Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

7:16pm Thursday 1st May 2008

Publisher: Konami Formats: PSP Price: £14.99 Family friendly? 16+

DON'T be fooled.

This is not an entirely new game, merely an extension of the original MGS: Portable Ops released some time ago. Hence the bargain price.

Of course, the series has form for this sort of thing (remember the VR Missions disc on PS One?) and fans of MGS will find plenty to enjoy. There are some new maps, extra content and a guest appearance by some familiar characters but, if you've played the original, it sometimes feels like you're just replaying an old classic.

One crucial aspect that's now missing is the story. The Portable Ops Plus is just a series of standalone missions with no narrative to drive them. Each stage becomes progressively more difficult. Enemies get wise to your sneaking around and change their patterns, weaponry is more devastating and keeping tab of your team-mates is tougher.

The only progression the game allows is your ability to keep weapons and special items acquired during the previous mission.

You can replay tough missions and careful management of your squad is necessary if you are to succeed. A mid-level save feature would have made things easier.

Portable Ops is, after all, a handheld game where play tends to be a snatched ten minutes here and there rather than an extended session.

You can still recruit enemies to your cause - a neat feature that's been tweaked slightly for this game.

And if you played the previous game there's the option to upload a successful team into Portable Ops Plus.

Not an instant classic,then, but Portable Ops Plus is still a mustbuy for fans of MGS.

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