There are faithful remakes, and then there’s Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. A full one-to-one re-release of the PS2 stealth masterpiece from 2004, Konami and co-developer Virtuos are going so far as to re-use the original voice lines in their visual refresh 20 years later. It’s an example of how the two companies are remaining intensely loyal to the source text; a move that could be considered bucking the trend as a lot of modern remakes allow new creative input. For better or worse, then, the final result is exactly what you expect: this is Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater with PS5-level visuals.
It feels like a strangely anti-climactic statement to open the Preview with, given that Snake Eater is considered by many to be the best entry in what is widely touted as one of the greatest gaming franchises of all time. However, it’s a thought we could not quite shake as we spent 90 minutes playing the opening Virtuous Mission at a recent Konami press event.
The game — and now in turn the PS5 remake — is still outstanding, but you more than likely already knew that. In its first act at least, the surprises are kept to an absolute minimum. It’s all about letting the graphics shine in the Soviet Union.
And, well, they absolutely do on PS5. Snake Eater has already received one facelift within the PS3’s Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, handled by the now first-party Sony developer Bluepoint Games. It was a fairly basic remaster for today’s standards, meaning the PS5’s completely new Delta version is far and away the most amount of work that has been put into the third mainline entry since its original development. The effort is most obvious in the visuals, which breathe new life into Big Boss as well as the jungle around him.
Having played the opening Virtuous Mission, we were able to see the leading stealth specialist alongside his supporting crew in Major Zero and Para-Medic, but also enemies like Colonel Volgin and those stuck in the middle of it all (Sokolov and The Boss). While Konami and Virtuos have taken the art in a slightly different direction compared to the PS2 game, all the returning character models look utterly outstanding in 4K. They’re all remade in Unreal Engine 5 and are designed just how you’d hope they would be two decades on. Compared to other titles in the series, Big Boss displays a lot more charisma and emotion, and that hasn’t been lost in the conversion from SD to 4K. The same goes for Colonel Volgin: he is still just as menacing, with lightning coursing through his veins. Their lines and actions remain exactly the same, but the extra visual fidelity on display transports the classic faces of old into the modern age.
That is maybe except for Ocelot. His face and overall character model certainly look the part of a PS5 heavyweight, yet — at least in his introductory cutscene — he doesn’t quite look how we envisioned him with top-of-the-line graphics. It’s not that there’s necessarily something wrong with his appearance in the upcoming Delta version; it’s just a bit different.
Back to Big Boss, though, and the ways he navigates the vast jungle will leave their mark on his clothing and skin. Quite literally: your sneaking suit will pick up stains and tears as you sneak and crawl through the jungle. Adding to the effect, the smears even carry over into cutscenes. A very minor addition on its own, the remake actually presents quite a few of these little updates to give it a much more updated feel on top of the visual overhaul.
Far and away the biggest is an entirely new control scheme. For our preview session, these inputs were the only ones to hand, but you are able to select the original controls before starting a playthrough if you wish in the full version. A series famed for mapping item and weapon selection to the L2 and R2 buttons, the updated controller settings instead placed the menu scrollers on the left and right buttons on the D-Pad. You then scroll through items via the right thumbstick and let go of the directional input when you’ve found the correct piece of equipment. The Codec screen can now be instantly accessed by pressing up on the D-Pad, while an entirely new feature lets you select from a list of pre-set camouflage loadouts by pressing down.
At least in the Virtuous Mission scenario, this new option to instantly switch between a few different camo options feels like the biggest upgrade over the original. Previously, you’d always need to button through the pause menu and then individually select camo pieces for your body and head. In the Delta version, this process is sped up significantly. In the preview build we played, there was not an option to customise these camo pre-sets, or place your own in the queue. We asked Konami PR representatives at the event if this is a feature the player can customise themselves, but an answer was not available at the time. We strongly believe this will be an option you’ll be able to play about with yourself; it’s just that official confirmation from Konami isn’t on offer yet.
To cut down on busy work in the menus even more, whenever you get a brand new item or weapon, a prompt appears on-screen that lets you instantly add it to the relevant quick-access scroller. In the original version and PS3 remaster, you’d need to button in and out of menus multiple times to get the correct gear together for an upcoming fight. This tedious process is now dramatically shorter; you’d only need to go into the Backpack menu to remove something now.
Speaking of which, an entirely new item, the Compass, marks the direction of your next objective in the HUD. This makes navigating the thick jungle a lot easier, and negates the need to check the map in the pause menu so often. Mapped to the items tab, this means you must choose between equipping it or one of the sensor radars, for example.
For today’s audience, the new control scheme is pretty much objectively better than the original setup. With how other games have effectively dictated what some buttons do when you’re part of a certain genre, the Delta version subscribes to those assumptions to make things easier to understand. It plays better. It controls better. It responds better. However, if the classic control settings of old are like muscle memory to you, then the new inputs will take some getting used to. They make more sense upon first exposure, though having to let go of a 20-year instinct to hold L2 and R2 for your equipment takes time to forget.
It sounds like you’ll have a decent amount of time to wrap your head around the new control scheme, though, because it seems Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater isn’t quite as close to release as we hoped. Konami made sure to mention the preview build was an early one and not representative of the final product. From what we could tell, this was only proven in some missing tutorial images/videos, with the game itself playing and running excellently in a Quality Mode. If the overall remake really is still that early in production — we only saw the Virtuous Mission, after all — then the wait for its PS5 release may be a while longer than early 2025.
At least the wait can be done in confidence that Konami and Virtuos have remained intensely faithful to the original game. This essentially is that original game with a complete current-gen makeover, updated controls, and a few new quality-of-life additions and improvements. While the base inputs remain an option, this Delta version is designed to make Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater a world-beater all over again. Without the need for gameplay or story changes, what Konami and Virtuos are doing is tweaking near-perfection. On the basis of the Virtuous Mission, they are going about the endeavour in the correct manner.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater lacks a confirmed release date, but will launch for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Are you happy to hear the remake is coming along nicely? Share your thoughts in the comments below.