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After the credits rolled on Metal Gear Solid Delta, I couldn’t help but say, “Boy, what a great game.” And it’s true, Metal Gear Solid 3 is one of the greatest games ever made. But bizarrely, when I replay the game again, it likely won’t be this version, and there’s a multitude of reasons for that.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a full-blown remake of 2004’s Metal Gear Solid 3, completely rebuilding the game using the software Unreal Engine 5. This means a completely overhauled visual style, a new over-the-shoulder gameplay mode, and a mix of other changes. But Delta falls into that bizarre middle ground as a remake, stretching the definition of the word. It’s a game singularly focused on “preserving” the experience of the original, and because of that, a lot of the additions feel like afterthoughts. And in that devoted dedication to the original, some of its modernizations make the game lose some of its unique personality — namely its quirky spy thriller visual language delivered through a sepia-laden filter. Delta is still Metal Gear Solid 3, but it’s a potentially problematic remake that makes me question the very nature of why we remake games.

Becoming the Boss

For those unfamiliar with the Metal Gear franchise, Metal Gear Solid 3 is the first game in the story’s chronology, despite its name implying otherwise. It’s essentially a prequel to the other games. Set in 1964, you follow the exploits of FOX operative Naked Snake, who embarks on a mission to sabotage a Soviet nuclear weapon called the Shagohod, amidst rising tensions of the Cold War. Along the way, Snake has to confront a band of soldiers with supernatural powers known as The Cobras, and his former mentor, The Boss.

The Metal Gear franchise has always been beloved for its complex storytelling, but Snake Eater is where everything the series does well gels together. The original game had a fantastic narrative that was riddled with Cold War paranoia, before layering in tension, slapstick comedy, and a pining romance plot. Naked Snake is a fascinating character, especially if you know his place in the larger series — and the relationship between him and The Boss is one of the richest and most multilayered you’ll find anywhere in games.

Of course, all of that is still recreated here in Delta. The story is completely unchanged, and the voice acting has even been carried over from the original — outside of a few slightly tweaked lines in Codec calls. But the most obvious difference, and arguably my biggest problem with the game, is that visual upgrade. It’s a weird mixed bag where I like some elements, but have an extreme dislike of others.

To start off with the good, Delta’s new visuals work exceptionally well for the game’s environments. You can practically feel the humidity seeping off the dense jungle undergrowth Snake crawls through. The world is teeming with animal life, and each environment looks gorgeous and far more realized. Unfortunately, the flip side of the coin is the characters themselves, who fall into an uncomfortable uncanny valley, where they look both too realistic and entirely fake all at the same time.

Part of what made the original Snake Eater work so well is that it perfectly straddled the line between cartoonish and grounded, and the absurd bosses were emblematic of that — this is a game where man shoots bees like a machine gun at you. In Delta’s attempt at photorealism, I feel like it sadly loses that more whimsical edge the original had.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Delta has also made me realize how important the muddy sepia-toned filter on the original game actually was. Sure, it was emblematic of the PS2 era, but that filter added a kind of Cold War-esque film reel aesthetic to the game — something that, again, isn’t in this remake. Delta does have filters you can apply, but the effect simply isn’t the same.

While I enjoy the greater detail in environments, my dissatisfaction with Delta’s new visual style was great enough that it actually impacted the experience. It’s almost exactly the way I felt about another remake, Persona 3 Reload. Both games seek to “update” the visuals of incredibly iconic games, but seemingly don’t understand how the PS2 limitations were essential to the experience, and how that era of graphics defined how you perceived these games.

Keep It Sneaky

The other side of Delta’s equation is its new gameplay style, the third-person camera, which similarly evoked mixed feelings in me. To be clear, this is an optional style for how you play the game, and you can play in “Legacy” mode, which is the exact overhead camera the original game used — so if you want that classic experience, it’s intact.

From a basic point of view, this new over-the-shoulder version plays well. The controls are smooth and give you copious options for sneaking around or fighting head-on, feeling much more in line with something like Peace Walker. It’s also fascinating to see the world of Snake Eater from an entirely new perspective, which by and large feels like it immerses you in the world a bit more. It feels generously robust for being an optional mode, but unfortunately, there is a downside.

Once again, Delta’s relentless effort to stay true to the original game feels like a detriment to this new gameplay style. The main reason for that is that the game isn’t changed in any way to accommodate the new style; it’s the exact same experience, but from a different perspective. Enemy placement, boss battles, everything is exactly the same.

The problem here is that there’s no thought put into how that perspective might affect mechanics or how you experience the game. It feels like it’s much easier to be spotted by enemies, as there’s not great visual language on their sight lines — which is something that you have a sense for in the overhauled version. This also drastically affects boss battles, making some easier and others more difficult.

For example, the Fury boss battle becomes far more frustrating in this mode because of how closely the camera is pulled in, making it incredibly hard to see the boss when he’s in flight. Meanwhile, the battle against The Boss becomes absolutely trivial because of how easy it is to see where she’s hiding, with more of a vertical view.

While I appreciate wanting to add a new playstyle to the game, that’s more in line with Metal Gear Solid 4 and 5 — it feels bizarrely grafted onto the experience. That’s where I think the reverence for the original game becomes a detriment. If you were going to add this drastic of a new playstyle and “remake” the game, it logically follows that the core design would likely need to be shifted to accommodate those changes. It’s especially strange because there are some genuinely smart quality-of-life changes in Delta, like being able to swap your camo on the fly without having to open the menu. I just wish that same level of thoughtfulness had been applied to the entire game.

Losing the Plot

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a game in an odd place. I get the reverence to the original, especially with series creator Hideo Kojima no longer involved, and the bad blood that ensued between him and Konami. I get the hesitancy to retouch a game considered as one of the greatest ever made. But then, I question what the point of remaking Snake Eater is at all, if you’re going to try and keep everything exactly the same.

I can’t say Delta is inherently a bad game, because at the end of the day, it’s still Metal Gear Solid 3 — it’s still a phenomenal game. But as a remake, Delta makes some head-scratching choices and doesn’t really provide any incentive for me to play this version over the handful of others that are out there.

In recent years, we’ve seen countless video game companies try and cash in on nostalgia, with a glut of remakes from Final Fantasy 7 to Dead Space. It was inevitable that Konami would want to enter that space, but as we see more remakes flood the zone, games like Metal Gear Solid Delta make me question if we’re missing the point. I can’t deny I loved playing through Metal Gear Solid 3 again, but I wonder if a new generation can truly experience what made it such an important, pivotal game in the first place.

7/10.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater launches on Aug. 28 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Inverse reviewed the PS5 version.

INVERSE VIDEO GAME REVIEW ETHOS: Every Inverse video game review answers two questions: Is this game worth your time? Are you getting what you pay for? We have no tolerance for endless fetch quests, clunky mechanics, or bugs that dilute the experience. We care deeply about how a game’s design, world-building, character arcs, and storytelling come together. Inverse will never punch down, but we aren’t afraid to punch up. We love magic and science-fiction in equal measure, and as much as we love experiencing rich stories and worlds through games, we won’t ignore the real-world context in which those games are made.