The mediocre Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was a dissapointing regression given that it descends from a series known for its continual evolution.

Following on from the third installment, we see the guilt-ridden Big Boss has decided to form his own army in South America to seek a different route to world peace from America's global hegemony. The story is replete with obnoxious, exxagerated anime cliches like oversized singing robots which Big Boss has to dispatch in an explosive kinetic manner which seems to betray the franchise's predilection of having the player figure out inventive and indirect manners to combat its eccentric boss characters.

The cutscenes of the game are drawn in a rushed monochrome comic book style, lacking the dimensionality and punchiness of prior installments which were rendered in real-time and even has the gal to introduce random annoying quick time events for little reason other than to break their flow. David Hayter phones in his performance --forgetting that he isn't playing Old snake-- which is comprised of grunts and hushed, growly tones, lacking the pointed emotions and gravitas of his prior performances.

The episodic nature and mission-based structure of the game deprives the story of any real tension. The gameplay feels like a watered-down version of Snake Eater, with auto-aim and simplified controls suited to the PSP's shrunken button layout. A 20fps cap and a dithered 16-bit colour depth grants the PSP version a nasty, smeary look, with input latency making it feel a lot worse to play, which is ironic for a portable game. The HD version fares better, even if the game's low resolution textures clash with an increased resolution.

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