When I got the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection back over a decade ago, this was the game I remember playing the most out of all them. I really enjoyed it back then and I thought after being lukewarm on every MGS past the first Solid and especially after 2, a large part me thought Peace Walker might not hold up that much. After playing it again over a decade later, Peace Walker still holds up. There's a couple of things that hold the game back but after feeling almost nothing but apathy from MGS3 and 4, I'm surprised Peace Walker is even a game I still like.
Since it's an MGS game I'll begin with the story and for the most part I enjoy it. I really do enjoy the fact that the more or less seemingly retconned the 3rd game's ending. It was nothing more than the logical fallacy known as "appeal to emotion". What makes Peace Walker's story compelling is that Big Boss and by extension Hideo Kojima is on my side regarding this. What do I mean? Big Boss throughout the much of PW's story still hasn't accepted that fact what Eva told her is 100% truth since with MGS3's narrative, we don't really see that many scenes with "The" Boss and Eva. The latter ran away and gave you a tape recording saying, "take my word for it" in a long winded monologue of course. Having a story where Big Boss is questioning all this makes him a more nuanced character. The starting of the game does a great job at selling you on him as it shows how he is haunted by what seems to be a ghost of his former mentor. How Zadornov baits Big Boss into taking on the mission.
What is also refreshing is how great it feels for a Metal Gear protagonist to have agency again. Where Old Snake acts disinterested and dismissive, Big Boss in Peace Walker gives the feeling of wanting to find geniune closure. With the scene I mentioned and how he taunts Strangelove in the Torture Room later in the game. It's also great how Old Snake's long stretches of silence is gone and he gets into actual geniune conversations with his allies and foes. The "turning what you just said but saying it questioningly way" is toned down here a good deal.
The themes of deterance and peace are quite interesting in how AI should be used to handle firing nuclear weapons. This will do much of the story's heavy lifting outside of BB's plight since the characters outside of him, Strangelove and maybe Huey and Miller are on the underdeveloped side. There's not many bad guys outside of "Hot" Coldman and he's just there.
PW also gets very ridiculous towards the end even for MGS standards but that's if you do the grind in Chapter 5.
Gameplay despite losing actions like first person aiming and moving in prone. The gameplay manages to be the most compelling the series has been in a while.
Remember the tranq gun I kept on complaining about? Here it's used to recruit members for Mother Base rather be a bypass gameplay option. You are also encouraged to finish the level quickly and not die that much so you can get more "heroism" points so no relying on being able to respawn from the last place you died.
CQC slam is no longer an instant knockout. You have to knockdown on an enemy, wait for them to get up, then choke them out if you want to incapcitate them up close. Higher level guards will take longer to choke out.
It doesn't end there, the game also introduces new enemy types throughout the campaign. You got armoured enemies, guards with helmets(no first person aiming means you can't aim under them and you got to worry about activitating a quick caution phase), some that blend in with the surrondings and are also good at CQC, snipers using ghille suits, and game drone enemies.
Vehicle bosses can also be defeated using stealth.
This transitions me to negatives since the vehicle bosses on paper are a good idea only the APC boss is handled well since you know where enemies will spawn from. Later fights have random alerts and extremely random enemy spawns.
The AI bosses are okay but can be lengthy damage sponges especially Peace Walker. What makes it worse is that PW can go on for long that it drain that annoying psyche guage. Some of it's attacks can do it too. Then you have to do that obnoxious 7th gen left stick waggling nonsense.
While Chapter 3 starts off with a creative shootout where you have to watch multiple vantage points and are in a choke point where you can ambushed from left and right. The creativity in game design starts to go down slowly. You get only one whole main mission where you have to avoid a drone enemy and the rest is mainly just evading guards in industrial areas. Lacking the interesting enemy design of the outdoor levels. It's almost too easy to go back to tranq headshotting in the industrial levels before the Soviet Base.
Chapter 5 is a boring grind with a ridiculous boss and song at the end. A sequence where Big Boss resigns to his fate isn't worth grinding this much over. Also, that torture mini game is awful and can stump almost any first time player from getting furthur into the game. Why is there no accessiblity option for this?
Overall, PW was a surprise especially how apathetic to the series before playing.
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