Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection

Before purchasing this collection, i never played a Metal Gear game before. I knew they were popular games and i knew about solid snake, that's about it. So i started playing them in chronological order from the stories stand point. This means i play Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, First. This game turned out to be my favorite Metal Gear game, and one of my favorite games of all time. This game remade in HD alone is worth the $25, then adding Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2 on top is just icing on the cake. Now to move on why you may enjoy the game as much as me:- The Story is, should i say epic? like Homers book odyssey type of epic. Around every turn there's a shyamalan twist. The story involves very mature themes such as Nuclear War, R*pe, Cancer, Cloning are just some examples. ( 2 of those examples are from games not in the collection, but still part of the story and plot.)- Each game had ground breaking graphics for the time they came out. While some still look really good and aged well, others graphics are not the best ( i'm looking at you peace walker and Metal Gear Solid 1.)- The Games make you think about the world around you. They some how manage to suck you into their universe but at the same time have you thinking about the one you live in. Provokes thought about loyalty, or what really is right and wrong? I start thinking about my own life when i play the games, and I'm sure you will too.-The games are actually fun on their own! Story sure does help keep you involved, but the game play of sneaking can get your adrenaline flowing. Or during an incredible boss battle of shooting rockets at the boss, and getting the timing right of hiding from its attacks.- Amazing atmospheres! A lot of thought has went into your surroundings in these games.- Sound tracks are incredible. ( That fight with Psycho Mantis)- The Boss fights are the best out of any game series made.Here is some of the things you may not like from the game:- Story can just feel like it's progressing at a snail's pace at times.- You can actually be punished for going in guns blazing. Sometimes it doesn't just make the game more difficult, you will be penalized some other way.- This isn't a game you just mindlessly play. It's important to be involved constantly or you will miss out on a key part of the story from the cut scenes, or if you're not careful you'll be spotted by an enemy sentry. So this isn't some call of duty game to pop on and play for 5 minutes when you need something to just aimlessly play.- Most of these games have LONG cut scenes. Cut scenes that you cant skip or pause, and even if you could skip you wouldn't want to when its your first time playing through the game. I remember first playing MGS3, it took me 45 minutes to actually get the game started cause of all the cut scenes. MGS 4 has about 8 hours of cut scenes reportedly. I don't remember that much cut scene though.- There are puzzles in these games that are so difficult to figure out! Thank goodness you have a codec to call and ask questions with. But if you get really desperate, i guess you can always look on the internet? But figuring out the puzzles can keep you angered and entertained for hours.

I don't own every Metal Gear Solid game, but I've played them (except Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2). This is the perfect bundle of joy for me. I'm also glad I waited and didn't get the HD collection :) Anyways let's get started:Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection comes with 8 games!1. The original Metal Gear*2. The original Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake**Can be found on the main menu of MGS3: Subsistence3. Metal Gear Solid**4. Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions****Downloadable from Playstation Store as PSone Classics via online vouchers included inside the game box.5. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Substance version)6. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Subsistence version)7. Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker8. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the PatriotsMGS 2, 3, and Peacewalker have all been remade in HD and are PS3 remakes.The Legacy Collection comes with 2 discs:Disc 1: Metal Gear Solid 4. That's it.Disc 2: Comes with MGS2, MGS3, MGS Peacewalker, and the two digital graphic novels - MGS Bande Desinee/MGS2 Bande Desinee. These graphic novels are accessible under the 'Video' section of the XMB menu with Disc 2 in the PS3.You also get this 100 page artbook which features loads of promotional artwork from all the games in this collection and extra promotional artwork from the HD collection and the 25 year anniversary. It's just about the same size as the game case. Some people complained about the artwork, but it's SUPPOSED to be promotional. All the artwork in this book will either be advertisements promoting the game or some type of promotional poster. I liked it.I also see people complaining that we're only getting downloadable copies of MGS1 and MGS: VR Missions and not the original disc copy. The main two reasons people are upset over this are because1. This means they can't play it and then resell it.2. It'd be nice to have the original disc copy for collection purposes.I don't really care that we're only getting downloadable versions. I wasn't ever planning on selling them anyways, and I'm not a collector. As long as I can play it I'm happy.Some people were confused about the two graphic novels so I'll explain. There was originally a game on PSP called Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel. In some MGS DVD thing that was only released in Japan, they remade the PSP game, but took out the interactivity of the game and basically made it a graphic novel movie thing. It was released as Metal Gear Solid: Bande Desinee, and it's basically a comic-graphic novel-esque representation of the events that occurred in MGS1. They also made a second one called Metal Gear Solid 2: Bande Desinee, which has the same comic-graphic novel-esque style, but it's a representation of the events that occurred in MGS2: SoL. This 2nd one was only on DVD though, there wasn't an interactive game version of it. Anyways, these two movies, remade in HD and once exclusive to Japan are what you're getting with this collection.One last thing. I know some people wanted there to also be an HD remake of MGS: The Twin Snakes, the gamecube remake of MGS1 for PS1. I'm one of those people too, and it would've been a great addition to this collection, but I won't let that detract from my rating of the review, so this stays at 5 stars.For the hardcore MGS fan, it's not EVERY Metal Gear Solid game that's ever been released, but it's definitely a collection worth picking up. You're getting way more than $50 here.For the casual gamer or someone new to the MGS franchise, this is an excellent collection to start out with. All the games that you'll need to understand the main story are here in this collection, so it's a great collection to pick up for newcomers as well.There's lots of content to enjoy here, and many hours of playtime collectively. Get it!!