Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 Review

Having never played a Metal Gear game before, it felt daunting to try and encapsulate the feeling the game gives off without sounding like a complete newb. Sure, it’s any reviewer’s job to take the basic tenets of a game and distill them into easily palatable descriptions to help people decide if they should spend their hard earned money on something. Metal Gear comes with a certain degree of expectation though. It’s a massive piece of the video game pantheon, up there with Mario, Halo and even Pokémon Shining Pearl. Still, if it’s one job to try and encapsulate something’s worth by its many pieces, it’s important to at least try. So here it goes.

First up is Ghost Babel, originally a Game Boy Color exclusive. This is definitely the simplest of the titles, gameplay wise. Still, it pops together thanks to a cohesion of brilliant level layouts, smart sound design, and a story that’s just intriguing enough to pull you in. It also comes with the least frills, only containing a digital sound track and the original manual. The manuals on all three games are a nice touch, but the zoom option is a bit wonky. Which is a shame, because the size of the text is also a bit small, making it harder to read than it really should be.

Up next, a personal favourite, with Peace Walker. Taking place in Central America, Peace Walker was originally a PSP exclusive, before getting ported to the Xbox 360 and PS3 via the Metal Gear Solid Collection. This one features much better gameplay than Babel (not Babel‘s fault mind you, as it was a Game Boy Color game and therefore was limited by the hardware). The story feels a lot heavier thanks to the excellent voice acting, and the gunplay and stealth are the best of the three. Missions are appropriately small, and between them you can take on special challenges or even upgrade your facility to get better weapons and more.

Finally, there’s Guns of the Patriots, which is definitely the biggest draw to the collection. Previously, this was a PlayStation 3 exclusive, locking it to a single divisive console for a number of years. While it’s also a great game in its own right, it just didn’t click as much as Peace Walker. The Middle Eastern setting is really well realised, and the voice acting is great (Khary Peyton is always a treat).

Both Peace Walker and Guns of the Patriots come with a Master Guide and Screenplays, and these are nice touches for long-time fans who maybe want to get something a bit more out of these experiences. The text is, again, a little small, and this time there’s no way to zoom in at all. Still, the extras are nice to have. Another particularly unique thing here is that each game is it’s own icon, instead of having a single launcher. This is largely unimportant, but it would have been nice if you could delete a single game, instead of having to keep all three instances if the game is put in. Maybe a single launcher would have been better, but it’s ultimately not a huge deal.

Now, for a confession. This reviewer is not particularly good at stealth games. Much of the play time for this review was spent shooting and hiding, so much so that it looked like Nathan Drake was on screen half the time. However, as far as first experiences go, this was a doozy. Metal Gear just feels different than other games, stealth or third-person shooter-wise.

The sound of getting caught or looting someone, the way item pick ups just hang in the air, and yet everything feels strangely grounded. It’s a beautiful balancing act between video game and cinema (you have to remain engaged even during the cutscenes, as the game occasionally throws in inputs, which is brilliant). Thanks to these little idiosyncrasies, there’s definitely a warm blanket feel here that makes the whole experience something truly special.

Cubed3 Rating

Yes, the collection-specific stuff like the manuals could be tightened up, but what an excellent example of gaming that is collected here. Each Metal Geargame being good helps a lot, and combining them into one trim collection without a ton of frills was a good idea. If you’re a fan of shooting, sneaking and even occasionally laughing a little, this collection is a must buy.

10/10

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