The truth may be in the eye of the beholder.
When a video game you know and love gets a remake, as in a true remake, not just a simple remaster, you sometimes have to wonder if the “new version” of the game will be a truly superior entity to what came before. Such questions might fairly be asked of certain remakes that have come out, including when Naughty Dog overhauled its legendary title so that it was even more beautiful and had more detail put into its design to flesh out things even further. Then, there’s Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, which Konami itself is billing as something special, even if its team doesn’t really know how to define it.
This was proven in a chat with PC Gamer magazine, as noted by GamesRadar, where series producer Noriaki Okamura and the voice of Solid Snake himself, David Hayter, were asked by the magazine as to whether Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a “companion” to the original legendary PS2 title, or if it’s a “replacement” given how much better it’ll look on the PS5.
To the producer, he felt it might just be up to the fans to decide that:
“For new users who are just getting started with the MGS series, MGS Delta may be more familiar. For long-time MGS series fans, the Master collection version may feel superior.”
That’s a fair thing to say. Not everyone was around to enjoy the PS2 entry when it first came out, and many might only be getting the new game to see “what the hype was all about,” and whether it deserved all the praise it got.
As for Hayter, he took a more Snake-like approach to his answer:
“I was literally playing the original Metal Gear Solid a couple days ago, and it’s still a banger. Will [Delta] replace [MGS3]? I don’t know. I just think it’s a different, upgraded version.”
Seems pretty straightforward to us, too, Mr. Hayter. While it’s fair to say that this game is getting a massive overhaul due to the new console it’s being put on, it’s only a “remake” in its visual aesthetic. The content itself is unchanged by all accounts. In fact, in a previous interview, another member of the team said it was “too faithful” to the original, which is totally fine, as the original was legendary.
The irony of all of this “replacement” talk is that you can’t help but wonder if this has something to do with Hideo Kojima, who made the original game, but isn’t with Konami anymore…