Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater Review – Kojima’s Masterpiece Reborn

I can’t lie, when it first launched in 2004, I hated Metal Gear Solid 3. As you can probably imagine, I finally came to Kojima’s masterpiece. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake EaterI grew up to be even more grateful for it.

With the surge in remakes over the past decade, that wasn’t a surprise to anyone when Konami announced plans to revisit MGS 3. It takes place in Tselinoyarsk, a fictional region of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and you will perform as a naked snake. By relying on survival instincts, close quarterly combat training and creeping expertise, you are tasked with Operation Snake Eater, a mission that allows you to determine the fate of the world.

As with all Metal Gear Solid games, you often find yourself watching cutscenes rather than playing, but that’s one of the biggest draws. It’s easy to compare this to the classic 007-style adventure, but the comprehensive story and its strange and wonderful characters make it something else. The boss battles in particular are stuck with me after all these years. From the iconic sniper showdown with the end of the forest to the final battle in the field of white flowers, each conflict challenges you to devise a creative strategy using your complete tool.

Given that the MGS 3 is over 20 years old and has been analyzed countlessly by some of the smartest minds in the industry, my review will primarily focus on new additions to the MGS delta. Konami is playing safely with this remake from a gameplay perspective, focusing primarily on incorporating many of the quality of life upgrades introduced in MGS 4 and 5 to enhance the experience. The integration of crouch walking, streamlined aim and improved cover mechanics improves the fluidity of the stealth encounter, allowing you to control the snake more clever than ever before. As for the story, there are no segments or surprises added here. As fans remember, it is the original game.

When you start a new game, you will see two play styles: a new style and a legacy style. As far as I know, this game doesn’t emphasize the difference between the two gameplay, but you can’t swap camera perspectives in the middle of the game. After wrapping the campaign in each mode, you can see that there are some notable distinctions between the two styles, including one major change that makes the tranquilizer much better when playing in legacy mode.

These tweaks make each style feel like two different games. And while I was grateful for the option to switch between them freely, I’ve come to appreciate the additions they offer a fresh challenge. Using the New Style’s over-shoulder camera perspective, you can move and shoot at the same time, giving you more control than ever before. The MGS 3 was not originally designed for this, but gaining extra freedom essentially does not break the game, but combat is very easy.

The MGS 1 remake, there’s been a lot of controversy over the twin snakes, adding a mechanic that throws the balance of the game away. I think this new style of play raises similar concerns. Playing with the keyboard and mouse made me feel overwhelmed with new abilities, like dropping enemies without fighting the troublesome aim controls. Previously, we had to carefully consider our approach to combat, but now we have easily sent our enemies and made little thought into them.

The “tactical spy action” subtitle proudly appears above the game’s name, serving as a reminder that it is actually a stealth game. MGS 3 will always accept your inner rimbo and tempt you to incite some deadly weapons within the opening hours of your first mission. Deep down, you know you’re supposed to play as a secret spy, but as things start moving sideways, it’s never been easier to tear off any enemies that are in your way.

Considering the MGS 3, it’s shocking how well the game works with modern playstyles, as it wasn’t designed with this perspective in mind. It’s not immediately clear which direction you are heading, but that’s where the compass comes in. This new tool will always lead to your primary purpose by providing icons to your HUD if equipped.

The MGS 3 codec acts as a hint system whenever you need to remind yourself what to do, but the compass points directly to the target and completely replaces it. There is little reason to invite comrades to the Armory along with this item, except for two instances where the compass is not available. Most people will always make it active unless you make a deliberate effort to play stealth.

As a result, exposure and connection to side characters are weakened by their easy reliance on the compass. That’s a shame, as one new addition to the delta streamlines the codec calling process, but I’ve noticed that I mainly use it to save my progress. Speaking of quality of life changes, you can now access the camouflage system without having to go to another menu, allowing you to adjust your camouflage on the spot. There is a slight delay when switching outfits, but much faster than scrolling through the menu. Personally, I wanted to see the healing and change in how food works, especially in the new style that is gaining action.

I realized how different the original game was until I switched to Legacy Style. Soon, the top-down view of the fixed camera makes the expansion environment feel much smaller in comparison. The specific areas explored during the first playthrough were suddenly meaningful in hindsight, with fixed angles that naturally led the environment. Legacy Style has visual filters applied to restore the original game’s signature green color restore.

A broader perspective that makes it easier to track enemy movement patterns attracted me naturally to a stealth approach – this time I relied on battery-powered equipment to gently slide the patrol soldiers. You can access the first person view whenever you need to land an accurate shot, but pinned to that location severely limits the chances of killing.

A fresh perspective may not be as appealing as you play the game again, but MGS Delta’s new Game Plus will find over 100 Kerotan and Gako numbers and find unique rewards for defeating bosses with non-lethal weapons, as well as rewards for filming games to shoot games to end campaigns under certain conditions.

Konami is not known precisely for its high quality PC port. The latest example is Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection for 2023. This received a patch a year after its release, allowing players to change the game’s internal resolution. The MGS delta isn’t too bad, but there’s plenty of room for improvement. I’m happy to report that this game doesn’t suffer from the typical Unreal Engine 5 Stutter, where the engine is roughly synonymous with these days. Running games on a PC with RTX 5090 and 9800x3D I only experienced framerate DIP in one watery scene.

As I’ve already mentioned, the keyboard and mouse controls are great, with convenient accessibility options to further adjust your preferred controls, in addition to your preferred accessibility options. The game has a 60fps cap, which is clearly a major disappointment, similar to the lack of support for ultra-wave aspect ratios. You can enable HDR, but you cannot set the maximum brightness of the display or get granularity in any of the settings as it is limited to one brightness slider.

In addition to this, the game must run in full screen to activate HDR, but I was unable to set the monitor to the highest resolution without running borderless window mode. This is what I experienced in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, another unrealistic engine 5 game. It’s engine-related. I love a good photo mode, but Mgs Delta doesn’t cut because it limits how far you can move the camera. This is another item on the list of things that Modders can deal with. At the very least, the MGS delta PC port is It’s enoughbut as I wrote recently, quality port bars aren’t that expensive these days.

There’s a lot to do in the Secret Theatre, Snake vs. Monkey, and even the Guysavage demos after the main campaign is over. The only thing that could disappoint hardcore fans is the loss of metal gear online, but there’s something coming that could potentially satisfy MGO players at the end of the year, with a new Prop Hunt style multiplayer mode called Fox Hunt.