It’s been less than a year since Konami released the game Metal Gear Solid: Master Collectioncompilation that allows the first five games in the series to be playable on state-of-the-art hardware. This uncomplicated availability isn’t something that’s taken for granted, as the industry doesn’t put much stock in preserving games. However, the collection’s technical limitations and lack of modernization have left some fans skeptical.
MGS Delta: Snake Eaterreworked version Metal Gear Solid 3is a different approach. “There’s a whole new generation of gamers who aren’t familiar with Metal gears “series,” Konami producer Noriaki Okamura told me at a recent game preview event. Bringing the series to a modern audience, he said, was an exercise in “drawing the line between what we should and shouldn’t change to make sure it’s modern but still nostalgic.”
The changes are mostly cosmetic. Konami’s presentation at the game’s hands-on event in London focused on the fact that 1920s technology could create vastly improved facial expressions and foliage; so yes, Snake grimacing in the jungle looks great. The control system has also been updated for modern sensibilities, but the classic system is preserved for the dedicated or curious.
One of the mechanical additions is permanent damage. If Snake is shot, that scar will stay with him for the entire game. I’m a fan of the concept, but I haven’t seen how far it will go. Playing the game’s opening mission, Virtuous, I have to admit that my not-so-sly Snake was shot multiple times, but I didn’t notice anything distinctive beyond the persistent blood stains.
As for what remains the same, Okamura says Konami “definitely didn’t want to change any part of the story or the world.” MGS3 one of his favorite games. But it’s not a decision without a bit of defensiveness: When Okamura was asked why the story still held personal meaning for him and fans in general after 20 years, he didn’t answer directly, instead emphasizing that Konami “recognizes that some of the language in the game may be antiquated.” the same caveat which appears in Master Collection also appears at the beginning Delta.
The outdated elements “have been included without change to preserve the historical context in which the game was created and the creator’s original vision,” the disclaimer reads. Okamura also tells me directly that they have been left in “out of respect for the original creator.” And to be clear, I have no problem with the decision to keep the narrative as is, nor with including the disclaimer. The repeated references to Metal gears writer and director Hideo Kojima, although his last name is not mentioned, are more interesting.
Remakes and remasters are made without the original creators all the time, but games in general rarely have the level of intense perceived authorship of the Metal Gear series. And yet, based on my memories of playtesting, unlike MGS3, Delta doesn’t call itself a “Hideo Kojima game.” (I tried to clarify this with Konami PR, but they didn’t respond.) That’s fair; hundreds of people worked on the game Delta and Hideo Kojima didn’t do it directly. (He’s still credited multiple times for his work in 3.) Some of Delta team actually worked on the Metal Gear series before, including Okamura himself. And yet even Konami can’t escape the mythologizing of Kojima, the “creator” — singular — whose Delta must be respected.
It’s been almost 10 years since Konami shut down the original Kojima Productions. In addition to Master Collectionthe only version of Metal Gear was Metal Gear Survive, which was poorly received and apparently had disappointing sales results. Okamura says that the lesson Konami took from the experience is to ask “what do fans really want and what should we be offering them?”
Image: Konami
The answer, implicitly, is that fans want what Kojima and his team have created. And when it comes to that question, I think Delta is a good way to give them that. It’s very close to the original, right down to the reuse of voice lines, and where things have changed, the modernization feels tactful. The designers’ goal is to provide returning players with a nostalgia boost while faithfully allowing new players to enter the series in a similar way, and it probably succeeds. The inclusion of options like classic controls is also valuable, and this design seems more likely to attract new fans to the series than Master CollectionHaving both solutions available is generally a “best of both worlds” situation when it comes to protecting your game.
Ultimately, however, Konami using games made by a studio it closed down is not a charitable offering passed on without the constraints of a platonic concept of a fan. “What fans want” is a nicer term than “what people will spend money on,” but it is also an obvious synonym. At first DeltaSnake says he is committed to the “president and top management.” If they are replaced, no problem. “I follow the will of the leader, no matter who is in charge.” Similarly, it probably doesn’t matter to most people who uses Deltaexistence.
But in the ongoing culture of remakes—in the way art is locked away in IP so executives can endlessly squeeze it, and in the massive cascade of layoffs and studio closures over the past few years—the tension between who created something and who gets to benefit from what’s been recreated is only likely to grow. Given that MGS3 was chosen as the entrance for the new generation Metal gears players, being the first in the series chronologically, this likely won’t be the only time Konami’s developers find themselves in such a situation. And in that broader context, no matter how respectful Delta means that this tension will continue to occur.
Disclosure: This article is based on a preview event hosted by publisher Konami in London, England on August 12th. Konami provided Polygon’s travel and accommodations for the event. Additional information on Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.
