Steel Gear Strong: Grasp Assortment Vol. 1 gathers a number of the finest video games ever made and places all of them on trendy platforms in a single handy bundle. Sadly, a laundry checklist of bizarre caveats and shortcomings at launch make the brand new anthology onerous to have fun. Why is among the finest franchises in gaming historical past not pulling out all of the stops?
Out October 24 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence X/S, Swap, and Home windows PC, Steel Gear Strong: Grasp Assortment Vol. 1 has been stalked by controversy for months now, with questions on subpar efficiency on Nintendo Swap and an absence of bells and whistles on “next-gen” platforms like PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence X/S, and PC. The anthology options 5 primary video games—Steel Gear, Steel Gear 2: Strong Snake, Steel Gear Strong, Steel Gear Strong 2: Sons of Liberty, and Steel Gear Strong 3: Snake Eater—and consists of the oddball Snake’s Revenge and the NES and Famicom ports of Steel Gear as bonuses. However now that it’s lastly right here, it’s onerous to not be disenchanted by how writer Konami has gone about assembling it.
![An operator badgers Snake about missing features.](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/37cf479c720d25770a26592ac1f64baa.jpg)
First up is the shortage of a visible improve on new platforms, or parity with the unique variations on Swap. As shared previous to launch, Steel Gear Strong nonetheless solely performs at 30fps throughout all variations (it was by no means remastered for 2011’s Steel Gear Strong HD Assortment by Bluepoint Video games). The Swap model of Steel Gear Strong 2 and three are additionally locked at 30fps (MGS2 initially ran at 60fps on PlayStation 2). All three video games max out at 1080p as effectively, with no 4K decision choices for the stronger {hardware} variations.
Learn Extra: Kotaku’s Steel Gear Retrospective Sequence
Even with none large enhancements, Konami notes that the launch variations nonetheless endure from varied bugs and efficiency points it plans to patch someday sooner or later. A full checklist of the shortcomings was supplied to IGN. “Throughout Steel Gear Strong 1, 2, and three, bug fixes are additionally deliberate, particularly on MGS2,” the positioning famous. “Konami warned the sport might considerably decelerate in sure cutscenes, which sounds worrying. A patch to cut back processing load is deliberate.” Visible choices like CRT scanlines and the flexibility to modify between windowed and full-screen mode within the choices menu within the two MSX video games are additionally MIA in the mean time.
There’s additionally the laggy pause button. Konami added the choice to pause throughout cutscenes, a long-requested function for the story-heavy stealth sequence. Footage from copies of the sport that leaked early, nevertheless, confirmed that it will possibly take as much as 10 seconds for the sport to register the pause after the button’s pressed, taking a number of the shine off the brand new possibility. It’s nonetheless unclear if that’s intentional or will likely be patched down the street.
The Steel Gear Strong: Grasp Assortment Vol. 1 is, maybe much less surprisingly, encountering points on PC as effectively. Preliminary Steam critiques are very combined, with gamers complaining about unintuitive keybindings, poor UI, and an absence of side ratio choices. “Take this with a grain of salt, the sport actually simply launched, however rattling the video settings, button mapping, and poor UI/UX for the gathering is fairly bitter,” wrote one participant. “I’m certain it can enhance over time, however yikes.”
Most galling for me personally are the video games altogether lacking from the bodily Swap model of the gathering. In North America not less than, solely Steel Gear, Steel Gear 2: Strong Snake, and Snake’s Revenge are literally on the sport card. The three Steel Gear Strong video games, that are the principle ones marketed on the entrance of the field, should be downloaded individually. As somebody who treats their Swap like a bodily repository for retro remasters and re-issues, it’s irritating to must depend on an web connection and a short lived on-line storefront to have entry to all-time classics. It feels like the Japanese bodily launch not less than additionally consists of the primary Steel Gear Strong on the sport card.
Lots of the preliminary critiques for Steel Gear Strong: Grasp Assortment Vol. 1 have famous these shortcomings whereas nonetheless declaring that on the finish of the day these video games nonetheless play nice and stay a number of the most profound meditations on geopolitics, conflict, and the army industrial complicated the medium has ever produced. “I believe it’s nice that such an enormous swathe of Steel Gear historical past is now available and simply playable on trendy programs,” writes The Verge’s Jon Porter. “However there’s additionally part of me that thinks Konami missed a chance to present Steel Gear Strong specifically a recent coat of paint and replace it for a contemporary viewers.”
The online game business is usually so unhealthy at preserving its previous I want it will go all out when it decides to lastly take the chance to repackage previous video games and promote them once more. If meaning charging extra so be it. I’d gladly pay $100 for the definitive version of all of those video games. Possibly we’ll ultimately get that at some point. Within the meantime I hope Konami’s deliberate post-launch updates give the gathering a number of the extra like it deserves.