Konami is planning on releasing Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater at some point in 2025. It’s being positioned as an ambitious remake of the 2004 classic action-stealth title, with not only revamped visuals, but gameplay and structural elements as well. Time will tell how receptive players, especially those with a fondness for the original game, are to this Metal Gear Solid 3 remake, but it’s looking promising so far.
Assuming all goes well with Metal Gear Solid Delta, one can probably expect to see more Metal Gear remakes down the line. Konami’s strategy with Delta seems awfully familiar to its strategy with Silent Hill: remake the most popular game in a famous franchise, and then take it from there. In other words, Metal Gear Solid 3 isn’t the Metal Gear game that could benefit the most from a remake, but it’s definitely the one that would garner the most attention from audiences at large. The only other classic MGS game that would match it in terms of hype is perhaps Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, which could be an even easier subject for Konami to tackle, at least in some ways.
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Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Would Be Foolish to Remove a Heavily Memed Moment
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is faced with a bit of an uphill battle, and it should be careful not to lose one iconic moment in the process.
Metal Gear Solid 2’s Setting Is Much Less Detailed Than Metal Gear Solid 3’s
Metal Gear Solid 3 takes place in the jungles of a fictional USSR country, complete with variegated foliage and diverse fauna, including alligators and attack dogs. Swamps, forests, marshes, lakes, and enemy encampments combined to make Metal Gear Solid 3 the most visually diverse and detailed game in the series at the time of its release; Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2 are, by comparison, much more homogeneous in their level design. Most of Metal Gear Solid takes place in the interior of an Alaskan military base, which is about as barebones and unembellished as one might expect.
Metal Gear Solid 2, surprisingly, features even less varied level design, taking place in just two major settings: the tanker in the prologue and the plant for the rest of the game. Both of these segments, but especially the plant, contain a lot of backtracking through environments that are just distinct enough from one another to keep players from getting lost. Most of these environments are indoors, but the outdoor areas are fairly spartan in terms of detail, with little more than vast stretches of ocean serving as a backdrop. Thus, Konami would probably have an easier time giving these settings a facelift.
Metal Gear Solid 2 Could Be Easier to Remake On the Visual Front, But Gameplay Is a Different Beast
Though it may still feel outdated by modern standards, the gameplay of Metal Gear Solid 3 is fairly in keeping with most contemporary design pillars. One area where this is particularly pronounced is the game’s camera, which is positioned behind the player, giving them greater control over where they aim it. There are also more mainstream stealth fundamentals, like the ability to use tall grass to hide from enemies.
Metal Gear Solid 2, on the other hand, is more archaic in its design. The camera is fixed, making for a fundamentally different experience that would need to be recontextualized to be palatable to modern audiences. Then there’s the nature of the setting, which necessitates a much different approach to stealth than many players will be used to: there’s no crouching in tall grass or hiding enemies in bales of hay. In other words, Konami would need to dedicate more time and effort to redesigning these elements for modern audiences, which could negate the resources saved due to the more visually simple setting.
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