It's hard to distill my feelings about a property like Metal Gear Solid. On one hand, it's my absolute favorite series across any medium ever. Playing the PS1 original at five years old has informed my taste, my world view, some of my politics, even my love of antagonistic art. Metal Gear taught me to stop expecting to be gratified by creators and instead to be challenged by them. On the other, Metal Gear is also misogynistic, childish, and expects the audience to take characters named things like Hot Coldman very seriously. This juxtaposition is nothing new in criticism of the series, and I expect that many people intimately familiar with the series struggle with the dichotomy of how seriously they take these games vs. how ludicrous so many aspects of them are. At this point, I refuse to apologize for the more ridiculous nature of Metal Gear or try to convince skeptics that it's Good Actually and worth serious artistic consideration that a wine-drinking fatphobic caricature takes up several hours of runtime in my personal favorite entry, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. See, the important part isn't that Metal Gear Solid is Good Actually (it is) or that it's stupid (it is), but that the impact the series has had on me as a human is profound, valid, and worth consideration.
There exists a consistent (and fairly large) subset of video game fandom and marketing that continues to try and make them a "prestige" art form. If only we add enough camera angles, serious acting, and visual fidelity to our games, they will be taken seriously as art and stand alongside the Citizen Kanes and Kind of Blues of the world - serious art for serious people that must be respected. I don't intend to imply a disdain for any "prestige" video game (I've been known to enjoy a Last of Us or God of War from time-to-time) but I find myself, these days, much less interested in convincing the unconvinced. Video games needn't be prestige to be worthwhile, and to be worthwhile does not require prestige. Play is a core part of the human experience - something that, as we grow older, we stray away from less due to necessity, but still core to our identities as humans. These moments in games that illicit emotion in me matter for having been experienced, they need not be universal or potent to all potential passerby in order to meet a vague definition of "value".
On May 24th, 2023 Konami announced a remaster of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (called Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater because giving a sensical name to a Metal Gear game is against the spirit). I turn thirty years old on May 26, 2023. Twenty years ago, I experienced Metal Gear Solid 3 for the first time after religiously playing the Japanese-language demo from Playstation Magazine on my Playstation 2. I still remember the way the actor Banjō Ginga (Major Zero) says "backpack." I remember the anticipation of an all-new Metal Gear Solid, having played through Metal Gear Solid 2 more times than I can count. I remember the dread of not knowing if the voice of Snake would be same (since, isn't this the guy Snake was cloned from?). I remember the new, grounded feeling of the cutscenes, like I was somehow accessing something more mature, more "advanced" than previous entries.
Watching the announcement of a remake of a twenty-year-old classic that impacted me greatly two days before my thirtieth birthday makes for an intense moment of clarity of the passing of time. I do wonder what the team at Konami hopes to achieve with remaking Metal Gear Solid 3. Hideo Kojima's design philosophy often involves making games that squeeze every drop out of their included form factor. His studio's creative process is much more physical than that of many other game developers. This process makes the Metal Gear Solid games such distinct products of their era - they often reference their platforms directly in dialogue. The Metal Gear Solid games pull the player in by making the separation explicit - the player takes on the role of Snake so he's in on the bit. When you press the select button to accept a codec call, Snake is pressing the select button too. I often wonder if the industry's recent obsession with remasters and remakes is an attempt to capture this "prestige". Look at the fidelity! See how amazing these games are now that they look more realistic? Isn't this a Product Worthy of Respect now? Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil 4, Dead Space, and Metal Gear Solid 3 - these games need no additional prestige because they are already monumental forces that have altered the trajectories of lives and provided invaluable and incalculable impact to countless lives.
By increasing the visual fidelity of Metal Gear Solid 3, what is gained? How is it improved? Am I less aware I'm playing a video game? I doubt that's possible when a character states aloud that Snake “should watch his stamina meter". Is that something I even want? I would argue no. I knew when I watched Marcel the Shell with Shoes On that I was watching an anthropomorphized shell in a film, but I wept all the same. Profundity relies solely on emotional connection, which can be made with anything if the art is honest. I wish the developers of the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake the best of luck, and I hope that they are being paid well and treated fairly. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about what they produce, but it will always feel, to me, like dishonesty. It's time to start being honest about what games are. It's the only way they'll ever matter.