Review: METAL GEAR SOLID: MASTER COLLECTION VOL. 1 is a Very Lazy Disappointment

Within the last couple of weeks, Konami released Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1. This is a collection of several games from the Metal Gear series and was released on Nintendo Switch, PC (through various retailers including Humble [affiliate link]), PS5, and Xbox consoles (affiliate link). Physical versions are also available through your favorite retailers including GameStop (affiliate link). Konami was kind enough to provide me with a code for the Master Collection on Xbox Series X|S, but the thoughts below are my own.

The launch of the Master Collection has been a kerfuffle to say the least. Before launch, it was already coming under fire for a few reasons and then it launched and many fans were not happy. I want to preface the rest of my review by sharing that I have not played any Metal Gear games prior to this and so the thoughts below will be a mix of my reactions with some things I’ve seen around to discuss the performance of the games.

I’m going to start with my personal thoughts regarding the Master Collection. So far, I’ve really been enjoying these games. The gameplay is fun even if I sometimes get frustrated by various aspects such as control layout or missing a key item earlier in a level. I’ve been wanting to play these games for a while and I was stoked to get this chance. I also really like some of the goodies included including the scripts for the games, books with additional information about the games, and more. I really like and appreciate how more of these collections are becoming more archival in nature. It’s also important to note that they do include images of box art which is crucial for some objectives in the games. Of course, I also love the sheer number of games included. Finally, I appreciate that they acknowledge some aspects of the game may be problematic to some degree with a message as you load the games, but they don’t alter anything in-game which for me is how it should be. Let people play it as it was, but acknowledge that some ideas, views, etc. are not good. It’s like what Disney has done with some of their older content and I think it’s good for preserving historical media. Unfortunately, that’s about as far as the pros go.

The first thing that irritated me is that the MXS games are grouped together, the NES games are bundled with some bonus content, and everything else is a separate download. While I can appreciate the ability for gamers to save some precious storage space from games they’re not playing, a unified launcher would’ve been so incredible. I’m thinking of something like Halo: The Master Chief Collection. You boot up the launcher and can download the individual games from inside there. That would have been so much nicer.

It was also disappointing how there were no extra filters or anything for any of the games. Being able to add scanlines to the MSX and NES games would’ve been a nice touch. A sharpening filter toggle for Metal Gear Solid would’ve been welcome from me. Everything is so blurry in that game. We do know that Konami plans to bring scanlines for the NES games, but maybe they should have been there at launch. You cannot even adjust the brightness of the games. It just tells you to change your TV’s brightness.

Now we’re going to get into more of the technical aspects. I’m not really equipped to talk too much about it, but I would recommend checking out the below video from IGN where they do a Digital Foundry-esque technical breakdown. In short, Metal Gear Solid should run at 60fps, or at least a stable 30fps, but it doesn’t and that’s bad. I honestly would’ve been fine with the 30fps cap on Metal Gear Solid if it had been a stable 30fps, but it’s not.

While I’ve been playing on Xbox Series X, I do also know that the PC version of the Master Collection has been a mess that deserves a brief mention. This review is not for the PC version, but it’s important to note in context. It’s a fixed resolution and from what I’ve heard the controls are absolute garbage which is even more frustrating considering the fact that Metal Gear Solid has been available on PC for a while.

Another item that has many fans questioning Konami’s decision-making is the lack of the Gamecube remake Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. They could have included this game as an option to provide a nicer looking version of the first game for anyone interested. Maybe it’ll be in a second volume of the collection?

At the end of the day, I’m glad the Master Collection exists. It allows gamers like me to enjoy classic games that we missed out on or are nostalgic for using modern hardware. Heck, the games are fun to play. Unfortunately, it really shows that Konami saw this as a simple money grab and put no effort into making it something fans talk about for years to come. I appreciate the team adding the bonus items and allowing gamers to experience the games as close to the original as possible, but everything falls flat. When a PS1 game can’t even run at a stable 30fps on an Xbox Series X, something has gone wrong. All this being said, Konami could eventually use updates and patches to right these wrongs, but this truly is a disappointment for many. It feels like it wasn’t ready but they wanted to get it out in time for the predatory holiday season sales.