Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, & PC)

By the very virtue of the word “remake,” you almost know exactly what you’re going to get. The same story structure, pertaining to the same characters, with the same personalities, events, and overall story arc. The environment setting won’t change, as won’t the key biomes and locations you visit. Arguably, the gameplay is where you might be uncertain of, given the giant leaps in innovation and control systems that gaming has seen over the years. 

And for a title as old as over two decades, the original Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, having launched in 2005, there are bound to be a lot of changes that make your experience more fluid and smoother. 

Still, past remakes have been bold enough to drastically alter the original titles, case in point, Resident Evil 4 Remake. Its story is more expansive and darker, with updated character arcs fleshing out the narrative. Key events also receive altering, as do levels, re-designed, and new layers added. All of this works in favor of the original, providing veterans with a fresh perspective layered on the core nostalgic experience, while newcomers enjoy a new take on a classic.

In a perhaps unsurprising turn of events, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater decides to stick to the original. And by that, I mean leave the original’s story structure, level design, and overall gameplay untouched. It doesn’t even attempt to expand or add new areas or events. And so, hardly anything you’ll play through in the remake will be unfamiliar to veterans. So, the question becomes whether Konami’s decision to remain strictly faithful to the original pays off, which we’ll get to the bottom of in our Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater review below. 

In Comparison to…

Two reasons, I suppose, will gravitate you to playing Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Either to relive your experience with the original as a child (or teenager). Or, to see what all the rave is about Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater being possibly the best game ever? There’s just something masterful about how skillfully the original blends dramatic storytelling and stealth-oriented gameplay. Nearly half of its roughly 18-hour playthrough takes place on either side. You'll unravel a most intriguing political espionage, sneaking up on and taking out pesky Cobra superhuman soldiers. And when you’re not stealthing, you’re probably nursing your wounds. Literally nursing them like you would scavenging in the jungle for supplies. And promptly snacking on snakes and vultures to energize your body into healing faster and gaining strength for the next attack.

These are all the core gameplay elements that make the original game deserve a standing ovation among similar titles. And also why fans have been returning to play it again and again in the hope of sustaining that tense feeling of running out of supplies, attracting unwanted attention amid Cobras, and having to take them out using next-to-nothing but your weakening body. It all culminates so beautifully. And yet, even the best of games succumb to aging. Enter Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, keen to splash a fresh coat of paint on an outdated graphics and gameplay system. The story, however, needn’t too much restructuring. It already is too perfect to begin tinkering around with.

Fresh Eyes

Let’s start with the graphics end, where Konami has, indeed, done a spectacular job of bringing 2005’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater to the modern era. They have completely overhauled the original’s graphics, bringing in stunning lighting and detail. Be it the character models and expressions or the environment, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater quite looks unmistakenly a 2025 high-budget game. Much of the awe you’ll experience will emanate from roaming through the jungles. Now, dense with thick bushes and towering grass, you crouch-walk your way through lush foliage, some of the grass blades clinging to your body when you emerge on hard ground. Even the muddy regions look realistic, again, leaving your body and uniform ridden with dirt and forest debris. 

Explicit detail goes further into sustaining injuries, whether cuts, bruises, or scars. And you’ll remember how fundamental this can be when nursing your wounds. Especially the more severe snake bites, broken bones, and bullet wounds. These all immerse you in the dire scenarios crawling through the lush Russian forests must be, especially when each wound requires its unique medical attention, or items and herbs. And these further factor into your stamina, enabling you to regain energy to move faster and aim more accurately. A fun take on starving is your stomach grumbling, which can alert guards to your presence. And yet, all of these are like old news to fans who love and cherish Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. 

Same Old

Save for the improved graphics, with stunning lighting and detail, and your uniform picking up dirt and sustaining injuries, much of the core gameplay system remains the same. The same goes for the story, which reuses the original voice actors, key events, characters, and locations. You can expect the same military sci-fi spy thriller in an alternate Cold War setting.

The same way that areas were split via loading screens is the same way Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater unravels its story. One would think this will at least be revamped for a smoother playthrough. Cutscenes remain intact, at least for the most part, as does the dialogue. And well, you get the idea. And I guarantee, any newcomer will enjoy the hell out of the story, and veterans, I suppose, will be drowning in nostalgia, breathtaking all the same.

QoL Updates

That’s not to say that, entirely everything in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is unchanged. You can now use the over-the-shoulder camera point of view, which makes all the difference in combat and overall experience. Aiming is much easier and more precise. And since enemies remain largely the same, it can make some combat encounters relatively easier. You experience the missions from a third-person perspective. And this allows you to take in more of the splendid environments and majestic mountainsides lying before you, and to a farther degree than the original. This is ultimately the best way to play Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, as most modern games of this genre opt for. However, fans do have the option of sticking to the classic top-down view. And switching to first-person during combat, or back to third-person at will. 

Besides the camera change, everything else is arguably insignificant a change, at least as far as rocking the boat is concerned. You can switch your camouflage outfits by the simple press of a button, for instance, rather than going through the pause menu. The same goes for the Codec Calls. You’ll also notice the controls, movement, and animations are smoother, certainly less stiff than before. And the crouch-walk addition to Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is very much appreciated. Still, all of the improvements and updates to the control system are layered on the original. And unfortunately, it shows in some segments. Naked Snake’s jumping over crates is certainly uncanny. While useful when you actually need to take cover, automatically sticking to it doesn’t help otherwise. Melee combat is awkward, with Snake not quite landing punches, among other minor frustrations that mostly come with the original. 

Verdict

And here’s where the trickiness behind rating Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater comes in. It’s one thing to remake a classic, improving its visuals and gameplay system without altering what’s at the core. It’s another to downright layer on modern graphics and controls on an existing system as old as the 2000s. Of course, the remake doesn’t just outright slap the new onto the old. I’m sure there’s been a lot of overhauling and revamping on Konami’s part. But it sure does look that way, with many of the core levels, structure, and gameplay system remaining intact and the same. All we’re treated to is an old game with a shinier surface, and well, is that the experience we’d been hoping for?

I guess by virtue of the original remaining the masterpiece it is, especially in the dramatic story that doesn’t take itself too seriously, despite its heavy, serious themes, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater does snag a win to keep it as is.  Gameplay, too, is truly special when merging stealth and a jungle setting, having to survive on game meat and nurse wounds from all sorts of “foresty” ailments. The original is one of the most enjoyable stealth games, and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is all the better for keeping it as is. Another win, I guess.

What irks me is that we’ll never know whether the remake could have been better had it dared to stir the waters, had it dared to push the narrative and gameplay a little further. Perhaps we’d have come out of the remake with new questions and fan theories. Perhaps we’d have had a reason to go back to the remake, over and over again, simply because it’s fresh and new. Well, I guess we’ll never know.