However, though designed with portable gaming in mind, the shorter objective-based missions also serve as one of the game's biggest detriments. Since missions end after the completion of an objective, sometimes even in the midst of a firefight, there's less of an emphasis on careful and strategic play than past Metal Gear Solid games. Instead, sloppy play with a focus on running and gunning down any on-screen foe often presents a viable alternative.
Part of this stems from the problems of adapting the series from the PlayStation 2 to the PSP. Despite the PSP's wide screen, the camera often feels too close to the player, leaving one unsure of their surroundings. Worse, the sometimes awkward controls simply aren't as intuitive or responsive as they've been in past games, making careful stealth-based play that much harder. Pressing the triangle button for sneaking and related actions requires some retraining for series veterans, holding the L trigger for lock-on proves painful across extended use, and despite the ability to rotate the camera, the PSP's button layout dictates the temporary loss of either movement or action control in the process. Considering the challenge facing Kojima Productions -- the loss of an analog stick, two buttons, and pressure sensitive controls -- this resulting control scheme contains an impressive degree of functionality, but one that still suffers as a result of the hardware.
Furthermore, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops fails to dodge some of the other flaws intrinsic to the platform. The game's gritty, dithered look and the jagged white polygon seams sprinkled throughout some areas serve as frequent reminders of the PSP's limitations, but fortunately, brief load times help it avoid the most dreaded of PSP-related issues.
Unexpectedly, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops also includes a full-fledged multiplayer mode, supporting both online and local multiplayer. Consisting of variations upon Deathmatch and Capture the Flag, players can duel with their custom squad from the single player campaign. There's even an option, dubbed Cyber-Survival, to upload a custom squad and let them automatically duke it out with any other squads on the server. Unfortunately, multiplayer suffers from the same camera and control issues as single player, but with both players equally hampered by these problems, at least it's balanced.
A mix of quality gameplay and system-based shortcomings, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops proves a tricky beast. On one hand, its functional controls and quick load times represent impressive technical feats. Yet on the other, constant struggles with control and camera reveals friction between Kojima's vision and the PSP's limitations; the demands of careful stealth-based gameplay are not a perfect fit for the platform. Despite these shortcomings, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops ends up an enjoyable experience that will leave fans satisfied, though a bit frustrated.
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