Game Review & Comparison

 

This review is for the Metal Gear Solid HD collection which includes 2 games from the PS2; Metal Gear Solid 2, 3 and the PSP release Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

The Metal Gear franchise focuses on three different soldiers. Solid Snake is known as a legend in the US Special Forces and has stopped plans to create a new Metal Gear time and time again. Raiden, the protagonist of MGS2 is a child soldier and Big Boss, is also known for his impressive feats within the Cold War. As you progress through the storyline of each game, you start to see how indepth the story goes. Metal Gear Solid has the motto of "procuring on-site" on a "solo-sneaking mission" meaning that stealth is normally the way to play the game but you can play the game how you see fit, unloading a shotgun into an enemy soldier if the time calls for it.

Straight away we can see the remastered graphics really do show with the HD collection in comparison to other re-released HD titles that I've played recently. Another thing is the amount of content you get with the game. You get both the Substance release of Metal Gear Solid 2 and the Substinence version of Metal Gear Solid 3 which both had additional content to the originals like "Snake Tales" and "Operation: Ape Escape".

From a graphic standpoint, the games look excellent which every texture and model looking real good considering two titles came from the PS2 and the other came from a PSP. The graphics are reminscent of the Silent Hill HD collection but if we do compare the games to other titles on the Xbox 360, you can definitely see and feel that the games have aged quite a bit over time. The PSP title, Peace Walker, is most affected by the upscaling as the models can seem a little off sometimes but it's still incredibly impressive when you compare the two games side by side.

The models and textures of the PSP release Peace Walker look crisper but you can still see how it doesn't compare to the other two titles.

Going onto control of the game, the Metal Gear Solid games seem to constantly evolve in terms of gameplay and control. Looking back on MGS1, 2 and 3, the camera angle was locked to an overhead view and the game seemed clunky at times. With the HD remakes, they have made it possible to move the camera to whereever you see fit allowing for free movement in an active environment. This is a major improvement to the PS2 titles as you can see where your enemies are positioned and move accordingly towards it.



The difference between the HD (left) and original (right) with the fog.

One of the problems that comes with making HD versions of older games is the age of the games. For instance, the Silent Hill collection, the game had a range of faults because the code the company in charge of making the remakes were given. This gave the game many problems that included severe frame rate drops in both games, lag upon receiving Trophies/Achievements, graphical glitches, and one of the most important aspects of Silent Hill, reduced transparencies of fog, glass, etc.

The fog within a survival horror is clichéd in a sense, but it is part of what made Silent Hill such a impactful title in the years of the PS2 and also one of the most renowned survival-horror games out there. Silent Hill 2 particularly being featured on many people's top ten games of all time. The fog does a good job of hiding the monsters in the original title and adds to the suspense. With the fog the way it is, Silent Hill loses some of it's charm but it's still a very good remake nonetheless.

This gruesome image happens to be a glitch and not part of Silent Hill's aesthetic, believe it or not.

In comparison, the Metal Gear Solid HD collection has no glitches from what I've seen within the game and I've also checked out various sources from GameFaqs and GameSpot to see if anyone else has encountered problems with the game as it's been remade.