Nostalgia is perhaps the biggest cash cow. Old movies are constantly remade or receive a legacy sequel decades after release, and it seems like every TV show or movie is determined to remind you of something you saw in your childhood.
A remake can be a good thing, of course. A modern update can help an older film resonate with a new audience, and the best of them improve on the source material. That’s true of video games, too. Some of the biggest titles of the last decade have been remakes and remasters of older games. Sometimes, these remakes become the definitive versions of the game, but other times, you might struggle to explain why the revamp exists at all.
This might be why I’m torn between excitement and disappointment when it comes to the latest remake of a stone-cold classic. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is an excellent game and a sharp-looking take on the 2004 original. However, considering the series is known for its innovation and creativity, Delta feels surprisingly safe and sterile. So I’m left with one major question: Shouldn’t we expect at least a modicum of artistic invention from a remake?
An Old Classic With a New Look
Even if you haven’t played a Metal Gear game, chances are you’re aware of the series creator, Hideo Kojima. Kojima is one of the few auteurs in the video game industry, and Metal Gear was his brainchild. But he had a falling out with publisher Konami that resulted in him leaving the company after the completion of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain in 2015. That was the last game in the series directed by Kojima, though the 2018 spin-off Metal Gear Survive followed.
(Credit: Konami)
The Metal Gear titles are a lot of different things at one time. They’re stealth games first and foremost, but they’re also political thrillers that dabble in speculative science fiction and feature over-the-top anime-style action. With a story so convoluted that it comes back around to being brilliant, each entry in the Metal Gear series pushed video games forward in gameplay and presentation.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is arguably the most popular entry in the series, thanks in part to its James Bond vibe, Cold War setting, and insanely catchy title track. It strips players of modern technology, forcing them to make due without the Soliton Radar, a staple of the game at that time, instead asking players to use their actual senses to spot enemies and obstacles in-game. It also introduced a dynamic camouflage system in which the player must adapt to the environment around them to stay hidden. Choosing the right camouflage added another layer of depth to the game’s unique stealth gameplay. It was unlike anything seen at the time, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater stands as a modern masterpiece today.
Remakes can be good! They update older, crusty games for new audiences, injecting them with a wealth of features that make them far more playable for modern gamers.
But Snake Eater came out in 2004, and more than 20 years later, Delta doesn’t really change much of anything. From the voice acting to the animations to the framing of every cutscene, Delta is exactly the same game, aside from the obvious visual facelift. While that’s a testament to how forward-thinking Kojima and his team were, I’m wondering why I would pay $70 for Delta when the original is available to play on modern platforms, thanks to the Metal Gear Solid Collection Vol 1. This is how I felt when I played The Last of Us Part 1 on the PlayStation 5. It’s a visual remake of a game that was already remastered and available to play on the PS5 (via PlayStation 4 backward compatibility). But even that game had a reason to exist—it was released a few months before the very popular TV adaptation. Delta’s purpose is a little less obvious.
(Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment)
My gut says that Delta is prepping the series for a new entry, but because of Kojima and Konami’s very public fallout and the fact that Kojima’s eccentricities made the games what they are, a new Metal Gear game might be a hard sell. Meanwhile, Kojima has channeled his creativity into the Death Stranding games, which already feel like spiritual sequels to Metal Gear. That’s not to say Konami might not be interested in a new Metal Gear entry, but it would be a hard sell without the premier creative driving it forward (see: Metal Gear Survive’s dismal reception).
A Remake Should Stand on Its Own
The best remakes are those that can stand on their own. Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4 are perfect examples of modern remakes that build something new within the confines of the original game’s framework. They don’t so much replace the original as stand beside it: a companion piece, if you will.
(Credit: Capcom)
You can find many examples of this done well across all mediums. My favorites are the four Evangelion movies, which, while loosely following the plot of the original anime series and movie End of Evangelion, recontextualize the series in a meta-narrative that follows the same path set out by the originals but leads to different revelations and a vastly different conclusion.
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Final Fantasy 7 Remake retells the original game’s story while building something distinctly its own. Even the emo band My Chemical Romance is exploring this phenomenon on its Long Live The Black Parade tour, which aims to reckon with the band’s success and recontextualize their hit 2006 album Welcome to the Black Parade.
Unfortunately, Delta’s not brave enough to take any big swings—or any swings at all. From the voice acting to the motion capture, Delta is a 1:1 remake. The series isn’t even new to remakes, as Metal Gear Solid was remade as Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes in 2003, and the developers, the now-defunct Silicon Knights, used every opportunity to remix the original game, with brand new cutscenes and gameplay updates that completely changed how you’d explore the game’s setting, Shadow Moses.
(Credit: Square Enix)
Perhaps the main difference in this scenario was that Kojima was heavily involved. Delta, on the other hand, feels like a betrayal of the series as a whole. Metal Gear is known for pushing the envelope, in presentation and in gameplay, and none of that is on display with Delta.
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Remakes Are Good, Actually
But what do I know about artistic intent, anyway? Remakes can be good! They update older, crusty games for new audiences, injecting them with a wealth of features that make them far more playable for modern gamers. Although the original Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is available on everything from the Nintendo Switch to the PlayStation 5, it’s true that some folks just can’t handle the PlayStation 2-era visuals or controls. They’re just not modern enough.
PCMag, in fact, has been very kind to remakes and remasters. We gave the remasters of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Metroid Prime, and Dead Rising top marks.
(Credit: Nintendo)
Remakes not only act as reintroductions to classics we grew up with, but they might be the only ways to experience those titles outside of emulation. Sometimes, a game is trapped on an older console, and the only way to play it is either hunt down the original or wait for a remake. Silent Hill 2 is one such example, as the only way to play the original is on your PlayStation 2 or via an infamously bad remaster locked on sixth-generation consoles. The Silent Hill 2 remake, then, is probably the best and easiest way for players to experience a horror classic.
Usually, when a remake or a remaster comes along, it’s meant to test the waters—to see if the nostalgia around the series can generate sales, or to promote an upcoming sequel. The recent Ninja Gaiden 2 Black remaster was released less than a year before Ninja Gaiden 4, and Metroid Prime Remastered was released just two years before the long-awaited Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. The remasters of the first two Katamari Damacy games led to a brand new game in the form of Once Upon a Katamari, out next month, and the remaster of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny precedes a brand new entry, Onimusha: Way of the Sword.
(Credit: Konami)
So we should see Delta as an absolute win for the Metal Gear series. More people are talking about the game, experiencing it for the first time, or returning to a series they haven’t played in quite some time. It’s already sold more than one million copies. Would it be the worst thing in the world for Konami to remake other entries in the Metal Gear series if they updated the visuals while keeping everything else largely the same? Would that even matter to a new generation of players?
I’m Still in a Dream
Delta’s developers must have been stuck between a rock and a hard place. Change nothing and face the wrath of writers like me, or change something and risk blowback from hard-core fans. While Delta’s modest ambition keeps it from being a disaster, it also feels like a dead end. Where does the series even go from here? For me, I don’t think I want a new Metal Gear game without a creative force at least willing to take it in a drastically different direction, but I can’t say I’m not excited to revisit classics with a new coat of paint. Perhaps we’ll better understand how the series can continue when the original multiplayer mode, Fox Hunt, is patched into Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater later this fall.
About Our Expert
Zackery Cuevas
Writer, Hardware
Experience
I’m a PCMag reviewer and ISF-certified TV calibrator focused on computer accessories, laptops, gaming monitors, and video games. I’ve been writing, playing, and complaining about games for as long as I remember, but it wasn’t until recently that I’ve been able to shout my opinions directly at a larger audience. My work has appeared on iMore, Windows Central, Android Central, and TWICE, and I have a diverse portfolio of editing work under my belt from my time spent at Scholastic and Oxford University Press. I also have a few book-author credits under my belt—I’ve contributed to the sci-fi anthology Under New Suns, and I’ve even written a Peppa Pig book.
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