Metal Gear Solid Master Collection is here, bringing Metal Gear Solid 3 (the best of the best) to the PC for the first time in a package that includes MGS 1 and 2, as well as the original MSX Metal Gear games. This is the day I've been waiting for for literally years: the Metal Gear games are some of my favorite ever made, and it's great that the masterpiece is finally being ported to the PC.

However, oh, what a frustration these ports leave me with. Hours after their release, all three "Metal Gear Solid" titles are now rated beige "Mixed" on Steam, with players writing lengthy complaints about Konami's work. Having played a bit of this collection myself, I can't help but agree.

Since the Master Collection is the PC debut of this game, let's start with MGS 3. Snake Eater currently has a 42% favorable rating on Steam, with players particularly upset with the game's visuals, controls, and general lack of options." The game itself is great, but this port is very lazy." A highly positive review by a Steam user named Aninefivesiix reads, "I won't refund your money if you can find a way to fix the config file so it can run at 1440p, but this 'remaster' is essentially a PS3 and Xbox 360 remaster by BluePoint ( can emulate it.)

This is fairly representative of reviews in general. Another, by a user named Owlet VII, nicely summarizes the complaints currently littering the game's user score section: "Locked at 720p. Mouse support" only emulates the right analog stick. Keyboard controls are unintelligible and uneditable. The selected button prompts are reset to the Xbox defaults every time. The manual is a web page and is not aware of the above options."

The Master Collection versions of MGS 2 and 3 seem to be ports of the Xbox 360 Blue Point remasters, so the complaints about 3, such as lack of options, poor keyboard controls, and dirty graphics, also apply to 2. The review currently at the top of MGS 2's Steam page is by Howard Hayman, and reads, in part, "This release is absolutely poor and not worth its asking price at all. Upon purchase, you will find that the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection release has absolutely no options for PC players.

"No way to switch between windowed and full screen (this feature is said to be added in a future update)," "No way to switch resolutions," "No way to change audio settings," "No way to change screen size or aspect ratio," "Audio settings," "no way to change settings," "no way to go back to the menu during the game," etc. Even the most mediocre remaster can only do the bare minimum listed here."

MGS 1 is different, but still disappointing: unlike MGS 2 and MGS 3, Konami never ported the Bluepoint remaster of the first Metal Gear Solid game, so the version currently on Steam is merely an emulated version of the original game (Adding to the confusion, a proper PC version was ported in 2000 that Konami did not adopt for the "Master Collection"). It is the only one of the "Metal Gear Solid" collections to receive more than 50% favorable reviews, with 62% favorable at the time of this writing. Nevertheless, the response is still "mixed," with many dissatisfied.

"They really tarnished MGS1," reads a review by user Pughausen, who says the game is "literally just an iso file in a really bad emulator. No resolution options, no aspect ratio options. Nothing. He recommends running the game on Duckstation (a PlayStation emulator) instead of the Konami version.

Another user, Grasping1, summed up what the MGS 1 Master Collection version offers as "switching between fullscreen or windowed view, dumb sidebar changes instead of being able to remove the sidebar, the game in [1920x1080], options to choose between Metal Gear Solid, VR Missions, Integral, and Special Mode (just another VR mission mode)," and describes it as "For Integral and Special Mode, downloading Japanese and European voice packs that are not listed on Steam Needed.

Metal Gear 1 and Metal Gear 2, on the other hand, received (from 20 users) an 80% favorable rating. So this is a good thing.

In other words, rather than a standing ovation for the Metal Gear series' long-awaited debut on Steam, the complaints reflect my own experience: the emulated version of MGS 1 is horrible on my PC with 3700x, RTX 4080, and 16GB RAM. It works, and players who say they can't access parts of the game because the downloadable language is inexplicably not currently available on Steam are not wrong; as for "2" and "3," they are muddy and messy, and the only reason I am still glad they are available is that sooner or later I have no doubt that Modder will make them what they should be.

But none of these ports are worthy of this series. It is absurd that with the release of this "Master Collection", if you want to play these games, you are much better off with the GOG copies of MGS 1 and MGS 2 you have on hand. Both are terrible ports (at least in the case of 1, which is a port), but the modelers have polished them to a shine over the years.

Konami has said they will provide patches for these games, so perhaps some of these problems will be fixed soon. We will have to wait a little longer.