Metal Gear Solid Delta is Snake Eater: Konami’s Version

There are two ways to remake a video game. On one hand, you can take the transformative route and reimagine a classic through a new lens. That’s a risky option that could tick off purists, but one that can result in a project that stands on its own rather than in another game’s shadow. Then there’s the much safer route: giving players as much of a 1:1 experience as possible for a more surefire win with a lower-legacy ceiling.

If you’re having trouble picturing the difference between the two, Konami is modeling exactly what that looks like. Its upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake is faithful to the original horror game, but feels 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 end of the spectrum. Hardly a hair on its head appears to be touched.

That’s at least the sense I got after playing through an early version of Metal Gear Solid Delta’s opening 90 minutes. Those who were worried that Konami might bungle Hideo Kojima’s vision can rest easy: The remake almost feels petrified of enraging its staunchest fans. While that means that we’re all but guaranteed a great game, its lack of ambition does make me wonder what this version brings to the table outside of modern graphics.

Virtuous mission

What’s funny about demoing a faithful 90 minutes of Metal Gear Solid 3 is that the play session translates to maybe 10 minutes of actual hands-on gameplay, tops. Snake Eater’s opening is a long-winded one filled with exposition, Cuban missile crisis history lessons, and wordy tutorials. Those long cutscenes didn’t just give me a chance to remember how strange and wonderful Snake Eater’s story is; it gave me a lot of time to study the remake’s aesthetic changes. And there are less of them than you might think.

The biggest change is its visual overhaul, which makes the PlayStation 2 classic look more like a modern game. There are some subtle changes here, like the fact that you can now