You maintain communication with your base via a small device planted in your ear that only you can hear. There is quite a bit of interaction with your base and this is what drives the storyline the most. Your mission objectives are fed to you in this manner, and advice and information is delivered as well. Control is accomplished via keyboard or mapped controller. I could find no way to enable any kind of mouse support.
Movement is kind of kludgy, especially in tight areas, making complex maneuvers difficult at times.
The game itself has a large number of difficulty settings. The easiest of which make Snake withstand almost superhuman punishment and give him unlimited ammo. At the most difficult, even radar is disabled for a much greater challenge. As a console port, Microsoft has done a remarkable job in porting this one. Too many console ports look just like their junky predecessors.