A brand new re-release of a bunch of Metal Gear Solid games that take in the series' history from 1987 right up to 2004 should, you would think, be cause for much celebration. Hideo Kojima's jaw-dropping stealth spectaculars remain as vitally important as ever, absolute must-plays for any student of gaming history, and a little care in how they're presented in this package would surely earn Konami a very easy win.
However, far from making things easy for itself, Konami has decided to do very little revamping, reworking or remastering here, serving up seven games with very little in the way of upgrades, for better or worse. As a result we've got Metal Gear Solid running at 14:9 and 30FPS with no boost to its resolution or performance on Series X, whilst both Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater are based on their 2011 HD versions, both running at 60FPS - which is nice - but with no upgrades to resolution, graphics or audio quality whatsoever.
On the one hand, with such an expansive collection presented this is a still a stellar bunch of games to dig into, regardless of the lack of overall effort made. You've got Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake, all the VR Missions, Subsistence and Substance versions of MGS2 AND MGS3, and even the NES version of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and Snake's Revenge. That's plenty, and it also leaves the door wide open for a tidy second collection that takes in the later games in the series.
You also get some nice added bonuses, most especially in the form of "master books" that dig down into the history of the franchise with lots of interesting facts and illustrations, as well as soundtracks, screenplays and digital graphic novels. However, Konami really has done the bare-ass minimum with this one, even managing to fumble how these games are served up to the player by having each title sorted into its own menu - there's no quick and easy switching here - with a separate home-screen launch icon for each of Snake's adventures. We get that they're making it so you can purchase the games separately, but it still feels incredibly sloppy, disjointed and annoying to have a separate app for each game on your console with no way to hot-swap between them all.
It's also frustratingly difficult to find what you're looking for, with menus taking you here and there and bonus content and extras hiding all over the place. It's a messy business, especially considering how easy this should all be, and it smacks of not really giving a damn, not putting nearly enough respect and effort into presenting this incredible series in the manner in which it deserves.
And it is, despite everything, still an incredible series. Regardless of the lack of TLC here, once you're actually in the slick sneaking boots of Solid Snake, well, there's nothing quite like it. Metal Gear Solid may be showing its age slightly (maybe more than slightly if you're a young'un) but it's still a mesmerising and properly iconic game. Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater are sublime experiences that every self-respecting gamer should make time for (we will not hear a bad word spoken against Sons of Liberty) and even the older NES titles are absolutely worth a look, especially if you have an interest in exploring how this most famous of video game characters evolved over the decades.
You can't keep a good snake down, basically, and honestly if these games weren't as excellent as they are, this collection would be in for a real kicking here. There's no excuse for the lack of effort, heck we've even seen PC modders get that version of this volume's MGS2 and 3 running at 4K with very little effort. It just feels as though there's zero good reason why we're looking at versions of these games that don't make any advance on the HD Collection from 13 years ago - in fact, in some cases it seems as though that version actually plays better, with Digital Foundry reporting there's better image quality and anti-aliasing to be found by booting into the 2011 collection using backwards compatibility. Not ideal!
In the end, what we've got here is a superb collection of games once you're actually in and playing. There's nothing quite like Metal Gear Solid and blasting through them again is always a treat, we'll take any excuse for a re-run of this lot. It's just a shame, then, that Konami didn't come out firing on all cylinders, as a little more effort to make this collection feel cohesive; basic improvements to image quality, resolution upgrades, smoothing out of framerate bugs and so on, would have made for a very easy win. Instead we're begrudgingly handing out a rather average score to a bunch of games that deserve soooo much better.
Conclusion
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 presents Kojima's genius in a package that could, and should, have been so much more. There's a bunch of stellar games to dig into here, you're guaranteed a great time once you're actually playing this iconic series, but this is a franchise that deserved more. Where's the TLC? Where's the resolution bumps, refined controls, visual upgrades and so on? Konami has managed to add a few nice extras, and there's a good showing in terms of how many titles are packed in here, but the overall performance and presentation, given the power and potential at the dev's disposal, leaves much to be desired.
Comments 17
I think the biggest joke about this is a decade ago, my PC was emulating these at not only higher frame rates, but also higher resolutions than this collection runs at. All simply from the efforts of fans.
Meanwhile, Konami, a multi million corporation is just doing the bare minimum for nothing more than a cash grab.
played metal gear on MSX and Playstation 1 , I'll just leave it there, in the time it was all incredible, but revisit it would taint that memory I think , I'll pass
Joke of a game
Agreed with the review 100%. The games shine even today, despite a myriad of issues with the way the collection is presented. The games have a pace, gameplay and presentation that most modern games would want.
And yes, I am a sucker for the MGS series .
Beaten MGS2 on Switch, now into MGS3:SE...
So should I go for it? I absolutely adored Death Stranding (spend 250 hours with it) and haven’t played anything else by Kojima. If MGS has the same sort of creativity and absurdity I’m in. It should still be playable though.
@Darude84 I don't know. Honestly I love MGS and too me Death Stranding is just ... let's say not a game I liked at all. So I don't know if the reverse would map the same way. I would say that go for it but keep in mind these games are very very old and not enhanced in any way.
@BrilliantBill Thanks! That last part is what’s holding me back at the moment. I’m quite allergic to clunky controls.
@Darude84 You can also get the backwards compatible HD collection (2 & 3), which is usually very cheap on the digital sales that include it. Peace Walker is also available.
@Banjo- The HD Collection (2 and 3) was thorougly delisted, with even the Xbox 360 Marketplace version disappearing.
Peace Walker is still available, though.
Dreadful cashgrab but what did we expect from such a horrible company 3/10 at most imo
I'm such a MGS fangirl, I'm going to do a little PR for Konami (even though they don't deserve it, and Silent Hill Ascension is crap because everything J. J Abram touches gets ruined).
But this collection definitely deserves criticism, but not as much as its been getting. I think people are forgetting a couple of things, one of them being that these are meant as a way to preserve the classic games. They're not remasters or remakes, they're ports of the games back from when they were remastered the first time. And they were remastered by Bluepoint, one of the best in the industry (before Sony bought them). Even then, the original remasters rarely kept a consistent frame rate.
Having different launchers isn't that big of a deal. We put up with it with the Master Chief Collection. I think we're used to MCC by now, but any new comer sees it for what it is. A chunky 120+ GB monster of a mess that has way too many features, too many menus, and still has the occasional audio and graphical glitch. MGS Master Collection isn't any better or worse.
Also we're not giving Konami any credit for what they did do to get us this collection. Kojima did not make things easy for them. They had to settle a Russian lawsuit for the themesong of MGS 1 and 2, they had to try to relicense all of the live action footage of Alaska and the Nuclear Plant, as well as any military cutscenes. They had to relicense a lot of the credits music, as well as renegotiate a contract with Harry Gregson-Williams. And then spend a good chunk buying the license to reuse all the music from Star Sailor.
Also, I've seen a lot of people complain about why Twin Snakes wasn't included. That will never happen. That game is jointly owned by Konami, Nintendo, and Silicon Knights. It's in copyright limbo because Silicon Knights no longer exist.
Honestly, if I were to add to the complaints they would be the fact that the Switch Cartridge has too few of the games on them, and that they used the NES versions of Metal Gear 1 and 2 when the definitive versions were the MSX ones, and they were included in MGS3 Subsistence.
And a really big one is that they delisted the original remasters, which is a huge issue because the original ones were compatible with Xbox One and 360, but the Master Collection only works with Seris X/S.
Also, that the bonus content of MGS 3 Subsistence are not included, but they were never included in the original remasters, so maybe that's why they're missing.
*edit: Just found out that the cartridge version has both MSX and NES versions of MG 1 and 2. lol.
This is extremely disappointing.
It's sad that the backwards compatible 1 and 2 remasters were delisted. I have them, the Peace Walker remaster and also a The Twin Snakes backup for Wii U. I'm not being sarcastic because I still have the Gamecube box with the two discs 😁. I might be wrong, but I don't think that Nintendo has any rights to The Twin Snakes now, even if it was a Gamecube exclusive. The involvement of disappeared Silicon Knights in the development shouldn't be a big issue if they were paid, their work was completed long ago and they don't hold rights to the IP. The publisher was Konami and they own the IP. The truth is that the game is not included here. If it's not added to this volume or the next, I would love Konami to explain what the problem is, because they have solved more difficult issues than this to re-release the other games and to re-list Peace Walker.
@Darude84 I would definitely go for it, they're amazing games, but maybe check if it isn't easier/cheaper to play with the older HD Collection before splashing out on this.
@PJOReilly Thanks! It doesn’t include MGS 1 though. Is it okay to start with the second game?
@Darude84 Hmmmm. Would be good to start with the OG obviously but it's not essential. 2 and 3 are dynamite and you could just read a plot synopsis of the first game at this point as you'll be in that one more for story than gameplay given how old it's gotten.
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