Snake Eater review – GameSpew

I have to admit that upon its release on PS2 way back in 2004, it took me a while to warm to Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The main thing that took me some time to acclimatise to was the change of setting: the original Metal Gear Solid and its sequel had you sneaking around military bases as well as a ship and an oil tanker, filled with small rooms and tight corridors. In Snake Eater, however, you spend much of your time in a forest. Add in the fact that the advanced radar system found in previous games was thrown out of the window, and its top-down perspective just didn’t seem to cut the mustard any more.

Of course, fans of the series will know that an updated version, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, was released a little while later which aimed to address this by adding a new third-person camera mode as well as some other bells and whistles. But even without this, it’s hard not to look back on Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater with fondness. It might have been frustrating to play at times thanks to its restrictive camera, but it has some of the best boss fights in the series, as well as one of the greatest video game action sequences ever created. And now, thanks to Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, you get to enjoy them in greater detail than ever before.

As remakes go, the aim of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is clear from the outset: keep everything that fans know and love about the original game the same, but dramatically enhance the visuals and make some choice quality of life changes to provide a more modern experience. And Konami has pretty much pulled it off. If you’re a devout series fan, you can play in ‘Legacy’ mode, which keeps the game’s original controls and top-down viewpoint. But if that doesn’t sound all that enticing, you can play in the ‘New’ style, which gives you a proper over-the-shoulder 3D camera and makes other tweaks, such as you moving faster while crouched and being able to move and aim at the same time.

I’ve tried both modes in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater and, honestly, I don’t see how anyone could prefer playing in Legacy mode after trying the New style. It revitalises the core gameplay of Metal Gear Solid 3 and succeeds in making it feel modern. It’s not perfect, though; you might still get annoyed by the camera on the odd occasion, especially when you’re indoors, and it makes some of the game’s more clunky mechanics even more obvious, such as having to be exactly in the right position to pick up and drag the body of an enemy once you’ve incapacitated them. Still, the New style is transformational, and I hope Konami builds upon it if it decides to remake further Metal Gear Solid titles or – gasp – make a new one.

Related: Metal Gear Solid Games, Ranked From Worst to Best

However you choose to play, the story of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is undoubtedly enhanced by its stunning Unreal Engine 5 makeover. For those who aren’t familiar with the series, Metal Gear Solid 3, or in this case Metal Gear Solid Delta, is actually a prequel, taking place before all other Metal Gear games. As such, players are put in control of Naked Snake, the man who would eventually come to be known as Big Boss. Sent into the Soviet Union during the Cold War, his mission is to locate and extract a scientist known as Sokolov. But a series of unexpected events ultimately finds his mission expanding in scope and becoming even more arduous.

Typical of a Hideo Kojima game, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a game packed full of dramatic cutscenes, and thanks to the power of Unreal Engine 5 these are more entertaining to watch than ever before. Lip-syncing is the most obvious upgrade, but there are other little touches that enhance the narrative here, such as muscle movements and facial expressions which heighten the emotion and add more nuance to certain scenes. And on the whole, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater looks simply gorgeous, with its locations brought to life with crisp, detailed textures and wonderful effects.

Also typical of Hideo Kojima is the game’s quirkiness. You’ll find mechanics here that you won’t find elsewhere, even though it’s technically more than two decades old. You can hold guards up at gunpoint, for example, and interrogate them to find out useful information. And central to the game are two unique systems: one which has you customising your outfit and face paint in order to increase your camouflage level, and another which demands that you deal with injuries in a more realistic manner, digging out bullets with your knife before disinfecting the wound, stitching it up applying a bandage, for example.

On top of all that, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a game that demands you think outside the box at times, and is full of fun and clever touches and easter eggs. Faking your own death might prove to be useful at times, and let’s just say that there’s usually more than one way to defeat most of the game’s memorable bosses. In fact, simply doing nothing is a valid option for one of them if you truly get stuck. As such, this is the type of game that you’ll willingly play through multiple times – and multiple difficulty levels, unlockable bonuses and a grading system all play into that, too.

This remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater boasts additional content outside of the main campaign, too. Depending on which format you’re playing the game on, you’ll either have access to Snake vs Monkey or Snake vs Bomberman. Playing the PS5 Pro version of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater for review, I’ve spent time with Snake vs Monkey and found it to be a pretty entertaining diversion. Across numerous short stages you’re tasked with hunting down and shooting a set number of monkeys from the Ape Escape series with a ‘shaker gun’ then quickly capturing them while they’re stunned. You might encounter Astro Bot while you’re playing, too, and there are rewards to be earned according to your performance.

Add in other extras, like an additional minigame that I won’t spoil, a secret theater that offers comedic takes on certain scenes as well as entirely new videos should you be able to track down soldiers carrying film canisters, and more, such as a model viewer, and you have a fairly comprehensive package. An online multiplayer mode called Fox Hunt is also set to be added at some point in the future, but I obviously can’t tell you if it’s going to be any good or not at this stage.

Stealth game fans and those into single-player narrative-driven adventures are in for a treat with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, then, even if it’s not quite a must-have. As already mentioned, some of its mechanics can feel a little dated and awkward at times; that’s the result of this being a remake that aims to be doggedly authentic rather than a reimagining in the vein of Bloober Team’s take on Silent Hill 2. And on PS5 Pro, while performance is generally solid, there are times where it drops from its 60fps target, especially when using the new third-person camera mode. Hopefully they can be cleared up, but they don’t negatively affect the gameplay too much.

The fact is, though, that this is now undoubtedly the best way to experience the story of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. If you’re a purist you can stick to the legacy mode, enjoying the game pretty much as it was all those years ago while taking in the new sights and sounds, which are simply phenomenal. And if you’re new to the series, the updated gameplay mode will go a great distance to hide that this is a game that’s just over two decades old, letting you experience a great story along with some brilliant boss fights and one hell of a chase scene in the final act. Metal Gear Delta: Snake Eater does what it set out to do: remain true to the original game, while breathing new life into it.