Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Stays Loyal To The Mission

In 2016, Konami released a pachinko machine based on Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater that featured remakes of the game’s iconic cutscenes. For series fans that had been hoping for full remakes of the classics–especially in a post-Kojima Konami–this amounted to a gut punch. It was the slightest hint of what a modern take on Snake Eater could look like, but to see it you’d have to be seated in a pachinko parlor instead of getting the lengthy, cinematic Metal Gear Solid experience we had come to expect.

Eight years later, the dream of a proper remake is being realized with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Announced via a 2023 Playstation Showcase, questions immediately arose about what we could expect from this update. Hideo Kojima has long been absent from anything Metal Gear, and his signature style of storytelling and game direction is perhaps the series’ defining feature. This first glimpse lacked the humor, flavor, and “Kojima factor” that fans expected from MGS trailers. Was Delta destined to be a soulless corporate remake of the 2004 classic?

After playing the entire Virtuous Mission (essentially the game’s prologue) at a recent Konami event in London, I’m happy to report that all signs point to Delta being the Snake Eater remake that fans have wanted for years. Unlike the polarizing Twin Snakes remake of the original Metal Gear Solid–which featured fully re-recorded VO and an egregious amount of “artistic license”–Delta seems far more interested in preserving and updating your memories of Snake Eater rather than presenting its own dramatically altered version of it.

Despite Hideo Kojima’s messy divorce from Konami, Delta doesn’t shy away from his name and direction. His credit appears numerous times before Naked Snake completes the world’s first HALO jump. Yoji Shinkawa’s character art shows up in character vignettes and establishing cutscenes. It’s clear from the opening minutes that there is a reverence for the original work that hasn’t been evident in other post-Kojima projects like the baffling Metal Gear Survive and the bare-bones Master Collection. Every cutscene feels indiscernible from the original game’s, barring the dramatically improved visuals and occasional stock footage that has been replaced for copyright reasons. Even little details like holding R1 to look through Snake’s eyes are perfectly replicated down to the timing of the button prompts.

Once you gain control of Snake (which takes a while–this is a Metal Gear game, after all), numerous welcome gameplay updates become apparent. The older MGS games always had inventory and weapon selection relegated to the trigger buttons, but by utilizing left and right on the D-pad, Delta’s modernized controls share more in common with Metal Gear Solid V. A handy update allows you to swap your camo on the fly by holding up on the D-pad to quickly access the camo menu. Holding down, meanwhile, gives you quick access to your codec contacts. Your health, stamina, and camo index are now displayed in the lower middle of the screen rather than the upper corners.

One of the touted gameplay features of the original game was its CQC (close quarters combat) system. It allowed for a lot more than just snapping the necks of guards: You could interrogate them, slit their throats, toss them to the ground, or use them as a human shield. While it allowed for more variety, it was easy to perform unintended actions thanks to its specific required inputs and utilization of the PS2’s pressure-sensitive face buttons. You’ll no longer need to whip out a manual, do a Google search, or call The Boss to remind you of “the basics of CQC” thanks to Delta’s useful tooltip system. Just grab a hold of an enemy with the right trigger and all of your options will be handily laid out onscreen for you.

This system will also remind you of Snake’s potential actions in various combat scenarios. As I dangled off a bridge to avoid detection, I forgot that Snake could aim and shoot with one hand. Thanks to the tooltip, I pulled out my tranquilizer pistol and neutralized the approaching guard before he had a chance to discover me. While Snake always had these abilities, the quality-of-life updates in Delta reminded me of them and I wound up using them more as a result.

With modern action games eschewing frequent load times, it’s natural to wonder if Delta’s gameplay zones would remain cordoned off into their own sections or if they’d be stitched together into a larger contiguous world. As is the case with most aspects of this remake, the developers have chosen to remain true to the flow of the original. You won’t encounter any real load times when moving between areas, but the screen still fades to black and comes back in displaying the name of the new area just like in the original. This adherence to the experience of the original applies to most aspects of the gameplay. It’s not like this is suddenly Breath of the Wild and Snake can climb every tree and scale rock faces. He’s still limited to climbing the same ivy-covered trees that were there in 2004re.

Personality hasn’t been sacrificed in the pursuit of realism. Giant anacondas will still become neatly packaged in to-go boxes upon their death. Guards flail and sprint away like cartoon characters when you shoot down a beehive in their vicinity. You’ll still be alerted that you’ve created a time paradox when you die. Naked Snake still dons a Raiden mask if you select “I like MGS2!” at the outset of your mission. I wasn’t greeted with an Old Snake mask when I selected “I like MGS4!” however, so it remains to be seen what the other game selections do.

One of my few complaints about the original game was the cumbersome Survival Viewer and curing system. When Snake took damage, you’d frequently have to go into a menu to perform a series of actions to repair his various wounds. There’s a world where this could have been cool. After all, Rambo was pretty badass when he cauterized his wound by packing it with gunpowder and lighting it. In this case, selecting numerous styptics and suture kits from a menu wasn’t exactly an immersive experience. It remains to be seen if this system will be as intrusive in Delta, as it isn’t introduced until just after the Virtuous Mission in the original game. That said, I did see a grayed-out “Cure” option in the Survival Viewer menu, so it’s likely back in some form.

In terms of truly new content, I did discover a bit during my 90 minutes with the game. Snake’s initial bag of gear grants you a compass that presents cardinal directions as well as an objective indicator in the lower left corner of the screen. Rolling is given its own dedicated button (Triangle), and you can now dive to the ground from a standing position. On top of the returning Kerotan frogs, I encountered one camouflaged GA-KO duck. It was draped in what appeared to be a ghillie suit, which went up in flames when I shot it and caused the duck to start hopping and quacking. It’s unclear at this point what this accomplishes or if they’re just a bonus collectible.

Gallery

Of course, the most obvious upgrade is the visual presentation. Delta does not disappoint in this area. The lush jungle features far more detail than before, with additional ambient wildlife and tons of little details like Snake trudging through the mud and leaving a distinct trail. As Snake takes damage over time, it will be permanently reflected on his body and clothing during gameplay and cutscenes. All of the characters look fantastic and true to the original designs too. Volgin’s scars are deep and detailed, The End’s eye pop is unsettling, and The Sorrow’s blood rain is much more pronounced. My demo was locked to a 30fps fidelity mode, but the final release promises a 60fps performance option.

On the remake spectrum, Delta’s ambitions fall somewhere between the enhanced visuals and quality-of-life upgrades of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and the substantial Resident Evil reimaginings in recent years. It certainly isn’t attempting to change things up as much as the newer Final Fantasy VII titles. This is a relatively straightforward, modernized remake of the original, which is in no way a complaint. Snake Eater has such a distinct personality that to make too many tweaks would risk losing much of what made it special. Delta’s dev team is walking a tightrope with such a beloved title, and everything I saw during my return to the Virtuous Mission has me confident that they’re handling this with a deft hand.