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.
