Remember when video games were meant to be fun? No, me neither. As I grow increasingly excited about an Unreal Engine 5 remake of one of my favorite stealth titles of all time that’s coming to the PS5 Pro, I “might” have done something stupid. And by “stupid” I actually mean “torturous."
The Pro Enhanced game in question that I’m getting my y-fronts in a twist over is Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Being developed in partnership between Konami and Virtuos, it’s a comprehensive remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which was first released for the PS4 back on November 17, 2004.
Though I and a whole lot of my fellow MGS fans online were initially skeptical about Delta when it was first announced, subsequent trailers and screenshots have really made me do a double take on a project I initially viewed as a grubby money grab. Not now, though.
Every time I look at this remake it becomes more eye-arousing. Based on the footage that came out of this year’s Gamescom event in Cologne, I think it’s one of the most eye-arousing Unreal Engine 5 games I’ve clamped my corneas on yet.
Konami has already told future PS5 Pro owners what to expect from the prosumer PlayStation version of its stealthy remake shortly after Sony announced the console.
Writing on the PlayStation Blog, Yuji Korekado, who is Creative Producer at Konami, said: “In Metal Gear Solid Delta, the innovative PSSR technology allows for the trees and the lush vegetation of the game’s iconic jungle terrain to become more vivid, and enhances the sense of realism of infiltrating through a natural environment.”
Snake's eyes
Korkado added that he and his team will be able “to deliver a smoother gameplay experience with better framerates throughout the entire game.” While I’m not expecting Delta to run at 120 fps on the Pro, I’m certainly hoping the $699 console's AI-driven PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) can deliver 4K/60 fps gameplay.
Annoyingly, Metal Gear Solid Delta doesn’t actually have a release date beyond “2024”, which is somewhat worrying considering we’re already into the first week of November at time of writing. So as I impatiently wait to get back into Naked Snake’s sneaky shoes on my PS5 Pro, which should hopefully arrive on my doorstep when it launches on November 7, I decided to go back to the Metal Gear Master Collection Vol 1 for my MGS3 fix.
That was my first mistake.
Alright, in fairness the Master Collection has improved a lot since I called it “one of the most disgraceful video game releases in years”. Tell us what you really think, Meiksy.
Recently, Konami has finally patched in an additional screen settings option that finally allows you to play the sneak ‘em up at your monitor or laptop’s screen’s native resolution. At launch, every Metal Gear entry in the bundle was locked to a grim 720p on PC. It was only through the work of selfless modders that PC gamers could play the Collection at 4K shortly after release, and almost a full year before the official Konami fix — and even then the patch only applies to MGS2 and MGS3.
Master of none
Tech issues aside, I’ve been stuck on an especially specific (and brutal) playthrough of Snake Eater for actual months at this point. Yet thanks to the latest MGS Delta trailer, I couldn’t resist diving back in the classic espionage adventure to try and earn the only two Steam Achievements I hadn’t unlocked from the Master Collection port of MGS3 (for context, there are 58 in total).
Hoo-boy attempting to obtain the “FOXHOUND” achievement has been roughly as enjoyable as chowing down on a big plate of spaghetti and meatballs… only replace the meatballs with shards of glass. It’s the second least-earned achievement according to Steam’s records, with only 2.1% of players unlocking a virtual pat on the back that simply requires you to “Earn the title of FOXHOUND”. No biggie, right?
Wrong. So painfully, hopelessly wrong.
If this piece gets comments, I suspect they’ll be of the “git gud” variety. And if you have unlocked the FOXHOUND Steam Achievement, more power to you. Anyone who makes it ping on Steam it is an undoubted sultan of stealth.
I’ve finished Metal Gear Solid 3 more times than I can count — I think the number is close to 20, which definitely isn’t a decision I’m going to regret on my deathbed. Yet despite knowing this subversive stealth masterpiece inside out, the following requirements for unlocking the FOXHOUND trinket will hopefully explain why this ultra-precise playthrough has been torturing me for months…
- Complete the game on Extreme difficulty mode.
- Finish in under 5 hours.
- Use 0 continues. Yes, ZERO.
- Don't trigger a single alert.
- Never take life medicine (the game's healing item).
- Take 10 life bars of damage or less.
- Save less than 25 times.
- Don't use special times (like the infinite ammo EzGun).
Burnt out
Ouch.
There’s a lot to unpack there. But the biggies are “no continues” and “no health medicine”.
I’ve been playing this game since I was 19 years old, and now, terrifyingly, I’m 39. Two decades’ worth of muscle memory does something to you. In this, extremely obsessive case, it means I can slip through Snake’s Cold War era Russian jungles, swamps, mountain ranges and military bases like a fox that’s stolen the Predator’s invisiblity tech, then decided to eat every piece of poultry in the hen house without leaving a trace.
But lordy, having to reload an old save every time you do get spotted, or worse, take a fatal beating from one of Snake Eater’s cabal of ingenious boss battles on Extreme difficulty; damn that sh*t stings.
It’s having to learn and replay large sections of the game to get around that “25 saves or less” factor coupled with just how hard The Cobras fights are on Extreme that’s really taken its toll. I started this FOXHOUND run on January 21. Almost 10 months later, I’ve still not finished this exercise in torment.
I’ve probably been a bit stingy when it comes to those saves, in fairness. I’ve used exactly 10 of my allocated 25, with my last one coming on October 3; my playthrough comfortably under the 5 hour mandated mark at precisely “0003:30:39”, according to Snake Eater’s Storage Device load menu.
And that’s where I’m currently stuck: on a truly hideous boss battle against the game’s main antagonist, Colonel Volgin. Picture a muscle-bound, heavily scarred Russian with lightning hands in an MCU suit and you’re basically there.
I must have lost to him well over a dozen times at this point. When you can't heal yourself and are stuck with the obscenely small health bar Extreme mode leaves Snake with, taking a single hit can be fatal.
Fight or fry
Make no mistake, Vulgin is miserable to fight on Extreme. I know his attacks like the back of my increasingly infuriated hand. I can now put him in a CQC chokehold, knock him to the ground, then fire three tranq rounds into his ribs as casually as I flick my kettle on in the morning. The trouble is, a couple of attacks are sooooo hard to avoid. Like the one where he starts spraying bullets from his finger.
Worse? That would be when he starts to electrify random areas of the claustrophobic fighting pit the scrap takes place in during the second part of the fight.
Honestly, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve fallen to the fists of Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin. I know I’ve essentially got to finish the fight without taking a hit, and that prospect currently makes me feel a little sick.
Even though my playtime “officially” reads at under four hours, I must have spent 10 times that relearning large stretches of the game so that I could drag myself to an Elden Ring level boss fight… minus the crutch of being able to slurp down on those delicious Flask of Crimson Tears.
By the time I eventually beat Volgin, get my FOXHOUND achievement, and put this way too obsessive playthrough in the rearview, the PS6 will probably be out.
