Metal Gear Solid HD Collection

It is hard to believe that time runs its course and some games age really bad.  But others can stand the test of time and play just as well as they did back so many years ago.  Metal Gear Solid has stood the test of time and has come out the victor.  The Metal Gear series in general seems like it does not age.  If it does age it's like a fine wine.  Just as great then as it is now.  Starting back in the days of MSX, Metal Gear was a very unique game.  It was the first stealth action game to get released.  For once the object of the game was to sneak your way through instead of just running and gunning.  The game also had quite a compelling story too.  The story of fathers, sons, brothers, clones, ect, the games designer Hideo Kojima had developed a masterpiece.

The Metal Gear Solid HD Collection has a total of five games to play from.  These games are Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.  All of these games have been totally reconstructed and rebuilt from the ground on up.  These games did not just get a fresh coat of gamma and a 16:9 widescreen presentation, they now run at sixty frames a second, have a 1080 P presentation, the menu systems, sound, and controls have all been reworked.  Three of the games are put on disks and the other two are in the actual game of Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater.  When you start up Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater, the MSX versions of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake become playable.

The Metal Gear Solid HD Collections stars every ones favorite characters in Solid Snake, Otacon, Riaden, Revolver Ocelot/ Liquid Ocelot, Big Boss, Eva, Major Zero, Volgin, The Boss, and to be honest a whole bunch of memorable characters that I really don't want to name off!  I'm Just trying to keep the games story spoiler free just in case you have not played it yet.  The series story itself takes place on a time span of fifty plus years!  Beginning from the cold war in 1964 (MGS3) all the way up to the year 2009-11 (MGS2).  2014 the series will end if you have played Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.  I highly recommend playing this game from the very beginning if you want to understand the story.  The beginning would be Metal Gear Solid 3.  If you are not a fan of storytelling and like to skip cut-scenes you can.  These games are loaded and I mean loaded with a ton of cut-scenes and codec conversations. 

The driving force of this game is storytelling and if you do not like story telling you may not like these games.  But I highly doubt it.  These games have everything a game can ask for.  Perfect voice acting and motion capture.  Though there are a few minor problems with voice-overs.  Sometimes mouth-overs really will not function well because the game is in the English language but the mouth motion will move to the Japanese language.  It really isn't that big of a deal but you have warned. 

Do not go running and gunning through the whole game.  This is a STEALTH game and the whole purpose is to sneak in this game.  Getting into any unnecessary battles can be problematic.  The enemy AI is really smart.  If you are spotted enemies will come looking for you.  They check lockers, holes, ditches, air vents, and they even will group up on you and surround you.  If you play these games on very easy mode you can shoot your way through, but if you're on very hard getting spotted can lead to an instant game over.   

The controls for each of the games are very different. In MGS3/MGS2 the controls are not like a typical shooter.  To shoot your guns you have to press your square/X buttons.  You can also hold people up by simply aiming your gun.  You can also shake them down for items and ammo.  In MGS2, this action also lets you choke enemy soldiers, break necks, and throw enemies. 

Triangle/Y buttons is your action button.  This buttons allows you to execute such actions as opening doors, hanging from ledges, and press buttons to operate elevators that kind of thing.  Your Circle/B button is your punch combination in MGS 2, but in MGS 3 and Peace Walker it's all things CQC. (Close Quarters Combat)  CQC takes the series to a whole new level.  With CQC you can take hostage of your enemies, choke them out, slit their throats, even use them as body shields.  Guns with CQC is really fun.  While you have a grip of enemy soldiers you can shoot back at enemies.  CQC allows you to multi-task.  Of course you can move your character with the analog stick, but in MGS3 the D-pad is strictly used for stalking.  While stalking you walk slowly to avoid alerting soldiers and even traps.  While leaned up against a wall your shoulder buttons can peak around corners to see if any soldiers are coming.  And finally your triggers/shoulder buttons equip and un-equip weapons.  Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker controls also have had a major overhaul.  Coming from the PSP, the games controls seemed very clunky at times.  Now Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker plays very similar to Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots.  There is quite a learning curve for XBox 360 owners. 

Due to the fact that there is no touch sensitive feature on the XBox 360 version of the HD Collection, you have to click your analog sticks to lower weapons.  On the Playstation 3 version of the collection, you simply just slowly let go of the button you are using.  Even CQC is much harder on the 360 version.  I am not sure how this is all going to work on the VITA, but one would think that the touch pad and touch screen will come into play.  In MGS3/ Peace Walker the right analog stick is used for camera angles.  However in MGS2 the camera can be a bit clunky at times because it is strictly bird's eye view camera system. 

Replay value of these games is very very high!  There is a ton of things to unlock such as infinite ammo, stealth camo, movie viewer, boss battle mode, and many other things.  However though, the Ape Escape mini-game has been removed from MGS3.  Probably because this is a multiplatform game and Ape Escape is a product of Sony.  Even Metal Gear Online has been removed from MGS3.  No multi-player is quite a shock considering the popularity of MGO on the PS2 version of MGS3.  But they are shutting down MGO on Metal Gear Solid 4.  But multiplayer is available through Peace Walker.  CO-OP and competitive can be played.  There is also achievements and trophies to be earned for all you hunters.  But again 360 users are getting the short end of the stick.  Playstation 3 owners get to earn more than the 360 players.  The 360 players only get 25 achievements per game while PS3 owners get 50 per game.  Not only that all of the achievements have been bundled up together accept Peace Walker.  PS3 player's trophies are kept all as individual trophies per game.  Plus PS3 owners get to use the TRANSFARRING system.  This is a data transfer system that Kojima has invented which will allow you to continue to play MGS Peace Walker using the PSP.  You can use your same save data on the PS3 with the same MGS Peace Walker game on your PSP and continue to play your game on the go using the exact same data from home and vise-versa.  XBox owners really got cheated in my honest opinion.  So I am going to have to give the edge to the Playstation 3 version of Metal Gear Sold HD Collection.   

Besides all the letdowns on the XBox version of the game XBox owners go pick this game up it is well worth the 50$ price tag.  If you have not played these games yet now is the time to go do it.  One thing has really bothered me though.  The lack of Metal Gear Solid 1 on this HD Collection.  It is hard to re-master PS1 games in HD I know that, but why not get the Nintendo Gamecube remake of MGS1?  The Twin Snakes?  That game would be much better to play on the HD Collection.  I was just blown away that Konami put in Peace Walker instead of MGS The Twin Snakes. 

Chris Osborne, Noobfeed.