After a long and arduous wait, we finally have Metal Gear Solid: Delta Snake Eater in our hands – and it’s everything that we expected from such a release. The opportunity to re-experience one of the best games of the PS2 generation is not something to pass upon, and we just can’t stop ourselves from gushing on and on about it.
With this feature, we will be diving into the graphical aspect of the experience – comparing the original with the remake in an effort to see how wide the generation gap is. We will be diving deep into each element of the presentation, so let’s jump right into it.
Character Models
The original Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was a graphical achievement of its time with best-in-class character models. The polycounts on each model were a lot higher than contemporaries of the time, and there was plenty of detail in each aspect. Techniques like skin softening and rudimentary hair textures were commonly used at the time, and you can find it in the original release as well – but the end result strikes a great balance between performance and quality.
For the remake, Konami and Virtuous are using Unreal Engine 5 which completely rewrites the character rendering pipeline into something that’s leaps and bounds ahead of the base release. Starting with the skin mesh, we get to see a rather geometrically complex rendition of the skin meshing with great attention to detail and exponentially higher polycounts – resulting in superb details on models like Snake or Revolver Ocelot.
The same story continues over in the other elements of the rendering pipeline, where we see a physically based material system being used in the clothes similar to the solutions that we saw in late last-gen games and current-gen releases.
Overall, there is obviously a stark difference in how Metal Gear Solid 3’s remake looks as compared to the original – but what makes the job so commendable that the improvements feel like they stemmed from the original and pay due homage to what came before. Of course, Konami went ahead and built all of these models from scratch – but the concept art and drawings seem to be taken directly from the base material.
Enhanced Cutscenes
Thanks to several improvements in the character rendering department, cutscenes also look a lot better than the base release. Konami hasn’t taken much liberty in re-directing these cutscenes, so the remake has each scene recreated shot-for-shot – which might be questionable on some level but has been done to preserve the spirit of the original.
Taking a look at any cutscene from the remake alongside the base version gives us a good overview of the changes, ranging from cinematic lights help alleviate the mood of a scene through additional lights and shadows where the original version could only make do with a rudimentary baked-lighting solution.
Now that facial models can feature a lot more detail than before, these improvements are used to better express the state of these characters. You can see pupils dilating, facial muscles moving, and so on and so forth which help in achieving the grand cinematic vision that the team originally dreamt of.
Also helping the case of cutscenes is a more robust post-processing pipeline that adds the cinematic flair to the experience. We get to see a per-object motion blur in the cutscenes alongside quality depth-of-field implementation, and much better and denser particle effects than what we saw in the base version. Crude implementations of light shafts, bloom effects, and strobe lighting are now replaced with higher quality current-gen implementations, and the end result is nothing short of breathtaking at times.
Lighting, Shadows, and Atmosphere
Let’s now move over to the lighting side of things, where we get to see plenty of radical changes. The base release might not have the pompous light-shadow rendering that defined the original Splinter Cell, but the implementation was certainly impressive – holding a fair amount of direct lighting detail with some level of accuracy.
For the remake however, Konami has used Unreal Engine 5 which practically guarantees a best-in-class global illumination system thanks to the Lumen technology. The improvements in technology have enabled the system to capture a lot more lighting data in a more accurate fashion – both from direct and indirect lighting sources complete with support for bounce lighting.
As such, a lot of detail that felt lacking in the original rendition can be seen in the remake. Areas that are hidden from the enemy’s line of sight are more clear to understand thanks to an enhanced lighting pipeline, and that also helps in refining the core sneaking aspect of the experience.
Having a detailed lighting system also helps with rendering better shadows, and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is no different in this regard. Plenty of improvements are in store including but not limited to self-shadows, soft contact shadows, and higher-resolution shadows with little to no artifacting present around the edges. Shadows are also cast at longer distances, giving the world a more uniform look.
Assets are also rebuilt from the ground-up which have more geometric detail this time around. As mentioned in the character models, the polycount has also increased thanks to the excellent use of Nanite – and all of that just comes around to make the world feel alive. Different assets have different materials which reflect light differently now, and that helps in giving the world a lot more character and authenticity that just wasn’t possible with the base release and the technological constraints that came with it.
Add to that a pretty smooth world streaming system where level-of-detail swapping happens pretty smoothly, and you get a rather solid world rendering pipeline. Of course, the art direction also plays a huge role in achieving that vision, but the technological work is quite commendable. You can crawl through long grass where each follicle reacts to your movements, climb on trees with high geometric density barks or leaves, and swim through water with great reflections and caustic rendering.
The true essence of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater’s gameplay was to become one with the jungle, and the improved asset details and lighting systems make the playground feel a lot more real and in turn helps in achieving the original goal in a more efficient manner.
Loading Times And Performance Impressions
One of the biggest improvements that have happened between the PS2 and the PS5 generation has been in terms of the loading times, but unfortunately Konami hasn’t made any significant strides in alleviating the frustration that came with a map divided into multiple zones separated by loading screens. Yes, the high read-write speeds of the PS5’s SSD does help in reducing load times to a minimum (in our experience on the PS5 Pro, it was just a couple of seconds at maximum) – but they are still there. Of course, the reasoning behind preserving this functionality is to stay as close to the original experience as possible – but it does feel pointless.
Taking a brief moment to talk about the performance, we tested the game out on the PS5 Pro – and our experience was really good. The visuals looked crisp at 4K likely using PSSR and performance was largely fine, though there were a few drops and slowdowns here and there. But considering the immaculate visuals and Unreal Engine 5’s computational demands, it’s a pleasant surprise to see the game at decent level.
According to reports, for base PS5 owners, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater offers two graphical modes – a Fidelity mode that runs at 4K with 30fps and a performance mode that ups the frame-rate to a full fat 60fps but drops the resolution down. While the jury is still out on how these two modes perform, we would recommend opting for the latter option, as having a smoother gameplay experience is more important than chasing higher resolution
Conclusion
In conclusion, Konami has done a rather amazing job with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. It’s equal parts a glorious homage to the past and a confident step forward that’s catered to the modern crowd, and honestly speaking this is the best place to be for a game that’s so closely associated with a creator who isn’t a part of this project anymore.
Speaking solely in graphical terms, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater makes great use of the tools provided by Unreal Engine 5 and makes it a lot more convenient for audiences accustomed to modern games try out this masterpiece. There are a few shortcomings that are almost a byproduct of sticking too close to the script, but it’s a fantastic start.