Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 Review (Switch 2)

Editor's Note: If you're looking for our thoughts on the individual releases within the Collection, then check out our reviews of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which you can buy individually on the Switch eShop.

When Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 was released in 2023, Nintendo fans were finally treated to an excellent collection of stealth classics that, while flawed upon release, have since been updated significantly. But creator Hideo Kojima didn’t stop with the original MGS trilogy (despite apparently really wanting to), concluding Solid Snake’s story with MGS4: Guns of the Patriots and exploring Big Boss’ journey after Snake Eater with the PSP title Peace Walker.

These titles make up the bulk of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, which also includes the non-canon Ghost Babel for Game Boy Color and a smattering of extra content. If you get the collection in one go, each game will be added to your library in its own bespoke app, much like the first release. Ghost Babel is included in a separate ‘Bonus Content’ app, but I don’t think this was necessary – Konami could have easily included it with either MGS4 or Peace Walker.

The other bonus content includes separate Master Books for each main title, which are essentially glorified manuals that showcase a bunch of lore and character information, while MGS4 specifically includes a screenplay book and a staggeringly dense database. So, you’ve got an encyclopaedia of pretty much every MGS character, organisation, and location you can possibly think of, a complete timeline of important events, and a relationship chart that shows which characters were involved in each timeline event and how they relate to each other.

It’s seriously impressive stuff if you’re keen to delve deep into MGS lore and understand how everything fits together. Each encyclopaedia entry includes multiple hyperlinks to related topics, so it’s incredibly easy to get lost as you work your way through, like when you’re browsing Wikipedia at 2am when you’re struggling to sleep.

As for the games themselves, while it’s tempting to think of this collection as a lesser successor to Vol. 1, MGS4 and Peace Walker are both essential if you enjoyed the first selection of games – the former for its epic concluding story and the latter for its addictive gameplay.

With MGS4 specifically, I was utterly convinced that it would remain trapped on the PS3 for all time thanks to the direct references to Sony hardware. Yet Konami has done an admirable job in addressing this, replacing all references with more generic content. Even before booting the game up for the first time, seeing the icon on my home screen was a surreal moment that, prior to the release of Vol. 1, I had thought impossible.

Peace Walker has been released on other platforms since its initial PSP launch — most notably via the HD Collection on Xbox 360 and PS3 — but its new arrival on Switch 2 is arguably the best way to experience this modern classic. Having been developed with handheld play in mind, whipping out the Switch 2 for brief sessions to complete a mission or two feels amazing.

Yet despite the bitesize nature of the gameplay, Peace Walker is the largest game in the series in terms of sheer content – at least it was until the release of The Phantom Pain in 2015. There's so much to do here, including main missions, extra ops, Mother Base management, and even online multiplayer. It's a true hidden gem and easily one of the best entries.

Then you’ve got Ghost Babel, a curious Game Boy title that, while certainly not canonical, is still held in high regard by fans. It portrays an alternative continuity set after the events of Metal Gear 2, introducing completely different characters and events from what fans might be used to.

The gameplay and presentation feel like a mix of the original MSX titles and the first Metal Gear Solid on PS1. So you’ve got a strict top-down viewpoint from which to view the action, but Snake himself feels remarkably agile, utilising abilities like crawling and hiding behind walls. It’s definitely pretty quaint by today’s standards, but I would argue that it’s more playable than the MSX games and certainly more so than the NES port of Metal Gear.

Performance at launch is generally a lot more impressive than the first collection, with the caveat that the version I reviewed was built for Switch 2. Both main games run at a solid 60fps, which is a huge improvement over the original releases, and I can't say I noticed a single dip in frame rate throughout my experience.

In terms of resolution, MGS4 can display up to 4K while docked and 1080p handheld, but unfortunately Peace Walker caps out at 1080p docked and 720p handheld. This isn’t necessarily an issue during gameplay, and the step up from the PSP original is staggering, but it’s unfortunate when the likes of PS5 and Xbox Series X can push it up to 4K. They’re much more powerful, sure, but it’s a PSP game.