It was once told to me, "Great games just automatically make great collections," but Kojima’s team makes the hardcore wonder hard about the truth in that statement.
By MixMasterLar
The home consoles about 20 years ago used to be filled to the brim with fast-paced shooters and really clunky sports titles. Most everything that involved guns or shooting, especially, was more like one guy just running and shooting against all odds like he owned the world. Fun times, but one man dared to do something more.
That man was Hideo Kojima. He decided to make a game that used a concept consider bizarre and freaky for 1988 - stealth. Twenty years and a lot of blood, sweat and tears later we have what we universally know as Metal Gear Solid. To celebrate 20+ years of Espionage Stealth Action gone right, Konami has released the three main titles of the Solid games for the low price of 30 dollars. This alone should make you want this regardless of what score Gemubaka gives it - MGS1 was at time of this selling close to 40 dollars used and MGS2 and 3 demand at least 30 new for the versions included. However, there are some flaws that keep this from being the best thing since the first Metal Gear …
Your Collection comes with …
The collection comes with the full Playstation One release of Metal Gear Solid, the full Director’s Cut of Metal Gear Solid 2, and half of the complete Metal Gear Solid 3 (more on what’s missing in a minute). As a nice touch, MGS artist Yoji Shinkawa has redrawn all of the packaging with nice, colorful, hand-drawn pictures. The entire set looks very nice and makes me wish that the games always had them.
The Japanese version of this Collection that came out almost a year ago had all of the above, plus what’s missing in MGS3, plus the MSX versions of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, plus Metal Gear Potable Ops for the PSP … But for some reason America gets only the “essentials.” Still, The Japanese version didn’t cost as low as 30 dollars, so we can't rightfully say we got ripped in the deal.
Metal Gear! Can it be?
There are a lot of reviews already for each game in detail and going over every little thing would be a waste of space, (doesn’t mean we won't have some up for you guys in a little bit) so I’ll just be giving a quick overview of what we get and how great it really is:
The (second) Beginning
Released in 1998, the first Metal Gear Solid is actually the third game in the Metal Gear Series (remember ... Snake's Revenge for the NES does not exist). The game takes place as Snake - now an older man and living in Alaska - is called by his old commanders to rescue hostages from a revolt in a nuclear storage base on Shadow Moses Island. The terrorists are demanding a lot of money and the remains of the Legendary Big Boss or else they will start a war with all of the nukes conveniently lying around. Things aren’t as they seem, though, as Snake soon learns there are a boatload of secrets and a nuclear walking battle tank that can't be detected by radar ready for testing at the base doing the time of the revolt. Can Snake stop the terrorist and a war?
The game is a classic and almost anyone who owned a PS1 has already played it. The storyline is still written and planned out nice (although, it is filled with some needless drama), the actors portray their characters extremely well and there aren’t too many plot holes once you complete it. It has, of course, aged since it’s release and looks really ugly now in 2008 standards - no update has been made to the entire game and the graphics might be hard to swallow if you're not prepared for them. The “rank up” system is beyond outdated and the enemies need help tying their shoes let alone catching you between boss battles … but it still gets the job done. The game is also pretty short, taking only 10 hours to beat.
That all brings me to the worst part of the entire collection: MGS1 was reprinted on Playstation One Discs. That’s right, it isn’t a PS2 game but an old disc format. At first this doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but there are three drawbacks: Memory Cards for a PS1 are harder to come by now, PS1 discs are easier to damage, and it takes two whole discs for the game to fit. What also bums me out is Konami allegedly promised us a PS2 port of it and not a reprint PS1 game. Still, the game itself is great and received an easy 4-5 stars at the time of release and would still get that if released again with better graphics. So, if you have a memory card that can save it, then it’s a great deal.
Young Blood
Metal Gear Solid 2 takes place two, and then four years after the first MGS. The major part of the game places you as the new Snake as he takes to a determination plant in New York Harbor to rescue the president and other hostages from a group of terrorists. Things are not what the young boy (who is renamed “Raiden” for the mission) thinks, as there are a lot of clues that tell a far different tale then a simple hostage mission.
The game made a lot of improvements over what MGS did and updated everything. The graphics were awesome at the time of release and look great today. The AI isn’t as stupid as before, the overall length and difficulty has doubled and the acting is still the best in the biz. The music score also got noticeable with the talent of Harry Gregson-Williams and gives it a theatrical feel that was lacking in the first.
Sadly, fans weren’t thrilled about playing mostly as Raiden (you did get to play as Snake for about 1-3 hours, though) and the bosses went from being freaks to ultra-what-in-God’s-name-is-that circus clowns. It also turned the game a bit closer to the supernatural realm (that wasn’t really needed at all) and left way too many questions at the end of it. It also had an overly-easy heath system where eating one ration could save you in any pitch.
However, it’s a great storyline for most of the ride and demands at least two plays before you can really enjoy it. This collection has the re-release of MGS2, which included VR Trainings, The “Snake Tales” (More time to play as Snake himself) and even a skateboarding mode that is more of a demo of another Konami game, Skateboarding Evolution. To be honest, Snake Tales and Skateboarding are not worth much, but it’s nice to have VR and the complete game unchanged still.
What really went down: The untold Story of the '60s!
The newest game in the collection is a prequel to every Metal Gear game out now and details events that triggered the ones in MGS, 2 and the unreleased MGS4. You play as agent Naked Snake (Or Big Boss, if you will) as he attempts to retrieve a scientist kidnapped by Cold War Russia and being forced to make the ultimate weapon.
The game was probably the best Metal Gear at the time of release (and still is until MGS4 comes out) and made more then a huge step in the series, introducing a lot of features. The old heath system was replaced by having player’s rest, eat and play doctor on themselves. With this comes a lot of items — no longer can you just pick up one ration as now you have to get ointments, bandages, needles and other medical tools to bring along. You also have some really old '60s equipment that is found lacking and with the weight system the game has, you can’t simply carry everything you run across in that sack of yours. The setting also makes the game come to life; forget gray-walled compounds, welcome to the jungle!
The game is the longest and hardest by far (taking 30+ hours to beat) and demands at least two play throughs. While it is said by a lot of reviews you spend too much time in menus healing yourself then playing, for what it’s worth, I found that it wasn’t that big of deal and added a lot to the game. Bosses where toned just a notch from what we saw in Raiden’s mission (but not realistic by any means as it is still fantasy like every other MGS game) and all the trimmings - graphics, controls, music, and acting — are dead-on perfect.
So what was the catch? Well, the camera in the first release simply didn’t let you see anything most of the time and thus prompted a re-release with a real 3rd person camera and a heck of a lot of extras. The game became an easy 4 out of 5 in anyone’s book. We where told that the Collection would have the re-released version. However, it seems that it only has disc one of the re-release. The second disc that had the two MSX versions of MG and MG2, Boss Rush Mode, Theatre Mode, Snake vs. Monkey mini-game, and Online Mode (not that that matters anymore) is missing. What’s more, the game says “Metal Gear Solid 3 Disc 1” on the title screen. Disc 1? Disc one of what? Konami couldn’t even edit out that subline on the title screen to make it apply to the re-release. What we get is simply the first Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater + 3rd-person view and no extras beyond that. It’s a crying shame and makes it where getting the game by itself is worth it even when you own the collection. It still is, in my opinion, the best MGS, but it could have been so much more.
Final Thoughts
Konami could have given us the best collection ever without any drawbacks, but instead decided to be cheap and throw together a few discs and call it a day (Yoji Shinkawa did more work on the covers alone then Konami did with the collection it seems). Still, it’s hard to whine when it’s 30 dollars. You have to realize that getting your hands on a new copy of MGS1 is hard as it gets and costs at least this much, so you cant go wrong buying MGS1 plus the MGS2 and MGS3 thrown in for pretty much free. Also, the games themselves don’t need extras to pull up the replay value … so even with this collection being found lacking side dishes it enjoyed in retail releases, the meat is still pretty tender. Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection features three high-quality games at their lowest price ever and is still bringing back everything leading up to Metal Gear Solid 4 again after 10+ years.
GemuBaka Review Score: 4 out of 5
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