Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is exactly what fans want—a fanatically faithful remake that doesn't leave a hair out of place

GamesActionMetal Gear Solid Delta: Snake EaterMetal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is exactly what fans want—a fanatically faithful remake that doesn’t leave a hair out of placeWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Konami)

A close-up of Naked Snake�s camouflaged face.

Metal Gear Solid Delta is Metal Gear Solid 3. “What a revelation,” you’re thinking, “I can’t believe this remake is a lot like the game it’s remaking.”

But no, really, listen to me. Delta isn’t MGS3 the way that theSilent Hill 2 remakeis Silent Hill 2, or the way Final Fantasy 7 Remake is FF7. Having spent an hour and a half with it, I can say this thing is a shot-for-shot, not-a-hair-out-of-place recreation of the original PS2 masterpiece that I regard as one of the greatest videogames ever made. Konami seems to have taken zero liberties with the classic.

(Image credit: Konami)

Naked Snake stands in his HALO jump gear.

Close your eyes and imagine MGS3 in scintillating Unreal Engine 5 and you’re 95% of the way to experiencing what I saw in my hands-on demo. Aside from a dusting of mechanics from MGS5 and a couple of quality of life features, this is the game as it was in a sparkly new package. With Hideo Kojima long-since absconded from Konami and trust in the company in short supply, I think that’s exactly what fans are looking for, even if I have a few philosophical questions about the value of a remake that hews so single-mindedly to the original.

And scene

My demo consisted of the entire Virtuous Mission—MGS3’s prologue that sets up the stakes of the story to come, introducing us to characters like Naked Snake, The Boss, Ocelot, and Volgin. It is—I’m going to have to find lots of different ways to say this throughout this preview—exactly as you remember it.

Except, of course, that it all looks a lot nicer. Konami’s taken advantage of the last two decades of technological progress to make MGS Delta look sharp as hell in Unreal Engine 5. The foliage is luscious; the jungle feels hot, looming and oppressive; and all those characters now have detailed faces and expressions to go along with their voice acting, which is taken directly from the original game—no re-recordings here.

There’s no denying it looks great. Konami and Virtuos have done an excellent job translating the feel of the original game to a slick modern package, so much so that I didn’t even miss theyellow-y piss filterthat was a trademark of OG MGS3 (and which Konami says will be an option in the remake’s full release).

(Image credit: Konami)

A codec call with Major Zero.

Therewassomething a little odd about hearing those voices come from characters so exhaustively detailed, though. To be honest, it could just be that I’m much too used to the original game, but I felt something of an uncanny valley effect from hearing David Hayter and Josh Keaton’s over-the-top, anime-style voice acting come from models that otherwise looked so naturalistic and human. It’s a very minor qualm with what was otherwise an impressive polish job, though, and I suspect I’d settle into it over the course of longer playthrough.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

What a thrill

Picking favouritesThere is one new thing that long-time fans will immediately notice in Delta: New MGS games to choose as your favourite. Back in the day, the original MGS3 asked players which game in the series was best when they started a new game: 1, 2, or (in Subsistence) 3, as well as an option to say it was your first time playing an MGS, with some of those options unlocking bonuses or easter eggs. In Delta, you can now select other games like Peace Walker or MGS4 and 5, too. Alas, the bonuses for picking them weren’t in the build I played.

Picking favourites

There is one new thing that long-time fans will immediately notice in Delta: New MGS games to choose as your favourite. Back in the day, the original MGS3 asked players which game in the series was best when they started a new game: 1, 2, or (in Subsistence) 3, as well as an option to say it was your first time playing an MGS, with some of those options unlocking bonuses or easter eggs. In Delta, you can now select other games like Peace Walker or MGS4 and 5, too. Alas, the bonuses for picking them weren’t in the build I played.

The outline of the Virtuous Mission is, say it with me, just as you remember it: Snake’s being dispatched to sneak through the jungle and secure a defecting Soviet scientist named Sokolov, he’s undertaking the “world’s first HALO jump” to do it, some guy on the plane calls him a “pantywaist” in a turn-of-phrase no human has used before or since, and so on. I’m almost certain the historical archive footage—video of Nikita Khrushchev and the like used to illustrate the game’s ’60s Cold War context—is exactly the same that was used back in the day. Even the R1-prompts, those opportunities to switch perspective mid-cutscene to see exactly what Snake is looking at, are all where they were on the PS2.

After about 15 minutes of cutscenes and codec calls (oh yes, this is still Metal Gear), I was in. Snake’s gear is caught on a tree and I had to movement tutorial my way over to it. The area, like every area I moved through in my demo, is a recreation of its original counterpart.

(Image credit: Konami)

Naked Snake tiptoes along a tree branch.

It does make me wonder, just a tad, what a version of Delta that took more creative liberties would look like. You’ll think I’m mad, probably justifiably. After all, do I really trust modern-day, Kojima-less Konami to do something interesting and new with the classic? Not really, but the fact is that I have MGS3 sitting on my SSD right now, easy to access and ready to play. It’s not a perfect version—though Konami seems relatively dedicated to fixing it up—but it’s still an excellent game. Do I really need a dolled-up but otherwise almost identical version? I do not, though I’m certain it’s what most people who aren’t me want.

(Image credit: Konami)

A GA-KO duck collectible.

That Metal Gear sense of playful experimentation is intact.

Kuwabara, kuwabara

So it’s still the Metal Gear you love in play, but it’s also in gameplay where the remake’s slight mechanical differences from its ancestor make themselves known. Despite not using the FOX Engine, it’s all a bit more MGS5. Snake can crouch-walk now, rather than having to shift fully between belly-crawling and sprinting around, and I could aim over Snake’s shoulder with the left trigger rather than being forced to use iron sights to get off more precise shots.

(Image credit: Konami)

A shirtless Naked Snake creeps around the Rassvet base.

It neverquitefelt as fluid as MGS5 to me, but it’s certainly smoother to play than the PS2 game. I never found myself having to contort my hand into bizarre shapes to, as I did in the older games, stand on my tippy-toes while aiming down iron sights, nor did I ever get my close-quarters combat buttons mixed up and accidentally slit a hostage’s throat like I did in days of yore. The game now helpfully flashes up prompts to tell you which buttons are interrogate, knock out, and kill when you grab a bad guy from behind.

Other systems, like the survival viewer, are—hang on, let me get out the thesaurus—analogous and parallel to their appearance in the original game. The same. They’re the same, I mean. You still have to decide which weapons and items go in your quick-select and which stay in your backpack (and the more you have easily available, the quicker your stamina goes down), and you can still pop into the camouflage section to change your clothing and face paint to blend into the jungle.

The only difference I could spot was the addition of a couple of quality-of-life features: You can now hold up on the D-pad to quickly flick between a list of camo/face paint presets, or hold a different button to get quick-access to codec frequencies, and you can equip a compass in the left item menu to function as a quest marker, pointing you where to go to progress the story. The only bit of the survival viewer I didn’t have access to was the injury/cure system, but I’d be surprised if it was markedly different from the PS2 era.

(Image credit: Konami)

Crouching behind a wall in the Rassvet base.

So there are some slight changes, but it’s still very, very much MGS3 mechanically, so much so that I regularly found my muscle memory defaulting to the old game’s controller inputs with disastrous results. The full release of MGS Delta will let players use either the old gamepad control scheme or a new one, but my demo restricted me to the new one only. Does this mean I accidentally stood up when I wanted to lie down, or did a dashing roll when I meant to switch to first-person view mode? Did that then trigger an enemy alert and force me to go on a hand-to-hand tear through the jungle putting like a hundred KGB troops to sleep? The answers to these questions are sadly lost to time.

Okay, yes it did. Right in front of the devs, too. Mortifying.

You’re pretty good

So I think Metal Gear Solid Delta is shaping up to be exactly what fans want from it: A ludicrously faithful retelling of one of the greatest games of all time, with all the latest graphical bells and whistles and only the lightest of touches to make it feel a bit more playable for the Zoomers and Gen Alphas out there, who might balk at the zanier elements of the classic control scheme.

(Image credit: Konami)

A guard approaches along the rickety rope bridge at Dolinovodno.

More about actionAll Zenless Zone Zero 1.5 livestream codesAssassin’s Creed Shadows is delayed again ‘to better incorporate player feedback gathered over the past three months’LatestMarvel Rivals’ latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod sceneSee more latest►

More about actionAll Zenless Zone Zero 1.5 livestream codesAssassin’s Creed Shadows is delayed again ‘to better incorporate player feedback gathered over the past three months’

More about action

All Zenless Zone Zero 1.5 livestream codesAssassin’s Creed Shadows is delayed again ‘to better incorporate player feedback gathered over the past three months’

Zenless Zone Zero codes - Miyabi and section four

All Zenless Zone Zero 1.5 livestream codes

Image of Yasuke striking an enemy in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is delayed again ‘to better incorporate player feedback gathered over the past three months’

LatestMarvel Rivals' latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod sceneSee more latest►

Latest

Marvel Rivals' latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod scene

Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine

Marvel Rivals' latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod scene

See more latest►

Most Popular

‘It’s simply impossible to make a difficulty level that’s just right for all players’: How Final Fantasy 14’s lead battle designer has been playing a precarious balancing game for Dawntrail’s dungeons and raids

Please join me in getting super excited for all the cool looking survival games coming in 2025 (and beyond)

Competitive shooters are at a crucial crossroads in 2025: ‘sweaty’ teamplay vs. casual fun

Call of Duty’s $28 Squid Game skins are the perfect crossover for our capitalist dystopia, and Activision knows exactly what it’s doing

These are the 14 biggest upcoming RPGs of 2025—get ready for another amazing year for the genre

Five new Steam games you probably missed (January 6, 2025)

I’ve seen enough: No more forcing singleplayer studios to make mediocre live service games

6 games that could be bigger hits than you’re expecting in 2025

What are your 2025 gaming resolutions?

The FBI put a $5 million bounty on the ‘Cryptoqueen’ last year but still hasn’t found her, so take your pick: Russia, South Africa, or murdered on a yacht in 2018

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

And scene#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

What a thrill#

Kuwabara, kuwabara#

You’re pretty good#

And scene

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

What a thrill

Kuwabara, kuwabara

You’re pretty good