There is a lot of stuff in the (deep breath) Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1. And I mean a lot. Obviously there's the games, which includes several regional variations if you ever wanted to 100% the US, EU and Japanese versions of anything. Then there's also a comprehensive collection of extra bits which I'll get to in a moment but, obviously, the more important questions are how does it play and how does it looks? Well, a lot like this:
I played a little bit of all three of the main games, so MGS 1-3, on Switch and they felt great on the handheld. All three run and play beautifully, once you get used to the buttons, that is. There are some very old 90s style control layouts, particularly for first person aiming on the latter two games, and some more than a few basic options (like inventory management, say) where you don't expect them by modern standards. Even for me, as someone old enough to have played them when the originally released, there was some tentative button pushing to work out where everything was (as you can see in some of the capture).
The controls fall into place quickly enough though and, from what I played, everything holds up well even 20-odd years later. That 'stealth espionage' action has still got it and, if I hadn't been trying to see as much as I could in the hour I had available, I would have happily got lost in any one of the three I played for ages. MGS 3 in particular, with its camouflage, animal hunting/food gathering, and survival mechanics is probably the one I most want to revisit.
- Over 20 years of muscle memory made Metal Gear Solid Delta feel like I was just playing the original – and MGS heads like me know that's truly special
- 26 years on, developers discuss the massive impact Metal Gear Solid had on the industry: "This was going much further than all previous action games. And that was totally inspiring"
This is a comprehensive collection though and, as well as the core MGS 1, 2, and 3 (including MGS 1's additional VR and Special Missions), there's also the original pre-PlayStation Metal Gear 1 and 2 (including the NES version of Metal Gear) and Snake's Revenge. Adding to all that are full screenplays for the core games and a 'Master Book', a sort of digital version of one of those coffee table books full of art, images and info. And then there's more bonus content including the digital graphic novels of MGS 1 and 2, originally released on PSP.
I wish I'd had more time to play all what's available because the hour I had barely gave me the time to just whizz through and look at everything quick. Even with such a brief whistle stop tour though it all still feels big and luxurious though. And, with so much to digest and play, so I'm very much looking forward to the full release so I can relax and enjoy it at my leisure.
