Back when Hideo Kojima was at Konami, he created these masterclass games that managed to blend film and games together in such a way that we hadn’t seen before. Thankfully, the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 1 gives us a new way to play these titles on current-gen hardware.
The presentation for the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 1 comes across as a little messy. This is because each title is installed separately, so there are four separate executables if you have everything installed. That being said, if you only install what you want to play, it is an excellent way to save space.
What is presented in the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 1 is the first leg of the overall Metal Gear Solid storyline. Metal Gear, Snakes Revenge, and Metal Gear 2 see players take control of Solid Snake on multiple stealth missions to destroy Metal Gear’s walking tank units. While the story is interesting, it’s primarily bare bones but lays some good groundwork for what comes next.
Metal Gear Solid 1 follows Solid Snake as he infiltrates Shadow Moses to discover the plot behind a new metal gear. Only to unravel secrets that threw his whole being into question. The first Metal Gear Solid is a classic when it comes to outstanding storytelling. While the gameplay is a little rough around the edges, it mostly translates well to current-gen hardware.
“The presentation for the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 1 comes across as a little messy.”
The characters and sound design were fantastic upon release, and the same can be said here. The massive downturn for the story is the whole Psycho Mantis ploy doesn’t really come across in the same vein on modern TVs. While they have added the ability to add fake games to the virtual memory card for him to read, you’ll still have to switch controller ports to take him down quickly. It’s just not the same.
Metal Gear Solid 2 brings us Raiden and his attempt to stop an incident at Big Shell, once again facing off against another metal gear. Calling into question his past, there are a lot of similar themes between the first two games, and the story still hits incredibly hard—especially the later parts due to the current political climate.
Metal Gear Solid 3, easily the best game in the collection, follows Snake back during the Cold War and acts as a catalyst for the entire series. It’s where the Metal Gear series story is at its strongest, most emotional, and if you play them in numbered order, you will be paid off with so many tie-ins that you can’t help but get excited when characters show up.
The Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 1 also comes with Metal Gear Solid VR Missions. While this title is mostly storyless and more of a way to hone your skills, it’s also where we see the collection’s most significant flaws. Just how little work was done to these games.
Metal Gear Solid 1 and VR Missions see it the worst. In the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 1, textures for those games come across as muddy and worse than when they originally came out. It’s unfortunate because this will be some people’s first putting with the series and doing them a disservice like this burns their experience. Thankfully, Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 are less noticeable because those games still look genuinely good, especially MGS3.
The Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 1 should have been a home run, but unfortunately, performance is incredibly subpar. The loading screens in Metal Gear Solid 1 baffle me. The frame drops in Metal Gear Solid 3 are horrendous. Given these issues weren’t a thing back when the games originally came out, it is astonishing. It feels at times like these are mere poor emulations.
“The Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 1 should have been a home run, but unfortunately, performance is incredibly subpar.”
While the Master Book covering the story and lore for the series is a fantastic idea. It was a massive win for hardcore fans of the series. I enjoyed flipping through and catching myself up on the stories so I could skip to my favourite game.
I am hoping that Konami will fast-track some of the performance issue fixes. As for right now, it seems like the PlayStation 5 version is the one to stick with, as the Nintendo Switch version is missing some content, as with the PC one. Mouse and Keyboard support is also horrendous and makes the games virtually unplayable as well. Konami needs to learn from these mistakes because they have set a regrettable precedent for fans to get excited about Volume 2 or Metal Gear Solid Delta.
The Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 1 is a mixed bag. It’s fantastic that we finally get a way to play these games on modern hardware. But Konami needs to release some patches and fix them up because, for some reason, this collection might possibly be the worst way to play them in its current state.
