Master Collection launch issues: Our first PS5 and Steam assessment

Two days after Master Collection Vol. 1 launched, we put together this first assessment of the PS5 and Steam versions. It preserves the problems, requests and impressions we reported at that stage, followed by our Xbox update.

This is our launch-period record, not a statement that every issue remains present in later versions.

The Master Collection is out and although it seems @Konami has resolved a lot of the launch download issues there are a myriad of glaring issues with the collection and they span across multiple platforms.

Right now I can only speak to issues on the PS5 and Steam but I know that the NSwitch has some serious issues as well if someone would like to comment below with a list of things that need to be addressed I would be forever grateful.

Metal Gear Solid (1)

Controls: Please adjust the controls. It seems all full analog support has been removed and replaced with 8 point digital directional controls as well as some input delay. PLEASE fix this.

MGS1: VR on Steam Games Crashes have been reported. When crashed, the user last in game save was lost. Please look into this. As well as missing game saves in general. I've also seen reports of no time and rank after credits. Please look into this.

Visuals: I would like to see display options added to the game as far as image filtering. Gama control and the ability to disable smoothing. I would also like if Konami could make MGS(1) a "native" 1080p instead of upscaled but I know that is easier said than done. This is a PS1 game so I expected that to be delivered and for the most part it has I think honestly a lot of people just forget how PS1 games look through the blind glasses of emulation, but I digress.

Audio: The over all audio in this game overall really unacceptable and needs to be looked over and corrected. A lot of sounds are peaking unnecessarily and just don't sound right popping and cracking in many cases. When it comes to not just simple item or equipment swapping but music levels and codec conversations. I haven't completed a full playthrough yet but I will expand on this once I see more.

Metal Gear Solid 2

Audio: Again the over all audio in this game overall really needs to be looked over and corrected. A lot of sounds are peaking unnecessarily and just don't sound right. Please Konami look into this and resolve this.

Visuals: Nothing game breaking here obviously but I've seen reports of bugs like shadow silhouette's showing where they shouldn't be. I would also like to see display options added to the Steam version and consoles if possible. I love how anisotropic filtering has been cranked up but I would like to see even more options added. I haven't done a full playthrough yet but overall especially on console it seemed to 1:1 with original HD Editions but again I will say more once I've played through it completely. This game really needs the ability to be in a proper Windowed mode. Anytime I alt-tab out of the game it really does a number on my system.

Metal Gear Solid 3

Gameplay: I'm about half way through the game and first, I'm blown away by the performance in terms of the game feeling smoother in ways. Frame pacing seems better, as well as the load times have increased immensely which I love.

I've experience a bug where I aim don't fire then unequip my weapon but when I equip my weapon again its stuck in aiming stance again until I fire the weapon. This is clearly a bug, please fix.

Visuals: Consoles: Nothing game breaking here so far. I would also like to see display options added to the Steam version and consoles if possible. I love how anisotropic filtering has been cranked up but I would like to see even more options added. I haven't done a full playthrough yet but overall especially on console it seemed to 1:1 with original HD Editions but again I will say more once I've played through it completely.

Steam needs some serious work. Resolution issues, image filtering issues are numerous. Do better. This game really needs the ability to be in a proper Windowed mode. Anytime I alt-tab out of the game it really does a number on my system.

I feel like a lot of issues surrounding MGS(1) are related to the emulation that is being done here. It would shock me that each individual issue I spoke about was something the team touched or messed with, which makes me believe if you can fix the overall emulation performance, a lot of these issues would resolve themselves.

There is more but overall I think the PS5 console release is the best I have seen in comparison to other platforms though I've heard that Xbox is in pretty good state as well baring these same issues.

Please help out Steam users. The state it was launched in is unacceptable. The issues there are many but I think once they are resolved the Steam release will end up being the best release overall and has the most potential moving forward.

The game only launched two days ago, be patient everyone, lets give @Konami a chance to resolve these issues but I DO NOT BLAME ANYONE for being upset about any of this, you paid your hard earned money, you expect the collection to be delivered as promised.

Please visit our Discord, a lot of work arounds / fixes have been posted and everyone is trying their best to help one another and we also have a bug reporting chat room so please use it. I know efforts are on going in the community to help gather issues so be on the look out for that as well.

And to those who say I'm never critical and only push a positive agenda. KMA. ❤️

Our request for further reports

Again I encourage everyone to reply to this post with issues you have seen or experienced and let @Konami see what is going on. It will be impossible for me to find or list everything wrong so I need your help. Thank you everyone. 🙏🫶

Our Xbox Series X follow-up

An update from myself. I played around with the Xbox Series X version of MGS3 and MGS1 Integral. MGS3 so far is great, but the astroscopic filtering on the Xbox needs to be increased. Beyond that is pretty much on par with the PS5. Same lightning quick load times and great performance. MGS1 is still having audio issues and the input delay and 8 point directional issues for the controls are still present. If Konami can fix both issues, botch of which really need to be fixed as a priority for now, MGS should be in great shape. Still would like to see a native 1080p happen as well.

On MGS3’s cave lighting

In a discussion about gamma and contrast, we also gave this view:

@Konami I'm not sure, I actually like the change in the Cave portion of MGS3. Before the game was dark to an extreme in my opinion.

Sources

MGN original post · MGN follow-up 1 · MGN follow-up 2 · MGN follow-up 3