Metal Gear Solid collection is messy on Steam Deck, but Valve is rolling out fixes

It was recently brought to people’s attention that the Master Collection of Metal Gear Solid was near unplayable on Steam Deck. Fortunately, Valve has been quick off the mark, and a fix is rolling out.

According to a recent Twitter/X post from Pierre-Loup Grifais – coder for Valve – a hotifx has been deployed. This should tend to the crashing issues people have been having with both Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3.

As is often the case when it comes to the Steam Deck, the problem appeared to be related to compatibility issues with the device’s operating system. This new patch – sent out literally moments ago – addresses issues with Proton, the Linux-based software the Deck is built around.

What was the problem?

In a recent report/video from GamingOnLinux, the recent release of the first three Metal Gear Solid entries were shown to be not suited for the Deck. While MGS runs fine, it seems to maintain its old-school 4:3 aspect ratio, and the game is locked at 30fps. This may not be an issue for some, but others may take exception to the sizeable black borders and lower framerate.

However, at least it was running on the device. The same could not be said for the second and third games, neither of which would play at all. Both Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater were crashing to the Steam Library, meaning they couldn’t be played at all.

Given the popularity of the classic Metal Gear Solid games, it’s not surprising Valve was pretty quick to act. Hopefully, MGS2 and MGS3 should run now, as the update’s purpose is to “address a blocking crash in cutscenes.” At the time of writing, a fix for the missing audio in cutscenes is still being worked on.