Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 – Kept you waiting, huh?

The Metal Gear franchise is certainly one that doesn’t need introductions. Developed by Kojima Productions and directed by legendary game designer Hideo Kojima, this is one of the most important series in the videogames industry.

Unfortunately, the series ended abruptly with MGS V: The Phantom Pain due to internal conflicts between Konami and Kojima, but the good news is that after so many years Konami finally decided to port these iconic games to modern consoles and PC for the first time ever.  

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Metal Gear: A timeless masterpiece

This Master Collection Volume 1 is a treat for both nostalgic players and newcomers who never had the chance to play the series from the beginning. A Volume 2 with the remaining games (MGS Peace Walker, MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots and MGS 5) will likely come in the future, along with the Metal Gear Solid 3 Delta remake, so this feels like the best time to re-live Snake’s epic adventures.

This first volume includes 5 games: Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 (both MSX and NES versions), Metal Gear Solid (including VR/Special Missions), Metal Gear Solid 2 (HD collection version) and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (HD collection version).

Additionally, the collection includes a great number of goodies, such as digital soundtracks, graphic novels, screenplay and master books for each game. For fans of the series, it will be nice to have all the bonus content available in one place.

Tactical espionage action

I must say that all these games aged really well, probably because they were already ahead of time when they released. The cinematic cutscenes with the original voice overs are still immersive while the stealth gameplay is always fun and enjoyable.

Each title has a different protagonist (Big Boss, his son Solid Snake and Raiden) and they alternate different themes, such as politics, genes, war and information control. Stealth is the common element in each game, so you will often scout every area thinking about the easiest way to reach your objective without being detected by enemy guards.

The gameplay becomes more complex with MGS3, in which you can change your uniform to increase your camouflage with the environment, hunt animals, eat food and heal body injuries. Intense boss fights are also a recurrent aspect, with each title including a great number of iconic enemies (such as Psycho Mantis, Vamp and The End) that require different combat strategies. Each game doesn’t offer much replayability once finished, but the whole package will be more than enough for a single playthrough.

As for the visual enhancements and performance, unfortunately this collection is not a proper remaster. MGS2 and MGS3 are based on the previous HD Collection version, so these games don’t support resolutions higher than 1080p at 60fps, unless installing user-made mods.

Personally, I was really hoping to see more graphical improvements, such as 4K resolution, better textures, shadows and lighting, but this isn’t the case. Some mods are already available, but if someone can easily create a mod for 4K, there is no reason for Konami to not make one.

Protecting the past

Remasters are often criticized for being unnecessary or just cash grab operations, but in cases like this, they do have a very important role: they preserve videogames and protect the past. Streamers might also have a key role in this.

By streaming the Master Collection, they will let more players discover this amazing series. The whole collection might be difficult to stream, because all these games require at least 50 hours in total for completion, but it should be easy to get the audience engaged thanks to the iconic characters, the epic boss fights and the stealth approach that can create many interesting and funny situations.

Streaming these games could appeal both nostalgic fans and newcomers who want to experience the series for the first time.

marcoleo

I’m a passionate guy who loves videogames, movies, anime and comics. I like to talk about videogames and share my opinion with the world.