Game Rant: Metal Gear Solid HD Collection

Developers: Kojima Productions, Bluepoint Games
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, PS Vita
Release Dates (US): November 8, 2011 (PS3 and 360), PS Vita TBA (at the time of writing)
Genre: Stealth-Action

The Metal Gear Solid HD Collection comprises of 3 of the Metal Gear Solid games on one disc, and allows more people to experience these games from the past and give veterans something to play again as well.

The Metal Gear Solid story line confuses me to no end, but I will give a brief synopsis of the beginning of the games on the disc.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Substance edition): In 2007, Solid Snake is sent to a Tanker to retrieve evidence of the new Metal Gear Ray, but the tanker gets taken over without the Navy knowing. After Snake gets the evidence, the Tanker is attacked and Snake is presumed to have gone down with it. 2 years later, a new agent code named Raiden is sent to a Plant to rescue the president who is held hostage somewhere on the plant...

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Subsistence edition): in 1963, Naked Snake is sent on a Virtuous Mission in the jungles of the Soviet Union to find Sokolov and get him out of there so the new weapon known as The Shagohod doesn't get finished, but The Boss stops Snake and has told Snake that she has defected to the Soviet Union, she takes back Sokolov and Snake is left for dead, but gets rescued. 2 weeks later, Snake is sent back to the Soviet Union to eliminate The Boss and destroy the Shagohod...

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker: In 1973, Naked Snake (known as Big Boss) has left the United States behind and have made the Mercenary for hire unit know as the Army Without Borders. One day a KGB agent and a girl named Paz come to Big Boss and his co-founder Kaz, they say that a man named Goldman is trying to make a new deterrance device known as Peace Walker to help him control the Nuclear Power of the world. Big Boss is sent to Central America to find and stop Peace Walker...

The Gameplay is generally the same throughout. You have to sneak around to your destination without alerting the guards. You are giving a Tranquilizer gun to take out guards non-lethaly, but you can take care of the guards for good by using various weapons you find on the field (or ones you develop in Peace Walker). You can use CQC in MGS 3 and Peace Walker to hold guards hostage, knock them out, or take them out. If you alert the guards to your presence, they will go into Alert mode and forces will increase and they will be actively looking for you. If you stay out of sight for long enough or take care of all the guards you will go back to normal mode. You have 2 menus, one for weapons and one for items. You can switch out at any time for what you have on hand or, in MGS 3, go to your backpack to switch in new items and weapons. MGS 3 and Peace Walker you can use different Camo patterns to help you hide from the guards, a Camo index on the HUD helps you to see how well you are hidden. In MGS 3 and Peace Walker, you have the Stamina and Psyche meter respectively. This meter determines how effective you can be, with having worse performance as the meters decrease. The meters will drain over time and when certain things attack you, you can regain them by using different items or food. Peace Walker also has the Mother Base. On Mother Base, you can assign crew you "find" with Fulton Recovery to different departments to help you develop new weapons, equipment, and to keep morale up. There is also Outer Ops where you can send units from your Combat Unit to do missions while you do missions. You can also play in Co-ops in most mission for up to 4 players, and there is a Versus Ops option as well for versus play. Peace Walker can now also use "Transfaring" to transfer your data between the PS3 and PSP so you can keep your data wherever you go.

The Graphics are definitely a step up from the original games, they look very beautiful. The music is still retained from the original games, so that is excellent as well.

Bottom line: The MGS HD Collection is good value, 3 games in 1, and all 3 games are enjoyable to play for veterans and newbies alike. This game would be a Buy It.