It's always difficult to remake a classic game. While we've had a ton of fantastic remakes of classics in recent years, it's still a tight rope to walk. That's doubly true when you're discussing one of the Metal Gear Solid titles. Few franchises are as synonymous with their creator as Metal Gear, and Hideo Kojima's distinct-if-absurd style is difficult to match. Perhaps that is why Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater plays it so safe; it's designed to modernize rather than to replace.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a remake of the original PS2-era Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. It puts players in the army boots of elite secret operative Naked Snake during the midst of the Cold War. What begins as a mission to free a nuclear scientist from a Russian prison camp quickly goes south when Snake's mentor, The Boss, defects to a rogue branch of the Soviet Union military forces run by the evil Volgin. Volgin's plan is to create a powerful nuclear launch system that can strike anywhere on Earth, and within a week he'll have everything he needs to turn the Cold War into a hot one. It's up to Snake to break into Volgin's base, defeat him and The Boss, and save the world from disaster.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater's story is a shameless James Bond pastiche, right down to the cheesy and undeniably catchy theme song. It's absurd, over the top, and somehow, it all comes together perfectly. It doesn't matter if you're talking about the hilariously campy Volgin, the sexpot spy EVA, or Snake himself. There's just something fun about the entire experience, and it contains just enough emotion and pathos to make it memorable. The final battle remains one of the most striking and compelling in game history.

As far as gameplay goes, Metal Gear Solid Delta exists in an odd middle ground between being a remake and being a remaster. In most cases, this is the same game as Metal Gear Solid 3. It's a stealth action game where your goal is to sneak through enemy bases, punctuated by the occasional over-the-top boss fight or lengthy cut scene. The gameplay, level design, and boss fights are all pretty much exactly as you remembered, right down to specific combat tricks (such as tactical reloading) still being in the game. At the same time, it isn't the same game because there are bundles of new changes to the mechanics and gameplay. There are enough changes that it feels inaccurate and inadequate to call it a simple remaster.

A big part of this is the choice between New Style and Legacy Style. Legacy Style is intended to mimic the original version of the game, while New Style is a revamped version of the game intended to serve as kind of a midpoint between MGS3 and MGSV. The New Style features a laundry list of changes, including over-the-shoulder camera movement and aiming, more seamless movement option, showing grenade detonation radiuses, and more. It isn't a one-for-one swap with Metal Gear Solid V gameplay, but it feels like it's in the same zone. To compensate for this, New Mode also features enhanced enemy AI that is more perceptive and more likely to notice you.

This puts greater emphasis on the camouflage system. If you've never played the original Metal Gear Solid 3, it features an in-depth camo system where Snake can adjust his outfit and fake makeup based on his current situation. Different camo functions better or worse in different environments, and the higher your camo index, the harder it is for enemies to see you. More perceptive enemies means that the benefits granted by the camo are more significant, which ties in with the new ability to instantly swap your camo with the press of a button. Instead of having to constantly go into the game's menu, you can hold a button to see a list of camo options, including their changes to the index, and swap with only a half-second loading screen.

While I do like a lot of New Style's changes, I couldn't escape the feeling that it was trying to put a square peg in a round hole. By keeping the environments and levels pretty much the same, you end up in a situation where everything feels a tad off. The new mechanics are so powerful that even with the enhanced AI, they often feel like there's nothing certain enemies can do to handle it because you can effortlessly move past them. Boss fights just don't seem to be designed for it, since your ability to dodge attacks has increased so much.

At the same time, the more perceptive enemies feel a little strange at times, occasionally easily seeing me in situations where I should've been well hidden. A lot of that might simply be my muscle memory of the original MGS3 struggling with the changes, but there were moments an enemy saw me when I was well hidden behind a box, and it felt less like they were more intelligent and more like something had gone wrong. I felt this less as I progressed and got a better feel for the adjusted mechanics, but it never felt as smooth as the original.

This brings us to another element of the game that isn't really a flaw but something the New Style controls drive home: The level design has been kept exactly as it was on the PS2. This is largely a plus in terms of retaining the feel of the original game, but it means that the areas can feel very small. If you're a newcomer to the game, you might be surprised at how tiny each area looks before you see a new loading screen. That said, each area is dense and full of detail, but it is an odd contrast between the modern controls and mechanics and the PS2-era level design.

Almost all the content from the original versions of the game can be found in Delta. This includes the main game, the Snake vs. Monkey Ape Escape crossover minigame, the various secrets and unlockables, and more. This even includes certain things that were missing from the HD version, like a certain nightmare sequence that has been fully remade. Even fun extras like the Secret Theaters are present, including a few new ones. There's relatively little change to any of the content that I noticed, but there have been some re-recorded radio calls and a few bonus Easter eggs. If you get stuck, there's also a (thankfully optional) series of hints you can activate that give you more information about the game's tricks and boss battles.

Metal Gear Solid Delta is largely a big upgrade over the original version of the game. The new character models and environments look gorgeous, and it was clear a lot of effort was put into capturing as much of the original feel as possible. There are some areas where I wasn't fond of the changes, such as the color palette of certain cut scenes shifting from something more intentionally garish to something more naturally lit, but they were more a matter of preference. If there's one oddity to the cut scenes, it is that almost all of the original PS2-era body language has been kept unchanged. For the most part, this works, but with some of the hyper-realistic models it can sometimes look a little odd. Some of the cut scenes also have noticeable frame drops, even in Performance mode, but it's still a step up from the original.

In comparison, the voice acting has been left almost unchanged except for a shift to 3D audio. There are some new lines of dialogue, but they're few and far between. For the most part, every line read is the exact same one from the original version of the game. I personally consider this a huge plus, as the over-the-top and frequently cheesy dialogue of the PS2 version is perfect for Metal Gear Solid 3. Any attempt to redo it would likely trend toward being too serious or too intentionally silly. David Hayter's dorky-and-lovable Snake defined the character, and the game wouldn't work without him.

Overall, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a well done remaster of a game that remains as classic as it ever was. The changes are a mix of positive and negative, but there aren't any that drag down the experience. At worst, they're a matter of preference. For many people, this title is likely to be the optimal way to experience Metal Gear Solid 3, and it's easy to be impressed by the sheer amount of work that went into capturing the classic original.

Score: 8.5/10