Master Collection Vol.1 (Context)
The First Volume
What's in the first volume — MGS, MGS2, MGS3 and more — and how it sets up Vol.2. A quick primer on whether you should play Vol.1 first.
Where the saga's modern re-release began.
Vol.2 doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s the second half of a two-part re-release project, and a lot of newcomers reasonably ask: do I need the first one? Here’s the context.
What Vol.1 contains
Released in October 2023, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.1 gathered the earlier chapters of the saga:
- Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake — the original MSX2 titles where it all began with Big Boss and a young Solid Snake.
- Metal Gear Solid — the genre-defining 1998 PlayStation classic, the Shadow Moses Incident.
- Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty — the Tanker and Big Shell chapters, and Raiden’s debut.
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater — the 1964 Cold War origin story and, for many, the best in the series.
It also bundled bonus materials in the same spirit as Vol.2 — including two motion comics, plus the usual screenplay and master books.
How it relates to Vol.2
The two volumes are separate purchases, and chronologically they’re split cleanly: Vol.1 covers the early-to-middle saga, Vol.2 covers the later games (Peace Walker, MGS4) plus the Ghost Babel bonus. There’s no overlap, and Vol.2 doesn’t require Vol.1 to install or run.
Do you need it first?
That depends on you:
- Brand new to Metal Gear? Playing Vol.1 first will give you the full story in something close to order, and a lot of MGS4’s emotional payoffs land harder if you’ve lived through MGS1 and MGS2. We’d gently suggest starting there — see where to start Metal Gear.
- Returning fan who’s already played the classics? You can jump straight into Vol.2. MGS4 and Peace Walker stand on their own well enough, and you presumably already know who Liquid is.
- Only care about MGS4? You can absolutely buy Vol.2 alone. We’ll catch you up with our character files and timeline guide so the references make sense.
We cover the head-to-head in more detail in our Vol.1 vs Vol.2 comparison. The short version: they’re two halves of one collection, and which you start with comes down to whether you’re here for the whole journey or just the finale.