Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection Review

Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection is a blast from the past. The collection includes Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The game revolves around the protagonist Solid Snake, and the appearance of Raiden in Sons of Liberty. Metal Gear Solid is a stealth/action/espionage game. The franchise stresses the use of stealth more than anything, from blending in with the grass in Snake Eater to hiding in closets in Sons of Liberty. Although you can go through the games with non-suppressed weapons, and blowing your cover every thirty-seconds, nothing is more satisfying than getting that perfect stealth kill, which is why Metal Gear Solid: HD collection one of the best games of 2011.



Due to the fact that MGS: HD Collection is 3 games in one (5 games technically, but i will get to that later), I will break down the story of each individual game.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
In MGS2:SOL, for the first part of the game you play as Snake aboard a US Marine Ship, which is housing a new model of METAL GEAR, for those who do not know, a METAL GEAR is basically a super weapon, similar to a giant mech. Snake eventually learns that the Marine ship has been hijacked by Russian mercenaries and Spetznaz. Your task, for the first part of the game, is to figure out who the enemy is, expose the new model of METAL GEAR, and to escape. For the second part of the game, you play as Raiden. For the second half, you infiltrate a base in the middle of the ocean to try and rescue the US president taken hostage by the Russians who demand 30 billion dollars for his return, but after a while, things arent as they seem. There is an incredible story, and I would love to more in depth, but I am afraid if I talk more, I might spoil some things for those who wish to pick up the game.

Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater

Snake eater starts with you parachuting from a plane into the jungle in search of a Russian scientist, who is held hostage, and forced to manufacture a super-weapon, that can launch ICBM's (Nuclear Weapons) from almost any position. Snake Eater, is my favorite game in the MGS series, and is one of my favorite games of all time. Not only are you tasked with avoiding enemy patrols, sneaking into bases, and surviving fights against your human enemies, but you are also tasked with surviving in the jungle. You have to hunt for food like snakes, birds, or anything edible to help your health and stamina bar stay maintained properly. MGS3 is one of those rare games, that has a story that keeps you entertained throughout the entire game, because there are no low points. The whole time your playing the game, your doing something that is fun, which is hard to find in some of today's newer games. MGS3 also includes the original tital Metal Gear, and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

I cant go into much detail on this one because it is very story based, and i cant ruin it for some people, but I will try and tell as much as I can. Originally on the Play Station Portable, (PSP), Peace Walker is set in 1974 in Central America. The game revolves around the building of a private army of mercenaries to tackle all the baddies in the games universe. Unlike the other MGS's in the HD collection pack, in Peace Walker, there is online CO-OP and Versus which pit players versus players to see who is the dominant tactical/espionage/action professional.

Graphics

The graphics in the HD collection are amazing. Players have to take note that these games are fairly old, and of course they are not going to have the graphics that are on par with Skyrim, Call of Duty, or Battlefield, but you have to think about how good these games looked at the time of their release. There was nothing out like these games when they were released, and MGS was really one of the first Stealth action games, and it helped to pave the road for future stealth games. I never noticed textures popping in and out, which would have been my main concern.



Controls in MGS3: Snake Eater and Peace Walker are great. Simple to learn, simple to use. The controls for Sons of Liberty however, are a little funky. Sons of Liberty doesnt have a button to control the camera, so a lot of the time you might have a really bad camera angle, and get alerted by the guy your sneaking up on. The control scheme is a hassle at first, but once you get accustomed to the controls and the different feel, you will be on your way to becoming a stealth master.

HD Comparison

Now although this is not necessarily a big part of the review, i just want to show you guys a side-by-side comparison of how the graphics have improved. On the TOP are the HD VERSION GRAPHICS, on the BOTTOM are the OLD GRAPHICS. All pictures were taken from the Metal Gear section on Gamebreakers.

Final Score

Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection gets a 9.5/10.
It is a must buy for those who love stealth games, and an absolute try for those who want to test out before the buy.