The Metal Gear series has been a standard-bearer for the stealth genre since the 8-bit era. But now the franchise's future is as fraught and confusing as the alternate history the games depict. After all, what is Metal Gear without the singular voice of series creator Hideo Kojima? Konami's answer right now is Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater ($69.99 for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, reviewed on PC), a beautiful remaster of the 2004 classic that leaves the core elements virtually untouched. On one hand, it feels like a stall, a way to put out a competent product without pushing the franchise forward. On the other hand, the original Snake Eater was so amazing, and the new graphics are so impressive, that Metal Gear Solid Delta is still worth playing for veterans and new recruits alike.

Story: Operation Snake Eater Returns

Snake Eater was the third Metal Gear Solid game, but it's the first in the timeline. As a prequel, the narrative makes it easy for newcomers to enter this famously baffling espionage universe. Snake Eater's story is also one of the franchise's strongest outings, a blend of James Bond-esque, 1960s-era Cold War antics with big questions about international strife and violence. Protagonist Naked Snake's disillusionment and descent into the villainous Big Boss is epic, tragic, and heartfelt. Plus, there is a nuclear tank that walks on its hind legs, a perfect balance of silly and serious.

(Credit: Konami/PCMag)

Metal Gear Solid games are full of exposition, and Snake Eater is no different, with its bevy of cutscenes and radio conversations. However, the gameplay remains one of the finest examples of the stealth genre. Snake Eater was released before Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain introduced open-world elements to the series, so you still sneak between linear rooms separated by loading screens. But that sneaking is so exquisite. 

The lush and dense Russian jungle environments give you plenty of options for making your way past guards. Different guns, grenades, spy gadgets, and cardboard boxes let you plan your mission with satisfying flexibility. Non-lethal techniques, from tranquilizers to close-quarters combat, challenge you to play without bloodshed. Colorful bosses, including the elderly sniper The End and inflamed astronaut The Fury, test your wits and reflexes. Before the explosion of survival games, Snake Eater featured systems for healing your wounds, eating food to regain stamina, and swapping outfits for camouflage. 

Despite Delta's modern graphics, you can still feel the PlayStation 2 roots. Rooms are relatively compact with simple geometry. You can breeze through the journey in a few hours if you don’t care about replaying for higher scores. Overall, the original game holds up remarkably well and easily surpasses many modern stealth titles that aren't Hitman. Delta even includes a new control scheme option that lets you shoot, sneak, aim, and move the camera in a way much closer to contemporary titles. Few games have aged more gracefully. That’s good because Delta is basically a prettier version of the original release, with little extra. 

(Credit: Konami/PCMag)

Gameplay: A Perfect Clone

The exact definition of "remaster" or "remake" can be a bit tricky in gaming. Snake Eater has already had enhanced, HD releases. But don't think of Delta as a complete reimagining in the style of Final Fantasy VII Remake or Resident Evil 4 Remake. Instead, this is much closer to something like Metroid Prime Remastered or The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. It’s a fresh coat of paint on the same house.

This is a shot-for-shot remake of the original Snake Eater. The levels are the same. The voice recordings were taken directly from the original, although Cynthia Harrell recorded a new version of the iconic theme song. Play the cutscenes side by side and they'll sync up with the same choreography and editing. Even some of the jokes make a comeback, like wearing wacky outfits and shooting toy frogs. Snake can still hunt the Ape Escape monkeys (although Astro Bot now makes a cameo), and he can still have a nightmare that turns into a random, gothic action game called Guy Savage (now created by PlatinumGames). 

(Credit: Konami/PCMag)

A recreation done this slavishly threatens to make Delta feel a bit pointless if you aren't a graphics snob. Again, the original game is still remarkably playable and visually pleasing. For the price of Delta, you could play Snake Eater along with several other Metal Gear Solid games on modern systems via the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection. However, the lack of structural changes means the original game wasn't ruined in this version. With your expectations properly set, you can better appreciate what is new.

Graphics, System Specs, and Performance

The most substantial difference between Delta and the original Snake Eater is the dramatically overhauled visuals powered by Unreal Engine 5. Although you lose some of the original title's stylized atmosphere, you gain a shocking amount of photorealism. Detailed faces give emotive performances. You truly feel like you inhabit the jungle environments and industrial bases. Combining new graphics with old gameplay can risk looking uncanny, but the increased fidelity is in spirit with Snake Eater's focus on more naturalistic stealth. For example, as Snake moves through mud, it clings to his outfit and affects his visibility.

(Credit: Konami/PCMag)

My criticisms come down to artistic preferences more than anything else. While it takes a lot of work to make a game look this good, there’s not much art direction beyond increasing the realism and following Kojima's original cues. It's also eerily similar to the glossy new cutscenes Konami made for the inexplicable Snake Eater pachinko machine in 2016. The Link Awakening's remake took a bigger swing by revamping the original's art style. 

Delta's graphics are not always perfect on a technical level, either. I played some of the game on my Steam Deck, and by dropping the settings, it ran above 30 frames per second—though it wasn't particularly stable. On PC, the minimum specs include an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i5-8600 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 100GB of SSD storage. My laptop, which features an Intel Core i9-13900H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, ran Delta at 60fps mostly without issue. I saw infrequent frame rate blips, weird shimmering, and wonky colors when trying the various graphics filters. For more on running the game, check out the system requirements.

Overall, though, Delta is a beautiful game, and seeing it in this new light made me grateful to revisit the Snake Eater journey I know and love. The game's final moments have been burned into my brain for years, and they hit even harder when presented this way. I was hammering the screenshot button by the end. One of the game's smartest additions is a photo mode that helps you customize and preserve images.

Why Remake Snake Eater?

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater successfully revisits a fundamentally amazing game. But it left me with a nagging, more existential issue, which is fitting given how these titles are so fond of waxing philosophically: Does the game fully justify its own existence?

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, a 2004 remake of the first Metal Gear Solid, polarized fans by introducing more elaborate changes to the tone, story, and gameplay. Delta is smart not to do this. The creators seem keenly aware of their own limitations without Kojima at the helm. These modest ambitions keep Delta from being a disaster on the level of, say, the boneheaded Phantom Pain spin-off, Metal Gear Solid: Survive.

(Credit: Konami/PCMag)

However, those same modest ambitions put a hard ceiling on how exciting, cool, and surprising Delta can possibly be. The game feels expected, which is completely at odds with the wild innovation and bonkers, boundary-pushing swerves I crave from Metal Gear. It's almost pedestrian compared with what Kojima himself did this year with Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, his latest open-world apocalypse about reconnecting society through treacherous deliveries. 

Games like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, Metroid Prime Remastered, and Ninja Gaiden 2 Black aren't just great in their own right, they also get you excited for future entries. Those games might not end up being great, but they have potential. I don't have faith in a new, great Metal Gear game without Kojima. This leaves Delta as a celebration that's also a funeral. It's a very lovely dead end.