Thick Thighs Save Lives
NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
Previews:
IGN
Provided the entire game follows suit with this demo, I think your feelings on Delta are going to depend on just how faithful you want this remake to be. If you’re a purist, then you’re in luck: the new MGS team at Konami clearly sees the original Snake Eater as something of a religious text. But it means Delta’s creative vision is held prisoner by the early 2000s. Even the cutscenes feature the same fade-to-black loading between scenes as the original – something surely cinephile Kojima would have exorcised if only he’d had access to SSDs back in the day.
Beyond the updated graphics and controls, there’s nothing surprising, refreshing, or dare I say exciting about MGS Delta, at least in this demo. The only significant change we did find was that shooting Ocelot did not trigger the time paradox game over screen. It’s not clear if this omission is simply because the demo is not pulled from the final version of the game, but such a famous Kojima-ism being missing from the first press showing of Delta did raise a concerned eyebrow. Hopefully it makes it into the full release.
Vg247
If Konami wants to reach entirely new audiences, it’s definitely going in the right direction by rejuvenating Snake Eater while preserving exactly what made it so enjoyable to audiences in the first place. Starting from the story's genesis, rather than the first game in the series... it might just be a brilliant move, it turns out.
Ultimately, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is in solid shape so far. I'm eager to see more. If the rest of the game proves as faithful and as quality as the short mission that I got to play, Konami may be on to hit a home run for fans of the espionage action series, and newcomers to Metal Gear Solid alike.
VGC
“It’s exactly what you’d want it to be.”
Those were the thoughts, shared in unison between VGC and Giant Bomb’s Dan Ryckert after we locked eyes following 90 minutes with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater.
The remake, which brings Hideo Kojima‘s seminal PS2 stealth title into 2024, aims to not only remake a classic but also revitalize a franchise that’s faced choppy water since its creator departed under murky circumstances.
Push Square
Far and away the biggest is an entirely new control scheme. For our preview session, these inputs were the only ones to hand, but you are able to select the original controls before starting a playthrough if you wish in the full version. A series famed for mapping item and weapon selection to the L2 and R2 buttons, the updated controller settings instead placed the menu scrollers on the left and right buttons on the D-Pad. You then scroll through items via the right thumbstick and let go of the directional input when you've found the correct piece of equipment. The Codec screen can now be instantly accessed by pressing up on the D-Pad, while an entirely new feature lets you select from a list of pre-set camouflage loadouts by pressing down.
Tech Radar
As the first title in the franchise since Metal Gear Survive back in 2018, Konami is facing a lot of pressure from fans to deliver. Taking a break from my play session, I spoke to producer Noriaki Okamura about the process behind modernizing one of the most acclaimed games of all time.
Foremost, I wanted to discover why the team decided that now is the best time for a remake rather than a new entry. “There’s lots of younger fans that do not know the series and we found that quite shocking,” Okamura explains via a translator. “Younger fans not only had not played the games but had not even heard of the series. We knew that if we didn’t do something, the Metal Gear Solid series would just vanish out of existence.”
“Delta is the game that we really want to have draw in new fans and be the reason why people want to either get into Metal Gear Solid for the first time or get back into the series,” he continues. As for why they chose to remake the third Metal Gear Solid game, “This is the very first in terms of storyline [...] if I was asked by a friend or anyone, a younger fan perhaps, which game they should start from, I would recommend Metal Gear Solid 3.”
PCGamer
The look of Delta blows me away because, honestly, I didn't know if Konami still had it in them. But the jungle environments here are visually some of the best I've ever seen, no matter the map layout underpinning them, with the air so moist at points you can almost feel it on your skin. At one point you see Snake wading through swampwater with the crocodile cap on, before a drone's searchlights swoop over the surface, the sun blazing over distant hills as the surface ripples, and in some way captures what Snake Eater always looked like in my imagination.
Polygon
The answer, implicitly, is that fans want what Kojima and his team made. And on that question alone, I think that Delta is a fine way to give it to them. It’s very close to the original, down to the voice lines being reused, and where things have changed, the modernization feels tactful. Its designers’ goal is to give returning players nostalgia and to faithfully allow new players a similar-feeling entry into the series, and it will likely succeed. Including options like the classic controls is also valuable, and this project seems more likely to bring new fans into the series than the Master Collection. Having both available is broadly a best-of-both-worlds situation when it comes to game preservation.
PCGamesN
MGS 3 remake is a fun nostalgia trip with impressive visuals and stealth gameplay that still holds up to this day. But, on reflection, I wish there was even a small splash of innovation present – something that would truly surprise me. Maybe the remake strays from the original path further in, but from what I’ve seen and heard, I doubt it.
I’m interested to see how these two remakes of iconic Konami games are received – one that prides itself on fervent faithfulness, and another that massively respects the source material while also riffing on what made it great. All you need to know for now about Metal Gear Solid Delta is that it’ll be the new best way to enjoy one of the greatest action games of all time. Just don’t expect any big surprises.
PlayStation Blog - hands-on report
Although the demo finished all too quickly at the fabled Boss bridge scene, it was enough to ensure to me that Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is going to do justice to its original and the lofty expectations placed on it. You’ll be able to experience it for yourself on PS5, with a release date to be revealed later this year.
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