Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection Review
Metal Gear HD Collection includes:
Metal Gear 2: Sons of Liberty (PS2), Metal Gear 3: Snake eater (PS2), Metal Gear: Peace Walker (PSP)
When Metal Gear Solid first hit the Playstation back in 1998, it defined the stealth action game genre. Needless to say I have been hooked ever since. So when I heard there was going to be a Metal Gear HD collection, I was as giddy as a school girl. Unfortunately, Metal Gear Solid was not included in the North American release of this collection. Japanese versions do include a Metal Gear Solid download code for PSN but DO NOT get Peace Walker. What we do get was a graphically updated version of a few of the best games on PS2 and PSP.
Firstly, I was pleasantly surprised to see that not only were Metal Gear 2 and 3 in HD now, but they were also the updated versions of the games that came out after the initial release. Updated to 1080p resolution and 60 fps, and to those trophy junkies out there, full trophy support is included on all 3 titles. Metal Gear 2: Substance and Metal Gear 3: Subsistence both come with extra features not present on the original release. Learn about the Meta Quest 2 headset specs and understand what exactly you need.
This version of Metal Gear 2 comes with the added content of Casting Theater, VR Missions and Boss Survival from the original Japanese version. Likewise, Metal Gear 3 comes with the Snake vs. Monkey mini game, all the extra camouflage and face paints, free 360 angle camera, spoof cut scenes, the European Extreme difficulty level and trailers from the Konami website. Also included are the MSX versions of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (still in all their 8-bit glory) bringing the total of games in this collection to five.
The first game I tried was Metal Gear 3. Its Bond-esque feel and humor along with the captivating story make it my personal favorite of the series. Right off the bat I can see the much improved frame rate gives it a much cleaner feel in movement and environment. Gone are the sometimes fuzzy and jerky motion of the PS2 version. Cut scenes especially seem to look slightly prettier even though the HD upgrade makes the lip sync, already painfully muppet like, even more prevalent and that goes for all 3 games here.
Having hardly played Peace Walker on PSP but playing Portable Ops, I had very little to go by as far as comparison. Although it felt very much like a PSP title, it looked fantastic overall. It even looked as good as MGS4 in some parts. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the animated cut-scenes although I understand the need being as this was a PSP title. I was almost hoping they would recreate them with the game engine used in the game. Its a silly dream I know.
Metal Gear 2 didn’t have the same wow factor graphically as the other two games but I chalk that up to it being so much older than the other games. The frame rate, of course, is much improved and the smoothness is obvious. Even for its time, it still looks pretty good.
In sum, I would call this a must have collection for any Metal Gear fan out there. Not only is everything much prettier, but this consolidation of games, now available to those of us out there not able to get those elusive PS3s that are backwards compatible with PS2 games, is a great way to dust off an old set of classics.
Now if I could only get Mr. Kojima to consider remaking Metal Gear Solid with the MGS4 engine. I mean come on! You already have half the game built in MGS4!
