Metal Gear Solid HD Collection

This 2011 collection puts some of gaming’s most famous stealth action games together in the same place for the first time. Combining Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, as well as the PSP’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, this awesome collection gives players the chance to experience these games once more but in crisp HD.

War Hasn’t Changed

Metal Gear is perhaps one of the most famous and critically acclaimed video game series of all time. Players who missed out on the first run will be glad to know that the Metal Gear Solid is pretty much the exact same set of games but with a nice high definition presentation. The excellent gameplay is all still there, so players who are hopping back into Snake’s camo and bandana won’t miss a beat.

Visually, the games are stunning and really show how fantastic they looked on their original Playstation releases. That said, Peace Walker in particular shows some odd dips in quality due to it being a PSP release. Specifically, Snake’s player model looks great but the environments can look significantly worse by comparison since they’ve been upscaled from a much lower resolution.

That said, the collection adds some modern quality of life improvements like online multiplayer for Peace Walker, a menu screen to switch from game to game, as well as Playstation trophies and Xbox achievements for players to hunt for.

A Complicated Story

Safe to say that players will need to pay attention when playing through the complex story of the Metal Gear series. The story first starts in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, where many gamers first entered the series. It might be worth reading a rundown of the events before this game, since many of MGS2’s narrative is focused on subverting players’ expectations of a highly anticipated sequel.

Things don’t really get much easier from there. While the story isn’t impossible to follow, you might find yourself lost from time to time, but it's nothing that a quick Google can’t solve. With decades of history, pop culture, military and in-universe references, don’t be embarrassed if you can’t exactly remember who it is you’re talking to at any given moment.

Snake? Snake!

As such an influential piece of gaming history, it was inevitable that the Metal Gear franchise’s bread and butter stealth mechanics would eventually go out of date. For the most part, however, the games run smoothly and are not difficult to pick up and play. That said, players used to more modern control schemes might find themselves running into walls, stopping dead in their tracks, or just generally being confused by the somewhat clunky controller setup.

The experimentation is all still here though, and first time players will get to experience the insane amount of detail and clever game design that Hideo Kojima is known for. While players might want to crawl as slowly as possible to avoid detection the first time around, second runs are exciting places to discover all the deep mechanics hidden into this excellent trilogy.

PROS

• Awesome, iconic stealth action gameplay
• Inventive game mechanics and thrilling moment-to-moment stealth
• Intriguing and exciting story

CONS

• Story can be difficult to follow
• Can be a little quirky at times
• Mechanics haven’t aged particularly well