"Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater," was originally released on November 17th, 2004. I played the original game 20 years ago, as I was a huge fan of the franchise from the first, "Solid," up through the fifth and final to have Hideo Kojima involved in the franchise (he was the director/guiding force and left the company, Konami, to make his own games). The third game was possibly my favorite, a prequel to the first two games focused on the original, "Snake," who later games have you play as a clone of (the games had lots of weird sci-fi concepts and interesting ideas about militarism, patriotism, and so forth). It is now 2025 and a special remaster/re-release is out and titled, "Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater." It is the same game in its DNA, but the graphics are improved (and amazing), and some gameplay elements have been tweaked, but much remains the same. Revisiting MGS3 all these years later in such a format brings mixed emotions.
Playing this game again, but now on a PlayStation 5 instead of 2, feels like eating a meal I adored long ago and missed, but now it's back with much of the original recipe followed, yet it is even more savory to chew on and admire. Think of putting on an old blanket that has had some of the rips and tears fixed to be even more comfy. That said, this recipe has a new chef, and the blanket had somebody new sew everything up. That's right, even though Hideo's original vision is closely followed, he had zero involvement in this remaster. The original bones are there but this Frankenstein's monster has a bunch of new flesh that lacks the original Dr. Frankenstein/mad scientist at the helm, for better or worse. A masterpiece being redone without the auteur who made it feels a little wrong and gives me a slight icky feeling as I play. Still, I can admire how much has held up 20 years later in MGS3. They made it pretty and tweaked some gameplay, but it is still MGS3 and fun as Hell to play, watch the long cinema scenes of, and absorb the weird geo-political plot whilst you sneak in the grass and shoot tranq darts at Soviet soldiers.
"Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater," reminds me of when the original, "Star Wars," trilogy was remastered (although George Lucas himself was behind that so the comparison doesn't fully work). It has the classic in there, but things are different to a degree that old fans may love or hate, and new fans will simply admire as being cool due to knowing no difference. I mean, not to age everyone who remembers the OG game too much, but I must emphasize this came out 20 years ago, and besides being prettier and changing some gameplay, it still is fully MGS3, quirks and all--that's how damn amazing it was then and now. Is it wrong to even tweak a masterpiece a little for modern audiences, however? Should we rebel the same way fans did when Lucas dropped his own new version of, "Star Wars," to the chagrin of some die-hards? At least the main man behind the movies chose to have the updates happen; Kojima hasn't touched this remake at all, just the suits at Konami making an extra buck off the amazing work of him and his original team (not to dismiss how hard the new team worked to modernize MGS3, of course).
At the end of the day, you'd have to ask yourself if you'd go back to a restaurant and order your favorite dish even if you know a new chef is cooking it whilst trying to hew closely to the original notes? You need to look inside and consider if you'd be okay with someone altering your beloved blanket to make it better in practice, but still changed. These metaphors are a bit strained at points, but they illustrate how it feels to play, "Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater." It is just as fantastic a game as it was over two decades ago, but when the lynchpin that made the original so great is excluded, we might struggle with emotions over a new iteration. If more remakes get made, things will only get hairier, too, so prepare yourselves for that--we do have four other games theoretically ripe for the picking, after all! As it stands, this game remains 5 out of 5 Stars all these years later, with or without the ease-of-use changes and pretty graphics. "Metal Gear Solid," is/was a fantastic franchise without a doubt--I can say that with zero hesitation, at least!
