Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake - Why would you do this?

Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake – Why would you do this?

There will be a Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake. And while it follows the series’ tradition of having a very stupid-sounding name, I ain’t happy, and here is why.


Ever since rumors of a Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake started making the rounds I’ve had an uneasy feeling in my stomach. Partly because I’m miserable about one of my favorite franchises but mostly because I don’t trust Konami.

Seeing some folks getting all excited about it and the Silent Hill 2 remake by Bloober Team just makes this feeling worse.

And it really gets to me that all it takes to stoke the excitement for gamers are pretty but inferior recreations of a few iconic visuals. Seriously, is an HD render of Naked Snake’s face mud-smeared enough to convince you all?

Who is the Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake for?

I have not forgotten the MGS3 Pachinko Machine, Metal Gear Survive or when they scrubbed Hideo Kojima’s name from all subsequent releases.

Or just the entire thing that lead to Kojima being fired from Konami in 2015 just days after the release of Metal Gear Solid V.

Since then, “fans of the series” had a complicated relationship with its creator. He is either the smartest man in gaming with a library to back up that claim or a pretentious hack who lived on the laurels of his team.

His first game after the ousting from Konami, Death Stranding was as divisive as a game could ever be and probably the reason why “true fans of Metal Gear” have been clamming for this remake or a return of the franchise in a big way.

Especially Metal Gear Solid 3, the one Remake everyone wanted. The game so explicitly gave up on the broader vision of its predecessors and was desperate to be loved by its fans after the perceived failure of MGS2

It’s the crowd-pleaser. And that’s the reason why it’s back.

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Metal Gear Solid, The Series That Hates You

The reason for this extended rant is not that I don’t want people to be happy with their funny video game. It is just that out of all the games to pick, all the series’ to revive. It is Metal Gear Solid.

A franchise that had turned from a heartfelt attempt to make some grandiose statements about society, games as art, and the way we consume media into a self-deprecating horrorshow.

We all know from interviews that the series’ creators’ relationship with the franchise had slowly turned into misery by the time production on MGS3 wrapped. You only need to play Guns of the Patriots to get a sense of it.

The Metal Gear Solid franchise is a series of games that have turned into a silent scream of agony from its creator. But fans wanted more Metal Gear and the publisher wanted to squeeze that cash cow as hard as they could.

It was not all bad, but looking back at the series now after reading countless interviews and stories about their development there is a sort of guilt that comes from enjoying them.

If you have ever liked these games but never understood the messages they tried to convey, that’s fine. You can still like the iconic characters and moments that make the series what it is.

But I will ask you to at least reevaluate Metal Gear Solid as a product, sold by Konami in 2023. So here is a nice little thread by twitter-user @WeAreJoel that documents their sins (only the ones around the MGSV release).

So about Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater

Even if all of this doesn’t interest you because let’s be real I’m just a weirdo on the internet being weirdly passionate about the funny game with the Snakeman wearing an alligator head. I want to talk about what was shown today.

We saw a pre-rendered trailer that means basically nothing and just showed off a bunch of pre-rendered assets with a bird flying through, as well as a title drop, and later Konami showed some screenshots.

While there is the thinly veiled promise of the “original voice characters” returning, which could mean anything from re-recording all the lines or just reusing the original recording.

The screenshots themselves are also a little icky. While the four screenshots shown are 1-1 replicas of the original locations there is just something off about them.

metal gear solid 3 remake konami

metal gear solid 3 remake konami

For example, the weird clash of PS2 era level design and (probably) photo-scanned assets in the image above.

metal gear solid delta

metal gear solid delta

How just weird the reflections are rendered in this one.

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The inconsistency in textures and models here. Just look at the tree to the right and the stones and mud next to it. They don’t really look like they share the same production values.

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Fw7KT0YakAAYna4

Or the fact that the soldiers shown in 3 of the 4 pictures look exactly the same and strike the same pose. I’m miserable, so don’t take me overanalyzing these things for the gospel.

But paired with a lackluster trailer that you could technically cobble together in Unreal Engine given some time and budget. I hope you understand my caution. I’ve been hurt before and I don’t want you to suffer the same thing.

All of these screenshots look awfully staged and more “proof of concept” than actual in-game material. I don’t trust it because, so far the entire game gives me The Day Before vibes, but maybe I’m just seeing things.

And the fact that they haven’t announced yet who is responsible for this remake, rumors say that this remake is produced by Virtuos who have been assisting on everything from Call of Duty to League of Legends.

But it’s odd they wouldn’t announce such a big project. It’s more likely that the game is being produced in-house at Konami instead.

Konami promised the usual nebulous buzz-words such as “faithful to the original” and “evolving the gameplay”. Which could mean anything at this point.

So before you pre-order or act like this is the greatest thing ever, wait for a demo or some gameplay that isn’t some highly curated trailer by a company that has no issues digging up the corpses of beloved IPs.

And before some of you now start demanding that they’ll remake Castlevania (again) as some kind of God of War rip-off (again) let me leave you with one nugget of wisdom:

All the people who made all the video games you loved from Konami have gone elsewhere. Corporations don’t make games, people do.

And visit us here on ESTNN for more existential rants about games and the latest in gaming and esports.

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