Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 Review – MGS4 Is Finally Free

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (MGS4) will always have a special place in my heart. I have fond memories of playing the original game on my older brother’s PlayStation 3 and beating it without fully understanding anything. That was largely because it was the first game in the series I played. So, to understand it better, I went back and bought nearly all the games leading up to Guns of the Patriots. Metal Gear Solid 4 has always been a game I wish I could go back and play, but couldn’t because it was stuck in PS3 jail. Luckily, though, that’s no longer the case thanks to Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, which features Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Peace Walker.

When I first booted up the game, I was shocked to find a separate launcher I had to navigate through. But it was a surprise in the best way possible. As I looked through the menus, I could view the screenplay, art, and a master book detailing all the Metal Gear Solid lore for both games. As someone who spent much of my youth watching videos on this and trying to play every game I could, reading the official lore book made me a bit emotional because it brought me back to my younger days.

After I was done looking through all of that, I jumped into the actual game. I won’t lie, seeing the Guns of the Patriots loading menu hit me harder than I expected. As a kid, the Metal Gear Solid series was one of the first games to show me that video games could be high art and tell compelling stories that force you to really think about something. Another feeling took a while to shake: playing MGS4 on anything other than a PlayStation. 

Seeing the ‘A’ button pop up on flashbacks felt weird in a way that’s hard to explain while playing on the Xbox Series X. Despite its weirdness, it was overall a good feeling, because it meant I could finally play this game on my terms. By playing it on whatever platform I wanted. As much as I adore MGS4, I was quickly reminded that this was indeed a PlayStation 3 game. Nostalgia is a funny thing, and it can often play tricks on you. I could have sworn this played a lot like MGS5. But boy was I wrong.

It has a lot of that janky charm that comes with the PS3 era. The controls are a bit awkward, and the button placements don’t make sense. But once you stop and consider that this game is from another era altogether, it adds to the charm and makes it even more enjoyable. As awkward as the controls were, it ran at a steady 60 fps and looked great overall. So I was willing to overlook a lot of that.

That’s not to say that the gameplay is bad. Quite the opposite, in fact. As a kid, I thought that Snake’s suit was the coolest thing known to man. Now, as a grown man closing in on his 30s, I still think that. Watching his suit change colors in real time scratches that itch I forgot I had in the back of my head. Being able to sneak across battlefields was extremely fun, and I enjoyed every second of it. If I did get bored of it, I could cosplay as one of the rebels and join in on the cause. By shooting every PMC in my path.

Playing through the story in 2026 does hit a bit differently. Somehow, Hideo Kojima predicted the dangers of AI almost to a tee, and seeing that message in today’s world felt a bit eerie. But that alone shows the power that Guns of the Patriots has as a story. 

Powerful messages aside, one thing constantly annoyed me about MGS4. That was the amount of cutscenes that are thrown into the game. A lot of them are great and are filled with iconic moments (I’m looking at you, Raiden x Vamp fight). It can get a bit annoying when you walk from one room to the next and are forced to sit through a 40-minute short film. 

As I was playing through this game, I almost had a hard time calling it a video game. It often felt more like a movie, and it made me laugh because it reminded me that Kojima is one of the only developers in the industry who can get away with that. The other thing that I thought was a swing and miss for Guns of the Patriots was its lack of multiplayer. It was one of my go-tos as a kid, and I would have loved to relive that experience one more time if I could.

Of course, the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 isn’t just Guns of the Patriots; it also includes Peace Walker. This is actually the second time Peace Walker has been ported to modern consoles. The first time this happened was with the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

So playing through this on an Xbox Series X wasn’t as impactful as MGS4 was. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun. One of my favorite things about Peace Walker is its comic book cutscenes. It’s an incredibly fun way to watch the story unfold, and on top of that, you’re given so many screenshot-worthy moments. Plus, with the updated graphics, the art looks twice as good as it did at launch.

It’s hard for me to say who my favorite character is in the series. A close runner-up will always be Big Boss. Seeing how his private army, MSF, came to be is always something I enjoy playing. 

If you’re willing to spend a few extra dollars, the bonus content might be worth it. It comes with a full soundtrack for both Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. It’s honestly a nice way to kill a couple of minutes to listen to some great music. But perhaps the most compelling part of this bonus content is that it includes Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, a game that originally came out on the Game Boy and that I didn’t know existed before playing the collection.