In 2004, after the release of "Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty", it was announced that "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater" would be released. The game was a prequel set in 1964 and told the story of Naked Snake, the man who would go on to become the legendary Big Boss and the character that Solid Snake is a clone of later in the timeline.
The game was a sensation upon release garnering rave critical reviews and becoming a fan favorite in the series, especially after the confusing story that was told in "Sons of Liberty" (which is actually pretty cool once you understand it and have a little more context from this and other games that came later.) Last year, Konami released "Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater", a faithful upgrade of the original "Snake Eater" that was built from the ground up. The reason this game was chosen to be remade was due to the fact that within the story, this is canonically the first entry into the timeline.
In the game, Naked Snake is sent into the Soviet Union to stop a mad general from completing work on a dangerous new weapon. Snake is also to save the creator of the weapon and defeat the terrorists if possible. Unfortunately, one of those terrorists is the Boss, Snake's former mentor and someone who has now defected to the Soviet Union.
Gameplay wise, you find yourself mostly in a jungle setting. You wear camouflage of various types and this raises the percentage in your camo index and shows how well hidden you are. So, if your camo has an index up to 70% or higher, you know that you'll have an easier time evading enemies. This replaces the cones that showed how far a soldier could see in previous games and gave the game a new angle on how to stay stealthy.
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| Snake is back in action and looking better than ever in "MGSD: Snake Eater"! |
"Delta" makes switching camo a little easier than in the original. In the original version, you had to open up your backpack and choose which camo and face paint that you wanted to wear to increase your camo index percentage. Here, you can actually press up on the D-pad, bring up your camo options and choose accordingly. This allows for a slightly better flow instead of feeling like you're stopping every few minutes in order to change.
You can also access the radio by pressing down on the D-pad and radio someone without pausing and you can select from your items or your weapons by pressing either left or right, respectively. These are changes to what was already minor inconveniences, but improvements overall.
As far as the story and action is concerned, it's all here from the original story. It's so faithful, in fact, that Konami felt the need to put a warning that the game may contain some outdated views. Now, I'll go ahead and say that I don't think that this game necessarily needed this warning and that it feels like it's there simply for the way too sensitive members of the audience who find anything and everything to gripe about socially.
Don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily mind the warning. I just hate that there are those of us who are not adult enough to know that the original game was made over 20 years ago and that it may have something in it that is ever so slightly offensive by today's standards. But I digress, back to the game.
While I am ultimately praising Konami for their fidelity to the original game, I'm also going to slightly knock them down for it a little bit. I recently played the original version of the third game when I got "Metal Gear Solid: The Master Collection Vol. 1" and that game still holds up incredibly well (as does "Sons of Liberty"). Therefore, after I played "Delta", I didn't really feel like it was a revolutionary remake and I mostly just felt like I had played a version with prettier graphics and only minor quality of life changes, no matter how well those changes were implemented.
Still, that's a small mark against this remake when considering that it is remaking what is still one of the best games ever made. While Konami made a game that may have been a little too loyal to the source material, this game is still a blast and if you haven't played the original version in a long time, then this is the ultimate version for you to now play with upgraded visuals and some good quality of life upgrades that do make it a smoother experience.
In short, "Snake Eater" is still a high-water mark for the series with "Delta" being the ultimate version of the story!
