Hello! Here's another of our "Cardboard Box Vox Pops", where we get the general consensus of the forum on some simple questions.
For those of you that use a theme with a sidebox you'll have noticed the poll has appeared there to maximise the number of votes we get. If you wish to explain your answer feel free to in this thread, but otherwise, feel free to vote and explain nothing!
This time our question is about whether the next MGS project should be a remake or a new entry?
Third option:
A remake if that remake is the 1987 Outer Heaven remake.
If it's anything else, no. Make an original entry.
I would like a new game, but at this point I think a remake is more sensible. But just to be clear, when I say remake I absolutely do not mean what Delta was. I mean a fully-fledged remake of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (maybe with the ending of MG as an extended prelude), or a remake of Metal Gear Solid, but preferably the former. This needs to be something on the scale of the Final Fantasy VII Remake project. It obviously doesn't need to be anywhere near as big, but it would be a big undertaking still. I'm not entirely sure how receptive the current market would be to going from MGS being in the wilderness to having a few collections released and a tuned-up MGS3 release followed by a brand new title without Kojima. Just don't really know if that feels like the right progression if we want to see MGS re-establish itself again.
I'd like something new, but a remake would be better. Namely I'm just not sure where a new game would be on the timeline.
More interquels would be my least desired. We don't need more "Big Boss's fall but for real the time!" games. Honestly Snake Eater was great for that by itself and PO was fine as a follow up. Sequels that go on past MGS4 make it so that it wasn't the finale. I know we have MGR and it's fun and cheesy, but it's still a different genre completely from the rest of the series.
Really this leaves us with prequels, which would most likely be The Boss. I like her as a character, but don't love her. Fighting in WW2 with her wouldn't really expand on her and Big Boss's relationship since he was too young to fight in WW2 with The Cobras. There's potential there and I know a lot of the fanbase has wanted it.
Remakes wise, we could use one for MG and MG2:SS since they're 2D. I'm wondering if Delta is planned to be like the REmakes, where it updates and changes stuff into a sort of parallel timeline to the originals? Like could we get MG Delta Outer Heaven, MG Delta Solid Snake, MG Delta The Twin Snakes, etc.?
The way I see it - Delta, while certainly good, had rough edges when it came to gameplay balance, character movement, etc. Until there is a dedicated team in place to make new Metal Gear content, the best way forward is to build them up on remakes. Let them really get a feel for how the series works within the framework of what already existed before putting in the time and money on something new altogether.
I'd make an exception for letting Platnium make more Rising, of course.
But there's also a question - what "new" Metal Gear Solid games could be made within the existing canon? There's only so much Big Boss / Venom stuff to still fill in, and even then, would any of that be satisfying? Solid Snake only has a few years of undocumented Philanthropy missions, would any of them be compelling?
A new protagonist, some time in the distant future? Even then, it may as well be a new series?
Or is it time for a complete continuity reboot?
As much as I enjoy Rising as a "potential future," I do feel that MGS4 is as close to a perfect ending as the series could have, and going further would not be the best idea.