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Name: Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

After the last Metal Gear Solid games that made it to the PlayStation Portable (the AC!D series) you could be forgiven for approaching this one with caution, while they were good games in there own right, they weren't quite what was expected from the Metal Gear Solid name. This time, Konami have brought us a proper Metal Gear Solid game to the PSP, though not with the familiar hero you might expect. Naked Snake returns to the forefront of the latest adventure, well, I say latest adventure but with it being Naked Snake fans of the series will know that this means another trip to the past.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is set after the events outlined in Metal Gear Solid 3; so we're on a trip back to 1970 for this one. The FOX unit has gone rogue and distanced themselves from the CIA; Snake is being held in an abandoned missile silo in Columbia and is being tortured and interrogated by one of the members of FOX, Lieutenant Cunningham, about the missing half of the Philosopher's Legacy, a secret stash of cash hidden by the worlds super powers during the second world war. It's not long before Snake discovers that he's not alone in his incarceration, he meets Roy Campbell, the last remaining member of a Green Beret team sent into the base to investigate its purpose by the Americans.

Naked Snake and Roy Campbell eventually team up and escape from their captors, but their success is a mixed bag; Snake attempts to make contact with his commanding office, Major Zero, but before he gets the chance he's met with two former members of his team going by the names of Para-Medic and Sigint, who inform him that both Snake and his Major Zero are being charged with treason. They do however offer him a solution and tell him that if he captures the leader of a rebellion in Columbia he will be exonerated.

This is where the game begins properly; the action is pretty much what you'll be used to if you've played other titles in the series, taking the third person perspective with plenty of stealth required to achieve your objectives. The real change is that you're not alone in your missions; you've to collect people to help you out, sneaking up behind them or tranquilising them will allow you to take them to a specially designated area where they will be collected and recruited to help you out in the future. After the initial missions you're tasked with building a squad of four for each mission, with each member of your squad able to bring something unique with them. You may choose to select a team mate who'll be capable on the battlefield, a medic, an intelligence specialist or someone whose pretty resourceful in getting you some useful kit; the other advantage you'll get is because some of the members of your team used to be part of the base you're infiltrating then you'll be able to walk amongst the enemy.

Of course, each member of the team comes with both strengths and weaknesses, so you're going to have to be selective depending on what you need to accomplish. Only one member of the team can be physically played at once, when not in use they'll hide themselves in a cardboard box until called upon. Should they end up being killed in action then it'll be game over for them unless they happen to be a unique character, such as Snake. If you're character is one of those lucky ones they'll be sent off to the infirmary to patch themselves up for the remainder of the mission.

Another change from the main series is the way the radar works, in Portable Ops it's more sound based for both the character you're playing and the enemies; if either of you make a sound then the radar will display the level and direction that it came from. This works with two circles, the larger outer one is the enemies level of sound and the inner one is yours; should either become to large then you'll be alerted or indeed the enemies will become suspicious and start looking for you.

Portable Ops also includes multiplayer features which are very similar to Metal Gear Online in that you have Deathmatch and Capture the Flag modes, but more importantly what you do online has a real effect on your offline play as well. You can collect defeated soldiers from the online modes to use in single-player, but more importantly you can lose them as well which brings a real element of danger if you've got a team that you're particularly proud of. It also makes use of the Wi-Fi connection in other ways as well, should you happen to take your PSP somewhere with a public Wi-Fi connection and connect to it then it'll randomly create a new character for you to use. When using this method the character created will generally be stronger than one you can create or capture. It's truly a piece of innovation that Hideo Kojima and the Metal Gear Solid team have used to great effect.

The game's not perfect, however, it's close but it's not; one of the niggles is the control system, sometimes it seems like a work of sheer genius and at other times it seems as though it's the worst thing you've ever come across. Considering the lack of buttons the PSP has compared to a Dual Shock controller they've done well to translate a working system across; you'll find that most of your actions involve the Triangle button in conjunction with something else, this works well apart from when you're feeling under pressure and your brain is concentrating on other things.

Likewise, for some reason Konami haven't changed the X and O buttons round from the Japanese version (their controller layout maps these buttons to the opposite of the Western versions) so those two buttons don't work as you might expect which can take some getting used to, even when you just want to get past the stage select part. The graphics also leave something to be desired at times, some of the models and the maps look just as good as anything else you've seen on the PSP but are quite bad at some points, you'll swear you can count the polygons in some places.

Despite these minor flaws, Portable Ops is a true pleasure for the PSP; not only is it a fully fledged canonical addition to the Metal Gear time line and not some side adventure, it is a fully fledged and properly thought out game. Experienced Metal Gear Solid players might be a little worried about that statement, as most of us are well aware that with a fully fledged game comes a fully fledged story with cut scenes to match. Well, worry not, there are cut scenes, but nowhere near the capacity as you'd find on the bigger games.

The cut scenes advance the story with animated comic panels, not unlike the ones you might have seen in the PSP digital comic for Metal Gear Solid, thanks to them having the same artist, Ashley Wood. The comics are accompanied by the usual voice actors, David Haytor once again plays Snake (at this point there would probably be a global uproar if he didn't) and all the voice acting is up to the series usual high standards; it's odd to think that for all the effort that must go into creating the lengthy cut scenes that not only is the animated comic route just as effective, it's a method probably better received by the majority of western gamers. It's also good to see that Konami have remembered the 'Portable' part of the title as many of the missions are quick to complete once you've worked out what to do.

If you've been a fan of the series so far and own a PSP then this addition to the series is a must purchase, it really is if for no other reason than its strong multiplayer component and inclusion into the main story line. You know you're only to get confused at a later date when the events of Portable Ops are mentioned otherwise, which chances are they will be. For new comers to the series, Portable Ops might not be the best jumping on point, but you could do far worse.