The upcoming remake of the third entry in the series, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is shaping up to reignite the iconic Konami franchise with fresh updates to its 20-year-old systems. Being a seemingly faithful recreation of the original game has already earned it praise from excited fans, but one particular design change has been getting more attention recently. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will be featuring two distinct camera perspectives, each with their own effect on difficulty. This might appear to be a simple tweak for convenience, but it might be implemented with enough nuance to dramatically extend replayability.
Through being tied to allowing players to switch between the fixed Legacy Style and a more modern third-person New Style mode, Metal Gear Solid Delta's difficulty adjustments are set to offer novel challenges when switching between them. As a mechanical shift that transcends a mere quality-of-life improvement, the choice between these two views has the potential to breathe new life into MGS3 and beyond for years to come.
How Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Remake Does Right by One of the Original's Best Features
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater's first full trailer finally confirms what players should expect from the ambitious remake.
Addressing the Impact of Metal Gear Solid Delta’s New and Legacy Control Styles
Modifying the Fixed Camera of Metal Gear Solid Has Always Been a Balancing Act
The fixed camera angles of MGS have always been a part of the series’ identity, as the tension provided by the more top-down perspective of the original was core to its gameplay. When the more popular third-person camera was originally added to Metal Gear Solid 3’s Subsistence edition, allowing players so much more immediate awareness greatly shifted the balance in favor of the player. The series has continued in this direction since, but the easier difficulty brought on by this kind of convenience has undermined the intended feeling of the series for some.
MGS Delta’s Opposing Style Options Are Meant to Feel the Same
In an interview with Famitsu translated by VGC, creative producer Yuji Korekado spoke about dealing with the implications of the two camera styles on gameplay:
"...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. The ‘Legacy Style’ is close to the difficulty level of the original version, and we are adjusting the ‘New Style’ from scratch.”
The changes to the New Style seem to have been made in order to preserve the core experience of the original title while still compromising with the kind of presentation modern audiences are used to. It’s therefore reasonable to expect Delta to be more consistently difficult than Subsistence, a re-release whose updates could trivialize the game’s challenge.
Metal Gear Solid Delta’s Camera-Angle-Based-Difficulty Can Provide Fresh Playthrough Experiences
How MGS Delta Could Essentially Serve as Two Games in One
By splitting its difficulties between two settings, the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remake's camera can offer what feels like two distinct experiences within one package. Legacy Style is set to honor the committal feel of the original title with as faithful of a recreation as it can achieve, but New Style's wider field of view, being balanced out by what will apparently be tougher enemy AI, will serve to keep the feeling of the two in line with each other.
Future MGS Remakes Should Follow Suit
Assuming that the connection between dual camera angles and difficulty is successful, any remakes that follow Delta could also adopt this model to achieve similar longevity of their own. There are few better ways to maintain the soul of a dated original while adapting to current standards, a dynamic that Konami has been struggling with since Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. If the attention paid to Delta's changes becomes a standard, however, the entire series catalog could find an appealing middle ground between faithful and reimagined.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 85 /100 Critics Rec: 89%
WHERE TO PLAY
The core experience of the original, evolved and more immersive than ever.
A remake of the 2004 game METAL GEAR SOLID 3: SNAKE EATER, with the same gripping story and engrossing world, now with all new graphics and 3D audio that enhance the jungle atmosphere. Get ready for the ultimate survival stealth action experience.
The Cold War Crisis that started it all
In the middle of the Cold War, Naked Snake, the man who would later be known as Big Boss, infiltrates the Soviet Union to escort a defecting scientist, Sokolov. However, the mission ends in failure when Snake's mentor—The Boss, a soldier known as the mother of special forces—betrays him, and Sokolov is captured by Colonel Volgin of the GRU.
One week later, Snake returns to Soviet territory to rescue Sokolov and eliminate The Boss—a mission that will mark the start of a new legend, a mission that will mark the start of a new legend, against the backdrop of the ever-changing march of history.
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Franchise
- Metal Gear Solid
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- Developer
- Virtuos, Konami, Konami Digital Entertainment
- Publisher
- Virtuos, Konami, Konami Digital Entertainment
- Genre(s)
- Shooter, Adventure, Stealth
