Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Remake Review

GamesRadar

We played Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, and its release can't come soon enough. With Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, one of the greatest games of all time is getting a pretty great remake!

Transcript

00:00How do you explain Metal Gear Solid to someone who's never experienced it?

00:05At first glance, it's a near-impenetrable explosion of gravelly-voiced protagonists,

00:10cardboard boxes, and giant exclamation marks, with robots lovingly sprinkled atop.

00:16Yet for those who explored Shadow Moses, Big Shell, and Seleniasque the first time round,

00:21Kojima's seminal stealth saga feels less like a video game and more a sacred text.

00:27In recent years, however, the legendary soldier's mythos has begun to wane.

00:31Now almost a decade since Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain first hit shelves, a whole

00:35new generation of gamers have grown up in a snake-less world.

00:39Sensibly then, Konami is hoping to right this wrong, remaking the Cold War classic Metal

00:44Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater for shiny modern hardware.

00:47With its release date still nowhere in sight, I received intel about a top-secret demo for

00:52this new Delta Metal Gear Solid 3 remake project.

00:55As a grizzled fox veteran like Chase and Status before me, I eagerly returned to Jungle, redonning

01:02my bandana, tuning my codec, and grabbing my Mark II tranquiliser one last time.

01:07As I popped on my headset and picked up my mission apparatus, there was one question

01:11ricocheting around my head.

01:13Has Konami lovingly restored this timeless classic, or fumbled the cardboard box?

01:20There's a giddy thrill returning to MGS3 Snake Eater in 2024.

01:24As the camera pans around to a gas mask-wearing naked snake, Major Tom and the rest of his

01:29pilots chatter and grimace with a new lease of life.

01:32As the iconic score kicks in, my excitement rises and the goose bumps bristle, before

01:37I'm parked in front of a lengthy cutscene like an unruly toddler with an iPad.

01:42It's like Kojima never left.

01:43Let's get the obvious out of the way first.

01:45Metal Gear Solid Delta looks absolutely stunning.

01:48While I was one of the naysayers initially unconvinced by Snake's new character model

01:52and the lack of sepia filter, once I'm actually exploring the humid overgrowth, those doubts

01:57completely disappear.

01:58As the dense jungle glistens in the heat and insects buzz above, it's the little details

02:03which impress.

02:04From the red blinking lights on soldiers' radios, to the tranquiliser darts sticking

02:08out of enemies, this iconic setting bursts with newfound life.

02:11While much has been made of Snake's lasting visible damage in Delta, this didn't seem

02:16particularly visible.

02:18In the virtuous mission prologue at least.

02:20As my cover is blown, I get into a hairy firefight.

02:23Bullet scrapes and rifle butt bruises don't seem to register.

02:26Crawling through the thick muddy bogs however, leaves its murky mark.

02:30And as I emerge from the thick sludge and roll out of reach of an alligator's jaw,

02:34the mud clings to Snake's sticky uniform for several screens.

02:38It's this decision to lean into the cinematic that Konami feels gives Snake Eater new life.

02:43When people play Snake Eater in this day and age, we don't want it to feel like a twenty

02:47year old game, old and clunky, explains series producer Noriaki Okamura.

02:52We want to make sure it feels exactly how they remember it, like the vision of Snake

02:56Eater in their minds.

02:58Cutscenes feel newly dynamic.

03:00It's something I particularly enjoy when I meet Snake Eater's crew of iconic oddball

03:04villains, the Cobra Unit.

03:07These absurd antagonists now teem with eccentricity.

03:10The end's eyes bulge like something ripped from the pages of manga horror writer Junji

03:15Ito.

03:16The snake's veins hornets look newly sickening.

03:18Even Volgin's scars look more fearsome than ever, his lightning zapping out of him with

03:23a realistic sizzle.

03:24Much like its forebears, MGS3 Snake Eater has always delighted in snapping between realism

03:29and utter nonsense, and so far it seems that original oddball spirit remains lovingly intact

03:35in Delta.

03:37Yet somewhat ironically, the lavish visuals also serve to highlight some of Snake Eater's

03:42creaky PlayStation 2 origins.

03:45While loading between stealthy vignettes is predictably snappy on PS5, each new tiny

03:49playable zone breaks the shiny 4K illusion, sending you back to the limitations of 2003.

03:55Sprinting between tree cover to tree cover before suddenly hitting the loading screen

03:59shatters the feeling that you're off exploring a vast jungle.

04:03As you crawl, roll and dive across each area with modern eyes, it feels closer to exploring

04:08a squared off section of inner city park than a dense tropical wilderness.

04:13Thankfully though, the characters move with modern grace.

04:16It's why, for Metal Gear Solid Delta, the team decided to completely overhaul the original

04:21stiff animations and unwieldy control scheme.

04:24Initially, we thought we would just be improving the graphics, Okumura explains, but when you

04:29see the game with very good graphics, a lot of the clunky parts start to poke their head

04:33out.

04:34Once we saw the original character animations with very realistic graphics, they looked

04:38a little bit odd, so we knew we had to tweak the original code.

04:41Luckily, the team had some legendary heroes of their own to help guide these changes.

04:46Having some of the staff who actually worked on the original game really helped, says Okumura.

04:50They could shine light on what we could change and how we could change it, so it was great

04:54to have them around to guide us in that way.

04:59While Capcom's excellent Resident Evil remakes opted for a remix approach, cutting, changing

05:04and adding where they felt necessary, Konami have instead gone for a purist approach to

05:08Snake Eater's story and core gameplay mechanics.

05:11Yet mercifully, Delta brings that classic gameplay in line with 2024 standards.

05:17Playing with a modernised control option, Snake Eater's infamously clunky combat now

05:21handles much like The Phantom Pain – you can shoot while crawling backwards.

05:25Close quarters combat no longer feels as awkward as it once did, allowing for smoother takedowns

05:29that make high level stealth play infinitely more attainable.

05:33As anyone who's suffered hearing Wolverine's voice actor return for X-Men 97 will attest,

05:38getting an aging cast returned decades later isn't always the wisest call.

05:42Thankfully then, the performances from the PS2 original still hold up brilliantly.

05:47From David Hayter's inimitable growl, to Josh Keaton's impudent whinging as Baby

05:51Ocelot, the charm of the original has impressively survived the transit across three generations

05:56of console hardware.

05:57What we want to offer is the same exact feeling as those who played the original Snake Eater

06:01for the first time – that thrilling, baffling experience, explains Okumura.

06:06The more Otacon-minded of you out there will be pleased to hear that Konami wastes no time

06:10in laying its graphical cards on the proverbial table.

06:13When you boot Metal Gear Solid Delta, you're given the option for a 30fps visual mode,

06:18a dynamic resolution scaling between the highs of 4K and the lows of 1440p, or a 60fps mode,

06:25scaling between 4K and 1080p.

06:27If you opt for Fidelity, 30fps mode seems to be pretty solid, despite halving the framerate

06:33of the PS2 original.

06:34After the less-than-competent ports of the recent Master Collection, here's hoping

06:38both modes deliver.

06:3921 years later, there's still nothing out there that feels quite like Metal Gear Solid

06:443 Snake Eater.

06:45From its blend of Cold War history to James Bond cheese and anime excess, it's a beautifully

06:50absurd creation, and one that absolutely deserves to be experienced again.

06:55While its relentless barrage of hands-off exposition may be a tough pill for newbies

06:59to swallow, thanks to the stunning new coat of paint and modernised take on CQC, Metal

07:05Gear Solid Delta is shaping up to be the definitive way to experience Big Boss' origins.

07:10Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater is set to launch on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X at

07:16some point in 2024.

07:18So will you be revisiting this staple of the series, or could this new coat of paint be

07:22enough for you to take your first plunge into the rich history of Metal Gear Solid?

07:27Let us know below.

07:28And as always, stick with GamesRadar for the latest news, previews and more.

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