A virtual mission?
So we live in an age where Metal Gear Solid is being reived, very slowly, by the work of Konami, a company that many believed had left the 'real' game industry some time ago. What could Konami possible do to get itself back into the good graces of gamers after- let's see here... whoring out Metal Gear, Castlevania and any other franchise they owned to Pachinko parlours? Whew, that's a toughie to fix- what do they have planned? Oh right, they're going to try and remake a franchise synonymous with legendary game director 'Hideo Kojima' only without his input at all. Which is... questionable. When Konami last tried to continue the franchise without him we got Metal Gear Survive, an entry so bizarrely out-of-left field that even Kojima himself couldn't resist making a sly jab at the nonsensical zombie survival spin-off title- professional curtesy be damned! How's that turning out for them?
After months of teasing and an extremely questionable port of the original Metal Gear Games which I've touched upon, we finally have footage of the new Metal Gear Solid 3 in action. Xbox took the opportunity to show the thing off, presumably to affirm to those unaware that this is actually coming to Xbox and they won't be mounting another sordid 'L' on their wall for missing what could be the most exciting remake of the current generation. (Now that KOTOR has ghosted us all.) And the game looks- well it looks remade! Blushing foliage, verdant jungle tufts, bristles of ambient critters and creatures tucked in every nook and cranny, spanking new high quality textures- what more could you want for from your Metal Gear game? Well, fans apparently found a bunch of stuff they wanted more.
For one the trailer has somehow managed to develop MGS Delta a reputation for being 'unfaithful' to the source material, despite the fact my biggest gripe is the game being too faithful and thus being unable to justify it's existence. But having heard the actual gripes themselves I've come away with a rounder view, but first I have to dust off my Metal Gear 3 expert badge for a second. (For context, in my teens I was such an expert on Metal Gear Solid 3 that I regularly competed in Online trivia contests and ranked number one in the country and top ten in the world. I was a nerd. Am.) First off, people have complained about Snake's model, how strange he looks without a bandanna and the lack of colour grading present within the trailer.
Snake's model in the original Metal Gear Solid 3 was a slightly reworked version of his Metal Gear Solid 2 skin, even though those were technically different characters. (I know: Cloning and all that stuff, but still.) Snake in MGS 2 was a veteran of what he did, whilst MGS 3's Snake is a skilled operative cutting his teeth on his first proper mission. There's an aura of youthful naivety and fresh-faced optimism which the narrative delights in stamping out with prejudice, and for this I actually applaud the slightly younger looking modern face model. As for the missing Bandanna- umm... all the shots of Snake in the trailer take place during the Virtuous Mission before Operation Snake Eater even begins. (we can tell by the fact that every location he visits takes place before Rassvet in the day time, and in Operation Snake Eater we only get to travel those same sections at night.) That's how it is in the original, suck it up. As for the colour grading, that is more of an interesting topic.
Colour Grading is a largely completely ignored metric whenever it comes to these remakes. It seems that in the pursuit of ultimate 'fidelity', topics like 'artistic intent' get brushed into the wayside. It was the same way in the 'The Last of Us Remaster', which borrowed the same palette from Last of Us without considering the way that visual change would affect the mood of an emotionally different story. As people pointed out, Metal Gear Solid 3's original colour grading brought out the rusty oranges and leafy yellows in the world, leaning into that 60's style theme which gives Metal Gear the same art-language as Connery-era Bond films. We've not seen a great deal of the sorts of environments that would benefit best from this sort of grading, although Rassvet itself, which we do see, should gave patches of it that appear to be absent. So we can assume the worst.
One complaint which furrowed the old brow was the editing of the trailer, whereupon some have grumpily stated how you can tell it's not a Kojima project from the lacklustre editing. >Sigh< so now I'm back on the defence. Firstly, Yes- Kojima has an incredible cinematic eye when it comes to trailer composition that is shared by... as far as I've see literally no other Japanese game maker alive. (Japanese game trailers are either bad or serviceable.) But this- was not a trailer. It's a gameplay showcase. I challenge those same people to go back and look at the Gameplay showcases for those old Kojima-era games, like I've been doing as part of my research. Spoiler- they're awkward and janky! That's just always been the style of Metal Gear when it comes to gameplay. It's more important to show off what you can do than to lay out the foundations of the gripping narrative, that critique should be saved for the story trailer debut. (And on that day you best bet I'll be cussing!)
And then there's the rather bizarre complaint that nothing new is being shown. That one is my own. Again, a Remake is a chance to start again, go a different direction and blow people away in a new manner. Resident Evil 4 captures the idea of the original but is nothing like it, and that's why we love it! Demon Souls is identical to it's original game in all but graphical prowess and it borrows that original's many sins as well. (Demon King fight, namely.) There's so much Metal Gear Solid Delta could do that the original could never dream of! Imagine redesigning The Fear so that rather than being a fairly easy boss arena encounter he becomes a persistent menace who hounds you through the woods, peppering you with poison darts in places you think you're safe. That's possible, transformative and new. Please Konami, just try to do something a little new!
At the end of the day I want this game to absolutely slap because I love Metal Gear and I want more people to love it too. It seems there are people out there so upset with Konami that they want to sink this game in protest, which I understand, but what if this game is good? What if it's really good? What if it lands good, sells good, and then Konami see that and say "Wait a minute, what are we doing ignoring the actual game market? What are we doing leaving the Metal Gear franchise in the dust? What are we doing commissioning a Silent Hill Interactive TV show?" (It's probably too late to fix that last one, but we can still make them think about it!) I'd rather be the guy bathing himself in ignorance juice and being happy in the shower, rather than sweat it out trying to pick holes from far across the release date line. Chill, everybody, our time to tear it apart will come.
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