Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Review (PS5)
Summary: A solid glow up of the stealth action classic.
4
Solid Snake
I don’t want to call Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater a remake. That implies major changes were made compared to the original. The work Capcom has been doing with the older Resident Evil games. Now they’re remakes. They deviate from the original games in meaningful ways; characters are redrawn, plot points are adjusted, expanded, or abandoned. The tone is different. Metal Gear Solid Delta does none of these things.
No, MGS Delta has far more in common with the likes of the Crash N Sane Trilogy or Sony’s MediEvil remake. There’s a fresh coat of Unreal Engine 5 paint, it now looks like a modern game, and there have been some tweaks to the controls to make it more palatable for a contemporary audience, but that’s about it.
In almost every meaningful way, it’s the exact same Snake Eater you remember playing way back in 2004 for good and ill.
It’s the same overblown, melodramatic spy thriller it was 21 years ago. Still a strange mix of Cold War history lesson, socio-political pontificating, and a crash course in basic film theory wrapped in an incredibly entertaining and tense stealth survival sim replete with fantastic boss battles, a memorable cast, and more melodrama than you can shake a stick at.
The level layout and enemy placement are the same. If you’ve played Snake Eater before, you’ll know exactly where to go and what to do. But the environments, now bordering on photorealistic, are far more lush. There’s a greater sense of place, and the enclosed environments feel part of a much larger world than they did in the PS2 original.
Likewise, the character models look how you remember them when you have the rose-tinted specs on. The production values are terrific. It looks great. But at the same time, this modern makeover, much like Resident Evil 4, loses some of its campy appeal thanks to its more grounded look, making its more ridiculous elements stand out in a way they didn’t before, and some of the artistry and clever flourishes born out of the PS2’s limitations are gone.
On the flip side, though, the entire game doesn’t look like it’s covered in piss anymore, so I guess you win some, you lose some. Unless you want it to look that way. There is a filter for that, if you’re into that kind of thing. I’m not here to kink shame.
Though you can play the game in Legacy style, which keeps the overhead view and controls of the PS2 version. I preferred using the “new style” that presents the game with modern twinstick controls and an over-the-shoulder camera. It’s called new, but it’s been in every version of the game released since the 3DS version in 2012.
That being said, more accessibility options have been added, like using the original UI with the new control scheme, so you have the best of both worlds, which is a nice touch.
The best part of using the New style controls, though, is that it gets you closer to the action and appreciate the granular details that have been added to the environment. While making encounters feel far more immediate and intimate.
The most impressive part of Snake Eater, though, is how well the gameplay holds up. Finding the best way to snake your way through the grass and avoid detection, the panic when you’re caught, and using your slowly expanding box of tricks to hoodink the guards and sneak past unnoticed remains incredibly compelling.
This is bolstered by the camouflage system, which allows you to swap uniforms and face paint to better blend in with the environment, and has a tangible impact on how easily the guards spot you. It was a clever system back in 2002, and adding the ability to quickly change up your camo by holding up on the d-pad makes it even easier to engage with it effectively.
Sure, you can simply murder your way through the game if you want to, and it feels surprisingly cathartic when you do, but it’s kind of missing the point.
You’ll also spend a lot more time patching yourself up. I’ll admit that having a more realistic approach to damage that needs to be remedied by using a facsimile of medical treatment is a cool idea on paper. In practice, effectively having to use several items to get rid of dents in your health bar remains a pain in the arse.
The hunger system remains interesting because it’s often overlooked when people talk about Snake Eater, and ultimately, it was the snake eating that wound its way into most modern survival games. Basically, Snake’s ability to heal is linked to how hungry he is. If he doesn’t eat, his tummy rumbles (which can alert the guards), and he won’t regenerate health when hidden. So he needs to make sure he has a decent supply of vipers stuffed down his trousers to snack on.
The Boss fights are still a highlight. Every fight has multiple ways to tackle them, and most of the tips and tricks that worked in the original still work now. The End in particular remains one of the best boss battles ever, regardless of whether you decide to approach it as a sniper battle, a complex game of cat and mouse, or just a simple waiting game.
Final Thoughts
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a curious beast. A remaster masquerading as a remake. The updated graphics and change of perspective help the underlying game continue to shine, but you can’t help wondering what the point of it is. Even more so when you consider that Konami released a port of Snake Eater for modern consoles just under two years ago.
In many ways, it feels like a test for the other remakes that may inevitably follow. The original Metal Gear Solid will no doubt take a lot more work to bring it up to date than Snake Eater. A game that still holds up spectacularly despite its age, because it was very much ahead of its time.
Related Posts
Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek Review (PS5) →
Gloomy Eyes PS5 Review →
NHL 26 Review (PS5) →
