Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is full of problems on PC
IGN has previously reported issues with the Nintendo Switch version of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1. Now it’s the PC version that’s coming under criticism.
The highly anticipated collection was released on all platforms today, October 24th, but PC seems to be having the most problems. On Steam, the various games sold in the collection already have a “mixed” rating, with PC gamers consistently pointing out issues.
Redditor 1Ocelot has rounded up the worst offenders. Perhaps most shockingly, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3 are locked to an internal resolution of 720p, even though Konami advertises both games as having a 1080p output. Modders have moved quickly to get MGS2 running in 4K, but there are problems.
Elsewhere, PC gamers have lamented the lack of display settings, with all games in the collection defaulting to fullscreen. “Don’t buy MGS3 on Steam if you have a monitor with a resolution above 1920 x 1080,” warned Redditor Arisenstring956.
“The game runs at 720p and in half the cases the Alt-Tab key is not possible due to the different resolution. No borderless or windowed options and there appears to be no way to edit an INI file to change the resolution. All I wanted was to play MGS3 at a good framerate without pressure-sensitive controls, but I guess a huge company isn’t able to compete with fan-made emulators.”
Steam user Howard Heyman summed up the sentiment and left a negative review for Metal Gear Solid 2: “This release is absolutely bad and in no way worth its asking price.” Upon purchase, you’ll notice that the Metal Gear Solid Master releases Collection does not offer any options for PC gamers. No ability to switch between windowed and full-screen modes (this feature will reportedly be added in a future update), no ability to switch resolution, no way to change audio settings, no way to change the size or aspect ratio of the screen change, no ability to change audio settings, no ability to return to the menu in the game and so on. Even the most mediocre remasters offer the bare minimum of what I just listed here.”
This week, IGN reported a number of problems with the collection that Konami indicated that it would be fixed in post-launch updates. Most concerning is Metal Gear Solid 2, which Konami says could slow down significantly in certain cutscenes. A patch to reduce the processing load is planned.
PC gamers should know that Metal Gear Solid 1 requires a controller to play (keyboard and mouse play is not supported). The collection has also been criticized for being blocked Metal Gear Solid 1 to 30 frames per second.
Wesley is the UK news editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
