Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus is a standalone addition to last year’s award winning stealth action title. Focusing on a portable multiplayer experience, players can enjoy more maps, more missions, and recruit a talented crew of war heroes for battling real opponents in online arenas...

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus isn't a great deal different from last year's Portable Ops release.

If you bought the original version of the game and loved it, this add on pack allows you to upload your characters and take them on new missions - and if you didn't buy the original game don't worry as it's fairly easy to pick up. However, the fact that there isn't actually any kind of story mode might annoy some - what you actually get are a number of levels which you can zip backwards and forwards through, but there's no attempt to really tie everything together with a linked narrative.

As usual, we were not sent any instructions with this game which represented a slight problem. The in-game help is not very impressive, and those used to playing this style of game on a console will find the controls very cumbersome. It takes quite a while to get used to moving the camera the way you want it to go, which can be incredibly frustrating. On more than one occasion I completely lost my bearings while under attack.

The online play is engaging, and a hell of a lot of fun, but won't be of interest to all of Metal Gear Solid's fan base.

While this is a good, solid addition to the Metal Gear Solid franchise, I'd strongly advise that you try this before you buy. It won't be everyone's cup of tea - even if you've played all the previous console games. It's the lack of any real story that makes this feel a little half-finished.

7

Nick Smithson