There are two ways to make over a picture biz . On one hired man , you may take the transformative route and reimagine a classic through a young lens system . That ’s a risky option that could check off purists , but one that can result in a projection that stands on its own rather than in another secret plan ’s shadow . Then there ’s the much safer route : giving player as much of a 1:1 experience as possible for a more surefire win with a low - legacy ceiling .
If you ’re give fuss picturing the difference between the two , Konami is model exactly what that looks like . Its upcomingSilent Hill 2remakeis close to the original horror game , but feel like developer Bloober Team ’s own bespoke spin on a classic . Metal Gear Solid Delta : Snake Eater , on the other hand , sits at the completely opposite last of the spectrum . Hardly a haircloth on its head look to be tinge .
That ’s at least the sensation I got after playing through an former version ofMetal Gear Solid Delta ’s opening 90 minutes . Those who were worried that Konami might muck up Hideo Kojima ’s vision can stay easy : The remaking almost feels petrified of enrage its staunchest devotee . While that entail that we ’re all but guaranteed a keen game , its deficiency of ambitiousness does make me question what this version take to the mesa outside of modern nontextual matter .
Virtuous mission
What ’s funny about demoing a close 90 minutes ofMetal Gear Solid 3is that the sport academic term translate to maybe 10 minute of arc of existent hands - on gameplay , peak . Snake Eater ’s opening is a long - winded one satisfy with exposition , Cuban missile crisis history lessons , and wordy tutorials . Those long cutscenes did n’t just give me a chance to remember how unusual and wonderfulSnake Eater ’s account is ; it gave me a lot of clip to study the remake ’s esthetic change . And there are less of them than you might guess .
The biggest variety is its ocular overhaul , which make up the PlayStation 2 classic look more like a modern game . There are some subtle changes here , like the fact that you may now see damage progress up on Snake ’s body and uniform . The most notable leaving from its predecessor is rebalancing the original ’s yellow colouration shade that makes its forests count like they ’re baking under a heat lamp . alternatively , it opt for a less - conventionalize pallet with a modernistic sheen . It ’s not the kind of thing that new actor will notice , let alone care about , but it does take a signature luminescence out of the image .
Aside from that change , Metal Gear Solid Deltasticks to the script . Cutscenes are glistening , but they ’re shot - for - shot re - creations of their twin . Konami even hold out the urge to overhaul level design now that it is n’t working with the PS2 ’s restriction . Rather than turn the original map into an interconnect hobo camp , it ’s still a collection of chomp - sized rooms split up by loading screen door .
“ We do n’t want it to feel like we ca n’t make a Metal Gear game without some of the original stave . ”
The more I play , the more I get the good sense that Konami was sudate bullets when it embarked on this labor . It seems aware that the musical theme of remaking a Metal Gear substantial game without Kojima ’s involvement would put a target on its back . During an interview at the preview outcome , I asked producer Noriaki Okamura how much the remaking team reached out to the original developers for steering on the project . He notes that some of the original developer are still with Konami , some now in leaders roles , but speak around Kojima ’s lack of comment on the project .
“ In order for us to do a close re - creation , we did n’t needfully have anything decisive or dire that we had to go back and ask any of the original faculty about , ” Okamura secernate Digital Trends . “ We did n’t find that we had to get advice from them . For us , our finish is , with the team that we work up mighty now , that we do want to ensure we can deliver a Metal Gear title … We do n’t want it to experience like we ca n’t make a Metal Gear game without some of the original stave . ”
It sound blasphemous when he enjoin it , but it makes perfect sense when you actually spiel the remaking . There are no originative decisions pass here that one would call for to bunk by a game ’s original director to make certain they fit . The script is wholly unchanged . In fact , the remaking uses the original game ’s part acting and score . With those restriction in place , Konami could n’t really mess up it up if it tried . The side effect of that is that you wind up up with a game that looks modern , but still has characters enjoin Snake how to press the X button in exhaustive contingent . It ’s a bit of a mismatch , but it ’s fair . This is unmistakablySnake Eater .
New controls, same game
While I mostly spend my demonstration in leaf-book calls , I do get to prove out Snake ’s stealth toolkit as I work to rescue Soviet scientist Nikolai Sokolov . I go through a familiar episode of events . First I shimmy up a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree to collect my haversack . Then I sneak past some guard duty in an open area . I get a agile gun tutorial when I have to shoot down a hive and frighten off some guards before testing all my skills in a small infiltration missionary work and draw Sokolov out of a heavily guard elbow room . If you ’ve act as the original , you ’ll be capable to do it all from computer storage .
What is different , though , isMetal Gear Solid Delta ’s ascendence schema . The original release features famously rigid controls that can be a little tough to go back to today . To allay that pain item , the remake introduces a new option that stool it feel as smooth as any modernistic biz . It all work without a tour , allowing for more liquid romp . In my first stealth showdown , I ’m able to easily slew onto my belly , mouse up behind a guard , snap up him with CQC , and chuck his stun body into the tall grass . On - covert tooltips make it easy to call up on the nose to execute any activity too , something that ’s handy anytime I grab a guard whose pharynx I do n’t want to accidentally slit .
Even then , Konami is still committed to maintain the original experience . While it was n’t available during my demo , the full game will found with a Hellenic control dodging that stays reliable to theoriginal PS2 version . If you ’ve never playedMetal Gear Solid 3before , you could get 95 % of the manner to that experience with this version . Animal hunting , camouflaging , tree knock , guard interrogating — every single aspect is here with hardly a change .
That ’s great intelligence considering thatMetal Gear Solid 3is an all - time peachy for a grounds , but it implore the interrogative sentence : Why redo it at all then ?
Konami’s version
When I ask Okamura about Konami ’s determination to make over it , he accentuate the estimate that it was about passing on the franchise ’s bequest : “ We realized that there ’s a whole new and younger generation of gamers that are not familiar with the serial or have never dally a single Metal Gear game before . We could n’t stand to have this wonderful series be forgotten by the course of prison term . ”
That ’s a fine answer on newspaper , but one that does n’t hold up to scrutiny . Just last year , Konami madeMetal Gear Solid 3 : snake in the grass Eaterwidely uncommitted to all player as part of the franchise’sMaster Collection . That bundle let in a relatively untouched embrasure of the original game that ’s available on most platforms , including Nintendo Switch . Young players who desire to experienceSnake Eaterfor the first clock time can already do that without corrupt a full - priced remaking . Perhaps the implication is that young player ca n’t connect with sr. games miss overhaul visuals and controls . I ’d wish to reject that idea , but I ’m sure Konami has more data on that than I do .
I can only call it as I see it . This is n’t so much a remake as it is Metal Gear Solid : Konami ’s Version .
Just asTaylor Swiftrecorded nearly very versions of all of her one-time record album to wrench possession off from her old record recording label , this is Konami creating a edition of Snake Eater that ’s not for good attached to Hideo Kojima . Konami and the director had an infamously sour diminish out after the liberation ofMetal Gear substantial V : The Phantom Painwhich seemed to leave the serial deadened in the water . The publishing house would attempt to bear on without him via 2018’sMetal Gear Survive , but a piteous reception ship a rough subject matter about who fans mat was the mastermind behind the serial publication . But what ’s a publisher to do ? Are you really going to let your most darling IP die off because of one miss team extremity ?
Metal Gear Solid Deltafeels more like a business decision than an foxily motivated remake — at least so far . It ’s an ultra - dependable sense of touch - up that ’s more akin to an HD remaster . Its closest parallel is Sony’sShadow of the Colossusremake , a project that put its focus squarely on bringing its visuals and dominance up to forward-looking standards . Is that a unfit thing ? No . If anything , it ’s perhaps a better approach for game preservation . This reading ofSnake Eaterfeels the manner you probably remember it feel 20 years ago . But it ’s o.k. to call a spade a coon too .
The more I speak with Okamura , the more Konami ’s farsighted - term objective beyondSnake Eaterbecomes clear . “ Our mission with this raw team that we ’re build up is to make for these games back to life , ” he say . “ We still have some of the OG faculty with us at this moment . Now ’s the sentence to do it and to hopefully establish a newfangled Metal Gear OG staff for the future . ” If Konami wants any hope of keeping the franchise ’s gear boil , it first needs to earn back some practiced will . What safe fashion to do that than creating a nearly monovular replication of one of the best games of all metre , let new devs nail its fundamentals before get hold of a crack at their own original continuation ?
Maybe it ’s just gentle to put the byplay headache of it aside and revalue that David Hayter ’s delightfully hammy one - liners are returning in their uninfluenced glory . For most role player , I suppose it ’ll be that easy to delight what ’s shaping up to be a dead faithful , if clinical , remake .
Metal Gear Solid Delta : Snake Eateris currently in development for PS5 , Xbox Series X / S , and PC .
