Steel Gear Strong Delta: Snake Eater may be very protected. It’s additionally precisely what it wanted to be.
Whereas the Steel Gear franchise is completely beloved by generations of followers, there was little or no to shout about for a decade. The final launch in the principle collection, Steel Gear Strong 5: The Phantom Ache, was lauded by critics for its gameplay and squinted at for its unusual story selections.
Nevertheless, that recreation was launched beneath a cloud. The acrimonious divorce between Konami and Hideo Kojima pulled a lot of the main focus away from what ought to have been a triumphant ultimate chapter.
Since then, Steel Gear has been roundly relegated to facet initiatives, playing machines, and a serviceable rerelease of previous remasters. Steel Gear Strong Delta: Snake Eater is the primary “new” mainline Steel Gear since Phantom Ache, despite the fact that it’s nearly a shot-for-shot remake of one of many PlayStation 2’s best video games.
Steel Gear Strong Delta: Snake Eater is MGS 3, however it performs like MGS 5. That’s the lengthy and in need of it. For a lot of, together with us, it’s precisely what we needed from a return to the collection, however it’s straightforward to think about a world the place some gamers needed extra.
For instance, the sport’s ranges are nonetheless extraordinarily segmented, damaged into tiny chunks with a handful of NPCs in every. This, a restrict imposed by the PS2, might have been eradicated in favour of every space changing into a sweeping, seamless open world, however that’s not what Konami goes for right here. It’s much less of a remake and extra of a particularly fairly remaster, save for one key distinction: controls.
Steel Gear Strong Delta: Snake Eater affords traditional or trendy management choices. The fashionable choices make the gameplay like MGS 5, or every other up to date third-person shooter. This additionally adjustments the angle of the digital camera and makes the sport unbelievably straightforward. Whether or not it’s right down to the elevated sight view or the benefit of management, anybody with even a passing look on the MGS collection prior to now might want to up the problem from the bounce in the event that they’re searching for one thing difficult.
For brand spanking new gamers, the traditional management setup will make you query why anybody liked this recreation within the first place, however it was the mid-2000s, and thus, nobody knew how video games ought to management. Some mechanical prospers, like bullet drop on the silenced tranquilizer, add somewhat little bit of problem and to cease Snake from being much more of an unstoppable killing machine.
Steel Gear Strong Delta: Snake Eater retains the weirdness. Boss fights have esoteric options. Some can nonetheless be skipped totally should you’re a fan of killing pensioners from a distance. There are nonetheless ludicrously high-resolution glamour mannequin posters kicking round. Kojima could also be lengthy gone however the spirit of that authentic crew remains to be there. The truth is, opposite to fashionable fable that the entire crew set sail for Kojima Productions, loads of those that labored on the PS2 recreation additionally labored on the remake.
Whereas we couldn’t expertise the sport from the angle of a newcomer, it will likely be fascinating to see how an entire new era offers with a recreation that very hardly ever offers you hyper-specific directions on what to do subsequent. Much more so with fights like The Sorrow.
The sport’s story of worldwide espionage set in opposition to the Kennedy period of US politics remains to be as blockbuster and foolish as ever. At the very least, since MGS 3 is the primary recreation within the timeline canonically, new gamers have half an opportunity of understanding what’s going on.
Whereas the visible improve isn’t on a par with one thing like BluePoint’s Demon’s Souls, Steel Gear Strong Delta: Snake Eater’s lush jungles look nice, and one of many recreation’s climactic scenes set in a subject of white flowers nonetheless stuns twenty years on. Character fashions seize the unique spirit of Yoji Shinkawa’s artwork, and convey the sport according to the extra real looking fashion established in MGS 5.
The sport’s iconic soundtrack is basically intact, save for the choice to rerecord the title observe, Snake Eater. Whereas Cynthia Harrell’s vocals are nonetheless imperious, the unique was excellent, so it looks like an odd determination. What makes it much more complicated is that the observe now not utterly syncs up with the oft-memed journey up the huge ladder.
Steel Gear Strong Delta: Snake Eater additionally consists of the charming minigame, Snake vs Monkey (or Bomberman on Xbox). It is a quick sideshow that sees Snake chase the solid of Ape Escape across the ranges of MGS 3. It’s very straightforward and also you most likely received’t play it greater than as soon as, however it’s value operating by it, particularly because it includes a cameo from one other PlayStation icon. A multiplayer mode will probably be launched later, free to gamers who personal Steel Gear Strong Delta: Snake Eater.
Steel Gear Strong Delta: Snake Eater is a gradual hand on the tiller of a franchise that has felt in mortal hazard for a while. It’s not mindblowing, however it’s an extremely comfy strategy to as soon as once more expertise a recreation that’s in so many gamers’ high 5 of all time.
The adjustments which have been made are good, and sometimes delicate, however little strays away from the North Star of the unique recreation. The query now turns into whether or not Konami continues with remakes, together with the much-requested Steel Gear Strong and MGS 2, or if it takes the boldness from this launch and parleys it into Steel Gear Strong 6.
Whereas we shudder to think about the completely exhausting, pointless discourse that will come up from persevering with Kojima’s story with out him, from a gameplay perspective, Steel Gear is as soon as once more in protected arms, and, for the primary time in a very long time, we’re excited to see what Konami does subsequent.
So long as the factor they do subsequent is free Steel Gear Strong 4 from the PS3.
