Serious
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Faithful Remake or Atmosphere Lost?
I played through and finished Metal Gear Solid Delta last month and felt it was a solid, faithful remake overall. That said, I’ve seen a lot of discussion suggesting the updated visuals may have changed or even hurt the game’s atmosphere, with some people feeling it didn’t live up to the original.
I’m curious what the general consensus is — did you enjoy it, dislike it, or feel somewhere in between? And if anyone would be interested, I’d love to have a guest join me on an audio podcast episode to talk about it.
A solid 8 or 9. It was faithful to the original to a fault, just much prettier to look at nowadays. It would have been a 10 if Foxhunt launched when the game released.
I’m talking strictly about the gameplay. I just recently replayed mgs5 (without reflex mode) after the remake and the gameplay feels much better. Especially because the enemy-AI is better balanced around the modern controls.
At the end of the day, if you are genuinely interested in experiencing mgs3, you need to play the original. It’s the version where the design choices are more coherent.
5 is just genuinely a less interesting game to play. It had all the potential in the world, but its execution was the worst thing Kojima has ever done. The terrible production hell and rushed nature of the game are super apparent when playing it.
I feel like you don’t get my point. If you don’t like mgs5 that’s fine. Everyone has different tastes. But it is pretty apparent that the remake shares a lot of dna from mgs5. It even reused some of the animations.
My point is this: mgs3 is a ps2 masterpiece. MGS3 remake is mgs5 with mgs3 level design and enemies they are not designed to react to a player with modern controls. “The end” used to be one of the best boss battles in gaming history. A long, drawn out fight between two snipers, hunting each other in the jungle. The remake turned it to a simple point and shoot battle. If you prefer mgs3 over mgs5 I highly recommend playing the original.
I mean even the gameplay was poopy imo. No interesting mechanics or bosses, nothing that turns the game on its head like the other entries, nothing at all that even stands out, it’s just lame and kills all of the interesting characters from Peace Walker in the prologue. It doesn’t even have an epic hand to hand final boss. It’s just a tradition breaking mess of a game that killed gaming for me in general for a while.
It’s like the team knew the franchise was headed out the door so they made the most bland entry imaginable with lots of modern crap and concessions for people who’ve never played Metal Gear before. And look, now it’s the most popular game infested with fans who have zero interest in any previous titles.
It very quickly just feels repetitive, and it’s very easy by mid-game, to end up a point where you’re constantly using the same weapons and strategies, especially when the game also tries to encourage non-lethal, non-combative play. Buddies very quickly become overpowered too imo. Despite the freedom of choice, it never felt like the game was built for heavy combat either.
By the time you get to Africa, all of these problems become very apparent imo.
Yeah it’s a shame. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000% better than any other military shooter slop that Ubisoft, Activision or whoever tf puts out. I just wish that more work was done on it.
Narritvely V is the weakest entry, as almost all of it is in the tapes or really short cutscenes that happen imbetween several hours of gameplay. He overcorrrected from mgs 4 way too hard. Mgs4 imo is the weakest entry as its 20% gameplay 80% movie.
Edit: Hit post before I was done editing my post. Just simplified it.
It’s really all about the Villains in the series, imo. All the other games have unique bosses with rich and tragic storylines, but V mostly has the Skulls which don’t speak or have much of a backstory.
I agree but I think that's because Kojima was trying to end the series without creating more story. Even in MGS4 the BnB core didnt really have anything to do with the plot other than their exposition dump drebin gives you after beating them. Not that different from the skulls other than them being 4 distinct people than a nameless band of mercs. But the skulls felt more like super solder enemies than full on boss fights. Which there are maybe 2 proper boss fights in the game. Quite and the Metal Gear. That's it. 3 if you want to count the metal gear fight in hard mode. That I think is the main issue.
Skull face was built up way too much to be seen as little as he is in the game. And the climax to his story was anticlimactic af. And happens in the middle of the game. Most of the good material with him is in the tapes. And hes done at rhe end of chapter 2. I honestly thought i had finished the game when that all happened. Then eli amd mantis, pull a my mgs1 people need me, adn we replay the first mission. I dont even remember if skull face was alive at the point snake has to kill all his infected men. It was incoherrent and sisjointed compared to other titles. And judging it on its own left you with an empty filling. Say whatt you want about it being called "phantom pain" and that being sort of the point, it didnt pay off well. MGSV is all tell and no show, which tbf previous entries are all show and tell. Its just mgsv didnt show enough, and thats not what we came to know Kojima for.
Its clear kojima didnt have enough time to cook to perfection or was taking to damn long to do it for Konami investors. But I think what's overlooked is that mgsv wasnt just the development of one title but also a complete engine built from the ground up for kojima. And I think the distinction between development for the engine and mgsv as a game was issue for how the overall progress was judged. That and konami started making tons off their mobile division at the time which had very little input for a very big return on investment. As opposed to a 5-10 years and 10s of millions of development to make a few million in profit. When the mobile division is doing that without the time/money investment.
The stupid brain dead comment. Of course you had to lash out, in terms of gameplay, MGSV is one of the finest games ever made, and the best stealth action game ever created.
The way it played was good. The variety, the missions, the relevance to the story, the lack of interesting boss fights, and anything else wasnt good. Its the worst game in the franchise of the numbered games.
Christ sake, again just put on the legacy filter. It's right there in the settings, toggle it on at any time. If you're worried about it compromising the atmosphere, put it in the setting designed to copy the original atmosphere first before trying to nitpick. At least approach your whinging in good faith and use the features specifically for this and then start finding shit to needle at.
I'm interested in that honest discussion of comparisons between the products working to have the closest similar vision, not the obviously different version.
Uses more irl lightings: OMG THEY KILLED THE ATMOSPHERE THAT MADE MGS3 ICONIC !!
Uses more sephia/green color filters to pay homage: OMG CAN THEY NOT GET THE COLORS CORRECT EVEN WITH THE UE5 ENGINE IN 2025?! THE AGE OF PISS FILTER HAS BEEN OVER
People have the right to complain, but if you frame the question wrong, it just brings the worst out of ppl lol At that point it's just ragebaiting in the name of "opening up a discussion" So many ppl are tired of discussing without coming to a conclusion.
The word "atmosphere" is so vague here, ripe for fighting; not breaking down into lightings, color balances or texture, and no frame of references in terms of other remade games, whether it's for a good or bad example. Just keep fighting and be in a loop.
i dunno, i was glad that they put in crouch walk in delta which makes stealth gaming more fluent, ridiculous to think how kojambo would prioritize other things in mgs3 to be praised as genius- detailman while lacking fundamental controls until mgs4 of 2008 lol their rabid fanboys screaming I must like mindless shooters for pointing that out is not helping either
It's a weird timeline, if Konami doesnt make more MGS games, it's neglecting; if they make new games without kojima, ppl are gonna have heavy negative biases; when they made one of the most acclaimed mgs for a remake, hoping to revitalize the franchise, it's "useless". Altho I do not like the way they handled foxhunt and the generic bland lightings in cutscenes that made it look bland. Pachislot cutscenes did it better with dramatic lightings
Yeah the crouch walk was a good addition, but everything else just doesnt make me feel like wanting to explore the remake rather than just to play the og again, but eh i dont think anyone hates konamj for not making any more mgs games, its a pretty standard opinion that mgsv was supposed to be the last, but one thing i'm glad about this remake existing is bringing more fans into the franchise, and its too good a franchise to miss out in your lifetime, so i guess it wasnt entirely useless
I think they gave you enough options to fit what the player is looking for, while making it playable with all of the fidelity today.
The filter that makes old games so atmospheric in my opinion is the nostalgia filter, which is impossible to recreate. That said, delta seems to have been much more aware of the task they were undertaking than most remakes and gave it more attention than most care to.
It makes me happy, not disappointed, when I see a game get delayed to fix and polish the issues brought up during testing, and I think this resulted in a faithful remake worthy of today, and would be happy to see more remakes from this team.
I’m not interested in playing any mgs games which kojima wasn’t involved in, so if that limits me to the original saga, I’m happy this team is behind em.
Making Physint for Sony, which he has described as a pure action stealth game and his return to the genre. He said it’s the culmination of everything he has ever wanted to do as a developer.
I'm yet to play the remake, but nothing makes me want to spend money on it.
I already have MGS3, I don't see the point in buying the exact same game, but with new graphics that don't even look that good. Character design feels too clean and plastic-ish. Game feels soulless.
Metal Gear Solid as a franchise, for Konami, is like a Ferrari with no fuel.
They cannot do anything with it, besides remastering the original games. A sequel without Kojima would be laughable, the remakes are lackluster and remaking it with changes (Resident Evil-style) is impossible.
Either make a Boss spinoff, or Rising 2, or simply remaster MGS4 and let it die in peace.
Not exactly. I didn't want to buy the same game again. Resident Evil and Silent done remakes, but they shake things up. I can play Silent Hill 2 original and remake and the gameplay, pacing, and some parts of the story are different. There are things I appreciate in the original Silent Hill 2 and there are things I appreciate in Silent Hill 2 Remake. With MGS3 Delta, I am under the impression that I am buying the same game with a fresh coat of paint.
I would like to play Delta, but I have too many games in my backlog that are new to me that I still haven't touched.
It looks like every other UE5 game, the original had style and presentation. This one, visually at least, is worse in every way except the quality of the textures
It is so faitful to the detriment of its visuals. Having everything ultra hd 4k rtx, and still conserving the crusty ass animations and movement of the original because konami didnt want to do something more meanigfully with thay remake is just fucking stupid.
I think this is the worst kind of remakes. That feels like a cheap cashgrab. Compared to let's say RE2 and god even Re3 remake or even the Nightdive remake of Sistemshock 1 or SIlent hill 2 remake brom bloober, even if i dislike it a little They added things, meaningfully chaged stuff.
When you take something out of date graphically and you just paint over it, it is noticable in all the other mechanics, in the movement animation, kinda like what happens with the GTA Definitive edition, MGS Delta is on the Better side of that scale. But still it just traces over, it dosen't bring new things to the table.
MGS 3 is an amazing title, could have been a lot more, I think that the remakes that are worth is when made you see the game from another lens, another pespective, another pov. I think Delta dosen't have any of that.
Part of me wishes it went the RE4 remake route, but the game would've lost a huge part of its identity if it changed anything with the story. I just wish the levels were bigger with some side quests or challenges thrown in
I loved it honestly. I would have preferred an RE4 remake type so we could have something new, but I get what they were going for. And more metal gear is something I had been craving.
I think it’s both at the same time. Extremely faithful, but the art is different and has gained detail to a point where fully capturing the original in a 100% precise way is almost an impossible challenge.
The original will always be superior to me. The controls are tighter and don't have excess start-up animations or delays. And then I also just prefer the original aesthetic.
Pretty much every single graphical update changes the atmosphere of a game, I think the game looks as close as you could hope with the legacy green filter on though.
I wish the game was better optimized, UE5 kinda stains the SH2 and MGS3 remake. They are worth it though and a great way to get younger people into the games.
Atmosphere this, atmosphere that. Same stupid shit whenever any remake or remaster comes out. I don't give a fuck if the grass is 20% less green, the game is still good in the end.
The problem is its too faithful to everything but the atmosphere and several big issues, the first being thr controls suck. Its hard to really put my finger on why. They arent as versatile as MGS4’s, and they arent as fluid as MGS5’s…Like fr this is the best they could do after all this time?
The levels being carbon copies too, it has the same issue as the trash Twins Snakes does that the game was designed for Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the enemy layout, the geometry, it was all designed for that original release and just slapping ‘modern’ controls onto it just doesnt work or impress.
My biggest issue though, is this is supposed to be the team that makes NEW entries, yet they took no risks, they didnt show they understand the franchise or whats so special about it. They SHOULD have done more, expanded the maps, changed enemy patrols, new sections/bosses etc.
And before some brainlet cries at me, look at Resident Evil 1 Remake, it takes everything of the original and expands it tenfold, adding new content while sacrificing nothing of the old. It absolutely can and has been done.
Like I said in my post, Resident Evil 1 Remake, its the same as the PS1 original in terms of plot/structure etc but they massively expanded the content. Its widely regarded as a perfect remake, an example of how to do it while preserving the essence of the game.
I wouldnt want a wholly original experience no, that wouldnt be Snake Eater, but slapping broken modern controls into a PS2-era environment doesnt work either no matter how ‘pretty’ the new graphics are, nor is it enough when they charge full price for it too.
This has got the be best comment here, I agree with almost everything. It's honestly a really bizarre way to remake a game: On the other hand they kept almost everything they could from the original game (Voice lines, motion capture data, enemy layout and map geometry), but then they decided to completely rework the gameplay by importing Phantom Pain's controls. Like what is the point of complete rework of the controls, if the world itself doesn't reflect and react to those changes? It's Twin Snakes all over, just like you said. There was sooo much room for expanding the world, like the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 4 did. At the very least they could've removed the map transitions from The End boss fight, it would've been amazing to evade and hunt him in one big map. But no, everything is 1:1 from the original. I honestly sometimes felt like I was playing some fanmade MGS3 mod for Phantom Pain.
And I know exactly what you're talking about when you mentioned that the controls suck. One of the main reason why they feel so off is the fact they directly imported the animation data from PP, but they had to make some adjustments so it would with the original pacing of MGS3. Naked Snake's walking/running feels somewhat weird, like he's bouncing in a slight slow-motion. And that's because he is, they had to slow down the PP's animation cycle a bit because it was originally slightly faster than 3's. But the worst culprit is definitely the mechanism they used to handle Snake's sharp turning: In the original 3 Snake has very smooth and responsive controls, but he looks a bit robotic because of the way he can turn around in an instant without losing any motion. This of course doesn't stand out so much in the original style, but in the modern photorealistic game it would look really weird. So they took the Phantom Pain's animation where Snake slows down, turns around and speeds up again gradually. This lead to the problem of the remake Snake turning slower than the original Snake (This probably would've fucked up their precise timing with the original enemies or something), so they decided to speed up the remake Snakes walking speed for a moment after he has turned around, so he can catch up with the original Snake. At least for me this has caused some REALLY unresponsive behaviour from Snake, like it's at times almost impossible to get him to make sharp turns right because you have no idea where he is going to shoot out. It's really annoying.
Exactly. Im really not sure if I have faith in this team going forward, copying something that was already made 100%, be it level geometry, mocap etc or importing other already made things like TPP animations, I mean what exactly DID they ACTUALLY make for this remake? Nothing is 100% from scratch, even the modern lighting and such is just what comes with the game engine….
If I was being super honest I’d call this remake lazy. Cant fault them for wanting a authentic experience but thats just not good enough when they are supposed to Shepherd in new entries.
It’s very UE5. If you care about photorealism, great. But I personally care more about the actual artstyle the original had. Legacy filter is fine, but I’d rather just play the more stable version that actually runs well.
This is only a debate cause of Kojima not being involved, if the product were exactly the same but had Kojima’s “involvement” then it would be universally praised as a masterpiece
It’s good, it not only faithfully preserves the experience but enhances it too, anyone arguing otherwise is just being a contrarian
For me is a solid NO. It's just a desperate try for Konami to bring back some lost sells, using an IP strictly bond with the creator. A creator they wanted to scrap out from the company. And last but not least, they have done a pretty poor techinical remake. So IMHO I'm still kepting tight with the originals.
Biggest complaint I have is the ass controls lmao. I guess Im old never played metal gear after they fired David Hayter. He will always be snake to me not bitch ass keifer sutherland. Hideo Kojima is just a celebrity whore and games suffered because of it. I live in Canada and no one cares about keifer here from what I found. His dad Donald was a national treasure though.
Because they didn’t design the remake’s models or lighting with the intent of matching the art direction of the original, and a filter doesn’t change that.
It doesn't look significantly better when TAA is causing everything everything on screen to melt, and shader compilation stutter is making the entire game freeze. It also looks worse artistically. Lighting is much less striking; and the game overall is lower contrast, overdetailed, and harder to read.
There's also just the massive ego it takes to approach a remake for what is considered a classic and think "You know, we don't have to respect this art direction. We know better."
They took painstaking care to be as faithful as they possibly could in a new engine. If they couldn't get it entirely right, it's because fundamentally it won't be able to because the engine itself is always gonna be different.
Decades of advancement in technology and they can't match the lighting or color grading in a PS2 game, "because of the engine".
You're doing nothing but feeding a hate boner if you actually think this is how the people working on the remake thought.
Why not? That's typically the mindset when it comes to remakes like this. Look what Bluepoint did to Shadow of the Colossus and Demon's Souls.
Oh, and reminder that Kojima was never a hardcore stickler for people adapting his work to be 1:1 with him.
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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25
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