Thoughts After Finishing DS2 With Relation To The Upcoming MGSD Release...

Yo dudes.

Just been thinking about the upcoming release of Metal Gear Solid Delta after having finished (main story) Death Stranding 2 the other week, and wanted to share.

For context, huge MGS guy since I bought MGS on the PlayStation when it came out and one-nighted it with a friend, aged 12. Changed my life. My favorite video game ever, favourite series ever. Regarding the remake coming out, I have remained, since announcement, keen (because it's Metal Gear), but also pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. I've watched no trailers, no gameplay, want to go in as uniformed as possible and just take it as it comes. I've played the original like ten times since it came out, I know it well, my expectations are that this new one will be almost identical with a fresh coat of paint. I neither want it or don't want it. It's fine.

Here's the thing, though. After playing DS2 and loving it, faults and all, being in awe of its construction and the creativity on display throughout (even though I'm still a DS1 enjoyer more), my keenness for MGSD is, now, quite low. Reason? I've never been a big wanter of remakes. There are great ones out there, a lot I've really loved, but I'm still an originalist at heart. None of these remakes trump my love of the original games, alrhough I do concede to the fact that a new remake allows younger people, or people who never played the original, a new, more accessible jump-in point. Still, Konami doing an MGS remake the same year as Kojima puts out DS2 just feels even more whatever now, for me. Sure, it's still MGS3, originally conceived and created by Kojima and Co, but it really shines a light on my biggest issue with remakes, in general - their lack of creativity. For all the hype and build-up of putting out a MGS3 remake, and there's been A LOT of hype and build-up, I really don't see it being anything more than a prettified rerelease of a game already available. The build-up feels unearned and self-congratulatory when, and maybe I'll be proven wrong (which is fine, I'm open to rhat), all that's happening is they're putting new graphics over the old thing. I guess there's "art" to that, making it look all nice with current tech, but I dunno, it all just feels, still, cash-grabby to me, coming from a disingenuous place on Konami's part.

Ultimately, I've not tuned into all the pre-hype around the remake, maybe once it drops I'll be left eating my words and falling over myself with praise for this reimagining. As it stands, though, in a post DS1 and 2 space, I just look at the remake and sorta think "...So what?'

No apologies for the length of this post, it's the internet, some stuff is long, some stuff isn't. If you've read this far and have an opinion on things, holla, if not, all good, all love either way✌️