Review: METAL GEAR SOLID: MASTER COLLECTION Vol.2
Take your cardboard box, it is time to infiltrate.
The Master Collection Vol. 2 expands the franchise's preservation efforts by bringing together three very different moments from Metal Gear. The main highlight is naturally Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, which finally leaves its PlayStation 3 exclusivity behind and arrives on modern platforms, but the collection also brings back Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, originally released for the Game Boy Color. The package also includes additional materials such as screenplay books, master books, the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database, and a digital soundtrack, creating a compilation that goes beyond the games themselves. With improvements to resolution, performance, and accessibility, the goal is to preserve these experiences in a format better suited to modern hardware while maintaining a close relationship with what the games originally offered.
METAL GEAR SOLID 4: Guns of the Patriots
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots arrives with the structure that defined its original PlayStation 3 release remaining almost entirely intact, something that becomes clear from the very beginning of the campaign. Even with the improvements to resolution, performance, and accessibility applied to this new version, there are still some characteristics that reveal the project's age. Enemy identification, for example, can be somewhat confusing in certain situations, while their visual behavior also feels dated by today's standards. These are elements that were already part of the original experience and remain present here, but they do not prevent the game from offering one of the most complete espionage experiences of its generation. The freedom to approach each situation also remains one of its greatest strengths, allowing players to advance by directly eliminating enemies or choosing a completely stealthy approach, which continues to be the most interesting way to experience the campaign.
The improved graphical quality, higher resolution, performance of up to 60 frames per second on more powerful platforms, and several accessibility adjustments make the experience more comfortable, but there is a difference between modernizing a game and truly refining it. Metal Gear Solid 4 remains very close to the original material, and this means that some opportunities are left unexplored. There are sections featuring debris and certain visual elements that could have received better treatment, while some of the weapon sights still use that rounded design that feels somewhat out of place by modern standards. These are relatively small details, but they show how a few simple interventions could have made this version more consistent without changing what made the original game so memorable.
Metal Gear Solid 4 is an experience built upon years of events within the franchise, and it constantly uses images and references to revisit previous moments from the story. These memories are presented very quickly in certain situations, often through only a few frames that appear in front of the player before the narrative moves forward almost like a QTE. Some of these images also appear distorted, making these brief moments more difficult to understand than they should be. Considering how important these memories are for providing context to Snake and the events that led to this point, it would have been interesting if the remaster had taken the opportunity to make these recollections slightly longer and clearer.
The number of references to previous games could easily make the experience overly dependent on nostalgia, but here they are part of the construction of that universe and help give greater weight to the events taking place.
The superior visual quality, improved performance, and modern features help present an experience that remained inaccessible on other platforms for many years, while issues with enemy identification, some aged visual elements, certain weapon sights, and small presentation choices remain largely unchanged. Even so, the core remains extremely solid. Metal Gear Solid 4 continues to be a game that offers freedom in how it can be played and a narrative that respects the player's ability to follow its own ideas, and perhaps it is precisely this combination that allows its structure to continue working even so many years after its original release.
METAL GEAR SOLID: Peace Walker
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker has an older structure, after all, it was originally designed for the PlayStation Portable (PSP), and this becomes evident in several moments. At the time, the PSP version also had the ability to transfer progress to the PlayStation 3 version through the Transfarring system, something that was quite unusual for that period. In the current version, some elements still reveal its portable origins, such as the animations of Snake walking between certain areas, which were used to mask loading times. Quick time events also appear quite frequently and, in some situations, are required to progress through certain scenes or perform specific actions. Another aspect that particularly caught my attention was the amount of cutscenes, especially during the early hours, which is genuinely high for a game with this structure.
The menus have a more horizontal layout, something that I personally found quite charming and that reinforces some of the game's portable identity. Even so, when compared directly to Metal Gear Solid 4, it is clear that we are dealing with a technically simpler experience, both in terms of presentation and structure. This, however, does not take away from Peace Walker's appeal. In fact, I think it can work very well as an introduction to the series, especially because its mechanics are easier to understand than those of some other titles. The automatic aiming, when used, also helps considerably during combat and makes the experience more accessible, particularly for players who are not yet accustomed to the franchise's gameplay.
The mission structure also contributes greatly to this feeling. Instead of large continuous areas, we have smaller maps and more direct objectives, making each mission relatively easy to understand. One of the parts I enjoy the most, however, is the Mother Base, because even though Peace Walker was originally released for the PSP, it already featured management systems that were quite close to what would later be expanded upon in The Phantom Pain. We can recruit soldiers, assign them to different roles, work on equipment development, and manage the growth of our organization.
Considering the context of its original release, I find it particularly impressive to imagine how this system must have felt on the PSP, especially given the limitations of that platform.
I also really like the pacing created by this structure. Missions can usually be completed in anywhere from five to twenty minutes, depending on the objective and the player's skill, creating an experience that is much easier to fit into shorter sessions between longer and more demanding games. In addition, Peace Walker features cooperative missions for up to four players and Versus Ops, which allows matches with up to six players, both of which represent some of the project's greatest strengths. For me, this combination of short missions, Mother Base management, and cooperative gameplay gives Peace Walker a very distinctive rhythm.
METAL GEAR: Ghost Babel
Metal Gear: Ghost Babel appears in the Master Collection Vol. 2 as bonus content, originally released for the Game Boy Color in 2000, and that is precisely why the quality it manages to deliver is so impressive. Despite coming from an extremely limited platform, the adventure reproduces the essence of Metal Gear remarkably well, relying on stealth gameplay and a surprising number of movements and possibilities for the hardware of its time. Here we have actions such as turning around, sneaking, crouching, running, attacking, and hiding, all functioning quite naturally and creating an experience that goes far beyond simply being a historical curiosity within the franchise.
The adaptation to modern controls makes the version included in the collection even more interesting. The ability to customize the controls and use analog sticks makes the experience much more comfortable, preserving the original structure while adding a level of fluidity that makes Ghost Babel remain fun to play even today. It is impressive to see how many of the series' fundamental characteristics were condensed into a Game Boy Color game, maintaining Metal Gear's identity of espionage and stealth without feeling like merely a simplified version of the larger titles.
ACHIEVEMENTS
In Metal Gear Solid 4, the achievement list maintains practically the same foundation as the trophies from the original PlayStation 3 version, preserving objectives that were already part of that experience while adding achievements related to the new collection's additional materials, such as the Screenplay Book. Peace Walker follows a similar approach, building upon the structure of the previous version while making changes to the list and adding new objectives that better explore its mechanics and content. This combination of preservation and small adaptations works very well because the achievements do not feel like they exist merely to fill a checklist. Instead, they encourage players to experiment with different features of each game and discover possibilities that could easily go unnoticed during a conventional playthrough.
There is, however, one detail that may bother anyone looking to complete all three games. Some achievements are missable and require specific actions during the campaign. This can mean starting a new playthrough if the player was unaware of certain requirements, something that becomes even more significant considering the length of the experience. Even so, the creativity behind the objectives deserves recognition. In a collection that brings together MGS4, Peace Walker, and Ghost Babel, each game has a very different structure, and the achievement lists manage to take advantage of these differences to encourage deeper exploration. The result is a selection that respects much of the legacy of the original lists while also finding room to add new objectives, making the pursuit of 100% completion an interesting extension of the experience itself rather than simply a parallel task.
TRAILER OFFICIAL
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 is a collection that successfully brings together three very different experiences without making any of them feel out of place within the package. Metal Gear Solid 4 is naturally the main highlight, especially because it is finally available on modern platforms, but Peace Walker and Ghost Babel also have enough qualities to justify their inclusion. Beyond Ghost Babel itself, the collection offers an interesting amount of bonus content, ranging from additional camouflage options to a digital soundtrack, concept art, and complete digital books containing information about the story, characters, and other elements of the games. In the end, we have three different ways of telling stories within the same franchise, each with its own level of density and structure, yet all capable of entertaining and engaging players in different ways.
It becomes clear that the purpose of the Master Collection Vol. 2 is much closer to preserving and adapting these experiences than rebuilding them according to modern standards. Improvements to resolution, performance, controls, and accessibility make the games more comfortable to play on modern platforms, but many older elements remain. Some of these characteristics are part of the games' identities and help preserve their original experience, while others could have received more careful treatment in this new version. Even considering that we are dealing with a remaster, there were opportunities to improve certain visual, technical, and presentation aspects, making the package even more consistent without necessarily changing the essence of the games.
Regardless of which of the three titles you choose, there is a unique experience waiting for the player, and I find it particularly interesting how such different approaches can work so well when placed side by side. Metal Gear Solid 4 remains an extremely solid and dense experience, Peace Walker is particularly surprising thanks to its combination of short missions, management, and multiplayer, while Ghost Babel demonstrates how the essence of Metal Gear could be adapted even to hardware as limited as the Game Boy Color.
The core experience of these games remains strong enough to deliver an extremely satisfying result and, above all, preserve three distinct moments from one of the most important franchises in video game history.
SCORE: 9.2/10
Review by Gamertag: SCOULZ
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