Metal Gear Solid HD Master Collection Vol. 1 Review

thesixthaxis.com:

The 90s were bloody strange, and 1998 was no exception. We’re talking about the year that Google was founded, that the fervour of the FIFA World Cup was in France, while Bill Clinton was denying all sorts of things in the US, and in Japan, Hideo Kojima released a game that shot him into the halls of video game fame: Metal Gear Solid. It was a strange and different time.

Now, in 2023, the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol.1 has been released, and we’re sitting here scratching our heads and wondering why. Why on Earth would anyone in their right mind pay full price for an unambitious, vapid re-release of the HD Collection on the latest console? Sure, these were individually brilliant games, but the minds behind this soulless cash grab didn’t even take the time to roll everything into a single app.

For all our love of this franchise, it’s difficult to see this as anything more complex than that. There is nothing new here: it looks and feels like it was put together by someone they had in for work experience. Don’t get us wrong: back in 1998, Metal Gear Solid was groundbreaking. First, the story was excellent (if a little barmy), but what shone through was the physicality of the game. There were secrets hidden on the box (remember when games used to come in these?), and the Psycho Mantis trick of unplugging the controller and plugging it into the second controller port (consoles used to have these) was a stroke of genius.

Metal Gear Solid 2 flipped the script by bringing in Raiden to be the Watson to our Holmes. Though the internet was widely disgusted at not being able to play as Snake after the opening act, Sons of Liberty was still very good, and without it, we wouldn’t have the best video game title of all time — Metal