I’ve always been of the opinion that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was a criminally underrated entry in Hideo Kojima’s beloved stealth series. Originally launched for the PS3 back in 2008, MGS4 was heavily criticized for being more of a movie than a video game. And, okay, I’ll admit that the cutscene to game ratio is a little ridiculous, but that doesn’t negate the fact that MGS4 is, in my opinion, a perfect ending to Snake’s story.
Notoriously, MGS4 has never been released for any console outside of the PS3, until now. Konami themselves had said that porting the game would be difficult, but not anymore apparently, because the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.2 comes packed with both Guns of the Patriots and Peace Walker. With this, MGS4 is finally free, and I’m glad to report it’s almost as good as you remember it. Almost!
La Li Lu Le Lo?
I’m well aware that this is a hot take, but I’ll say it anyway: MGS4 is my favorite game in the series. So naturally, when I finally received my Master Collection review code, I was more than excited to jump into it immediately. I was pleased to dive back into this delightfully weird and creative entry: from the strange TV commercials with David Hayter himself promoting his new movie, straight to the iconic “War has changed” opening cutscene and the Japanese calligraphy fonts, it felt good to be back.
Then, the real trouble started. I’d gotten so used to the smooth movements and controls of last year’s Snake Eater remake and MGSV that I’d forgotten how stiff MGS4 could feel. Snake’s movement is fine enough, but aiming and shooting with the analog sticks felt extremely slow and clunky. Even when I pressed X to aim down sights, it took a beat for Snake to actually look down the sights and for me to start aiming.
Towards the end of the game’s first act, you’re tossed into an exciting shootout sequence with Rat Patrol 01 where you have to escape a building while dealing with Liquid’s FROG unit, and that was a bit of a nightmare. I was getting in the way of Meryl’s shots, I was slowly aiming around a corner, only to get knocked on my ass by a FROG that was just out of my peripheral vision. Meryl called me a real-life legendary hero; I was barely a step above Akiba.
Things did start to get better after I toggled on Aim Assist, though. Yes, call me a scrub. Whatever! I did what I did! Aim Assist makes aiming faster of course, and while I still have my gripes with how clunky the shooting can be, at least the gun battles didn’t make me feel like I was a snail trying to chase down a bunch of rabbits in heat.
Outside of the active gun battles, however, the stealth gameplay of MGS4 still holds up very well. You get the suppressed Operator pistol and tranquilizer gun fairly early on, and that, to me, is peak Metal Gear Solid. Crawling around the environments and taking out enemies with CQC choke outs and tranquilizer shots still feels incredible. Couple that with Snake’s Octo Camo suit that lets you blend in with your surroundings, and I was reminded of just how fun the stealth could be in this game.
A lot of the little quirks of MGS4 still got a smile out of me, including the PS3 product placement, the iPod and all the songs you could collect for it, and of course, the Playboy magazines that you can leave out to distract enemies with.
The number of cutscenes is still ridiculous, yes, and maybe it’s because I’m just coming off of a MGSV playthrough, but I didn’t particularly mind putting the controller down and just allowing myself to take in all that sweet Metal Gear lore for an hour. David Hayter still absolutely kills it as Snake, and the English voice acting is just superb across the board. Considering that this is Snake’s final game as well, I’m more than happy to enjoy the cutscenes and watch him get his flowers before retirement.
Just in case you’re coming into MGS4 blind, the game puts you back in control of Snake, who’s now dealing with accelerated aging. Maybe it’s because he’s a clone of Big Boss and clones generally don’t have long lifespans, or maybe it’s because of the FOXDIE virus from MGS1. No one knows. But Snake’s only got a year left to live at best — time enough for a final mission.
Guns of the Patriots sees the return of many familiar faces from the first game, including Naomi and Mei Ling (a personal favorite of mine), and other series regulars like Otacon, Raiden, Vamp, and the big bad Liquid Ocelot. Yes, Liquid Ocelot. They’re literally one person now. Don’t question it. Chalk it all up to the nanomachines. Because this is a Hideo Kojima game, the story does veer into pretty ridiculous territory at times, and its self-serious nature can sometimes create moments of unintentional comedy. Yet MGS4‘s characters are also so well-developed that it’s impossible not to get attached to them and be emotionally invested in the plot, no matter how silly it gets.
It always amazes me what a fine balance Kojima was able to strike with the tone of the story in MGS4 in particular — it’s a sort of magical formula or chemical reaction that he’s never been able to reproduce since then. I guess Death Stranding 2 comes kinda close, but it’s no Metal Gear, that’s for sure.
Basically, MGS4 is still great. It’s still my favorite game in the series, even if the shooting can feel kinda bad at times. If you haven’t played it, go play it. If you’ve played it and didn’t like it the first time, maybe coming in with a fresh set of eyes could change your mind.
For Peace
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker makes up the other half of Master Collection Vol.2. Now this was the one I wasn’t quite as excited to play because Peace Walker has never been one of my favorites, and I’ve always been more of a Snake fan than a Big Boss fan anyway. But man, I think Konami timed the release of this just right, because after experiencing Snake Eater again just last year, this was the perfect opportunity for me to continue Big Boss’ story.
From a gameplay perspective, I was surprised to find that Peace Walker actually feels quite a bit better than MGS4 in terms of shooting. This game did come out in 2010, just two years after MGS4, but it was for the PSP, which is not exactly a console known for putting out tons of great shooter games. Still, playing Peace Walker in handheld mode on the Switch 2 just felt right.
A lot of the PSP limitations are present here, of course. The maps and areas are much smaller but the game’s mission-based structure also makes it perfect for the Switch 2. If you’ve played MGSV, think of this as a smaller, portable and in some ways, better, version of that game. This is where the iconic Fulton recovery system is introduced as well, allowing you to kidnap enemy soldiers and put them to work at Mother Base. In between missions, you’ll go back to Mother Base, organize your members by assigning them to different divisions, and reap the benefits as the MSF grows.
I’d completely forgotten how fun the management sim aspect of this game could be. I looked forward to coming back to Mother Base after every mission to see what new tools I could research and unlock, and watch as the base physically expanded.
There’s plenty of classic Metal Gear-style story to enjoy here as well, though I will say that Peace Walker‘s story is still nowhere near as impactful for me as the other games. It beats out MGSV, but that’s about it; it loses to every other mainline game in the series. After Big Boss leaves the US, he and Kazuhira Miller form MSF, an army without borders. He, of course, gets dragged back into US politics when nukes start showing up in Costa Rica, along with hints that The Boss may still be alive.
Peace Walker is the game to play if you want to see Big Boss’ complete transition into the villain we know in the series, and even if the story doesn’t quite land for you, it’s still worth checking out for the gameplay alone. With the Master Collection, Konami also added the option to play the game with an enhanced graphics mode that makes the comic book-style cutscenes look way sharper. You have to enable this setting in the Options menu when you boot up the Master Collection, before you start up Peace Walker proper.
The Switch 2 Experience
I played the Master Collection on the Switch 2, in both handheld and docked modes. You’ll be pleased to learn that both games run at 60fps, regardless of which mode you’re playing in. I’m not a stickler for framerates, but I did appreciate the overall smoothness of the gameplay experience.
I was also pleased to see that neither game was too taxing on the Switch 2’s battery life. I got a solid four hours of playtime out of each one, though Peace Walker seemed to be more battery-efficient than MGS4. This doesn’t surprise me, considering that MGS4 is a huge step up, graphically.
While Peace Walker was already available on most modern consoles, this marks the first time MGS4 has been available on anything that’s not a PS3, which is the main appeal of getting the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.2. Overall, I’d say the Master Collection Vol.2 is well worth its asking price. Konami’s done an excellent job with these ports. Again, MGS4 is the big highlight here, especially after all that chatter about how it was impossible to port to anything other than the PS3.
A review code for the game was provided by the publisher. You can check out our review policy here. Reviewed on Switch 2.
