I know a lot of people (rightfully) shit on Konami all the time, of which the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection was no exception. However, the fact that you can buy each game in the collection separately is great, and finally gave me the opportunity to get the one game I was missing, since I already own the HD Collection. They put pants on Johnny, but I can look past that for the fact that I finally got to play such a classic game.
Metal Gear is a series that always embraced the medium it’s a part of, and this game in particular has many moments that acknowledge the meta abilities of gaming. From Meryl’s codec number in the manual, to Psycho Mantis’ card reading and controller swapping, these are super cool moments that are unfortunately restricted to quirks of the PS1’s hardware. I’m glad they were all left included in the Master Collection, even if they are completely superficial. The manual has to be online in the menu because we’re in a more digital age, and all of the Psycho Mantis trickery is now superficial options in the settings. You basically play pretend by hitting a button that says “switch controller port” on your wireless console, or by filling a fake memory card. While these don’t quite have the impact of the real thing, I really wouldn’t have put it past Konami if they had removed them all together, so it’s a pretty good way of handling things. I don’t really have much else to say about the Master Collection differences since I’m not so knowledgeable on the changes as I am with other franchises, I can understand why many people think it’s lacklustre though.
Anyway, onto the actual game: just to start with something positive, this is my favourite atmosphere and (overall) soundtrack in the series. The Carpenter inspired techno sounds with the brooding vocalisation are so awesome. I also think this has the most distinct art style in the series.
In terms of gameplay, it’s quite old fashioned/arcade-y. It’s the level-by-level, one mistake and game-over type of design. It’s honestly a really short game in terms of raw stealth segments: if you cut out the cutscenes, bossfights and backtracking, there’s only about a dozen rooms of actual sneaking, which is my favourite part of the game. Despite being a lot simpler than the later games, I was able to engage with stealth a lot more than my pre-Phantom Pain mentality. The aforementioned backtracking is a pretty unnecessary way to pad the runtime, but it really isn’t that bad with the PAL key. Finding the sniper is a little worse, especially since I was a dumbass and didn’t save the game for the whole hour it took me to find it and then end up in the torture room. You can guess what ending I got on my first playthrough lol.
The story is pretty solid (pun intended?) and plays out the same as practically every other game in the series, with long codec calls and villains monologuing 20 years of intricate history before you fistfight them to death. I haven’t really mentioned this in my other MGS reviews, but I’ve always found the storytelling in these games to be really bizarre, since it goes against all writing tips and is 80% exposition. It works pretty well for an espionage thriller and it has slowly been growing on me.
This game still managed to frustrate me a lot though. Combat is very challenging and causes some bossfights to blow. Sniper Wolf sucks the most. “Hey, in our top down stealth game with no cover based shooting, let's have a sniper duel, with the worst scope controls known to man, and also getting shot every 2 seconds which fucks with the camera angle!” There’s also the infamous stairs which really wouldn't be so bad if there weren’t infinite enemy spawns, because why not I guess. The abundance of bossfights makes this feel less like a stealth game sometimes and more like a boss rush, which is more of a personal issue I have rather than an actual flaw in the game.
Anyway, I’m glad I finally got to play it, but 6 games deep into this franchise I’m starting to realise that I’m probably not the number 1 fan of metal gear. I can still recognise why these games are so beloved and will probably replay it eventually.
Metal Gear is a series that always embraced the medium it’s a part of, and this game in particular has many moments that acknowledge the meta abilities of gaming. From Meryl’s codec number in the manual, to Psycho Mantis’ card reading and controller swapping, these are super cool moments that are unfortunately restricted to quirks of the PS1’s hardware. I’m glad they were all left included in the Master Collection, even if they are completely superficial. The manual has to be online in the menu because we’re in a more digital age, and all of the Psycho Mantis trickery is now superficial options in the settings. You basically play pretend by hitting a button that says “switch controller port” on your wireless console, or by filling a fake memory card. While these don’t quite have the impact of the real thing, I really wouldn’t have put it past Konami if they had removed them all together, so it’s a pretty good way of handling things. I don’t really have much else to say about the Master Collection differences since I’m not so knowledgeable on the changes as I am with other franchises, I can understand why many people think it’s lacklustre though.
Anyway, onto the actual game: just to start with something positive, this is my favourite atmosphere and (overall) soundtrack in the series. The Carpenter inspired techno sounds with the brooding vocalisation are so awesome. I also think this has the most distinct art style in the series.
In terms of gameplay, it’s quite old fashioned/arcade-y. It’s the level-by-level, one mistake and game-over type of design. It’s honestly a really short game in terms of raw stealth segments: if you cut out the cutscenes, bossfights and backtracking, there’s only about a dozen rooms of actual sneaking, which is my favourite part of the game. Despite being a lot simpler than the later games, I was able to engage with stealth a lot more than my pre-Phantom Pain mentality. The aforementioned backtracking is a pretty unnecessary way to pad the runtime, but it really isn’t that bad with the PAL key. Finding the sniper is a little worse, especially since I was a dumbass and didn’t save the game for the whole hour it took me to find it and then end up in the torture room. You can guess what ending I got on my first playthrough lol.
The story is pretty solid (pun intended?) and plays out the same as practically every other game in the series, with long codec calls and villains monologuing 20 years of intricate history before you fistfight them to death. I haven’t really mentioned this in my other MGS reviews, but I’ve always found the storytelling in these games to be really bizarre, since it goes against all writing tips and is 80% exposition. It works pretty well for an espionage thriller and it has slowly been growing on me.
This game still managed to frustrate me a lot though. Combat is very challenging and causes some bossfights to blow. Sniper Wolf sucks the most. “Hey, in our top down stealth game with no cover based shooting, let's have a sniper duel, with the worst scope controls known to man, and also getting shot every 2 seconds which fucks with the camera angle!” There’s also the infamous stairs which really wouldn't be so bad if there weren’t infinite enemy spawns, because why not I guess. The abundance of bossfights makes this feel less like a stealth game sometimes and more like a boss rush, which is more of a personal issue I have rather than an actual flaw in the game.
Anyway, I’m glad I finally got to play it, but 6 games deep into this franchise I’m starting to realise that I’m probably not the number 1 fan of metal gear. I can still recognise why these games are so beloved and will probably replay it eventually.