Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is an upcoming game in the Metal Gear series to be released for the PSP in 2010. It will explain the story of Big Boss and lead up of events to the founding of Outer Heaven. The game was officially announced at Sony's E3 press conference on June 2, 2009. Hideo Kojima is writing, directing, and producing the game. The theme song for the game is titled "Heavens Divide".

The game will be set in 1974, ten years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, four years after Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, and just two years after the Les Enfants Terribles project. The setting is Costa Rica and depicts the rise of Outer Heaven.

Plot


The following is from the official Kojima Productions website:

"Stories tell of a legendary soldier who, with Metal Gear at his command, had once waged war against the world. His name was Naked Snake, a.k.a. Big Boss. Now, in response to a world hungry for answers, the truth behind this legend will finally be told. The era is the 1970's. Big Boss had stationed his 'Soldiers Without Borders' in Colombia, South America, where he was approached by a visitor from Costa Rica, 'a nation without a military'. In the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, as Latin America became a key to maintaining the power balance between East and West, Costa Rica had miraculously managed to maintain its peace and neutrality. However, in various regions of the country, a mysterious armed force seemed to be engaging in suspicious activities. Now, to preserve peace in this nation without a military, the 'Soldiers Without Borders' move into action. In time, they would come to be known as the founders of 'Outer Heaven'."

Characters
Until late September 2009, only Big Boss was confirmed as a character. On September 23, 2009 Konami opened their official Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker website, with a comprehensive list of characters and their Japanese voice actors. The English voice cast has yet to be announced.

Gameplay
An E3 2009 trailer for the game revealed that Big Boss can crouch and walk around, similar to gameplay in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The same trailer showed Big Boss walking through jungles and hanging onto the side of a suspension bridge to avoid detection.

In a July 2009 press release, Kojima stated that players will be able to customize Big Boss before going on a mission. Players can also choose to play the game stealthily or charge in with their guns blazing. If they choose to be stealthy, then their arsenal will be slimmed down in favor of quieter movement. The game will also include a "growth feature" that allows Big Boss to "evolve", similar to role-playing games and certain first-person shooters. There will also be multiple types of cardboard boxes.



In August 2009 Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu reported that Peace Walker will contain multiplayer co-operative gameplay, and a trailer shown at GamesCon 2009 showed the co-op gameplay in action. The game will allow two to four players to play together, helping each other to clear missions, such as one player using the other player as a step to reach a higher platform. Players will also be able to heal and revive their teammates and can make the other players follow the movements of one player. Famitsu also stated that some of the different cardboard boxes that can be found throughout the game, such as one shaped like a tank, can affect the player's status.

Closer inspection of the Gamescon 09 Trailer reveals more new gameplay mechanics and features. The inclusion of a type of shield, made of clear material, allowing the player to defend and shoot at the same time, a first for playable characters outside of Metal Gear Online. New CQC moves, including being able to throw an enemy a few feet. A circle now surrounds each player in co-op that grows when near a comrade. When these circles are connected, the players can trade items with each other, and the two players health bars will then join to make one large health bar. Other special actions such as having allies able to mark targets to avoid or engage. The ability to discard the box, which can be used as a scalable object without breaking. Each player also has special codenames to distinguish them, such as "Sneaking Snake" and "Battle Snake".

Development
Hideo Kojima officially announced the game at Sony's E3 2009 conference, after running various countdowns for the announcement on a Konami website, stating that the team that made Metal Gear Solid 4 will return to help develop Peace Walker. Kojima is writing, producing and directing the game, stating that the game is not a spin-off, nor is it a sidestory. Kojima refers to both Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid: Rising as Metal Gear Solid 5, while specifically calling Peace Walker "the MGS5 inside me."

A trailer for the game shown at E3 2009 also described it as the "missing link" in the Metal Gear series. The same trailer also revealed multiple Big Bosses, indicating multiplayer or co-op gameplay, which was confirmed by Famitsu in August 2009. Credits appear at the end of the trailer that show Kojima is writing, directing, and producing the game; Shuyo Murata is also a writer on the game; Yoji Shinkawa is the character designer; and Kenichiro Imaizumi is also producing the game.

Kojima originally planned on only creating the overall guidelines and concepts for Peace Walker and then leave the rest to the developers. He was also planning on only being a producer of the game and focus on games not in the Metal Gear series. However, he made the setting for the game in Costa Rica and created a story with themes about nuclear deterrence and the Cold War. When it looked like the story may be too confusing to a younger audience, he decided to become more involved in the development of the game.

In a July 2009 press release, Kojima stated that he had the plan for Peace Walker while he was working on Portable Ops. At that time, he intended to have the next generation of developers at Kojima Productions develop the game, though he eventually decided that it was still a little too early to leave the game completely in their hands. Kojima then decided to direct the game instead.

In an open letter to fans in August 2009, Kojima stated that Peace Walker will be a "full-featured" sequel that will "require hundreds of hours to complete." Koijma further stated that Peace Walker will include many features unique to the PSP and a new gameplay system. At the 2009 Tokyo Game Show in late September, a demo of the game will be shown which will also be available for download to anyone who brings a PSP to the event. The demo will have four missions which will vary based on difficulty and player count. For beginners, the demo offers a tutorial, which includes the story's introduction and a training session for single-player. Intermediate players can play two modes – "Neutralize the Stronghold" and "Infiltrate the Mountain Facility", which can be played by one or two players. Advanced players can play "Tank Battle" where one to four players can attempt to disarm enemy tanks and reinforcements. The demo can also be downloaded from IGN.

Also, he reveals a few new details about the game during the 2009 Tokyo Game Show. For one, he implies that one of the turbulent events in 1974, Richard Nixon's resignation from the Presidency, will factor into the main plotline. He also mentions that the main theme of the game will be about the philosophy of nuclear deterrence. He explains the philosophy in regards to how the Soviet Union and America have kept piling up on nuclear weapons during the Cold War, and how the combination of that as well as a standing army deters enemies from invading. He also mentions that there were theories about what would happen if people took away soldiers and nuclear weapons from the world, and mentioned that, while it was an excellent theory at the time, the world is paying the price in the present as "We've still got tons of nuclear weapons scattered over the world". He also implies that Liquid Snake may also make an appearance in Peace Walker.