How crisp and 4K-ified a nostalgic menu seems on an enormous TV is the silliest factor I’ve ever been enthusiastic about, however Metallic Gear Strong Delta: Snake Eater is a shot-for-shot remake which luxuriates within the little issues.
What makes Metallic Gear Strong 3 among the finest video games of all time isn’t essentially its sneaking or its plot, however its inventiveness and reactivity. If you happen to whip the digicam round Snake within the medical display too shortly he falls to his knees and blows chunks if you return to the sport, for those who shortly snipe a boss after a cutscene hours earlier than his scheduled combat, he’ll be useless if you’re imagined to face him, and rabbit would possibly style fairly good, however instantaneous ramen noodles are nonetheless the best meals identified to man.
It’s filled with bespoke, purpose-built mechanics which had by no means been used earlier than or since, all of which have been so thrilling of their nerdy however approachable simulation. Whether or not it’s digging out bullets with a fight knife and bandaging the wound or burning off a fats leech with an equally stubby cuban cigar within the Treatment display, or snaring vampire bats, rats and reticulated pythons to get well your stamina, every transferring half is so merely carried out, however with an accessibility that made them iconic.
Metallic Gear Strong Delta interprets the unique’s quirkiness superbly to a brand new era with MGS5-esque controls and fashionable Unreal 5 engine textures and lighting which don’t a lot reinvent the traditional, however leverage the soft-focus of reminiscence. Delta seems such as you bear in mind MGS3 wanting, reasonably than the sharp, polygonal actuality of a 20 12 months outdated PS2 recreation.
The visible enhancements are, by-and-large, incredible, going above and past the stretched and muddy environments of a typical HD remaster to ship lush jungles, dusty mountain trails and austere laboratories which really feel dense with granular element and distinctly totally different from each other.
You would possibly spot a tough clothes texture here-and-there, however given MGS’s proclivity for crawling by way of the undergrowth and extra portrait shut ups than faculty image day, every thing and everybody seems good.
This provides a brand new lease of life to one of many extra underrated elements of Kojima video games, the kinetic cutscene digicam work and shot choice. When you discover how dynamically and playfully the remade cutscenes are offered, and the way a lot that contrasts with the legendarily (infamously) verbose codec scenes, it drives residence much more clearly how excellent Metallic Gear Strong is for this visible overhaul.
Nonetheless, throughout the remake realm, Metallic Gear Strong Delta occupies an attention-grabbing spot. Whereas there’s now been a plethora of remakes, remasters and reimaginings from all kinds of studios and genres, it’s apparent that Konami was most impressed (each judging by this and their current Silent Hill 2 remake) by the Resident Evil remakes.
The entire Resident Evil remakes are nice however they make such an attention-grabbing distinction with Metallic Gear. In Resident Evil 4 Remake, which I anticipated to be much more much like the dogged, reiterative type of Delta, the event staff, comprised of lots of the folks work had labored on the PS2 model, took the chance to “repair” fan-favourite flubs and memes which they clearly felt undermined the imaginative and prescient they have been going for however, I really feel, misplaced among the magic in doing so.
Resident Evil 2 Remake alternatively was completely triumphant in its reimagining of the unique recreation. It felt like a contemporary recreation designed with the spirit of the traditional that gained a very modern impetus from the brand new applied sciences and mechanics developed for Resident Evil 7 that it added, creating one thing which didn’t simply reanimate the bones of the outdated recreation, however augmented them into one thing tangibly thrilling.
Metallic Gear Strong Delta, for all its strengths, doesn’t try this. The entire enjoyable stuff that you just bear in mind continues to be right here, prepared and ready for you want a gavial beneath the waterline. However exterior of the brand new taking pictures controls, that are an enormous enchancment even for those who attempt to argue that the unique was a extra tactile and lifelike simulation of the complexity of really firing a weapon, Delta feels comparatively untouched creatively and mechanically.
I’m not saying I wished Ocelot to immediately begin to hunt you thru the jungle like Mr X in Resident Evil 2, however throughout the wider context of what’s clearly impressed Delta, it doesn’t fairly attain the heights of one thing you’ve by no means seen earlier than – which is ironic given the greatness of MGS3 lies in its originality.
Nonetheless, that’s to not say that Delta is low effort in any sense. Its painstaking recreation, which brings again one in all gaming’s best ever Easter Eggs that was lacking within the MGS HD Assortment, is saved from tautology each by its completeness and dedication to not offering the trail of least resistance.
To present extra examples, it might’ve been very straightforward to forgo the Snake vs Monkey Ape Escape mode as a license not well worth the effort, or to brighten up the cave advanced after The Ache lest fashionable gamers suppose their HDR is damaged, reasonably than letting Snake’s eyes naturally regulate to the gloom.
So, whereas there are a minimum of 5 different variations of Metallic Gear Strong 3, Metallic Gear Strong Delta: Snake Eater is now the definitive place to play a bonafide traditional in a method that feels each accessibly fashionable, however nonetheless genuine to the unique expertise.
