Less than a week has passed since the release of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, which finally freed Metal Gear Solid 4 from its PS3 exclusivity. Media review scores are now being released. For players who have waited nearly 20 years to play Guns of the Patriots on other platforms, the good news is that the second volume currently has an excellent reputation.
Currently, the collection has a comprehensive score of 85 on Metacritic and a slightly lower score of 84 on OpenCritic, with overall performance still impressive. Although the score of this old game collection is not enough to rank among the high-scoring works of the year, it has significantly improved compared to the first volume. The first volume ultimately received only 74 points on Metacritic and 73 points on OpenCritic.
The first volume received poor reviews, mainly due to a lack of video options and abnormal resolution settings during the review period. The second volume does not seem to have these issues. VGC journalist Jordan Middler gave the collection a perfect score, calling it a "must-have collection for Metal Gear fans," stating: "It's hard to find a game collection with higher quality than Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2."
Madison Fischer from DualShockers gave it a 9/10, writing: "This is the Metal Gear collection that all players have been eagerly awaiting, proving that all the waiting was worth it." John Karl McCormick from Push Square gave it an 8/10, stating: "Nanomachines, supermodel-like mechanical monsters, flamenco dance duels, fried egg Easter eggs, smoking underwear monkeys, and that outrageous final boss all run smoothly at 60 frames per second, with unprecedentedly refined visuals. Isn't this experience good enough?"
Obviously, Konami learned from the lessons of the previous work, making the second volume live up to the high expectations of Metal Gear fans, something the first volume failed to achieve. This sincerity is particularly important for a collection that includes Guns of the Patriots. This work could have simply been a port, relying on the gimmick of "finally being able to play without starting the PS3" to attract players, without caring about graphics optimization and experience upgrades. However, early reviews show that this collection's dedication goes far beyond that.
Although the review content for the second volume has been fully disclosed, we still need to wait a few more days to confirm whether the PS3-related elements in the game have truly been removed from the Switch and Switch 2 versions. Screenshots of the new collection's manual show that the PS3 interface that occasionally appeared in the pause menu has been replaced in the Nintendo platform versions, while Xbox, PC, and other platforms have retained this design.