‘Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater’ Review: A Disappointing Return to a Groundbreaking Entry

After the departure of legendary game designer Hideo Kojima from Konami in 2015, fans of the Metal Gear Solid franchise assumed we would never get another installment again. Contrary to that belief, Konami has returned to the franchise with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, a faithful remake of the groundbreaking PS2 title from 2004.

This review contains spoilers for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater follows Naked Snake (David Hayter), later to be known as “Big Boss”, as he ventures into the Russian jungle to stop the construction of a new advanced nuclear weapon: the Shagohod. On this mission, he must rescue the chief scientist of the project, while taking out Colonel Volgin (Neil Ross), the Cobra Unit (Gregg Berger, Michael Bell, Grant Albrecht, Richard Doyle, David Thomas), and his former mentor and maternal figure, The Boss (Lori Alan).

Metal Gear Solid is, without a doubt, one of the most beloved franchises in all of gaming. After the controversial way Konami fired their golden child, Hideo Kojima, it was assumed that if we ever got another entry again, it wouldn’t hold up to the Kojima standard. They were right (sort of). Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is an incredibly faithful remake of the 2004 Metal Gear Solid entry, perhaps, too faithful, given the original had performance issues; however, the remake’s constant frame rate stuttering is a lot less forgivable in 2025. In a modern gaming landscape where it feels like a godsend if a new AAA game runs at a stable 60fps on current consoles, it makes it all the more upsetting when one of your favorite franchises falls victim to a current industry curse: poor performance. 

I played Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater on my base model PS5 in Performance mode, and it was a miserable experience at times, to say the least. In anticipation of this remake, I played the original Snake Eater through the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection earlier this year. While that also had performance issues at launch, they were fixed in the following year. However, I don’t want to wait a year for a game I spent $86.79 on to run correctly. It’s somewhat ironic, considering that another Konami remake, released less than a year ago, Silent Hill 2, was also plagued by performance issues and still runs poorly at times. All of this makes me worried for Silent Hill f in the following weeks. 

Now, the visuals of the remake are absolutely stunning, and the cutscenes are just as well-directed as I remember from Kojima’s original vision, with some of the newly added mechanics being a welcome addition as well. This time around, you can crouch run like in The Phantom Pain, and change your camouflage on the fly, making blending into environments easier while you take out Russian soldiers. My issues with this game stem from its performance on the base model PS5. The cutscenes, as previously mentioned, are gorgeous; however, they run at an unstable 35-50fps, making animations look choppy as a result. The game itself has moments when it’s running at a stable 60fps, notice how I said “moments”. It’s a complete and utter mess at times, making boss fights a chore due to choppy framerate dips, which take me out of the story numerous times. 

Not all is lost, as the original vision of the game remains intact. Snake Eater remains one of the most interesting entries in the series, turning all of the tropes of a James Bond story on their head as we see Snake get betrayed, fall in love, lose an eye, lose his love interest, and then betrayed by those he serves, all while he has to murder the woman who raised him. It remains incredibly effective in its portrayal of masculinity and dissection of the typical action hero, even 21 years later. 

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is definitely not the definitive way to experience this story as of right now. While it maintains the original’s groundbreaking gameplay and narrative, its performance issues make it hard to recommend over the emulated version in the Master Collection. Konami needs to figure out how to optimize their games for current hardware before it sinks their final shot at reviving Silent Hill next month, or their ability to continue to remake Metal Gear Solid games.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater was developed and published by Konami, based on the original game by Hideo Kojima. The game stars David Hayter, Suzetta Miñet, Lori Alan, Jim Piddock, Heather Halley, James Mathis, Neil Ross, Josh Keaton, Gregg Berger, Michael Bell, Grant Albrecht, Richard Doyle, David Thomas, and Brian Cummings. The game was released on PS5/PS5 PRO Xbox Series S/X, and PC on August 28, 2025.

Thanks for reading our Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater review. For more gaming content, stay tuned here at Feature First.