The Metal Gear Solid franchise is one that has been around a while and one that has a huge fan base. Metal Gear Solid is a stealth-action game much like its rival Splinter Cell. Kojima Productions is responsible for this franchise and it's leader, Hideo Kojmia, is one of the best in video game world and is a man who tried to leave but he could not. Metal Gear Solid HD Collection is the latest Metal Gear Solid game and it is a collection of Metal Gear Solid 2, 3, and Peace Walker. Many were surprised at the inclusion of Peace Walker over Metal Gear Solid 1, including my self. These games were updated to “HD” textures and resolutions and in the case of Peace Walker adapted to a dual joystick controller.
I am going to break down each of the games in this collection starting with Metal Gear Solid 2. As you probably know Metal Gear Solid 2 is regarded as the worst of the Metal Gear Solids, and this is because of Kojmia's decision to make “Raiden” the main character in place of “Snake”. Back when Metal Gear Solid 2 came out this fact was unknown to all but people who had worked on the game, and when the public found out they were, to say the least, pissed. Raiden as a character is different than Snake as a character, as he is more winey and is a child of VR. For the first couple hours you play as Snake on a tanker where Snake is tasked with outing the fact that the US Marines made a new Metal Gear. Flash-forward two years and you are Raiden. You are on “Big Shell” which on the same area that the tanker was two years ago. You are tasked with saving the president so that terrorist don’t launch a nuke. That's all the story I am going to get into as the game is nearly 10 years old and to be honest I really do not understand anything that goes on in this story.
I had not played Metal Gear Solid 2 prior to playing it in the collection so I can not say for sure that the version in the collection looks better, but it looks OK. There are things that look pretty good, like the faces of Snake and Raiden. Those are the best looking things in the game, but the faces of all the characters look pretty good, but the rest of their body does not look as good. You can tell that the faces are what they focused on and it looks weird when the faces look really good, but the body's are kind of bad. In the subsistence version of Metal Gear Solid 3 they fixed the biggest problem I had with Metal Gear Solid, and that was the camera. I was hoping that with the HD collection that they would have went back and retroactively fixed the camera, but they did not. The camera in Metal Gear Solid 2 is a fixed camera and it takes a long time to get used to and it makes me wonder why this was ever considered an good camera. Everything that was included in the re-release of Metal Gear Solid 2, Substance, is present in the collection as this is the version they used. Overall Metal Gear Solid 2 is a good game and should be played, but be warned that the camera is horrible and take a lot of getting used to.
Metal Gear Solid 3 is my favorite of the series and it is mostly because it was the first to have a better camera. The version of Metal Gear Solid 3 is the re-release, Subsistence. This re-release was the first one to feature the 3D camera and it made the game infinitely better. Metal Gear Solid 3 is actually a pre-quel to other Metal Gear Solids and you take control of “Naked Snake” who was the first of the Snakes. You are tasked with getting weapons from a Russian who wishes to defect to the US. The main new feature in this game is the camouflage system. This is a system where you must change the camouflage of Snakes face and body in order to blend in to the environment This is really the only new thing in Metal Gear Solid 3. The game basically plays just like past games, with the only improvement is the camera. Let me stress this, the camera in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence makes the game infinitely more playable. The version in this collection looks a little better than the original, but as with Metal Gear Solid 2 the faces were definitely the focus. Overall Metal Gear Solid 3 alone is worth buying this package.
Now the third and final game included in the collection is Peace Walker. Peace Walker is the sequel to Portable Ops which is the sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3. Peace Walker was one of the PSP Metal Gear Solid games which meant they had to do some changes in the controls to make it work on the PSP. The game on consoles plays better than other Metal Gear Solid games mostly because it adds auto aim and a button that makes CQC easier. I played Peace Walker in completion on the PSP and I can say that this was the focus of the team when making this HD. The story cut-scenes are the comic book or graphic novel that was first introduced in the ACID games. So those did not need much touch up, and they looks pretty much the same. The in game cut-scenes and the character models that you will see in codec sequences or loading screens look fantastic. It sounds cliche but sometimes they look like real people and it is just outstanding. When you start the game you are greeted with a good tutorial which all Metal Gear games could benefit from as the controls for the Metal Gear games can be confusing at times.
This adaptation of of PSP game is just incredible as the game looks better than some other games that are coming out now, and controls great. The new game play thing that was introduced in Portable-Ops is the recruiting team members to increase your team. The better team you get the better weapons and other items you can have access to. The main control option makes the game handle more like a shooter , and that is for the better. The shooting in past Metal Gear Solid games have not been the best and any thing to make it better is fine with me. Also in Peace Walker is the camouflage system from Metal Gear Solid 3, but the way you get new and different camo is through your R&D team which is the team responsible for the items you will get. Overall if you played Peace Walker on PSP and liked it there is not anything new here, but the HD upgrade and dual stick controls makes the game play better than ever.
The Metal Gear Solid HD Collection is a great deal for anyone who has not played a Metal Gear Solid game before, but Metal Gear Solid 2 can take some getting used to so know that going in. On the 360 version the collection is a two-disc set and on the first disc you get Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 and the second disc is Peace Walker. The second disc when playing on 360 rings up as Peace Walker HD and has its own set of a achievements worth 1000gs. I kind of wish each game had its own achievements, but Peace Walker having its own set of achievements is cool. I highly suggest this package to anyone with a slight interest in stealth-action games, as it is only $50. The inclusion of Metal Gear Solid 1 would have been great as well as them updating the camera for Metal Gear Solid 2, but this is a great deal.
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