I’d actually been tossing around the idea of a Metal Gear Solid series playthrough for quite a few years now. I came to love other series in the genre, like Splinter Cell and Hitman, and suspected I’d really enjoy these games as well. It also felt a little odd to have zero experience with such a highly influential series, and one that a few friends of mine absolutely loved as well. Having picked up the HD collection for the Xbox 360 at release, something like 15 years ago now, my only problem was that it omitted the first Metal Gear Solid. As followers of this blog are no doubt well aware, I’ve been a long time Xbox devotee and until relatively recently, didn’t own a single PlayStation console. It might sound silly, but not having a good way to start such a narrative heavy series from the beginning felt like a real barrier to entry.
So, what options did I have? Well, I could obviously buy an original PlayStation or maybe even luck out and find a fat PlayStation 2 with its highly sought after backwards compatibility, but I’d been downsizing my vintage console collection and didn’t really want to buy another old console, especially for a single game. Another possibility was emulation, but way back when I first started seriously considering a series playthrough my PC was pretty old and I worried about being able to emulate the game smoothly, the accuracy of the PlayStation emulators available at the time, and my lack of an actual PlayStation controller to play with. Another option was the PC port of the game, but it always sounded just a little compromised to me, though opinions on it did eventually change and I decided that would be my path forward.
A little later, I learned of the existence of the PlayStation Classic which I’d somehow totally missed. A cheap dedicated emulation machine that I could plug into a modern TV, complete with a couple of apparently good quality recreations of the original controllers? It even included Metal Gear Solid in its selection of out-of-the-box games! For a fleeting moment this seemed like an even better solution, but sadly, the more I read about the PSC and its heap of emulation issues, the more I talked myself out of the idea. On the plus side, this did lead me to learn that the PlayStation 3’s backwards compatibility was actually one of the better ways to play the original MGS. A PS3 also meant I could play an even more exclusive Metal Gear game, Metal Gear Solid 4. Sold!
“MGS on the PS3: Ready for action.”
I acquired an almost brand new PlayStation 3 Super Slim along with the original PlayStation versions of Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions, and the PS3 versions of Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection and Metal Gear Solid 4. This also led me to embark on a fun little journey to build a library of many of the other most interesting PS3 exclusives I missed out on during the era, though that’s another story. Of course, as luck would have it, the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, which includes Metal Gear Solid, was announced shortly after this, and now Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, which includes Metal Gear Solid 4, is due to be released this year. Talk about winning…
Still, I thought it might be fun to give those two runner-up methods a shot to compare them to my time playing through the emulated game on my Xbox Series X via Master Collection Vol. 1.
Starting with the PlayStation 3, there are actually two distinct options. The digital PlayStation Store release (which is the version that came with the The Legacy Collection) was probably the most widely played of the two. Believe it or not, my used copy of the Legacy Collection actually came with an unused code which I was able to redeem for it. Yes, in 2026! The big advantage of this version is that, of course, it doesn’t need to load from disc which means much faster load times and none of the nostalgic noise of the disc spinning and the optical pickup unit moving around. Some claim it runs a bit better than the disc version, though whether this is simply due to the faster load times is unclear to me. I’ve also seen claims that it has some minor visual issues, but again, nothing I noticed. The disc version, on the other hand, is often claimed to be the more “authentic” experience of the two.
In the brief time I ran through the cargo dock and heliport areas, I didn’t notice any notable visual differences between these two versions. In fact, the only thing I noticed is that the disc version, by default, has no smoothing whatsoever, which makes the stereotypical PS1 jaggies and particularly the dithering look absolutely atrocious. While true to the image output back in the day, a CRT TV would have smoothed the entire picture over considerably. To remedy this, the PS3’s emulator does include a “Smoothing” filter you can turn on which really helps. The digital version, on the other hand, already seems to have some light smoothing effect enabled from the get go and enabling “Smoothing” ends up smoothing it even more than the disc version. This is especially noticeable when looking at the font whenever text is displayed – you almost can’t tell the font wasn’t originally so nice on the digital version.
In any case, I concluded that I would have been quite happy to have played through this way, only losing some of the relatively minor conveniences provided by the Master Collection Vol. 1 version. Plus, the added authenticity of playing with a DualShock pad isn’t insignificant.
“The PC version running in widescreen with no filtering. Mind the mess!”
I also wanted to try out the PC port. Watching this excellent video by Retro Renew, I more or less followed their recommendations for setting up the GOG version and the excellent MGS Launcher. This allowed me to run the game in higher resolution, in real widescreen, with fixed sound and lots of other useful options exposed, and with great controller support. I’m not sure if running this version or running DuckStation or some other emulator with all of the bells and whistles cranked up will get you closer to a modern experience, but in any case, this was surprisingly nice. The game looks great running on my system at 1440p, and while it could be my imagination or just my fondness for the hall effect sticks on my lovely 8bitdo controller, I’d swear the modded analog controller support feels even better than playing the game on my Series X. This PC version also brings some interesting out-of-the-box features included in this unique take on the “Integral” version of the game such as the ability to play entirely in third person and the ability to save anywhere, and without going through Mei Ling to boot. Of course, there are some downsides; namely Psycho Mantis’s fourth wall breaking antics being nerfed.
As with playing the original version on the PlayStation 3 as above, I really only played around in the beginning few areas, but if that was anything to go on, I think I would have been quite satisfied with playing through the game this way. I actually liked it so much I decided to leave it installed for next time I fancy a jaunt around Shadow Moses Island.
“The master collection version running in High Resolution mode.”
As mentioned in my main Metal Gear Solid post, the emulated version that is included in the Master Collection Vol. 1 does include some tweaks and neat features of its own. You don’t get save-states, but you do get the ability to manage your virtual memory cards, including adding dummy saves for other games for Psycho Mantis to taunt you with. You can add in image smoothing, a CRT scanline filter, and going the opposite direction, the ability to run the game at HD or 4k resolutions, which looks quite nice, though it does appear to apply some sort of automatic smoothing/filtering, which I know some people will hate. There’s also no option for true widescreen or even a non-linearly stretched widescreen, which is a big bummer. Of course, there are mods and fixes to address some of these limitations on the PC version of the collection. Overall, given its availability, the other included contents, and Konami’s shockingly decent post-release support, I think the Master Collection is probably the best option for most players.
I could go much deeper into this topic by installing DuckStation and/or acquiring a PlayStation Classic, but alas, I’m really itching to move on to Metal Gear Solid 2.