Much has already been said about the woeful state of Metal Gear Solid Master Collection: Volume 1. The idea is certainly enticing on paper: for £50/$60, Konami promises us seven main entries in the series in one package for current-gen and last-gen consoles plus PC.
The content here is not the issue. We get the PS1 classic MGS, with the VR missions pack included, we get MGS2: Sons of Liberty and MGS3: Snake Eater, with enhancements from the later Substance and Subsistence versions. And to sweeten the deal, there’s the MSX2 releases of Metal Gear and Metal Gear2: Solid Snake, while both NES Metal Gears make a rare appearance too for a series collection. That takes us from the series’ inception in 1987 right up to MGS3 in 2004, with room for a Master Collection Volume 2 to expand beyond that.
There are omissions of course, but it would have been enough if each game had been ported to current-gen consoles with the love and attention they deserve – but sadly, this isn’t the reality. Regardless of which platform you buy the Master Collection on, and despite some admittedly nice extras on the front-end, this release could and should have been so much more.
