The unpleasant breakup with MGS creator Hideo Kojima and the almost complete withdrawal from the AAA division Konami is back. The fairly successful attempt to revive their horror brand with the Silent Hill 2 remake and the traditional Japanese studio is now setting out to make Metal Gear fan-friendly again
. Konami is in a bad place with fans after Kojima left the Company. The fact is the company wants to continue the cult developer's legacy and profit from it with a remake. This is a sacrilege for many
.
The feature film game
Metal Gear Solid Delta has a new tighter skin and is at its core, pretty much the same game it was some 20 years ago. In this prequel to Metal Gear Solid we must sneak through a fictional Russian jungle to rescue a captured scientist whose work on a new type of tank and take care that not fall into the wrong hands. The Prologue which in typical Metal Gear style is more cinema than a game. Snake manages to rescue the scientist and a short time later he is involuntarily handed over to a splinter group of the Russian military which is appropriately framed by the first major plot twist.
Even the narrative is disguised
The story is one of the most coherent in the entire series and yes Kojima doesn't exactly lay it on thin with pathos and overly explanatory exposition dumping. The rest of the story manages surprisingly well to strike the right tone between militaristic machismo and amusingly disarming campiness and it also deals with the dark side of the War. After all the sticker like villains with superpowers the cigar puffing Rambo attitude and the mostly impractically half naked spy are the ones that really grab your attention in the Game.
Survival in the submenu
The gameplay remains virtually identical in the new edition, Snake places a stronger emphasis on survival alongside stealth. Our hero has a stamina bar that we must maintain with food, If it depletes too much the Health regenerates more slowly and the weapon fluctuates more noticeably when aiming. Items in the form of rations or instant noodles rarely fall into our laps we must hunt animals and insects that creep and slither almost everywhere in the game world. Once you caught them you can eat it from the menu and replenish our stamina. Injuries that occur during the game for example when you take damage also need to be treated. In a separate menu you use a to-do list to apply ointments apply bandages or take medication at the touch of a button.
Stealth Playground
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is the slow burn of the series in terms of gameplay: Instead of a radar that records the position and viewing angle of the enemies and you only have tools like a motion sensor that gives a rough estimate of the soldiers positions. This means that you in Snake Eater even more careful and deliberate play than its predecessors. The game also gives you a huge amount of toys to play with while stealth. Snake has for example an entire wardrobe of camouflage clothing with him from which we can ideally choose something that fits in with the surroundings to remain completely inconspicuous. Apart from that you can briefly fake our death with fake death pills throw captured animals like snakes at our enemies or poison them with spoiled food from our inventory.
But what’s is new now?
The game lets you now choose between Legacy mode with the slightly elevated view of classic from Metal Gear Solid titles or a new style with a third-person perspective with modern control scheme and slightly cleaner menus. There is also more collectibles to discover a few new costumes have been added and after the End of the campaign you unlock a new mode. Visually everything has been brought into the modern age with Unreal Engine 5 which is well done but technically even with finely polished animations that is not at an absolutely high-end level. A few modern little things are If you wade through mud it sticks to your clothes for a long time and changes your camouflage value and injuries leave scars that last the entire game.
My Conclusion
I would like to see more courage from Konami. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater plays the remake as safe as possible. The original game was still pretty great but I think the new generation of this game deserves a chance too!
