This isn’t your standard exploration of a newly released game. That’s because there’s no need to explore the games in the new Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 from Konami in detail. Contained within this new collection are three more games in the venerable franchise: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel, and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Peace Walker was originally released for the PSP, Ghost Babel was originally released for the Game Boy Color and titled simply “Metal Gear Solid” in North America, and Guns of the Patriots was a PS3 exclusive.
Why no detailed breakdown of each game? These are some of the best games out there and they’ve been reviewed to death! You can probably find a hundred reviews on each online and the games are essentially unchanged from their original releases. Don’t worry, we’ll go over each a little, but the really important thing here is how well the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 handles each title. If you just want to know if the collection is worth buying…it is. All the games are awesome experiences and this is the first time that Guns of the Patriots has escaped PS3 exclusivity. If you want to know a little more, read on!
As you’ve figured out by now, there are three games in this new collection, the original GBC release, Peace Walker, and MGS4. Each is a fundamentally different experience which makes this a fun collection because there’s a wide range of gaming available. Let’s start with Peace Walker. You may or may not be aware that a remastered version of Peace Walker was removed from digital storefronts not long ago in preparation for this collection. Prior to that, the game was re-released on the Metal Gear Solid Collection for PS3 and 360, and was available individually on various platforms. The primary way to play Peace Walker though was the PSP. Rather than a complex cinematic adventure, Peace Walker is broken up into bite-sized chunks and feels more like a strategy game than a stealth adventure in many ways.
The game has you hunting through Costa Rica to stop a mobile nuclear weapons platform in a mission-based experience. In between missions, you return to the Mother Base in order to allocate resources and research much like an X-Com game. Once you’ve chosen your kit and managed the base assets, you head back out into the field to either progress in the story or run side missions for weapons, gear, and resources. It’s a significant departure from the rest of the series due to the semi-tactical planning but very interesting nonetheless. The plot is solid and interesting, the characters are compelling, and the gameplay with multiple control schemes is quite good, even though it blends a number of different approaches from different Metal Gear games.
Ghost Babel is fundamentally different however. This was originally released on the Game Boy Color and this is the first re-release of the game. It uses the original top-down Metal Gear format from the NES combined with cut-scenes reminiscent of the first Metal Gear Solid game. This is a smaller game broken up into 13 stages and while stealth is still the driving force behind gameplay, the game feels more arcade-like than other MGS titles with enemies that reappear when you leave a screen and poor AI that is easily circumvented. Expect a unique melding of modern stealth and NES sensibilities and you won’t be far off. The storyline is surprisingly robust and the game is quite fun and challenging, leading to the exorbitant value of the original game on GBC.
Finally there’s the main event, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. MGS4 is an outstanding cinematic-focused stealth masterpiece that holds up incredibly well, though the AI is still weaker than perhaps it could be and the age is showing around the edges with infinite enemies if you go the wrong direction and some fairly non-intuitive control scheme defaults. MGS4 has Snake aging rapidly from side effects of a genetic disease related to his creation. While living on a timer, he has to hunt down and kill Liquid Snake, who has inhabited the body of Revolver Ocelot. If that’s gibberish to you, you definitely haven’t played the first three games in the series and you’re going to be very lost for about half the plot. MGS4 is predicated on your familiarity with the first three games and as each directly ties into the last and requires some familiarity with the series, it’s a bit confusing if this is your first foray into the MGS world. We’ll just assume that you’re not buying this collection if you aren’t familiar with the franchise and move on though.
What you’re really wondering about though is what this collection has to offer you, especially if you’ve played these games before. Well, there’s a lot going on in the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 so let’s take a look! First off, we have improved load times. Games and saves load much, much faster than on previous consoles. While it’s not instantaneous, it’s a huge improvement and you won’t find yourself waiting around before jumping into the action again. That’s a big deal for cinema-heavy games where it already feels like you’re taking too long of a break sometimes. This is particularly noticeable on Metal Gear Solid 4 where the pauses feel intentional rather than like there is loading going on. It really streamlines the experience.
Naturally all of the control scheme options are still intact and at least from our experience, you’ll likely want to change the controls on Peace Walker as the default feels…weird. If it’s been a long time since you played an MGS, all the controls will feel weird anyway because there are very few games where stealth is the primary approach and our impulse as players is to dive in and start shooting. That simply doesn’t work in MGS, especially Guns of the Patriots. Aside from the controls there are plenty of screen options as well, and Ghost Babel in particular has multiple screen format and wallpaper options for basically any preference you might have.
But that’s not enough for Konami. They’ve also included screenplay books for both Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. That means that you can read through the entire screenplay of each game like the extras from a feature film and even set them to music in the options! Sure, reading isn’t as popular as it used to be but hey…you’re reading this right now, aren’t you? But the extras are only getting started! There’s also a mini-jukebox included with Ghost Babel that lets you listen to 16 selected tracks from the three games. Small, but neat and the Metal Gear music holds up very well.
Music and scripts aren’t the only bonuses here though. There’s also a digital Master Book included for both Peace Walker and MGS4. Each Master Book gives a complete rundown of the game including spoilers. The Peace Walker one is over 80 pages and the MGS4 Master book weighs in at over 100! Zoom functions, bookmarking, and rapid page turning are all included with each book, and the sheer amount of data is so overwhelming that we didn’t even have time to go through it all. The Master Books are a massive labor of love with a ton of material and between Volume 1 and 2 of the collection, that’s an absolute ton of data. It’s honestly shocking that Konami hasn’t considered selling the Master Books in a physical format as a collector’s set as fans have already admitted online that they’ve printed them off and had them bound for their personal collections from the first collection.
The final major inclusion is the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database, a massive compilation of information on All four mainline Metal Gear Solid games, both original Metal Gear games, and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. The Database was originally available as downloadable content for the PS3 and has been fully rebuilt for the release of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2. Once again there are a ton of spoilers here but it’s wonderful to see the database finally come back and become accessible again just as the PS3 is winding down permanently. If you’re a preservationist, this is great news.
Naturally, the visuals are amazing throughout the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2. Everything looks crisp and runs smooth as silk. Peace Walker is a bit nicer looking than the original PSP release of course and the pixel art looks great in Ghost Babel with a handful of visual options if you’re not happy with the defaults. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots looks amazing of course and while not quite on part with part five of the series, still looks incredibly modern and well-designed. There are tons of cinemas, lots of busy backgrounds and detail, and the whole thing just oozes style. The audio in all three games is excellent too, both the music and the voice acting. If you’ve never played Metal Gear before (and you most likely have), the voice work is some of the best in gaming and David Hayter nails EVERYTHING. Honestly, MGS4 is essentially an interactive movie to begin with and if you’re familiar with the series, it hits on so much lore it’s hard to fathom. The game even holds a Guinness Record for the longest cinema sequence in gaming….27 minutes! There’s an addendum to that record about the game’s ending too, which features a tapestry of cut scenes totalling 71 minutes.
Are there any negatives to Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2? Really only one and it’s that Ghost Babel should not have been included only with the collection edition and should be available for separate purchase. It would have been nice to have a system save function rather than only in-game saves, sure, but that’s no big deal. The PS3 emulation is flawless on MGS4, Ghost Babel transitions extremely well, and Peace Walker looks amazing in HD and the Ashley Wood cut scenes are gorgeous. Load times are fast, gameplay is excellent, and having the rest of the series in a single package (excluding V) is awesome. It would have been nice to have complete soundtracks available for each game too, but again, not a big deal.
It’s honestly impossible not to recommend Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2. Not only is it an amazing compilation but there’s so much content here that there is no way you won’t get your money’s worth if you play it all. If you just love one of the three games here, it’s probably still worth your time too, as there is so much extra content that it’s insane. At only $50 this is a no-brainer of a purchase and you are going to love Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2.
This review is based on a digital copy of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 provided by the publisher. It was played on a PS5 using a 1080p 55” TV. Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 is also available for Xbox Switch, Switch 2, and PC on Steam.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.