The PlayStation Portable was a neat bit of kit. I got one early on its life, and while I probably never made the most of it, I have some damn good memories of various titles. The Metal Gear series, for example.
2005 saw the release of Metal Gear AC!D and its sequel, a turn-based collectable card game tactical RPG that I think is all kinds of fun and worth playing without a moment's hesitation. There was also a digitally animated adaptation of the Metal Gear Solid graphic novel by Kris Oprisko and Ashley Wood, which I am absolutely gutted that I no longer have (so far as I can see), though I do cherish the actual graphic novel itself.
That brings me neatly onto Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, the fourth Metal Gear on the PSP. Just think about that next time you wonder what happened to the PSP. It was loved, that's what happened. Metal Gear had been proven to work as a card game and a visual novel. The PSP was clearly a capable little machine. Could we squeeze a full Metal Gear Solid game onto it?
The answer is 'not quite', but while we didn't get a mini Metal Gear, we weren't left with a half-arsed product, either. Are you ready for some Metal Gear on the move?
Fond Memories
"I have some damn good memories of various titles", I've just written. And I do. Of AC!D, and its sequel. Of other games on the system. Of Portable Ops? Not so much. My notes for this 1001 list read "Can't remember if I ever owned it. ... I didn't like the idea. Is that why I didn't buy it, or what I thought after I did?"
Well, it's staring my in the face right now, and there's a 9 hour save file on my PSP that says I cleared Portable Ops once, 12 years ago. It's a complete blur. I have no memories of this game. I know there was a Portable Ops Plus. Was that a sequel or a rerelease?
Luckily, this save file serves as a New Game+ and dumps me at the start of the game, so, after playing around a little on the PSP itself, I brought the file over to PPSSPP and got ready to share this more or less complete unknown game with you.
I can only hope memories about it will return to the surface as time goes on.
Fun Times
What's this? Digital Graphic Novel is a different game entirely. Where are my cutscenes? Well, Portable Ops does Metal Gear a little differently, and so it's presented a little differently too, with lots of artwork from Ashley Wood.
I've heard him described as 'an artists' artist', in that artists appreciate his work, but audiences don't. I don't know how much of that is true, because I love this style, whether it's applied to Metal Gear, Tank Girl, or Zombies vs Robots. If he's on board to paint something, I'm on board to consume it, that's how much I like it.
The animation is very minimal, it's a comic book styled cutscene, but it is voiced, with Big Boss voiced by David Hayter himself, like he should be. This game is set six years after MGS3. Snake has abandoned FOX in the wake of events and has ended up in a prison in South America. We don't know why. Maybe he's not as legendary as he thinks he is these days.
Cunningham here is a member of FOX, but they've gone rogue (where have I heard this story before?) and are searching for the vast wealth contained in the Philosophers Legacy. A bit of torturing seems to be the only plan they have, but Snake isn't giving up what he doesn't know. I guess they're at a bit of a loss there.
And here we are, Portable Ops has begun, with Snake in a prison cell, looking much as he did in MGS3, almost as though the model was ripped straight from the PS2 title. As you can see, we're in a 3D environment. We're playing a mini Metal Gear, and we need to escape prison, which is easier than ever in this place.
The next room inexplicably contains a new, chronologically bendy sneaking suit that brings the 1970s into the alternate history future that the Metal Gear series is known for. Aromatic polyamide... yeah, we're in bonkers territory like usual.
A fellow prisoner fills us in on the situation. We're in South America, in an abandoned Russian missile site. In true Metal Gear fashion, actual history is twisted and abused to make new stories. The Russians were rumbled in the Cuban Missile Crisis, so they moved a little further south and set up in Columbia instead. It's not quite that simple, though - it never is, in a Metal Gear game.
Some Green Berets were sent in to investigate what was going on here - the FOX Unit going rogue and being in the area is probably important enough to investigate, and there's bound to be fancy (no doubt nuclear) weaponry at play, too. As for the success of that mission...
Oh look, it's Roy Campbell. Metal Gear must take the Star Wars approach to storytelling, where everyone you know and love is connected and inseparable, even across an entire galaxy. There's nobody else that could have been this prisoner. It had to be Roy Campbell. Why? Because he's in Metal Gear Solid, that's why.
He's still stuck in prison, though, and suffering from his injuries and infections. He tells us to get out of here, which sounds like a plan.
Frustrations
Now, here's the first opportunity to talk about the changes that have to take place to fit Metal Gear on a handheld. Remember those endless item and weapon menus you used the L2 and R2 buttons to open in previous games? No L2 or R2 buttons here, so the selection is on the circle button, and this is it. Four items and/or weapons. That's all you get. But don't worry: these are bite-sized missions that shouldn't require twenty different bits and bobs for you to get through. Four should be plenty...
The PSP also has reduced screen real-estate, so your radar is a little minimal, taking the form of a threat indicator and some kind of sonar. The louder you or nearby folks are, the spikier the various circles get. The colours indicate... something, I've yet to find out. Get used to it and you'll know where nearby guards are, and which way to turn to face them.
Speaking of turning, how do you go about that with just one analogue nub? Portable Ops comes with some movement and camera options, the default is movement on the nub, the camera on the D-pad, but this can be switched to the camera on the face buttons, for example, and you're probably going to want to play around and see what works for you.
Here, I insisted on keeping with the default, because if I know myself as well as I think I do, I probably didn't change the settings 12 years ago, so I won't change them now. Bear in mind then, that this means whenever I move and want to change the camera, I either have to stop moving, or reach over the entire PSP/controller with my right thumb to press the D-pad.
It's awkward, for sure, but a first-person view with a press of R1 at least gives you a chance of dealing with what you find. You'd have thought, given this screenshot, that I'd be able to shoot a tranq dart at this soldier with no problems, wouldn't you?
Yeah, no... A quick, panicked press of the square button, until I punched and kicked him senseless, was the outcome to this hold-up. Baby steps. It's been a long time since I've played this, remember.
Further Fun Times
They might be tricky to pull off, but Snake has just as impressive a skill set as he does in MGS3, and you're able to run or sneak with the press of the triangle button, drop into a crawl (even after a rolling dive) with the X button, and engage in CQC in an attempt to make friends with the guards. They really have tried to get as much Metal Gear in here as possible, but all with the notion of short levels and portable gaming in mind.
That's perhaps the most jarring part of this game. Even though the environments here are nothing like the jungle of MGS3, and are blander than the hallways of MGS, you don't expect glowing markers that indicate a level exit or objective marker in a Metal Gear game. But that's all you're hunting down in Portable Ops, and this marker will whisk us to the next area, where we'll be able to call for help.
It doesn't quite feel right to do so, but given these controls, it's perfectly viable a tactic for you to just beeline it to your objective, no matter how alerted the guards are. It seems that if it triggers a cutscene, you're all good, whether there are bodies on the floor and alarms in the air or not.
Getting to the communications tower, we're able to fire up the codec. Wait, what? Why do we need the power of a communications tower for that?
What are you doing here? Do you expect me to believe you were waiting on this frequency for six years in case I used it? Because that's what you've just told me. You didn't voice it - I guess there's not enough room on the UMD for voiced codec calls - but you did spell it out to me.
There's a little more backstory dumped on us here, but not much, and it's not terribly clear. Long story short, FOX is bad now, and some kind of rogue nation is trying to begin down south.
Did I just miss something? The codec call ended and I was informed that someone is working on a porn mag. What the hell is going on?
Portable Ops is going on, that's what, and Portable Ops does things differently. This game is story-based, as you'd imagine, but it's more freeform and, well, portable gaming-friendly. The map is split into areas, like a supply depot or a prison, and each area is a little map where missions will take place in, with more maps opening up as the story goes on. If you want to revisit an area, you can dive right in and revisit it. You might have to come back from time to time, or, with new mechanics, you might want to.
Our hands are still being held at this point, so we don't have much freedom to move around South America. We've been told to eavesdrop on some soldiers and pick up some intelligence about what's going on here. Basically, do what the Green Berets came here to do. Oh, that reminds me, we broke Campbell out of prison. It happened in a cutscene. Wasn't even an Ashley Wood spectacular. In-game text boxes and models staring at each other. Underwhelming, yes.
Thanks, lads. Now I know where the intel I need to pick up is to be found. Just need to navigate around this map without alerting any of you, grab it from under your noses and I'm outta here.
Further Frustrations
As expected, it didn't go well. I'm playing on Easy, which must be the only reason these guards take so damn long to shoot me. But they do shoot, so I do need to shoot them back, or knock them to the ground, or just run to the goal.
We're all a little Bambi-like when first getting to grips with a game, I know that, but Portable Ops is like riding a backwards bike. My brain just can't get on top of it. I want to run, why am I not running? Oh, I have to press triangle to not sneak, that's right. I can't see where I'm going. Ugh, I better just keep running and deal with the camera later, even though chances are high that I'll run into an enemy that I literally can't see.
It's not pretty, my playthrough of Portable Ops, but it's getting results. What's the next step, Roy?
Probably quite hard? But that's the gist of Portable Ops. Snake isn't alone in this game. In fact, he may end up swamped by others as, like the procurement of weapons in previous games, you're going to be procuring people in this.
That's right. Knock 'em out, drag 'em back to your truck and let 'em sit in prison for a little while until they come around to your cause, lending their individual skills to various teams that you can send out into the world. Some will accompany you in missions. Some will replace you in missions. Some are better left back at base to work on porn magazines and cardboard boxes.
If you like the base building aspect of Metal Gear Solid V, Portable Ops is the first iteration. Can it be done? Can it be fun? Yes?
We're told to find someone who would be sympathetic to our cause, so naturally, I pick a level, near-immediately get spotted by a guard, knock him out and drag him back to the van, because I definitely don't have the time, patience, or skill to find the perfect guard right now game...
To try and squash this scene into something that makes sense is impossible. So far as I understand it, the Russians failed to put missiles in Cuba, so relocated elsewhere, but then abandoned their own soldiers so that it looked like they went rogue, which just so happens to be taking place at the same time the rogue FOX Unit is in town, whose leader, Gene, wants to start a nation of his own full of soldiers and brotherhood and basically Outer Haven but not called Outer Haven.
He's a convincing guy, by all accounts, but this guard hears Snake utter a sentence and talk about killing The Boss and that's enough to convert our first recruit. Only this is a New Game+ run, and I've already recruited Gene himself into my army to counter Gene.
Not only Gene, but his FOX Unit, and my old FOX Unit, and Ocelot and Eva, and Sokolov, and even Teliko from Metal Gear AC!D... I don't know how I managed to get any of them into my party, but at some point, 12 years ago, I did. Maybe I cheated? I literally don't know. Actually, let's face it, I probably did cheat to get all these folks. Still, makes for a good example photo of what each character can do, right?
Here's Jonathan, our new recruit. He's not too great but comes with an AK-47 and the strength to get new recruits into the van quicker. Shall we put him through his paces on the next mission? Silly question, of course we will!
I don't know what the chameleon icon represents, but here's Johnny, a little further down the map than Snake himself is. I don't think both characters run around at the same time - and you can have up to four in a squad - but you can switch between them as the level calls for it. They hide in boxes when not being used, I gather.
But we're making use of Jonathan, and, like any completely sane, rational individual would do when playing as an enemy soldier in a level full of enemy soldiers, we waltz around the map like we own the place. We are in the ultimate disguise. We're not pretending to be a Russian soldier. We're actually a Russian soldier. What. Could. Go. Wrong. Question mark.
So Jon here isn't disguised in any way, but he can run into the objective marker and complete the level. I have to remember what's going on here. We're back at the communications tower because Snake needs to call Para-medic for some medical advice. Why? Because Campbell might have infected everyone with drug-resistant malaria. Thanks, Roy.
We're on the hunt for some drugs, then, and if you want to pick up any soldiers along the way, by all means, knock them out and drag them to the van. I don't want to do that, though. What I want to do is show you Portable Ops in motion.
If only there was a video of how I was holding the controller at the time, to get a true sense of the nonsense that was taking place.
There are no drugs here, but there are details of a shipment of supplies elsewhere, which is probably where the drugs ended up. To the next area!
Further Frustrations
What I've done here is skipped Gene's big introduction. And Ursulas, I guess. The thing about these cutscenes is that there just isn't a single screen you can pull from them that neatly sums up what's going on. Dialogue often branches over multiple subtitles because that's how Metal Gear is written. Even if it is succinct, it involves mentions of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks or soldiers with ESP, and how the hell do you get that across in a single image?
Gene and Ursula are psychic. Ursula can see events before they happen, and Gene can sweet-talk anyone into following him in his goals. They're not alone, of course. Cunningham seems to be the muscle, and there's an unnamed super soldier that we might be seeing very soon, as Gene suggests his next task should be to hunt us down. Yikes.
We just so happen to find ourselves at the facility where this super-soldier is being treated (daily erasing of his entire memory, you know the drill...), who just so happens to be watched over by Ursula's sister, Elisa.
Funny you say that, Snake. She is. And then some. It's a long story, but the more I think about it, the more I see that it's the same story.
Gene has been created in an attempt to make another soldier on the same level as The Boss and has the same nation-building plan as Big Boss. Ursula is basically Psycho Mantis, Cunningham someone like Vulcan Raven. Null here, our mysterious super-soldier, favours the blade over a firearm, you know, just like Cyborg Ninja.
All these characters, even parts of the plot, feel like they've been copy/pasted into a new game without a great deal of care. It's like they decided on these interesting mechanics, but desperately needed to fit them into the Metal Gear universe, but didn't have enough time to do something completely new, so had to borrow a fair bit.
Obviously, there is a new story here, but if I've forgotten literally all of it over the last decade, it can't have been a very good one, can it? It's got some tough competition with regards to the rest of the Metal Gear series, certainly, but even if we only look at the PSP releases, Portable Ops just forms a blur.
Just like that, we get the cure we need, and now malaria is nothing to worry about for the rest of the game. It never was a thing to worry about up to this point either, really. It was just a way to introduce characters I have scrubbed from my memory, like Elisa scrubs Nulls memory after the completion of his missions.
How ironic.
Johnny mentions that all the guards we've captured (i.e., him) are doing nothing useful here, and they want to be useful. Even if they're not in a squad going out with Snake, they can lend their skills in various ways, such as spying on a specific map so that you get a heads up of what you're going into.
That sounds handy, so Ocelot and Eva are sent to the supply depot and I'm bored.
Final Word
For some reason, that was the final straw for my play session, sending someone out to spy somewhere. I didn't want to faff around with menus and icons. I wasn't really enjoying bumbling my way through the maps. The plot was starting to drag on a bit and I wasn't really interested in seeing what it was about all over again.
Portable Ops just... fell apart? Broke down? Drifted away? I don't know how best to describe it. I just had enough. Not because the game was bad, not because it was difficult, not because I couldn't comprehend it. It just... Yeah. A useful conclusion. Let's try to make sense of it.
This game is ambitious on several fronts, but not so ambitious as to be a failed experiment, nor too much for players to handle. If you're at least somewhat familiar with Metal Gear, you'll be at least somewhat familiar with Portable Ops. If you're at least somewhat comfortable with a lack of buttons on the PSP, you'll be at least somewhat capable of playing Portable Ops.
There are some nice ideas here that will go on to be included and expanded in Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid V. In both cases, they'll be better than in Portable Ops, but you've got to start somewhere. Similarly, the gameplay that isn't new is done better on a full console. The PSP really does impose some control limits on 3D gameplay.
Make no mistake, it's an achievement that Portable Ops even exists on the PSP, but it is still a dog to control. You have options to change things up, and emulation will allow me to map the right stick to the D-pad, for example, which would likely improve my time with the game and then some, such is the power of having a second analogue stick.
But I don't think I'll bother, or I'm not in a rush to see if I'm right, at any rate. Portable Ops is just not substantial enough of a Metal Gear game for me. It's a little detour and one that, for me, isn't as fun as the other, wackier detours on the PSP in the form of AC!D.
Play it, definitely, but only stick with it if you really like it. I don't know how I managed to complete it back in the day. I must have been a bigger Metal Gear fan than I am now. Certainly had more patience to play the PSP than I have now. Poor thing. At least the battery hasn't ballooned yet.
Fun Facts
The game can generate soldiers from WiFi data, giving you a reason to go out and connect to all the dodgy WiFi networks you can find in the hopes of getting a super-soldier named after a weird animal to play around with. Happy hunting?
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, developed by Kojima Productions, first released in 2006.
Version played: PlayStation Portable, 2007, also via emulation and teenage memory.