Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a major upgrade over the original, from graphics to controls to gameplay. Delta doesn’t mess with what people love about Metal Gear Solid 3, instead delivering a highly polished version of the original experience — and that extends to one of MGS3‘s minigames, Guy Savage, which has been overhauled by none other than Metal Gear Rising Revengeance developer PlatinumGames.
Konami and PlatinumGames revealed the latter studio’s involvement in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater on Friday, confirming that they were the ones behind the overhauled experience.
In the original Metal Gear Solid 3, the Guy Savage minigame could be accessed by loading a save file while Snake is in his cell in Groznyj Grad, after he’s been tortured by Colonel Volgin. Snake’s playable nightmare features a character wielding a pair of arm-blades fighting gangs of monstrous police officers who equipped with hook swords. Here’s what it looked like in past versions of Metal Gear Solid 3.
Snake’s nightmare is set after a chat with the character Para-Medic over comms; she talks to Snake about the character Renfield from Bram Stoker’s Dracula in an attempt to take his mind off the pain he’s experiencing, but unexpectedly gives him nightmares.
PlatinumGames’ version of the Guy Savage minigame looks quite different. In fact, it looks a lot more like a Castlevania-inspired hack-and-slash game, in which the player character battles a horde of ghouls in a creepy graveyard instead of the prison-like setting of the original. And in Platinum’s version, players actually fight Dracula.
Guy Savage in Metal Gear Solid Delta not only looks better than the original, it plays better. It has the tight character-action gameplay that Platinum is known for, even if it’s not that deep or substantial. But if Platinum and Konami are testing the waters for a new Castlevania game, what they’ve shown in Guy Savage is a good start. Maybe after Platinum’s done with its Ninja Gaiden sequel, it can introduce a new Belmont clan member.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is out Aug. 26, on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.