Entertainment’metal Gear Solid Delta ‘is a video game dish served with reheated leftover

A moment, several hours after starting Metal Gear Solid Deltawhere, depending on your level of familiarity and reverence for the franchise, you may end up wondering, “What is the purpose of that?”

The remake of Konami of the PS2 classic Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004), it is certainly much more beautiful, with a graphic glow that puts it in the current standard and some system improvements that make the experience more fluid. But in general, it is literally the same game two decades ago – with all its hits and all its defects. And yes, even if a lot of people put the game in a pedestal, it definitely has its flaws.

At a time when video game remakes are released at a dizzying frequency, is a revival almost 1: 1 Metal Gear Solid 3 Was it really necessary? Yes and no. To the Konami – A company that was practically disappeared since the supposed “Swan Canto” of the franchise in 2015 – the project represents a chance to reintroduce the brand after a ten -year hiatus since Metal Gear Solid V. After all, there is a whole new generation of players who don’t even know the series. But, unlike the remake of Silent Hill 2 From 2024 (also from Konami), Delta does not fundamentally change the game or make him seem new. In fact, he sounds especially dated – for good and evil.

The value of Metal Gear Solid Delta It depends a lot on how much you already love the original (like many fans) or if there is a pleasure to enter a bizarre time capsule of the 2000s games.

What is it Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater?

Basically, it is a complete remake of the 2004 game, originally created by Hideo Kojima before his departure from Konami to launch his own franchise, Death Stranding. True to the original vision, Delta is a stealthy action game in which players control Fox agent Snake, on a film mission that combines action movie pastiche, dramatic soap opera and even something that resembles a philosophical lecture on the TED.

Set in 1964, the plot is chronologically the first in the series, following Snake’s rise to the status of legendary soldier/spy, before its more dark and Vilanesca turn in the first Metal Gear (1987). In this older game, he becomes known as Big Boss – a name he wins here – and ends up facing the original protagonist, Solid Snake, who is later revealed as his clone. It’s a long novel, let’s say so.

Because it passes before the story of the franchise becomes extremely complex, Delta acts as a good starting point for novices, although part of the dramatic weight of some characters and twists is only perceived by those who already know future events. Think about how Star Wars’s prequels: you can even create attachment to Anakin Skywalker without knowing that he will become Darth Vader, but the story works much better if you already know.

When it was released, Metal Gear Solid 3 was already a return to the roots of the franchise, focusing on infiltration and survival in the jungle, reminiscent of the first game of 1987 and is strongly inspired by pop culture classics, such as First Blood. While Metal Gear Solid (1998) and MGS2 (2001) bet more on urban espionage and science fiction influenced by Cult Movies such as New York escape, MGS3 dived head on the cold war with a purposely exaggerated tone, evoking James Bond films-including, of course, an opening song.

The game is a total kojima: a controlled chaos that alternates between wide conversations about war and patriotism and caricatured villains capable of throwing lightning with hands or becoming a swarm of bees. This mixture of philosophical subtleties with exaggerated absurdities is part of the franchise DNA and follows Kojima’s work to this day, including Death Stranding.

However, both in the original and delta, this erratic tone may sound strange to some. An unparalleled snake tries to seduce a semi -nigga double agent, and in the next scene crosses an ethereal river full of souls. Either you love or hate this approach – but for many, this unique aesthetics and gameplay make MGS3 possibly the best in the series.

What Delta Does it bring again?

Little! That is, it’s not quite: besides the graphic jump, which puts the visuals in the age of Hi-Def, there are several subtle adjustments that make the experience more practical and less cast than the original. The biggest news is a new camera system that allows you to explore the environments in real time and move Snake much more fluidity, now with perspective over the shoulder, unlike ancient fixed angles.

Other details include adding a compass to help players guide themselves in the dense jungle, whose areas are divided into smaller areas, but interconnected by different paths and exits. In addition, tasks that previously required dive into complex menus – such as changing camouflage, cure injuries or eating feed – can now be done with fast shortcuts, making the game flow more agile.

The great differential of MGS3’s survival proposal was that everything the player needed to do to face the dangers of the jungle had to be done inside the game. This meant hunting food (which can hunt you back!), Eat it to recover stamina and perform medical attention on the snake-using the right combination of tools to remove candy, clean and suture injuries and apply dressings. All this is present in Metal Gear Solid Delta, but now these actions are faster to perform, which is positive, considering that the stamina falls frequently and small injuries can hinder action.

Although these details are new, it is easy for everyone except the most dedicated players who revisit MGS3 repeatedly, forget that the original title did not offer these conveniences. Upon entering Delta, the initial feeling is to be playing exactly the same game – or at least how you remembered it. Only when the player activates the “legacy mode” – which faithfully reproduces the old gameplay – does the improvements really become clear. For novices, however, subtle changes can go unnoticed, especially since most controls still seem archaic and uninviters.

Metal Gear Solid Delta Does it work?

Despite the modern retouching, Delta suffers to be too attached to the 2004 predecessor’s gameplay nucleus. This may be controversial, but during a Konami preview event at the beginning of the month, full of journalists and fan -fans of the original MGS3 fans, the excitement of playing the same game with small adjustments was palpable. Some, in a few hours, advanced two thirds of the campaign thanks to muscle memory. For others, however, this generated frustration.

Like many, I loved MGS3 at the time of launch, and see many of the scenes, sound effects and active return details a powerful nostalgia. But after the initial multiple cutscenes and the long sequences of dialogue via codec, it is difficult to resist the temptation to push the “jump” button. Although many people criticize current games because they look like “playable movies”, it is rare to find recent releases that interrupt the action so much and so long.

If you don’t know the story or really want to revisit hours of passive narrative, scenes and dialogues may be engaging. The plot is an exaggerated and cartonecous ballroom, with moments of philosophical introspection that do not resist the analysis well – but it is still fun for a first time. However, there is a point where you just want to play, and Delta doesn’t make it easier.

Structures, environments and limitations

Visually, the scenarios are beautiful, but rarely seem deeply interconnected. Because of the technical limitations of the time, MGS3 and its predecessors built extensive worlds that could be revisited, but broken in blocks by transition screens. Exploring areas for equipment, secrets or a good camouflage point often ends up taking the player out of boundaries, transporting him to another zone.

After years playing open world titles with giant maps, Delta exploration restrictions may sound claustrophobic. Some areas are literally narrow runners that connect main rooms with nothing to find out, while others are forest segments that could be connected organically if the game did not insist on behaving like a PS2 title.

Combat, bosses and frustrations

The combat is also limited. The Metal Gear franchise has never been a reference in shaving or melee fights, but restrictions on movements make action sometimes exhausting – even with improvements in the first and third person. To eliminate enemies stealthily, the player needs to engage in CQC (Close Quarters Combat), the system that allows strangling, interrogating or overthrowing the opponent.

Still, the system remains truncated and uninviters. Since the player warns a group of enemies, some shots or punches already knock Snake on the floor, putting him in a constant fight to get up while continuing to be hit. It is often faster to restart than trying to react or find coverage.

The boss fights, traditionally one of the highlights of the series, also suffer from problems. One of the most praised aspects of Metal Gear has always been his creativity in allowing the player to “break” the system. In the first Metal Gear Solid (1998), for example, an iconic battle forced the player to change control to door 2 to deceive an enemy who read minds. In Delta, there are elements like this, but they don’t always work so well.

A classic example is the elderly sniper that can be eliminated before the main fight at specific points or dead of natural causes by advanced the game’s internal clock. These are creative and fun ideas, but easily nullified when the most efficient solution is to fill the enemy with bullets.

Despite the inventiveness, many of these clashes break the rhythm of the narrative. The battle against the sniper, which should be a tense survival experience, turns out to be a tiring hide-and-hide game between multiple zones. Another example is the encounter with a spectral soldier, which fills a river with the souls of the dead enemies – a visually incredible idea, but whose execution comes down to a slow walk to the end, leaving the experience exhausting.

Taking a step back, it can be said that the game is subversive. But subversion, when it occurs at the expense of the player’s agency or the fun, creates the wrong type of friction for such an experience. And while veterans know exactly as “meta-game” and manipulating Delta systems to their advantage, others can simply conclude that the time is not worth invested.

And that’s where the true dividing line is. For a good part of the audience, Metal Gear Delta will hit it, serving as a pleasant travel through a time when these ideas and mechanics were innovative, not irritating. For novices, it can be fascinating to see a “playable snow globe” of how the games were before-or will only make them enjoy how much the environment has evolved.

For everything else, Delta raises a bigger question: What would a new metal gear game be made from scratch? For now, what we have to taste are reheated leftovers.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will be released on August 28 to PS5, Xbox Series x | s and PRAÇA.

+++ Read more: Death Stranding 2 is an erratic, confused and emotionally brutal masterpiece