It's the PSP game we've waited for all year. Directed by Hideo Kojima himself, and developed by the team who created Metal Gear Solid 4, Peace Walker certainly seems to have everything going for it. So, does it live up to the high expectations fans have come to place on any new Metal Gear game? Well, the answer is...mostly.

Peace Walker finds us back in the heyday of Naked Snake (also known as Big Boss), with the events of the game being set after those of the previous PSP game, Portable Ops. I won't go too far into the details at this point, but as usual, Snake finds himself called into action in order to investigate some strange happenings in Costa Rica - and you can bet that nukes will be involved. Snake is reluctant to take on the job at first, but with the the discovery of an audio recording than seems to prove that The Boss - the woman he both loved and killed in MGS3 - is still alive, he dives straight in.

The gameplay is what we've come to expect from any traditional Metal Gear Solid game, third person stealth action, and plenty of it. The setting is highly reminiscent of MGS3, with Snake trekking his way through forest, jungle, and swamp. The camouflage element of MGS3's gameplay also makes an return, with players able to equip Snake with various camo outfits and a camo indicator on screen at all times. The tranquiliser pistol will usually be your weapon of choice for when your cover is blown, with enemies going down faster depending on what part of their body you shoot.

There are three different control settings on offer, which vary which buttons aim and fire, as well as which ones control the camera. Things can get slightly cramped at times, with players needing to hold down buttons and cycle through menus in order to equip weapons and items, but it's not too bad.

Graphically, the game is slightly above average, with some good character models, but slightly blocky environments. The frame-rate is rock solid. Rather than rendering cutscenes in-game, Peace Walker follows the lead of games like Ac!d by featuring drawn and lightly animated graphic novel clips. Where these differ from what we've seen in the past however, is that some of them now feature interactive segments. Sometimes you'll need to press a sequence of buttons, sometimes you'll need to aim and fire a weapon - it's all really well done and quite seamless. While I'm not a huge fan of the graphic novel style, the integration of these interactive bits really blew me away, and it all looks pretty good.

The audio content in Peace Walker is really strong. David Hayter returns to voice Snake as always, and does a good job, while the supporting cast really perform well. You can access fully voiced briefings about each mission before you start it, and codec calls can be voiced as well, however you'll need to perform a data install to your Memory Stick.

One of the interesting new things that Peace Walker brings to the series is co-op. Every story mission can be played with a friend (up to four on boss missions), which is a really clever idea. I haven't had the chance to try it out myself though, unfortunately the game only offers Ad-Hoc instead of full online support, but I'm sure plenty of people will be firing up their PS3s and using Ad-Hoc Party to get things going.

There's plenty more to talk about, such as the base you can access between missions and the recruitment system, but I'll save them for my review! The game is great so far, and I look forward to playing further. :)