When it comes to remakes, where do you draw the line? How do you strike a balance between maintaining the originality and exercising creative freedom? While everyone has a slightly different response, Konami prioritized faithfulness in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, the 2004 stealth-action game remake directed by Hideo Kojima. Except a significant graphic makeover, Konami kept Snake Eater almost exactly one-to-one and was not afraid to give Kojima and his crew credit throughout.
As a result, even though Metal Gear Solid has aged over the past 21 years, there is still something fresh about its classic stealth-action gameplay and spy thriller plot that makes it compelling. This is especially true given how Snake Eater ends.
You’ll recognize nearly everything if you’ve played Snake Eater. It’s the same gripping tale, told against the backdrop of its Cold War-era historical fiction with the same blend of melodrama and farce. You may place it side by side with the original and they will work well together. It still has its tendency for lengthy sequences that are rooted in political theater, as well as outrageous characters and cinematic techniques with a hint of vintage spy drama.
David Hayter’s trademark gravelly voice as Snake comes in with a comforting familiarity, but he can get away with asking the same questions over and over again, just repeating what was stated last over the Codec. The item boxes are all in the same locations, and when you drop their bodies or hold them up at gunpoint, they still pop out of guards. The layout of each region is unaltered despite the technological improvement that makes everything appear modern; they are still divided into discrete pieces that are separated by short loading screens. Simply said, Delta is Snake Eater, just like you recall.
Even after completing a 12-hour playthrough (including a whole stealth non-lethal run), I still have some mixed feelings about the Unreal Engine 5 makeover. Does the new photorealistic graphics’ shine lessen the impact of the original’s stylings? Not totally. However, at high fidelity, its campiness doesn’t always land with the same assurance. Ocelot’s screaming to summon help or the Cobra unit’s mysterious superpowers, which don’t have quite the same whimsy when cranked up, have an eerie quality. You couldn’t, however, omit these elements and still name this Snake Eater.
Because the mountain ranges and jungles look amazing and give these confined areas a density that wasn’t previously felt, the cost is usually worth it. And the updated visuals are a huge hit in its high-end sequences. I remember it looking like this when I was a teenager playing the PS2 version for the first game and was really enamored with it. It’s one of those rose-tinted glasses scenarios. However, it does look this amazing now.
The spirit of Snake Eater persists.
Konami worked hard to preserve Snake Eater’s vintage elements by providing the original control scheme and the “Legacy Style” camera perspective, which makes use of the outdated bird’s eye view. The “New Style” is the best way to play, even though I love the nostalgia. As we already know from the 2012 3DS version and other re-releases, it employs an over-the-shoulder camera angle to provide a contemporary viewpoint without taking away from the way it was intended to be played.
Additionally, I like it since it allows you to view Delta’s newly discovered detail up close, and some additional accessibility settings have made it less inflexible and more accepting. Little aspects like the ability to use the New Style camera and the original UI elements demonstrate that it isn’t obstinate about allowing you to customize things to your preference. Surprisingly, the color filters had the biggest influence on me; I used the Legacy filter throughout the game and thought it looked much better than the relatively sterile default. This was near enough for me because I was really devoted to the original Snake Eater’s color scheme and style.
The fact that I found classic stealth action to be strangely invigorating was perhaps my favorite aspect of this remake. Playing Snake Eater helped me rediscover that aspect of my brain at a time when games like Splinter Cell, Thief, and, well, Metal Gear Solid are mainly missing from the contemporary gaming landscape. With topography and guards acting as your hurdles and your restricted equipment allowing for ingenuity, each segment seems like a puzzle to be solved. I was reminded of how the Metal Gear series is known for its reactivity; whether I’m bursting out of a cardboard box for a close-quarters takedown or dropping filthy magazines to divert guards, the combination of making calculated choices and adjusting when things don’t quite go as planned is still satisfying.
Playing with the guards once you understand their behavior can be just as much fun as going in guns blazing, and the rush of avoiding an alert phase while hiding within inches of patrolling guards is comparable to the high of executing a flawless no-kill stealth run. Although I still think highly of MGSV: The Phantom Pain because of its “emergent gameplay,” Snake Eater’s more condensed scope allows for a throwback that captures the essence of what first made Metal Gear Solid so enjoyable.
The camouflage mechanism used by Snake Eater is the same here, therefore depending on the environment you’re in, you can anticipate that your camouflage percentage will change depending on your face paint and clothing. It was groundbreaking in 2004 and continues to add a lot of depth to the tried-and-true stealth gameplay that we haven’t seen much of since, particularly since it actually affects what you can get away with in certain settings. Conveniently, you can now access camo presets by holding down the D-pad, eliminating the need to constantly navigate through the menus in order to make adjustments.
Verdict
Even though Snake Eater is rooted in the setting and era of a groundbreaking PS2 game from 2004, playing it again in Metal Gear Solid Delta in 2025 gave me a huge rush of updated nostalgia. If you’re coming from a more recent Metal Gear game, some aspects may be disappointing because it’s not a very large or complicated game by today’s standards. However, it frequently demonstrates how strong stealth-action elements can hold up over time, and the political drama retains Kojima’s distinctive campiness. These are the things that, in my opinion, make Metal Gear so unforgettable; even while some of it is eyerolling, Snake Eater’s plot nevertheless has a powerful emotional impact.
If this wasn’t going to include additional significant modifications beyond the major visual makeover, I’m still a little perplexed as to why it was made. Regardless of whether someone is playing it for the first time or is returning, this is the version I would suggest if I were to direct them to one of the several that are available. Despite the absence of Kojima and the original crew, Snake Eater’s essence endures in this remake.
