Metal Gear Solid HD Collection

The ”Vita” version of ”Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection” has been out for a little while now and I have been playing around with it quite a bit. The port itself is overall quite good, but a lot of small important things keep me from really recommending this to everybody and give it 5 stars.

When i first got my hands on the PlayStation Vita, i absolutely fell in love with the screen, no screenshot or video so far has ever really justified the screen and now after the vita has been out for quite some time now, not a lot of games has really used the screen to its fullest potential, most games run in lower resolution and makes it look more like a psp1.5 than a successor to the original PlayStation portable. So when i considering getting the Vita version of the metal gear HD collection it was mostly based on how it used the the screen and how it looked compared to its original version and it mostly does the job pretty well.

Now if you compare the graphics to the original ps2 releases of the games, the vita version looks absolutely better, the higher resolution and just the thought on how much power you actually have in your hand, compared to what you needed a giant box for in 2004, you cant help but to smile a bit.

Now performance wise is where it starts going downhill. Now in “Metal Gear Solid 2” the game runs a bit mixed, outside in the rain on the tanker, the performance drops a bit here and there and inside the performance increases exponentially, to a point where it runs super smooth inside. Because of the rapid difference in performance from the inside and outside, you cant help but to notice the lower outdoor performance that much more. Now the performance outside is not unplayable, infact by most standards it is perfectly fine, but because there is just such a huge leap between them, you cant help but to wish there was paid more attention to making it a more fluid experience.

In “Metal Gear Solid 3” the performance is quite a bit more even, but also runs quite a bit lower than mgs2. But again remember these games are still very playable. Now visually because metal gear solid 3 uses a lot more filters like blur and bloom, the higher resolution is a bit less visible and overall look a bit smooched out. But you have to remember it looks no worse than the original ps2 version.

Because of the great port on the PS3 and 360, you cant help but to wish the vita version was as pretty as them. But you got to remember, handhelds are still quite bit off from current gen consoles.

Overall the Vita version is just fine, but from the giant huge black hole lacking “Peace Walker”, controls that the hardcore metal gear solid fan might find a bit odd and performance that’s quite a bit uneven. Makes this version, a fan version only. The 360 and PS3 version of the hd collection are far superior and vita version shouldn’t even be compared to them.

But if you have a Vita and you are still in a search for some good games and you like metal gear solid 2 and 3. I would still highly recommend this title.

I am still having quite a bit of fun!