Konami is currently developing Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, a remake of the beloved PS2 stealth action title. While many aspects are true to the original, players can opt for a modern, over-the-shoulder camera — but doing so will affect the level of challenge.
Speaking to Famitsu, Yuji Korekado explains that the remake has two options for camera perspective. ‘New Style’ puts the game in that modern third-person view we’re all accustomed to, while the ‘Legacy Style’ retains the original game’s more zoomed out approach.
Depending on which of these you choose, the difficulty level will be affected.
“We had originally planned to make it possible to switch between the two viewpoints at any time during gameplay, but we decided against it,” Korekado says, explaining that the difficulty level “changes drastically depending on the viewpoint”.
Korekado continues: “The ‘New Style’ has a wider linear field of view, and you can shoot your gun while moving Snake, so the difficulty level was lower than we had expected. However, if we adjusted it to match the ‘New Style’, the ‘Legacy Style’ would become too difficult. So we decided to split the play style in two.”
In the end, Delta’s Legacy Style camera is “close” to the difficulty of the original game, and the New Style is being balanced “from scratch”.
It makes sense; if the older style camera gives you a broader view of your surroundings, it stands to reason that would make things easier for the player.
For more information on MGS Delta, we recently went hands-on with it: