Metal Gear Solid Delta Missed the Opportunity for a Bolder Remake

Just as with the Silent Hill franchise in 2024, Konami has revived its flagship tactical espionage action video game series with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. As the title suggests, the game is a remake of 2004’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, built from the ground up for modern gaming platforms. But whereas last year’s Silent Hill 2 remake took several creative liberties while faithfully recapturing the original version of the game’s experience, Metal Gear Solid Delta is a virtually beat-for-beat repeat of its PS2 predecessor.

Though it’s fun to relive the stealthy adventures of Metal Gear Solid 3 with a modernized presentation and optimized controls, one cannot help but feel that Konami was playing it overly cautious in remaking the 2004 game. To be absolutely clear upfront, Metal Gear Solid Delta is a great game overall, but it plays like Gus Van Sant’s 1998 remake of Psycho—a virtual carbon copy without any personality of its own. Here’s a look at the merits of Metal Gear Solid Delta, as well as what could’ve been if a riskier remake was attempted instead.

Snake Eater Revisited

Make no mistake, slavish fidelity to the original source material or not, Metal Gear Solid Delta truly is a remake and not a glorified remaster, unlike Metroid Prime or Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the Nintendo Switch. Konami completely rebuilt the game while simultaneously retaining the original story and recycling old assets, most notably much of the dialogue from the 2004 original. These changes are most noticeable with the aptly titled “New Style” control choice—which relies on smoother and more modern audience-friendly sensibilities—and fresh character models, with Revolver Ocelot being the biggest redesign.

But the level of straight up replication from MGS3 is astonishing, and made all the more apparent after Konami remastered and re-released the original 2004 game as part of its Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 in 2023. Cutscenes feature matching choreography, right down to the same camera placements and slow motion flourishes that creator Hideo Kojima implemented in 2004. The updated graphical presentation is gorgeous and highly detailed while effectively evoking the visual presentation of the original game. The classic control scheme is also still available for those who don’t want to play Snake Eater like Metal Gear Solid V. But either way, it all feels overly familiar, especially for those (like me) who prepped for Delta by replaying the original Snake Eater.

Simply put, if you played through MGS3 at all, Metal Gear Solid Delta is functionally the same game retelling the same story, right down to its precise narrative beats. And that distinction does make me wonder how a creatively looser remake could’ve looked.

A Missed Opportunity?

Metal Gear Solid Delta comes in the wake of several enormously successful remakes of other games from the same general era, which were lauded for not being 1:1 recreations of the originals. Capcom’s growing line of Resident Evil remakes are the first reimaginings of this type to come to mind but, beyond that, there’s also Square Enix’s entire trilogy of modern retellings of Final Fantasy VII. Even Konami’s 2024 Silent Hill 2 remake visibly deviated from the original 2004 game without compromising the story or its most notable scenes and set pieces.

To clarify, I wasn’t expecting Delta to be a huge departure from MGS3 but, especially after playing through Master Collection, I found any sense of surprise muted once I quickly grew accustomed to how faithful a remake Delta was. Having revisited Snake Eater, I knew when and what Delta was going to throw at the players every step of the way, every plot twist, the strategy to every single boss fight. It was cool seeing these moments in a new technical presentation, but some of the thrill was admittedly diminished.

Comparatively the Resident Evil remakes keep even the most veteran franchise players on their toes, adding entire set pieces and subplots and remixing familiar ones while keeping the overall story and experience recognizable. The Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy is built largely on the theme of changing one’s destiny, with several main characters aware of the original 1997 game’s timeline and trying to go their own subversively defiant way. Silent Hill 2 opted for a slightly more action-oriented experience, though its story remained virtually identical.

There are no big surprises or reinventions in Metal Gear Solid Delta. Anyone who knows Snake Eater knows exactly how this game is going to unfold. The qualify-of-life improvements are certainly appreciated, and if Delta wanted to play it safe replicating what is arguably the best Metal Gear game that’s understandable but more than a bit disappointing. With the original Snake Eater more readily available than it’s been in years, a few creative risks, like changing up boss strategies to keep players on their toes, or adding new sequences or story elements, would have been welcome changes to keep Delta fresh and, most importantly of all, original and distinct in its own right. The game feels like a George Lucas-level special edition of Snake Eater.

And speaking of visionary creators, there is the matter of Hideo Kojima.

The Complicated Kojima Legacy

The elephant in the room is that Konami remade Metal Gear Solid 3 without any involvement from franchise creator Hideo Kojima, who directed, produced, designed, and co-wrote the original 2004 game. Konami and Kojima had famously, and fractiously, parted ways toward the end of development on 2015’s Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. It effectively ended a partnership that spanned 30 years. Adding salt to the wound, Konami canceled Kojima’s in-development Silent Hill revival, Silent Hills—going out of their way to scrub the game’s demo P.T. from digital storefronts—and removed Kojima’s credits from Metal Gear Solid V’s game packaging, along with associated merchandising. 

This is in contrast to the Silent Hill 2 remake, which saw the return of the 2001 original game’s creature designer, Masahiro Ito, and musical composer Akira Yamaoka. Konami’s relationship with much of the Silent Hill 2 team hadn’t been nearly as publicly contentious as its rupture with Kojima Productions, and the 2024 remake masterfully balanced new elements within the familiar framework of the PS2 game it was based off. Like Metal Gear Solid Delta, there are plenty of moments in Silent Hill 2 that directly call back to the original game, but not slavishly so in its execution.

Konami is likely well aware of the continued controversy behind its relationship with Hideo Kojima, particularly when it comes to the Metal Gear Solid games. With that in mind, noticeably deviating from Metal Gear Solid 3 might’ve been perceived as a slight against Kojima since any changes to his original vision would have been made without his consent. And to ensure that proper credit was given where it was due, Kojima’s various credits are displayed prominently, sometimes in stylized triplicate, throughout the James Bond-inspired opening title sequence, itself featuring a re-recorded version of the song “Snake Eater.” If Kojima and Konami split under acrimonious terms a decade ago, the company wanted to ensure he was at least respected when positioning a remake of his 2004 masterpiece.

Konami had a tricky tightrope to walk in adapting a game that comes with publicly aired dirty laundry linked to its creator. In remaking Metal Gear Solid 3 so faithfully, it’s clear that the development team wanted to play things as safe as possible. But one still cannot help but wonder what a bolder modern reimagining of Snake Eater might have been.

Developed and published by Konami, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

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