Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 may not be what everyone had hoped for, but it’s still an incredible package that lets you conveniently enjoy the MGS trilogy on modern consoles. Here’s our full Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 review to see how it holds up.
A Solid Collection
The Metal Gear Solid franchise is no stranger when it comes to re-releases. Countless versions of each game exist, with even an HD Collection released over a decade ago on the PS3 and Xbox 360. While many may be irked about some of the cutbacks made with this Master Collection, I’ll just say it; it feels damn good to be able to play through the original trilogy again and on modern consoles.
Playing through these games has been, well, a bit difficult for console players. The HD Collection exists for PlayStation and Xbox, but only for the PS3 and Xbox 360. That means PlayStation gamers were essentially locked out of these classic games unless they had an old console. On the other hand, Xbox gamers could enjoy (via backward compatibility) MGS2 and MGS3, but not the first game, as it never came to that platform, even in the collection.
So, having all three games plus the four Metal Gear games (MG1 and MG2, which have both MSX and NES versions) come to modern-day platforms, including PC and the Nintendo Switch, makes for one jammed-packed collection.
I won’t divulge into each game’s story, as there are decades of individual reviews to read for that. But I will say the original Metal Gear Solid trilogy is still one of the best trilogies ever to grace gaming. They’re absolute masterpieces, and anyone who has never played the original Metal Gear Solid trilogy will be in for one hell of a ride with this collection.
What I am going to talk about is the collection as a whole, meaning its features and presentation. So, let’s talk first about what I loved about the Master Collection Vol. 1.
First and foremost, the bonus content. Every game in the collection has a Master Book detailing the rich history of the games and an in-depth walkthrough. This is a massive addition, as it provides some behind-the-scenes details that I’m sure mega fans will be scouring for years. Each game in the collection also comes with the entire screenplay, and judging from how some of the text is presented, I’d almost say these are the original screenplays. It’s a wonderful addition, even if most won’t care.
Elsewhere, the released digital graphic novels are all included in this collection, giving you even more lore of the series to experience. There is one issue with them, as with the different game versions, which I’ll discuss later.
Taking cues from Capcom’s Mega Man Collection, some of the games in the Master Collection feature their different releases, including native regional ones. That’s a big deal, as the European versions of some of these games received heavy censoring. Metal Gear Solid 3 had plenty of blood-toned tones and other graphical changes. You can now enjoy the native North American release that has all that on full display.
Metal Gear Solid 1 includes the standard edition, VR Missions, Special Missions, and Integral (no Twin Snake Remake though) releases. I wasn’t expecting to see all these included, as with the other games with different regional versions. However, I would have loved it if they included the standard and substance of MGS2 and the standard and Subsistence of MGS3, even if the latter versions are the superior ones; just having all the versions in one place would have been great for those who prefer one over the other.
For performance, Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 support full 60fps, though their resolution, as with the rest of the collection, is upscaled 1080p rather than native or even 4K. They still look fantastic mind you, but the resolution bump could have done wonders.
I do love the menus that each game has before booting into them. They’re displayed against a full key artwork. It’s simple yet gorgeous, though hindered by the same issue mentioned before that I’ll discuss in a bit.
Regarding content and what’s included, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is a definitive collection of MGS games you’d hope to see from a first-volume collection. There’s not much to dislike in terms of what’s lacking in the games themselves, and newcomers will find this to be the best way to play on current platforms. That does go without saying, though, that while new players won’t take much issue with these titles, old-time fans may have a different opinion, with some areas impacting everyone.
The Inferior Genes
While Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is loaded with games and extra content, the general presentation isn’t as good as it should be. The original HD Collection featured MGS2 and 3 (MGS1 was a digital download) on the same screen and as a timeline.
The Master Collection instead offers each title as a separate application to download rather than an entire standalone title. This sucks and makes the collection feel disjointed rather than a single collection. I understand why Komani did it, as they intend to sell each game separately, but for what should feel like a tribute to the franchise, this really hurts it. Each game even has a year displayed on its launch menu, which makes me wonder if there were some intentions to keep it as a unified package. Having it all in a single menu would have not only made it feel more special but also added some accessibility rather than cluttering our console’s dashboard. I think it would have been important for new players to understand the game’s timeline, and having them separate does not help with that.
Then there’s the whole online required to experience everything. Despite the entire collection coming in at under 20GB, for whatever reason, you must connect to the internet to download additional menu-featured items. The graphic novels display, but you can’t view them unless you download them. The same goes for some of the other game versions. Metal Gear Solid Integral, which some may prefer due to the lower difficulty and additional content, can’t be played unless you download it. The same goes for some of the other regional versions of the other games.
I know we live in an age where almost everything is connected online, but that shouldn’t be an excuse to deliver content like this, and there’s no excuse why it shouldn’t be included in the initial download for digital owners. It is a head-scratcher, as everything, when said and done, could have fit a 50GB Blu-ray disc.
Then there’s the lack of touch-ups.
These are essentially direct ports from the original HD Collection, which, by today’s standards, suffers from some poor image quality. The games all look fantastic, but the lack of 4K resolution hurts, especially when you realize it’s not even native 1080p but upscaled from 720p. This would require a lot of work, as evident from the Zone of the Enders 2 HD release, as textures would have had to be worked on due to issues mentioned before. But ZotE2 is easily one of the best HD remasters out there because of it, and I had high hopes that this collection would have received a similar treatment.
Metal Gear Solid 1 is completely untouched visually. I love it, but even I know it doesn’t look good running on a full 65-inch 4K TV at low resolution.
MGS1 deserves better than a straight port. Unfortunately, Twin Snake isn’t included in this package, but even if it was (which I would have relished), there’s no beating the original game with its soundtrack and setpieces that were altered in the remake.
With some of these complaints, I’d say you’d be better off getting this on PC due to the amount of modding that will (no doubt) bring over these missing features and improvements. But even if you don’t care for it, there are some other issues with this collection that Konami has acknowledged before release.
MGS2 has significant slowdowns during some cutscenes in what was otherwise perfect before. There are some graphic bugs, such as effects not playing correctly and some subtitle issues. These will all be addressed in a post-launch patch, but given the effort put into these titles (it doesn’t look like much), seeing these issues even crop up is odd.
I’m also surprised that there is a lack of save states, which has become a common feature in other game collections. There’s no rewind function, though that’s not one I was expecting to see in the 3D games, at least.
Visual improvements are generally nonexistent if you compare this collection to the HD Collection, which is a huge disappointment.
Still in a Dream
Despite the shortcomings, I still recommend this collection to anyone, especially those who never played these games. They’re simple ports of games that are considered to be among the best. The Metal Gear Solid Trilogy is a masterpiece everyone has to play. And that’s been the biggest issue over the last decades where there was no real good way to play them all, outside of emulators on PC. With Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, Konami has provided a convenient way to do just that on modern and future consoles. Let’s hope Vol. 2 has more effort put into it next time, as most of those games should be based on mostly recent titles.
Score: 8/10
Pros:
- Finally, an easy way to play the original games on modern platforms.
- Despite some flaws, every game is as much a masterpiece as we remember.
- Bonus content adds a rich history of lore and behind-the-scenes of the series.
- Trophy and Achievement support for the first game!
Cons:
- There is no unified hub; everything is a separate application, making it feel disjointed.
- Online is required for downloading additional content like graphic novels and other game editions.
- Visually untouched – No 4K resolution, and returning to MGS1 can be a pixelated mess. It’s still a great game, though.
- Some performance and other issues in MGS2 and 3.
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.
