Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater Review - For Fans, Old And New
Let me get the disclosure out the way now – I’ve never been a Metal Gear Solid guy. Now, before you get too upset, it’s not because I don’t like what Kojima has developed; it simply stems from a lack of opportunity and an exhaustive amount of prior reading to get myself up to date. When Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain launched in 2015, I felt overwhelmed by the amount I would have to play through to get prepared for it, so I simply didn’t. This is a mindset that has plagued me multiple times as I try to engage with a long-established franchise for the first time, and Metal Gear was yet another victim of this approach – that is, until Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater came along. Being the earliest point in the chronology, and a glossy new remake, I identified now as the perfect time to enter the fray, and thankfully, Konami, along with Virtuous, have delivered a package that is faithful to the core, but oozing with modern qualities that make it both a love-letter to fans, and an open invite to prospective new ones.
The story of Snake Eater has been celebrated for decades by its fans, and analysed to within an inch of its life. Stepping into the boots of Snake for the first time, at the earliest documented point of his journey, was a revelation. Meeting, and continually engaging with Revolver Ocelot, The Boss, and the colourful cast of characters, both protagonists, and of course, the antagonists, was endlessly fascinating, and while there is a lot of camp to be found in the way the cast has been realised, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. As a remake, much of the original voice-acting has been retained, though some updated or re-recorded audio is present, and despite not having consumed the original version of the game, the newer content was sometimes quite obvious, either for the writing to not quite fit, or for the audio quality with improvements in the available technology.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater follows Snake on his undercover quest to rescue a Soviet scientist, Nikolai Sokolov, who is begrudgingly developing a superweapon called the Shagohod. Set in 1964, during the heart of the Cold War, such a nuclear threat could change the face of the entire planet, and Snake’s objective is of paramount importance. Thankfully, he possesses the necessary skillset to face the threats, no matter how menacing they may be. Players will need to stealth, sneak, and shoot their way through numerous encounters, both large and small, to succeed in their objective.
While the game looks significantly better, and the story holds up well, the voice-acting is great, and the music is other-worldly, Snake Eater is also a PS2 game at its core, and so in a gameplay sense, the game ultimately feels a bit dated. Never fear though, as the act of jumping inside a cardboard box, navigating your way through a heavily armed group of KGB goons, creating distractions to lure them away, utilising a wide range of tools to scout the environment, and, of course, a hefty range of weapons, all feel great to play with, allowing for these sometimes quite small spaces, to feel much larger than they really are. The AI feels responsive, and it’s nice to not play a stealth game where it feels like it can be gamed by remaining outside of a simple cone of vision. I was making mistakes in Metal Gear that I had never made in other stealth titles due to creative ways that Kojima and his team had designed the title 21 years earlier. Simply put, I’m shocked that with all the time that has since passed, that nobody else has produced an effort that pushes the same genre boundaries as this Metal Gear game does.
Being a remake that is extremely true to its source material, there are some concessions that need to be made. The 2025 Snake Eater features the same small, closed, separated environments of the original game, and in this area, perhaps more than any other, Virtuous could have done a bit more to modernise the game, not necessarily making the game any bigger, but bridging these gaps to create a more seamless playing space, making the complexity of surviving when caught by guards all the more entrancing in the process. For the game to look so incredible, to play so well, both in old, and new gameplay styles, but then be held back by awkward loading screens as Snake moves from upstairs to downstairs, or from one grassy environment, to another similar-looking one, is a bit jarring.
Lame loading screens aside, I was impressed by the performance of Snake Eater’s 2025 re-release. The core of the game is a PS2 title, and so in a gameplay sense, it isn’t particularly demanding on the console, but with a major visual upheaval underpinning the experience, I was impressed to see everything hold together technically.
Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, may be my first real foray into Kojima’s universe of tactical action espionage, but with a large piece of the meal now sitting in my stomach, I’m keen to see what else the main courses can provide. As a remake, it can be mildly jarring as the new clashes with the old, but if you’re able to transport yourself back to 2004, and appreciate an iconic title with a stunning coat of new paint, Snake Eater is undoubtedly worth checking out.
Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater was reviewed on PS5 Pro with a code kindly provided by Konami.
