Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is a 2010 stealth-action game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Konami for the PlayStation Portable. Directed by Hideo Kojima, it takes place in 1974, four years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The player controls Naked Snake, who is increasingly known as Big Boss, while he leads the independent mercenary force Militaires Sans Frontieres, or MSF, from an offshore base in the Caribbean. The story begins when professor Ramon Galvez Mena and student Paz Ortega Andrade ask Snake to investigate an armed organization operating in Costa Rica. Because Costa Rica abolished its military in 1948, the appearance of a heavily equipped private force there is politically alarming. Snake discovers that the group, Peace Sentinels, is commanded by Coldman, a CIA-connected official whose plans involve deploying nuclear-equipped Metal Gear technology without conventional political restraints. MSF expands through a Mother Base management system that became one of Peace Walker's defining features. Recruited soldiers can be assigned to combat, research and development, medical, intelligence, or base-development teams. Their skills affect weapon production, mission support, and the construction of new facilities. Fulton Recovery balloons allow Snake to extract enemy soldiers, prisoners, vehicles, and animals from many missions, turning battlefield encounters into a source of personnel and resources. Peace Walker introduces several major characters to the series. Kazuhira Miller serves as MSF's business-minded second-in-command, while Huey Emmerich contributes to the group's engineering work. The game also features Strangelove, a scientist associated with the AI system created from research connected to The Boss. Her work is central to the Peace Walker weapon, an autonomous nuclear deterrent platform designed to make launch decisions through artificial intelligence. The title's Metal Gear, ZEKE, can be assembled by MSF from parts captured after boss encounters. Once completed, it becomes an important symbol of Big Boss's growing military power. The game also includes cooperative missions for up to four players, allowing participants to infiltrate areas and fight bosses together. Its Monster Hunter collaboration missions brought creatures such as Rathalos into a Metal Gear setting. The ending directly connects Peace Walker to Big Boss's later role in the series. After defeating the AI weapon, Snake rejects the legacy of The Boss as he had previously understood it. He declares that MSF will become “Outer Heaven,” establishing an ideological and organizational foundation for the conflicts portrayed in the original Metal Gear and later games. Peace Walker was later included in Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection and received an HD version for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.