For many, they are the greatest games ever made. With each iteration Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid franchise managed to push the boundaries of video games, creating some of the most immersive story-driven entertainment of all time. Growing up in the 2000's, I became a major fanboy of the series that managed to combine the sci-fi military tech of a cheesy paperback novel with a heaping helping of anime sensibility. And it's been a rocky road for fans of the series as it's been difficult to obtain the older games on newer consoles. In fact, not since the PS3 have you been able to catch up on the entire saga on one console.
That becomes one of my major sticking points with the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 1 — and I'll get it out of the way immediately. Ten years ago for the same price you got the entire franchise (sans the 5th game, which had yet to come out) in one set. It was a great value that even included Peace Walker on top of the mainline games.
Now here is the anorexic Volume 1 that does offer decent value with three of the best games of all time represented...but feels a bit like a slapdash cash-in on the franchise rather than a celebration of one of Konami's most beloved series.
For instance, Metal Gear Solid is just a basic ROM of the original game with nothing to help graphical fidelity or improve gameplay. I was hoping to be able to play The Twin Snakes, the Gamecube remake, that afforded some quality-of-life improvements, but it's sadly missing. As great as Metal Gear Solid is, it needed more love than what is given here. Playing through it is a blast from the past but I can't see anyone outside a certain age range finding enjoyment in visiting it.
Metal Gear Solid 2 is a marked improvement in gameplay and graphical quality simply because it was a PS2 game. I found myself relishing the chance to replay this game as it had been twelve or so years since last I sat down with it. Raiden's introduction still rankles some who expected the game to focus on Solid Snake but nowadays I think fans are a much nicer on Raiden, especially after the meme that is Revengeance.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is possibly my favorite game of all time and many fans' favorite. Set in the 60's and focusing on a young Naked Snake on the verge of a Cold War crisis, if there was one reason to buy this collection on a steep discount, this would be it. MGS3 is one of gaming's best stories wrapped up in fantastic stealth gameplay with a lot of surprises and easter eggs along the way.
Also in the collection are the original Metal Gear games...which are admittedly too hard and old-school for a gaming weakling such as myself. Adding in some extra languages, the scripts for the games, and some comic versions of the stories of the first two games makes for a decent amount of extra content for fans to dig into.
Ultimately, though, without the whole series being represented and with how little effort was put into the collection, I can't fully recommend Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 1 unless you are someone who has been wanting to play these games following exposure to The Phantom Pain. These are three fantastic games representing the best of their eras...but this collection represents the worst of our own. Many companies are doing similar low-effort re-releases of their classic games but you'd expect a lot more for a franchise that means as much as Metal Gear does to so many gamers.
Console: PS5
Rating: 7/10
Publisher provided review code in exchange for honest review.
