Part 2: Prison Break

Well, hey, a little double post never hurt anyone, eh?

Episode Two: Prison Break

The update in video form! Blip, too. And a download, just in case.

So now, after the brief interruption by a complete stranger who, by some chance managed to open an escape route out of our cell, we're back in control of Snake. First order of business is to crawl through that vent the prisoner mentioned. At the end of the dialog, Snake pries the lid off of it himself, so let's get to it.



If you've played an MGS game before, crawling hasn't changed a bit. Press the X button to go into a crouch, and move in a direction to start crawling. Alternatively, you can hold X to go directly into the prone stage.



On the other side of the vent is an item box. This particular item box contains a Mk. 22 tranquilizer gun, the same as from Snake Eater. However, it also contains...



: What's this doing here?

And we're treated to another cutscene, not five minutes after the first. Hope you brought popcorn, 'cause we got us here a plot dump.

No music link for this cutscene, because I unfortunately couldn't find it.

Click here to watch the cutscene minus all the other stuff.



: It is Snake... Or should I say, Big Boss. Are you the real deal?

: You know me?

: Are you kidding? You're a legend in the black ops world.

: Black ops...



: Beats me. I'd like to find that out myself. Where are we, anyway?

: Near the equator, from the looks of it... if I had to guess, I'd say South America.

: You got it, Big Boss.



: known to the locals as "la peninsula de los muertos", the peninsula of the dead. It's off the coast of central Columbia, more or less directly south of Cuba.

: Never heard of it.

: You wouldn't have. It doesn't show up on any conventional maps -- it's under Red Army control.



: In 1964, the Russians provided military aid to FARC, Columbia's biggest rebel faction. And in return, FARC gave them this land.

: 1964... the year of the Virtuous mission.

: Two years prior, the Russians failed in their attempt to build an intermediate-range ballistic missle (IRBM) base in Cuba.

: Had they succeeded in deploying nuclear-equipped IRBMs inside Cuba, every major American city would have been in range.



: Exactly.



: But rumor had it that they were looking for a new site, one where they could build a base in secret.

: And that place was the San Hieronymo Peninsula?

: Yeah. Well, not exactly... Apparently the plans for this missile base were abandoned before it was built.

: Abandoned?

: Due to détente. Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union are having trouble financing their enormous military budgets, and they can't afford to keep waging the Cold War like they did in the Sixties.

: Last year, they began conducting the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, with the goal of limiting each country's number of ballistic missiles.



: Right. But as you can see, they'd already completed part of the facility. We were sent in to investigate what was going on. Before we could do that, they ambushed us.

: "They"?



: My team was wiped out in the blink of an eye. I fear I'm the only survivor...

: What's the FOX Unit doing in a Soviet base?

: Not a clue. I'd have expected you to know more about it than me.

: I'm not with FOX anymore.

: ...I see. Anyway, that's all I've got.



: Hold on, I'll get you out of there.



: It's no use. I've tried over and over. You need a special key to unlock the cell door. Right now, you've got to get outta here.



: ...and you should reach a communications base. I need you to call in a rescue, if you can.

: Rescue?



: But the circuit will most likely be monitored. If only you could use some kind of encrypted transmission...

: Someone capable of receiving an encrypted protocol that they can't listen in on...

: Any ideas?

: I don't know if I'll be able to pull it off, but there's one thing I could try...

: Great.



: Call me Snake.

: It's been an honor, Snake. The name's Campbell. Roy Campbell. Good luck.

And we're again back into the game engine, but Roy's not quite done talking at us just yet.

Music: Comm Base



: Now would be a good time for a light refresher--just to help you get reaquainted with your weapons and basic actions. I'll help you out.

Thankfully, this is simply a tutorial for how to do things within the game.



This is our inventory, accessed with the circle button. There're only four slots in our inventory out in the field at any given time, and if we run out of slots, we won't be able to pick anything else up. Some items we'll find out on the field are things like support items, ammunition and weapons. Basically, the standard fare.



If we equip a weapon and press the left trigger, we can ready our weapon, and if there's a target nearby, Snake will automatically lock on to them. The weapon you've currently got selected shows up in the bottom right. If it's silenced, the silencer meter will show up next to it. If that meter drops to nothing, the silencer breaks. You get a new silencer after every mission, so you don't have to worry about collecting them.



We control Snake with the analog nub, and pressing the triangle button gives us the ability to stalk, making a return from Snake Eater. Stalking slows us down, but prevents us from being heard easily. As this is an MGS title, and therefore, a stealth action game, you can probably tell why this is a good thing. Speaking of stealth, in the top right corner of the screen is the 'surround indicator', which gives us information like location and distance of guards we can't see. If the direction the guard is in is colored blue, they can hear but not see you. If it's red, he can and will see you if you're in the open.



Pressing the right trigger puts us in first-person view, giving us more precise control on our aim. The analog nub on the PSP can be a little less accurate than you'd like at times, and as such the devs allow us a little leniency. By pressing the left trigger while in first-person, the aim slows down considerably, for even MORE precision. How wonderful!



Even with first-person aiming, however, hitboxes and my aim can sometimes leave something to be desired.







Roy isn't impressed, either.



By pressing triangle near a wall, you can press up against it and peek around corners.



If you're not careful, though, it is more than possible to accidentally have your finger slip off, and overshoot into the hallway you're trying to peek into.



As in MGS2 and 3, you can fire from a corner by peeking around it and using the left trigger.



Directly outside of our cellblock, there's a door leading into what I assume is prisoner processing. But before we're allowed to go in there, Roy has one last thing to tell us.




: If you're careful, you can sneak past it. You know how to crawl, right? I'm counting on you, Snake... or should I say, "legendary soldier..."

Right. Now that he's done, we're free to explore.



In the processing center, to the left of where we entered, there's the electronic gate Roy told us about. On the back wall, there's two doors. One opens up and contains:



The other is locked. To the right is another way to explore the prison. But, since we'll be returning here later on, I'll save that for then.

As for the binoculars, they allow us to zoom in on a target in first-person view. Honestly, not that useful.



Outside the gate, there's a guard that watches the exit out into the open area.



A nice little detail in the game is that if you miss a guard by a close enough margin, they will become suspicious and take a look at where the shot originated. Same goes if you hit a surface near a sentry. Just another reason to be as precise as you can.



After two shots, I finally manage to peg him and move on.



Outside, and to the right is our destination: a ramp leading up toward the level exit. The ramp is guarded by one sentry on our current level...



...and another in a guardhouse at the top of the ramp.



Taking out both guards gives us access to our stage exit, but first there's another item we can collect in the guardhouse.



Medical kits, fairly obviously, serve as our healing items should we take damage. They come in two varieties, small and large. The same goes for rations, which recover our stamina bar. Both of these meters are on the bottom left of the screen, and if either run out we're forced (at least at this point) to restart. Later on, we'll have more options, when that happens.



Here's our level exit. In a few missions, they can either serve as checkpoints or mission ends. This one just means that we're currently done in the prison complex.

Next update, the comm base, and YET MORE EXPOSITION. Don't worry, the game picks up after that, trust me!