Almost a decade after his acrimonious departure from Konami, the shadow of Hideo Kojima still looms over Metal Gear Solid. He's there, barely camouflaged, in the undergrowth of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater - a remake of the fifth MGS game, originally released in 2004, which tells the tale of a lone US special operator hunting superweapons and old mentors in the jungles of the southern Soviet Union. I say "remake" but this feels more like a re-release, in spirit.
True, it now runs on Unreal Engine, with the option of a manual, third-person perspective and cover-shooter controls in addition to the old top-down viewpoints. Yes, it boasts new flourishes, such as wounds now leaving scars, and clothes picking up stray leaves. Yes, there's a new interface with floating in-world menus, which makes shuffling between the layers a bit less awkward.
It's the product of much labour, with development split between Konami and external support partner Virtuos. But where Konami's other big restoration project, Bloober's Silent Hill 2 remake , is a creative dialogue with the original game , Delta seems consumed by faithfulness to Kojima's original design. I've replayed the first hour of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater more than that of any other game, struggling to extract a perfect run from its dorky camouflage systems, which let you switch up clothes and facepaint instantly while lying right under an enemy's nose.
Playing an hour of Delta felt like just another crack at the prize: res.