some questions unanswered. Still, MGS3 and MGS
O have made Big Boss into more of a hero than a villain. MGS
O do not only flesh out the story about Big Boss, it actually introduce a few more characters, explaining how they got to be who they are. Another prequel to answer the final questions might be neccessary. As far as I know, Big Boss doesn't appear in MGS4 which is going to be the game im playing next.
Im talking about the story here, but that's really the major reason I play these games. MGS
O might be the worst story since MG and MG2 but at least it made me cry once but that's still below average when it comes to the MGS series. In MGS
O the cutscenes are not rendered in 3d but have a comic style which is quite good but different. I kinda missed the radio chatter. Since it's text-only and not voice recorded I didn't bother pushing the call button over and over to see if the person im speaking to have something new to say (which is actually very entertaining in the other games).
Gamewise MGS
O is a bit different from earlier MG games. Instead of playing Snake on a mission you play Snake the army recruiter. Throughout the game you recruit people and you put them into work into an army of guys. You need engineers, doctors, spies and sneakers. The first two produce stuff for you and doctors allow you to heal faster while resting. Spies go on missions for you and collect information about areas. They will give you reports which act as bonus missions. Having a spy in an area may also make that area easier to sneak around in. Sneakers are the people you take on real missions, so you do not have to play as Snake himself, instead you can pick a person who look just as the people in that area which make it possible to go around without alerting the guards. All people you recruit have special skills just like a roleplaying game and they can recruit new people by kidnapping them during a mission. This mechanic is actually quite fun and make MGS into a base-building strategy game on top of the stealth game it normaly is.
There were two bonus missions that gave me loads of frustration due to insufficient game mechanics but I managed to beat them. Then there was one mission I couldn't finish but after reading on the web it seems no one have. It's discussed in several forums with no solution for it (releasing a prisoner at the Security Base). I also unlocked all bonus characters except for Gene (which requires some grinding, something I didn't have time for).
Anyway, the first game I finished on PSP and a game addictive enough to screw up my schedule for this week which I need to take care of now.