Metal Gear Solid 3: Delta Cash Grab or Evolution?

By Angel Vizcarra

Image From PlayStation Store

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is a video game that was released on November 17, 2004, on the PlayStation 2, this game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment and designed by none other than Hideo Kojima, who is a well known and often celebrated video game writer/designer.  

The game takes place during the Cold War and serves as a prequel to the previous games. A man under the code name Naked Snake is placed in a soviet jungle where he doesn't have any materials or weapons to keep him safe and for him to survive, he must use his environment.  

You have to hunt for food, find your own medicine, heal yourself, and go undetected throughout the forest to survive. Naked Snakes’ main goal is to save a scientist who was captured, and find out about a secret weapon that the Soviets are building to destroy it.  

This game is one of my personal favorites video games of all time and it is considered to be one of the most influential video games of all time because of how ahead of time it was with its gameplay, storytelling, and the games cutscenes that often felt like watching a movie, and It left its legacy and was a third installment of a legendary series. It has been nominated for many awards and won some too. This trilogy became one of the most iconic franchises in gaming history. 

When I first played Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 8 years later after its release I was about 5 years old playing on my brothers PlayStation 3 I could not help but enjoy it. It was a mix of intense stealth and survival gameplay with amazing Easter eggs and iconic cutscenes.  

13 years after I played it for the first time and 20 years after its official release the long awaited remake has been released on August 26, 2025. Fans of the Metal Gear Solid franchise were anxiously waiting because they didn’t know if this was a genuine passion project or a quick cash grab that has been occurring with these remakes, it's been common for movies, games, and shows to be remade but it doesn't feel the same when they either change the cast or change a few aspects of the original story. 

 Many fans were worried that it would potentially ruin the franchise even more since Konami fired Hideo Kojima, and released a horrible game called Metal Gear Survive which was a zombie game that made no sense to be in the franchise in the first place. Another reason why fans were worried was because Konami decided to switch to mobile games and abandon console gaming throughout the years.  

Now that the game is out, it has been a well received video game that sold a lot of copies during the first day of release, I think it is time to compare these two games together and see which one is better overall. The question for this side by side comparison is Konami going to stay true to Hideo Kojima’s work, or will this be a modern cash grab that has blinded its audience with nostalgia? 

Graphics

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In 2004 Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater pushed the PlayStation 2 to its limits with its effects and insane amount of features in the game. I remember playing the PlayStation 3 version which was amazing for its time but now going back to playing the same game with modern day standards it feels super dated.  

Because the characters are super stiff, graphics seem very blurry, and controls are janky which isn’t shocking considering how old this game is. It doesn't matter how bad the graphics are in modern times its artistic direction still stands strongly for me.  

What I mean by the artistic direction, is the way the characters are modeled, they are not hyper realistic, they are more stylized and somewhat cartoonish. In this new remake Konami now has the technology to make a hyper realistic Metal Gear Solid game, this has its pros and cons.  

It can make specific aspects of the game that are meant to be funny seem more serious and end up feeling off but the pro of this hyper realistic gameplay is now I feel more immersed in the stealth and the survival aspects which makes it a bit more entertaining. The PlayStation 2 and 3 also have horrible resolutions compared to our current gen consoles which contribute to the graphics being better in the remake. 

The reason why I feel so much more immersed in the new hyper realistic style of the game is because of the environment. When the rain, mud puddles, water, trees, and tall grass all come together, it becomes a playground of stealth. Also, it makes the survival aspect of the game more alive.  

I like how the old Metal Gear Solid boss fights were memorable by the antagonist characteristics and traits but now in the newer ones it carries not only the traits of the characters but enhances the graphics making them more visually pleasing and even more iconic. 

Now in this new game, we can see that the technology has also increased not just by the graphics but how the game’s technical ability can go it making the old Metal Gear Solid technology look like child’s play. 

Now we see the increased physics systems with how differently the water reacts to the player or how crawling through grass affects the ground around it. This also adds to the amazing immersion of being in a stealthy environment. We can also tell that all the voice actors stayed the same, but they did add some new lines, they even added a few secret cutscenes.  

Game Mechanics

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Another aspect I have mentioned before about Metal Gear Solid is how amazing its stealth mechanics are, it is not just hiding in the shadows or crawling through tall grass. In this game you would have to hunt animals to get stamina, apply camouflage that matches your environment to stay stealthier, and you must actively make sure your character is not hurt, so you must manually recover by healing those wounds.  

These mechanics are what made the game so evolutionary back then but now in the modern remake there is a mechanic to see the scars on the earlier wounds you had, so it is very cool to see all the times you have been hurt. Also, enemy AI has improved to become smarter, with more enhanced hearing and sight, and faster alert response.  

Since the AI has become better, this only makes the game a bit harder, but it also brings out the best since it raises the stakes which makes it more fun and challenging. This makes the immersion of stealth so much better. In the original game, the enemy AI was a bit slower than it is now with slower reaction time, buggy eyesight, and a harder time detecting where the main character is.  

They also improved other mechanics in the game, like the speed of the character, better animations to fit the hyper realistic models, and a new photo mode that they just added for people to get more creative and take pictures of their gameplay.  

Another new aspect of the remake is that there is more accessibility that fits modern gaming, with more options for remapping the controller, and even color vision correctness. But the most important mechanic and one of my favorite additions to the game is that it finally came out with a new optional setting with modern controls with the option to have the old controls which helps make the combat way smoother with better shooting and fighting mechanics. 

I like this setting the most because I always hated the old controls of the first game and although it’s not much of a big deal I still can appreciate the effort to make it more modernized, and it really makes it feel like it was released for the first time again.  

They are also working on a new multiplayer game mode called Fox Hunt, and it will be a hide and seek with more intense elements and leans into stealth with the camouflage making it so much more fun. 

Conclusion

Image From PlayStation Store

Now, like I said in my personal play of Metal Gear Solid Three Snake Eater, which is the original, I had lots of fun and even now it still manages to keep me entertained even though it does not fit modern-day expectations.  

And now that the remake is out, and I have played it, it still manages to keep the original story at heart, and it does not feel rushed with everything new about it, but it's preferred that way because of how amazing the story is.  

Not only does it make it easier for new players to come and pick the game up, but it also manages to keep the old players happy, and it keeps all the little Easter eggs and story the same. And now this begs the question, Did Konami stick to Hideo Kojima’s direction, or did they strip the elements away from what made this game good and turn it into some quick cash grab? 

Personally, I would say they kept it true and remade this game with passion, and it shows how much they stuck to the roots of Hideo Kojima's story, and how they stuck to their roots of technical ability, and even added more things for players to enjoy.  

Personally, I love this new game, I wanted to leave my nostalgia bias before playing this and it surpasses the original game, everything is almost similar but now more modern like how the only difference is the graphics and the higher technology put into the game. 

Playing this game feels like a present to Metal Gear Solid Fans.