It's almost startling just how much depth is being built into Portable Ops' army-based, relatively open-ended structure. The dozens of troops you'll recruit each come with special talents and functions; you can assemble crews of scientists to research new weapons, for example, or put together a medical team to help your soldiers heal faster. Each character's background also plays a role; former football players will be able to toss grenades further and more accurately, artists are immune to eye-catching magazines during multiplayer matches and nutritionists can recover health faster.
You can even recruit the game's bosses to your cause, making this the first Metal Gear where tranquilizing the big baddies instead of killing them will actually push the story in different directions.
Certain guards, meanwhile, can walk among their former comrades unnoticed, which makes them perfect as spies - just send up to four of them into an area ahead of you, and they'll tell you if there's anything you'll need to prepare for. They're also instrumental in creating diversions or clearing roadblocks for you, and you'll also be able to take control of them when it looks like their talents will be more useful than Snake's.
