Does MGS Delta look good?

A virtual mission?

METAL GEAR SOLID 3 REMAKE IS REAL!

What a fear in my heart.

I can't believe it. Genuinely, I'm in disbelief. When it first happened, when we first saw it to the world, I was already in defensive disbelieving mode. I heard the rumours and the leaks said it was likely, but we'd heard similar rumours before and knew what came of those, so I was fully joking and deflecting when I first saw the trailer. Ants, I said, Well there's no Ants in Russia so it can't be- I just wasn't prepared. Not in the slightest. Not at all. That's probably why when it happened, in that moment slap-dash in the middle of yet another successful Sony Playstation showcase, I just kind of went "Oh right, it's real." When the music droped that made me squeal a little, but the thing wasn't real in my mind. Not until the trailer dropped again on Youtube and I could see, regardless of what Sony wants to show in their version of the trailer, that the game would be coming to Xbox, PC: The world was going to see it again. It would be centre stage one last time. That's when I cried.

A game can be so many different things to so many different people. It can be a source of escapism, of inspiration, of evocation, of frustration, of disappointment, of anger, of excitement. Some people find their sense of worth playing games, some people discover a whole new way to look at the world by playing other types of games. Some people are spurred to make their own games and tell their stories by participating in the industry of ours. Some people play that one game, the one which changes things for them, and find the course of their life irrevocably change. That last one is me and this game. Or rather, me and the original. Whether for better or for worse, for ill or health, it was the original 'Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater' which opened up the world of storytelling and set me on the path to be who I am today. Not sure how commendable that is, but there you go.

And it was a chance encounter. The only reason I ever played that game was from finding it in a box of Playstation 2 games that a brother of a work colleague of my father was getting rid of, console in tow, in their renouncement of gaming. (Hard to find the time for that sort of thing when you're in full time work, you understand.) In the box of magic, with maybe 30-40 different games in it, there was the entire 3D saga of Grand Theft Auto games (I'd played them before but never owned them) several high quality, and a few more lower quality, Simpson games that I would come to cherish, and many crazy and weird games that I never heard of before, and among the latter of that number was 'Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater'. Now I'd heard of Metal Gear before, and later I'd learn how I had played the original when I was very young and it's peculiarities had left a mark on me- but the franchise was still largely alien to the kid that I was. I played maybe 80% of everything else in that box before coming around to the game that would imprint on me the most.

Metal Gear Solid 3 was a game made by Hideo Kojima and his team, but the imprint of that game director is utterly unmistakable for anyone who knows it's hallmarks, which is why his name deserves to be proudly above the name of his games. Hideo Kojima is a man who believes himself to be made up of 80% movies, because that's how important of an effect that movies had on shaping who he became. And when he started making games he brought everything he'd learnt from engaging and learning from the world of movie making to a medium almost totally alien to it. Cinematography, composition, timing, tension, visual information, playing with colour- games of that age were only just starting to evolve past largely being passion projects by a bunch of computer nerds who had just got their break into the commercial sector. We were only just starting to get games made by specialists who had trained for this one job. Then along comes Kojima, an auteur, bringing cross-pollination talents from across the entire entertainment spectrum, and setting the mind of a fool like me alight with possibility in doing so.

Now we have his shadow, his remake, coming from an unspecified development studio and published by a disgraced former AAA developer who has been tumbling from grace ever since they killed this franchise off originally with the pathetically awful Metal Gear Survive. It's... well to be honest it's the kind of pedigree that I don't really want to pay any mind to, because doing so sullies what is otherwise one of the most exciting announcements of my gaming life. Yes, the Konami of the past were cynical and twisted, yes even after all these years this new version of MGS has no mention of Hideo Kojima's historic influence of this franchise in it's description or box-art and yes, that feels like a huge slap in the face. But it's Snake Eater... I'm willing to forgive so much if they'll just make sure it's good.

And to the credit of whoever it is that Konami has scrounged up to develop this game; this remake appears to be faithful to a fault. As in, every single screenshot released so far can be matched up directly to scenes and locations from the original, totally remade in a modern engine. This isn't like Resident Evil's Remakes, which inherit the locations and settings and creates something new from that foundation- this is near pixel perfect recreations from what we can tell. It almost feels as though Konami are afraid to change literally anything at all for fear of breaking that perfect magic that Kojima placed on the original with his seal of definition and yes- that game is pretty much impossible to improve upon. The story, the pacing, the characters, the cutscenes- all played to drum up the exact experience the original game was meant to evoke- Konami are right not to sully that. Although I wonder if they're too afraid to make any improvements beyond basic gameplay upgrades and the brand new engine. I adore MGS 3- but it already exists, I'd appreciate a new look with some sort of identity for itself.

Speaking of- this isn't Metal Gear Solid 3, now is it? No, this is Metal Gear Solid: 'DELTA'; a curious addendum that potentially elucidates the scheme of what Konami intend to do for their grand return to proper game development. Now 'Delta' is a 3 sided shape, thought to be in reference to the concept of 'change' and 'renewal' so it feels appropriate enough; but I think we can learn about what could be coming next. Doing away from the traditional numbering systems allows these games to be played in any order, and given that MGS 3 was originally set at the beginning of the Metal Gear timeline, we could be looking at a Metal Gear Remake franchise that takes us throughout the entire history in chronological order. From here to Peace Walker, then Phantom Pain quickly followed by 'Metal Gear Solid Alpha'- a remake of the original. Ending not with V, but with 'Metal Gear Solid Omega: Guns of the Patriots'; finally making that title the conclusion it was originally designed to be.

We don't have anything to go on for a release date so far. All we've been given are hopes and restless dreams to keep us up for the next few troublesome years. Well, there was a rerelease of the original three MGS games revealed for later this year (MGS 4 is still not getting a modern port, which at this point I can only assume means the original Source Code is lost and everyone is too embarrassed to announce that to the public) but as far as I can tell that addendum is only present on the Sony version of the trailer, so I assume that's more Playstation favouritism from Konami. Still, at least the real game, at least 'Snake Eater' itself, is going to get the chance to dust off those cobwebs, slap on that Tuxedo, sneak a cheeky little tree frog in it's lunch box and go out to dance at the centre stage of Prom night for one incredible resurgence. Consider me shook, and grateful. Thank you Konami... now don't screw it up or else we will never let you or your company have a moment of peace in this industry again.

Pulling from the past

 Burn the past.

We've touched on this before, but given the increasing success of remakes over the brand newly conceptualised titles of the current year, I can't help but ponder the idea of remakes and their place within the world of modern gaming more and more. I mean just look at the past few AAA titles to come out: Jedi Survivor, Hogwarts Legacy, Redfall- all terribly broken and buggy at launch, a few broken far beyond repair. (But still those developers want to try and stick with it, because people don't know when to put down a lame horse anymore I guess.) And then look at the AAA titles that were remakes which launched around about the same time. Resident Evil 4, Dead Space- fantastically reviewed, beloved titles that few people have anything substantively bad to report about. And yes, The Last of Us Part 1 has it's place in there, shill cash grab of a remake that was, but right now it's the exception rather than the rule.

Given recent empirical data it would seem we've rubbed up against that wall of compounding development teams and costs- where the vast ambition of the final products simply can't be met within development windows. Of course, Redfall had something else clearly going on that we've yet to uncover as a community, but for the most part the issues are bare and obvious; games can only feasibly get so big without it reflecting badly against the typical time to develop. Just as how big high-CGI Marvel movies simply can't be pushed out in such close proximity as they have been over the past two years without crimes against visual design coming out the pipe-line, giant games can't be cobbled together to working order in that old 2-3 year cycle that our industry loves to tout. Especially not in the present when every other game and it's mother wants to be the new 'biggest game ever'.

Whatever happened to nailing a simple premise for all to love in some small degree? Picking a niche, taking an idea, and expanding on that to it's core-most ideal- providing some small experience unlike anything else available to the masses? No, now we have to make everything a grand open world sweeping adventure that shoots it's players giant fully-developed narratives, side games, meta games and an online competitive scene. Every new game has to be the 'next generation of open world games', so giant it will swallow up your entire life and leave you a gasping husk of an empty human, totally devoid of any personal thought and drive. Which is... I mean is that a good thing? Yeah... yeah I'm sure that's the natural endgame everyone yearns for. We all want that GTA Online money, right? The money to literally buy our own Cayman island and live away from society for the rest of our natural lives. Not that the developers would ever that kind of money even if they could make those sorts of games.

So instead of focusing on the big new releases and their unrestrained ambition, we can instead look inwards to the influences of those games. The incredible confined yet polished stories that inspired the developers of today back when they had free time and hopes for the future, to pursue game design themselves that they one day might create something as special with their own hands to inspire a new generation some day. Resident Evil 4 revolutionised it's franchise and third person action games, so let's get back to that. Dead Space refreshed the horror scene with a new almost lovecraftian-meets-body-horror take. (Lovecraft actually is a bit body horror on it's own, now I think about it.) And if we're to take the rumours and 'leaks' of the past few weeks, this trend is only going to extend in the years to come as what was old is destined to become new again.

The most obvious example to pull from would be Persona 3 and it's long rumoured and recently leaked remake which is being worked on at ATLUS. (Allegedly.) Using the meteoric momentum built up by the explosion of the Persona franchise in popularity and funnelling it towards a game that many of the die hard fans still consider to be an unsung masterpiece. Using a story framework that exists, developing within that constraint and punching up everything around it to a mouth watering degree- the winning formula of all these recent remakes. Of course, I would personally also push for some narrative rewrites and reworks to incorporate some of the elements that weren't so well explored in the original, as well as a total restructuring of all Social Links to not be quite so... limiting. But it's a product with a pre-existing fanbase and a perceived quality attributed to it- you won't see remakes of failed games to try and fix what was broken, but retreads to capture that post glory and share it out for the crowd. 

Just as what would be the case with Knights of the Old Republic, if that remake ever ends up actually being made. A game that already had a smaller audience than your typical Star Wars fare simply by warrant of it being an RPG in the vein of DnD; but which has a place of honour for how it retold and remixed a familiar Star Wars narrative formula and played on audience expectation in a way they didn't anticipate. To this day fans yearn for a day when KOTOR could be reintroduced back into the canon, with all of it's fan favourite characters and lore tidbits largely intact; and that's the promise that this remake would have provided. More than a proposed adaptation either in film or movie; a remake would have been the perfect way to bring back what fans loved whilst heralding the modern world of Star Wars who had only heard of this apex of creation into picking up the, presumably decently more accessible this time around, port.

And now, I can say this with a bit of excitement once again, there's the Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake. Yes, apparently it's actually happening this time around, no take-backsies, for real-reals. After Konami demonstrated how pathetically incapable they are at carrying on the Metal Gear franchise by themselves, and to even hold their own in  a market that roundly hates them, remaking MGS3 is kind of like a last ditch attempt to score nostalgia points. Using the masterful work of Kojima for their advantage and almost certainly without his involvement overseeing it all. But by god is it a good choice. Even as a cynical ploy I can't help it- MGS 3 is literally my favourite game of all- I have to get excited about this. Even knowing I'm being manipulated, there's not a damn thing I can do about and that irks me to absolutely no end.

We can see the strings of what a Remake does to us, but what I find just fascinating is the way it lays the bodywork for the best games of this generation. As if the sheer over-ambition of modern games is what scuppers them, and by following a simpler framework from a more sensible time, new games can be created to that impeccable standard the AAA market has established for itself. What was starting to become a begrudging reality of the industry is steadily becoming it's sole saviour, and I for one welcome our new remake overlords as long as they don't start getting lazy with it- oh wait, the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters just dropped with their boring unified UI design and ugly text proportions- well there goes the new standard!