Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - more like Peace Runner, get it? Because it’s exhausting to play

Pictured: Amanda on left talking to Big Boss on right. All credit to Yoji Shinkawa and Konami.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker…is an extremely frustrating game. I appreciate its standing within the series as NS/Big Boss’ big legacy moment, and I find the setting interesting too.

The bosses and grind for missions specifically are where my problems lie, but I’m getting ahead of myself for now.

MGS:PW is the thing that cements Big Boss’ legacy, and where several other recurring characters are first introduced. Big Boss leaves the US to form his own group, independent from the rules and regulations of regular society. He, along with Kazuhara Miller, creates a group called MSF, but are wrapped up in a growing nuclear scandal as the Cold War grows.

In terms of gameplay, PW expands greatly from MGS 1 through 4 in that it has a side focus on weapons and gear development, along with bosses that are more akin to painful slogs than they are intuitive encounters.

Granted, you are also given many more tools to use, and many more ways to unlock said tools, and it does make for a refreshing experience at times.

Now to the rant. I do not like MGS:PW, and I’m sure that’s obvious by now. It mostly forgoes the semi-camp tones of the previous games and is serious and gritty (which is in and of itself fine), while forcing tedious and downright bad boss encounters. The game was clearly designed for 4 players, so playing it solo feels like trying to break through a brick wall with a spoon.

It’s one of my only major gripes with the only other one being the general tedium of hitting roadblock > farming missions to gain better gear > finally defeating boss > hitting roadblock.

The next game, MGS5, suffers from a lot of the same grind problems too, and I think playing it directly after Peace Walker affected my enjoyment of it.