Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is a time-tested classic, and the 2004 entry in Hideo Kojima and Konami’s beloved franchise (before the two’s famous falling-out) has easily earned its place in gaming history. The recent remaster, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, does its absolute best to bring the classic experience in line with modern standards and innovative updates. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater hits all the same story and gameplay notes as before, but refines them both in terms of presentation while accommodating a greater range of accessibility and convenience features.
As it sticks closely to the original, Metal Gear Solid: Delta features a range of unique bosses throughout the campaign. These fights pit Naked Snake against the surviving members of Cobra Unit, his mentor and superior, The Boss’ crack squad (many with supernatural abilities) that assisted her in winning the Second World War for the Allies in the IP’s alternate history. And among these, there’s one encounter that made me think fondly of a similar fight from Batman: Arkham City for many of the same reasons.
The Fury in MGS Delta: Snake Eater, Mr. Freeze in Batman: Arkham City Are Two Sides of the Same Coin
Every iteration of Snake in Metal Gear has been a highly-skilled secret operative capable of infiltrating the most fortified bases and quietly subduing all kinds of foes. Batman, of course, has similarly been a master of stealth and hand-to-hand combat since the character’s comic book debut. With both heroes so heavily stealth-based, Snake and The Caped Crusader each employ a range of high-tech gadgets that lend them another edge in the sneaking department.
Rocksteady Studio’s take on The Dark Knight has produced some of the best Batman games that fans have received to date, with the second entry, Arkham City, often held up as the greatest of the bunch. It took the excellent structure established in Arkham Asylum and applied it to a more open-world, but still finely-tuned experience, compared to some of the elements that fans disliked in Arkham Origins (which was developed by WB Games Montreal) and later in Arkham Knight. With Metal Gear Solid Delta now possibly the definitive version of Snake Eater, the battles against Mr. Freeze and The Fury remain compelling, and made me realize how closely they resemble one another.
Snake Eater’s The Fury, Arkham City’s Mr. Freeze Battles Realize Each Series’ Style and Sensibility
The Fury and Mr. Freeze’s iconic clashes in their respective games fully embrace the nature and spirit of their protagonists when up against an equally imposing enemy. This is manifested in their design and the manner that each title asks fans to tackle them. Both require players to outmaneuver and out-stalk these foes in order to beat them at their own game.
When facing Batman: Arkham City‘s Mr. Freeze, players had to make use of different attacks to slowly wear him down in a cramped area that limited some of the usual tactics. Victor wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice, forcing fans to carefully avoid him, observe their surroundings, and pick the right moment and equipment to strike. It was an incredibly “Batman-like” battle, becoming regarded as one of the highlight fights and one that certainly is ingrained in my memory.
Compared to fights like The End or The Sorrow, The Fury is one of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater‘s boss battles that appears more straightforward on the surface, but one that personally brought to mind Arkham City. Snake finds himself trapped in a limited space composed of narrow corridors with The Fury, a former cosmonaut turned literal firebrand. The Fury behaves much the same as Mr. Freeze, stalking and taunting Snake as the two engage in a tense and deadly cat-and-mouse game within a claustrophobic level. And though MGS 3 technically did this before Arkham City, playing MGS Delta jarred my memory, and had me reflecting fondly on how well both The Fury’s fight and Mr. Freeze’s capture the essence of their IP’s core tenants in a similarly excellent way.