Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker and Ground Zeroes

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Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker is the PSP game that released after Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metal Gear Solid 4.  From what I can tell it was the most recent game in the franchise until last month's release of Metal Gear Solid 5.  I think chronologically the story takes place between MGS 3 and MGS 1.

I was out about $5 after the other day's failed attempt at Metal Gear Solid 3, and Peace Walker was only $4.  So, if these didn't work out I wasn't going to feel too bad.  I just wanted to sample what the series had done over the most recent entries.

I found Peace Walker to be a mixed bag, but not in the way I expected.  It had a clear tutorial and taught the gameplay very well.  I also liked the characters, setting, and mood right from the outset.  It had some cutscenes but they weren't overbearing in the way that MGS 3 was.

I generally liked where they were going with the series.  The only downfall were the controls.  But this time I could tell they were trying to go with a modern control scheme.  The problem was they were limited to the single analog stick of the PSP.  Even playing a PSP game on Vita there's only so much I could do to alleviate the controls.

But it was a good sign.  If I had a horrible experience with Peace Walker I would have given up.  Instead, I was interested to see what they had done next.


Which is why I installed Ground Zeroes on my PS4.  It's the prequel to Metal Gear Solid 5 and I had already gotten it for free on PSN.

It was awesome.  It had stealth gameplay, with modern controls, modern storytelling techniques, and a Metal Gear Solid vibe.  Ground Zeroes is the first Metal Gear Solid game that I've latched onto this strongly since I played the original Metal Gear Solid on the original Playstation all those years ago.

I spent the night exploring the facility in Ground Zeroes and having a blast.  It's doing so many cool things.  Using binoculars to tag enemies and equipment is surprisingly fun.  Being stealthy and exploring felt great.  When I triggered an alarm or got spotted the gunplay was a ton of fun too.  And I wasn't fighting the controls at all.

Ground Zeroes got me back into Metal Gear for the first time in years.

 So I bought Metal Gear Solid 5.

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