Earlier this month, Konami finally unveiled its new plans for theMetal Gear Solidfranchise. The big show stealer for the series, announced during the PlayStation Showcase, was theconfirmation that aSnake Eaterremake was in development. If Konami is able to follow through with these plans, it will give futureMetal Gear Solidremakes an obvious direction to go in.
Often cited as one of the best entries in the franchise, a remake ofMetal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eaterwas rumored to be in developmentfor some time. The game also takes place at the very beginning of the series' timeline and offers an obvious direction for future remakes to go from there. Specifically, following the release ofMetal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, the games should be remade and released in chronological order.
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The Confusing Chronology of Metal Gear Solid
The timeline of theMetal Gear Solidfranchise is more than a little confusing. In order to understand some of the references and callbacks inMetal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, for example, one must be aware of what happened in the first game,Metal Gear. The timeline of the franchise can easily be divided into three parts. First, there were theMetal Geargames which were released on the MSX2 and featured Big Boss as the main antagonist, withMetal Gear SolidandMetal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Libertydealing with the fallout from those stories. Then the timeline began to diverge in multiple directions.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eateris a game with deep loreand was released in 2004. It told the origin story of Big Boss from the first two games before a direct follow-up, titledMetal Gear Solid: Portable Opswas released in 2006.Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriotscame out in 2008, which more or less wrapped up the story of Solid Snake and the Big Boss clone storyline.
Hideo Kojima and Konami would return to the well once again forMetal Gear Solid: Peace WalkerandMetal Gear Sold 5: The Phantom Pain, which saw the Big Boss character fully develop into a villain. This is where theMetal Gear Solid Deltagames can offer new fans a more clear direction.
The Direction Metal Gear Solid Delta Remakes Should Go
Should Konami continue to develop these games the obvious direction for them would be to establish them in chronological order. WithMetal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eaterbeing the first installment of this new remake franchise, it would allow the developers to continue in this order. The natural next game would be a remake of eitherPortable OpsorPeace Walkerbefore wrapping up Big Boss' story with a remake of the fifth game.Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Painhad troubled productionand a remake could help fill in a few gaps. From this point onward the direction might be a little more challenging.
At this point, Konami could simply remakeMetal Gear SolidandMetal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Libertybefore moving on toGuns of the Patriots. This seems like the obvious direction given the games' popularity but if the company wants to keep the timeline coherent it could also remakeMetal Gearand MetalGear 2: Solid Snake. This would bridge the gap between Big Boss' story and Solid Snake’s story in a way that would make the timeline more accessible to new players.
Ultimately it’s still too soon to say what Konami has in store for the franchise. In addition to the announcement of theSnake Eaterremake, the company also revealed that it would be releasing acollection of the first threeMetal Gear Solidgames. It is also likely that the company won’t make any long-term plans regarding remakes until it sees how the first one turns out.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eateris in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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