10 New Things We’ve Learned About Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater

Konami’s grand re-entry into AAA gaming has been long anticipated, and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is goin to be a crucial part of those plans. The remake has looked increasingly promising with each of its showings, and though the Japanese publisher’s focus for now is definitely very much on the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake, clearly, it’s building up to Metal Gear’s comeback with increasing momentum as well. Thanks to a bunch of recent hands-on previews and impressions, new details have emerged on the upcoming stealth remake and everything new that it will bring to the table, and here, we’re going to go over all of that information.

RETAINS THE OLD STRUCTURE

Since the moment Konami unveiled it, it has insisted that Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is going to be an incredibly faithful remake of the legendary original, right down to using the same voice recordings as the original. Unsurprisingly, that means it’s not changing up things too much where its design structure is concerned either. Speaking in an interview with IGN, producer Noriaki Okamura revealed that though there were some internal discussions about adopting a new open world structure, the decision was made early on to retain the original game’s framework exactly as it was. “We did debate about this internally,” he said. “Maybe we should reskin the game into the current open-world type map? But after thinking about this, we would definitely have to basically remake the game from scratch, and by doing so it could alter other things about the game, and we decided that’s not the direction we really wanted to take.”

SAME ENEMY ROUTES AND ITEM PLACEMENTS

Sticking with how faithfully Delta is recreating the original Snake Eater, recent previews have illustrated that point further. For instance, as per both IGN and PC Gamer, not only can players expect the story and level design to be unchanged, even the finer details are going to be completely untouched, which means even things such as enemy routes, item and weapon placements, and the like are going to be exactly as they were in the original game. Whether that’s something that Konami will tweak between now and the game’s release remains to be seen. Could we perhaps expect a mode where players can remix such elements to their heart’s content? It would certainly add to the replay value, that’s for sure- though for now, all we can do is hope that something along those lines will be included.

LOADING SCREENS

Here’s something else to give you an idea of how faithfully Konami is approaching Delta as a remake- even the original Metal Gear Solid 3’s loading screens have been brought over. The original game saw players moving from area to area, and each area being its own separate instance, with moving from one area to the other resetting things. Some may have assumed that the remake would make things more seamless, but it turns out Delta isn’t going to stitch all of its areas up together into a single, seamless whole. Presumably, some will be disappointed by the lack of modernization in that specific area, though then again, it’s not like MGS3’s stealth mechanics and design feel horribly dated even by today’s standards, so there’s that at least.

MOVEMENT

Metal Gear Solid Delta isn’t making too many major changes to the original game (other than on the visuals front), but zooming in, there are plenty of enhancements to talk about. For instance, movement is more in line with Metal Gear Solid 5, with crouch walking, for instance, now finally being an option. IGN and PC Gamer’s aforementioned previews, however, claim that movement still doesn’t feel quite as good as it does in The Phantom Pain– though perhaps that’s to be expected, given how little the gameplay is changing in Delta.

GRAPHICAL OPTIONS

Visually, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is looking stunning, but what can we expect from its graphical options? As per VGC’s preview, the remake’s preview demonstration featured options for a quality mode running at a dynamic 4K resolution and 30 FPS, and a performance mode targeting 1080p at 60 FPS. With the game still a ways off from launch, that might not be set in stone, but we can, at the very least, rest assured in the knowledge that a 60 FPS option will be offered.

ACCESSIBILITY

Quality of life improvements are clearly a big part of how Metal Gear Solid Delta is looking to modernize MGS3, and unsurprisingly, that comes with a host of accessibility options. As per the PlayStation Blog, that includes options to change visual elements such as the reticle and colour correction, being ale to change the inputs tied to managing weapons and equipment, having the option to not have the hold down a button while grabbing foes, and more.

COMPASS

Caught by Push Square’s preview, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is introducing an entirely new item in the form of the compass, and it does exactly what you would think. Serving as yet another quality of life upgrade, if you have the compass equipped, your HUD will start displaying the direction that you need to head in for your next primary objective. Presumably, that will make navigation much easier, especially when players are backtracking through locations, which is something that you obviously do a fair bit of in Metal Gear Solid 3.

CODEC QUICK DIAL

Let’s stick with the upcoming remake’s quality of life improvements a little bit longer, because that is clearly the area Konami has poured the bulk of its efforts into. Another tweak in the remake that players will appreciate is a new quick dial option for your codec- specifically, one that lets you instantly save the game. Rather than having to manually use the codec every time you want to save as you had to to in the original title, in MGS Delta, all you have to do is hold down the down button on the d-pad, as revealed in IGN’s preview.

CAMO QUICK SELECT

Another d-pad shortcut that Metal Gear Solid Delta will let players use will be tied to selecting what camouflage you’re wearing. This was, of course, a crucial part of the gameplay experience in the original MGS3, but unlike in the original, where you had to manually sort through all the different options in the menu each time you wanted to change your camo, in Delta, you can just hold down the up button on the d-pad to bring up all of your camo options instantly.

MORE QOL IMPROVEMENTS

Sorting your backpack and selecting your active equipment is also looking like it’s going to be much less of a hassle in the upcoming remake than it was in the original. As pointed out by Push Square, for instance, any time you acquire a completely new weapon or item in Delta, the game will now flash an on-screen prompt to instantly add it to your quick select list. That will hopefully mean less scrolling through menus and more focusing on the actual on-screen action.