Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 review for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch

It has been… a VERY long time coming for this collection. Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 2 (What a mouthful) is here, finally bringing us the re-release of Metal Gear Solid 4 as well as Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and a rather surprising Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel. No modern remastering here, simply the original versions for MGS4 and Ghost Babel, and the HD version of Peace Walker from 2011.

Modern hardware makes everything feel a bit smoother, but there’s not much to note by way of upgrades or changes. They’re the original versions as you know and love them, but repackaged for availability to new systems. But we all know why any Metal Gear fan is here: Metal Gear Solid 4 is in the lineup.

As a huge fan of Metal Gear as a series, Metal Gear Solid 4 has always lived in my head as one of those moments in gaming where we got something so weird and almost an abrasive experience that it was brought back around to being noteworthy. The peak of Kojima’s apparent lapses in memory, where he thought he was making a movie and forgot about the game parts. It should be a bad thing that every time another cutscene comes up, I have to turn my controller back on by the time it’s wrapping up. It should be a bad thing that Metal Gear Solid 4 ends with a staggering 70 minute string of cutscenes. But somehow, by some miracle, it isn’t. It’s glorious. We been duped into watching a movie while being told to hold a controller.

But we love that. If you are a fan of Metal Gear as a series, this is somehow exactly what you want. You (we) have been conditioned to sit there and take it in. It stays interesting, even when it goes for too long. Routinely you’re hit with 20 minute cutscene strings, basically inserting a TV episode-length discussion in the middle of your gameplay. It’s a love it or hate it kind of thing, but… I love it. You just have to know what you’re getting into.

Metal Gear Solid 4 was (and is) a legendary game. The finale (sorta) of a game series with a storyline that feels like it has too many threads to possibly reach a conclusion manages to do the unexpected and actually conclude them all. The impossible: done. Too easy, apparently. Brought back in this instance, entirely faithful to the original version, but with some minor graphics setting options. It definitely looks better than the PS3 version, but don’t get it wrong: it’s not remastered, it’s simply just running on newer hardware that allows the original release to look a bit better. Luckily, most of the cutscenes are handled in-engine rather than being pre-rendered, so even in the cutscenes, you can expect better visuals than the original PS3 release. However, it is worth a note that there are pre-rendered cutscene present in MGS4. These are not redone in any way. It’s mostly fine, because they looked good at the time, but they are definitely a bit rough around the edges.

For Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, what you get it the HD remastered version. This is the version released in 2011 for the PS3 and Xbox 360, made to bring it up to console-tier from its original home on the PSP. It’s honestly a bit surprising to realize that Peace Walker was made for the PSP because it has some ideas that go quite in-depth beyond what any other game before it in the series had done. The whole base R&D thing with recovering enemy soldiers from the field via parachute-balloon (fulton recovery) devices ended up finding its home in full fruition in Metal Gear Solid 5, but you might find it surprising how little adjustment was needed between what they did with Peace Walker and the system there.

You will notice that levels are a bit tighter, with less enemies than in any other game; mostly an artifact of the fact that it is a PSP game. But like I said, it does well to hide this, so you might notice it, but it doesn’t ever feel like it hurts the game. Being built around the understanding of the limitations of it’s original platform helps it to be higher quality overall and refine the edges. It is still a PSP game though, so expect it to have some oddities when compared against a more modern game, or even Metal Gear Solid 4.

The only other thing to note with this collection is Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel. Originally a Gameboy Color release, it is canonically detached from the rest of the series while still using many of the same characters. There’s a good chance that even devoted series fans never heard of or touched this entry. Not surprising considering that it’s kind of left out of the conversation. I would say in this scenario, it is VERY rough to play, but it is interesting as a relic of the past. Since there are not graphical refinements done other than benefits gained from better hardware, it is honestly a bit of an eyesore on a TV or computer monitor. I imagine this would feel much more at home if you’re someone playing through a switch or a PC handheld system. Interesting, but a bit of a struggle for me with the extreme stretching going on to help it fit on a big screen rather than the original 160 × 144.

There’s not a ton I think is needed to be said about Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol.2, largely because I can’t imagine many people buying this without being familiar with the series already and/or having bought Volume 1. It’s honestly not a great place to jump into the series, so I would recommend buying volume 1 before touching this. But for those of you who have played through the contents of volume 1, even in the past, before they were bundled in a modern volume, then get it. We all know you want it. The only reason I’m giving it anything other than a 10 is because it is mostly a set of ports rather than any real meaningful updates/redos.

Konami provided us with a Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 PC code for review purposes.

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