Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

"What soldiers are looking for is outside your heaven!"

- Big Boss

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (commonly abbreviated to MPO) is a stealth game directed by Masahiro Yamamoto and produced by Noriaki Okamura and series creator Hideo Kojima. Portable Ops was developed by Kojima Productions and published by Konami in 2006 for the PSP. It is the third Metal Gear title for the PSP and the first one to retain the series' action-based gameplay. It is also the first canonical outing of the series for a portable platform, being a direct sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. This is also the first Metal Gear Solid game to utilize graphic-novel inspired cutscenes.

Set in 1970 in South America, six years after the events of Snake Eater, the game follows the exploits of Big Boss after his former unit, FOX, goes renegade. The game also chronicles the eventual founding of FOXHOUND, as well as the inspiration of the military state Outer Heaven.

Story
Six years after the events of "Operation Snake Eater", Naked Snake's former team, FOX, has broken their allegiance with the CIA and gone renegade. Snake himself is also targeted by the FOX Unit, which sent renegade FOX Unit soldiers to attack and capture him. The game begins with Snake being tortured and interrogated by one of the members of FOX, Lieutenant Cunningham, who's trying to locate the whereabouts of the missing half of the the Philosophers' Legacy, with the United States Government having already acquired the other half of the Legacy from the Soviet Union at the conclusion of Snake Eater. Snake is imprisoned in a cell next to Roy Campbell, the sole survivor of an American Green Beret team sent in to investigate the base. Snake learns through Roy that they're on the San Hieronymo Peninsula, the site of an abandoned Soviet missile silo in Colombia.

The two escape and Snake makes his way to a communications base, where he attempts to contact his old CO, Major Zero. Instead, he is greeted by his old FOX comrades Para-Medic and Sigint, who reveal that Snake and Zero are being accused of instigating the revolt and that the only way for Snake to clear their name is to find and apprehend the leader of the rebellion, Gene. To complicate matters, Gene has also convinced most of the Russian soldiers stationed on the base to join their side by simply taking over the chain of command of a former Red Army unit, that was secretly stationed inside the Colombian territory. In order to complete his mission, Snake must persuade enemy soldiers to join his ranks because of the scale of his mission.

Snake and his squad defeat the top members of the FOX unit (if defeated by reducing his stamina to zero instead of his HP, Snake's former comrade Python will join Snake's squad) and eventually they make their way into Gene's guesthouse. Snake learns many things on his way. Cunningham was working for the Pentagon and wanted Snake to push Gene into launching a nuke to Russia to prolong the Cold War (so the Pentagon could keep their importance over the CIA). Gene was actually aware of this plan the whole time from information from Ocelot and "the man with the same codename as Null". Gene himself wanted to launch a nuke at America to destroy the Philosophers and to make his nation of soldiers, "Army's Heaven". Snake destroys an experimental model of Metal Gear codenamed Metal Gear RAXA and eventually defeats Gene, destroying the real Metal Gear itself afterwords. After Gene is defeated he gives Big Boss the funds, equipment, personnel, and all other information regarding Army's Heaven, telling him that one day, he will need to use them.

On his return home, Snake is awarded for his actions and establishes FOXHOUND afterwords. In the end it is revealed Ocelot kills the DCI and takes the Philosophers documents to "end them". After the credits, Ocelot speaks with an unknown man on the phone. Ocelot speaks of using the Legacy to form another organization in place of the Philosophers. Ocelot actually wanted the trajectory data of the nuke to point to the DCI so he would bring the documents right to him. Ocelot requests Big Boss be able to 'join' them (he and the man on the phone) in their new endeavor - becoming the Patriots.

Development
In late December 2005, Hideo Kojima announced "a completely new Metal Gear Solid" for the PSP which would not be a new Metal Gear Acid or digital graphic novel. At E3 2006 in May, Konami announced the title of this game, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. Konami also stated that the game will be set after Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater but before Metal Gear, will feature online play, and will be released in late 2006. A trailer was also released for the game. Also at E3 it was revealed that the game will take place in 1970 and will feature Big Boss as the main character.

In late August, Konami released more details about the game. They stated that the game will feature an online mode and a single-player mode that continues the canon Metal Gear story, unlike the previous PSP Metal Gear games Metal Gear Acid and Metal Gear Acid 2. As players progress through the game, Big Boss can recruit players to assist him. Each character will have attributes that set them apart from others, such as one excelling in a variety of combat skills. The game will feature FOX and expand on Para-Medic, Sigint, and Major Zero, with the respective voice actors returning. Artist Ashley Wood will be illustrating the game's cutscenes. The gameplay is more akin to the Metal Gear Solid games than the Acid games. The game will also feature an orchestrated score.

In late November 2006, Ryan Payton stated that Kojima Productions developed the game with a brand new game engine based on the MGS3 engine. He also stated that the game will feature CQC and the ability to use enemies as shields and that the game will have a sequel if the game's response is good.

Although Kojima did not direct the game, he served as a producer and supervised development. Masahiro Yamamoto directed the game and Gakuto Mikumo wrote the game's script.

Theme
The theme of MPO is the link between soldier and commander and the relationship the two have as shown in numerous examples. For example Gene relies on fear and manipulation to create loyalty in his troops, Big Boss views this as wrong, and instead vows that he is nothing more than a dictator, and refuses to use these methods to control his own soldiers.

Recruiting allies
Snake can capture enemies and recruit them as allies to his side. During gameplay this is possible by knocking out your enemies and dragging them to Roy's truck, or dragging them beside a nearby ally and using the radio. It is also possible to use the PSP's Wi-Fi system to generate new soldiers. Allies can also be "Taken" during a Real online match (as opposed to VR, where they cannot be taken), or traded via Wi-Fi.

Multiplayer
There are two modes of online match. VR battles which allow you to keep all your soldiers at the end and Real battles. In Real mode you lose any soldiers that get killed and your opponent gets to keep them. To prevent losing your whole squad you can use the white flag to surrender and keep the rest of your squad.

Music
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops also comes with a complete score done by Norihiko Hibino, Takahiro Izutani, Yoshitaka Suzuki, Kazuma Hinnouchi, Nobuko Toda and Akihiro Honda while Kazuma Hinnouchi, Nobuko Toda and Akihiro Honda who composed the ending theme- "Calling To The Night" but was arranged by Norihiko Hibino. The Ending Theme's vocals are provided by Natasha Farrow, and lyrics by Nobuko Toda. Harry Gregson-Williams was unable to help compose the game's music due to schedule conflicts with Tony Scott's film Deja Vu and Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Portable Ops Plus
On July 17, 2007, Konami announced Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus, a stand-alone expansion of the original game, focused on online play. Among its new features, the expansion includes new characters, new missions, tutorials for beginners, as well as a new single-player mode called "Infinity Mission".

In Japan, Portable Ops Plus was released on September 20, 2007 in two formats: the expansion on its own and as a deluxe package that includes the original game and the expansion. The North American version was released on November 13, 2007 and the European version was released on March 28, 2008.

Re-release
In 2007, the 20th Anniversary collection included Portable Ops to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Metal Gear. No plans yet on a package that would include both Portable Ops and Portable Ops Plus.

Trivia

 * Interestingly, despite this game expanding on an event established in the timeline posted at the end of Metal Gear Solid 3, as well as referencing events from this game in Metal Gear Solid 4, the game was excluded from the timeline on Metal Gear Sagas Volume 2. This is probably because the Metal Gear Sagas Volume 2 had been released before Portable Ops was developed.
 * This is notably the only canonical installment that one of the playable Snake's doesn't smoke.