Snake, remember what De Gaulle said
The particular nature of this collection requires us to establish a few facts before going into detail. For those who have (by a coincidence of fate, a total disavowal of bidental controllers or pure prolonged bad luck) never approached the Metal Gear myth, then the Master Collection places itself – by default – as the most accessible entry point; at least, the simplest to recommend for those allergic to scart cables or the mysteries of emulation. Few words can reveal the urgency of such an undertaking for the uninitiated: the imprint of Hideo Kojima’s work in the cultural unconscious of the video game medium is still too underestimated today. ; the kind of experience specific to interactive media and in which the hope of one day seeing half of its intelligence again is enough to justify a minimum of interest.
On the one hand, it is impossible to deny that a minimum of effort was nevertheless deployed by the three trainees at the back of the stage of the 7th floor of Konami HQ, if only in the care of its launch interface – distinguished lineages, neat transitions – and the handful of bonuses (admittedly modest), but still present are very appreciable. The ability to emulate a memory card full of the publisher’s title saves, for the simple pleasure of seeing oneself cut into a suit by Psycho Mantis, proves that there is indeed a semblance of attention in a more original proposal than previous similar companies.
It’s like one of my Japanese animes!
What a shame not to see that when it comes to pure and simple carrying, this Volume 1 is crazy lazy. Not unexpected, but still sad to see: take Metal Gear Solid, the first of its name, thrown out there without fanfare. In absolute terms, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to keep a game in its original state; the video game is the expression of the intersection between technology and art (forgive us for the moment France Culture), and retain the frame rate of origin or the aspect ratio of a given title is nothing scandalous. Now, to dispense with the integration of state saves (the minimum standard in reissues of the genre) or any additional display options borders on indecency. Especially since certain lines of dialogue have been altered to integrate the new DualSense commands.
Same observation for episodes 2 and 3, directly taken from the Bluepoint remasters, initially released on PS3 and 360 in 2011 – legal notices from the period as a bonus. The “good” news is that the artistic approximations of their most recent reinterpretations of Demon’s Souls or Shadow of the Colossus are replaced by technical pitfalls, already documented at length by the most finicky fans, but which do not impact Really the gameplay to the point of completely distorting it. The most major concession is the total abandonment of controls linked to analog buttons, associating the aiming and firing of guns via several levels of pressure. For all the technological marvels that are our current pads (in the absence of examples of robustness), the action is now linked to a single binary command, forcing the player to unequip his weapon in hand to be able to cancel his blow. Not really optimal finger gymnastics.
Moreover, the content is strictly identical – which implies the total absence of annexes already neglected at the time, such as the skateboard mini-game with Raiden or the crossover Ape Escape from monkey hunting with Snake. We can at least be pleased to see the loadings when opening the Codec of MGS2 considerably reduced on our PS5 version, after the astonishing latency from which the HD Collection.
He who controls the battlefield, controls history
But then, is there even added value compared to previous reissues? Not a little proud of its package, Konami highlighted several bonuses exclusive – by this mean some new products supposed to justify the high price checkout… But which are all compromised, in one way or another, by an obvious lack of effort. Take for example the presence of international versions of the respective games: the inclusion of being able to alternate between European, North American and Japanese regions without having to go through the import box… Only, this Volume 1 only includes the PAL versions from the outset: to be able to take advantage of its external counterparts, you will have to download them separately. Have 4 different versions of MGS1 – including the unreleased Integral – is commendable, but having to go the extra mile at 50hz considerably tarnishes the offer.
The same goes for Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel – not to be confused with its Japanese name, Metal Gear Solid Bande Dessinée, which is not in French (you have to follow it) -, unavailable at the time these lines are written, servers being locked down before public release. There is therefore no way to confirm (or rather deny, let’s be realistic) a possible decent upscaling on the video of this 2006 UMD. Let’s also quickly move on to the presence of the very dispensable NES games Metal Gear and Snake’s Revenge, whose playful interest is more than limited for anyone who enjoys a minimum of good taste – especially when the MSX versions are also there, in a separate SKU (!) of Metal Gear Solid 3.
Where our interest was focused without expectation, it was on the big reading included in this Volume 1, a display of strangely misplaced effort. Each canonical episode thus has its own scenario script, transcribing the scenes and dialogues to the nearest comma. Their presence is appreciable, if not really interesting, because it is particularly painful to read on a screen – a far cry from the careful presentation enjoyed by The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2. Then finally comes the Master Books: encyclopedias detailing the characters, emblematic places and great moments of the saga, presented here as a real official guidebook scanned for the occasion… Except that in this case, these bibles were indeed written For this Collection. For all their usefulness that we can grant them in terms of summarizing the different events of the license, presenting them as real fictional books instead of an interactive encyclopedia in the style of Metal Gear Solid 4 Database could not better illustrate all the contradictory nature of this proposition.
