05-03-2026, 10:26 PM
I think there were *some* subtle alterations to the gameplay. On normal difficulty, I noticed some guard behavior that I had not seen previously. I'm pretty sure their "senses" of sight and hearing are more keen - sneaking seemed more difficult than it used to, especially at close range. The stalking mode is just a bit slower than I recall, but it's hard to tell with the weird hybrid of Phantom Pain and original animations. I think The Fury's helmet is now unbreakable, making that fight just a tad more difficult.
The bullet drop was a good decision - sniping enemies from across the level with a pistol just doesn't make sense and it needed some nerfing. But all in all - thanks to the ability to move while manually aiming in third and first person, and other Phantom Pain like gameplay features, combat is much easier regardless. I don't think it's as severe as what happened with Twin Snakes.
The "legacy mode" is a good idea, but I haven't used the top-down camera since Subsistence and have no desire to go back. If there were a gameplay mode that emulated Subsistence, that would probably be the best of both worlds, but I can't see them adding that in this late.
I'm torn. There's some things that make this an absolute improvement over the original, and not just graphically. And there's some things that were fixed compared to the HD and Master Collection versions. But the little annoyances do add up. At worst, I guess it's the second-best version of Snake Eater, which isn't bad at all.
What it really boils down to is this - it accomplished its mission of being a very faithful rendition of a classic that should appeals to both longtime fans and newcomers alike. But I think it's geared more towards the later. Things like pressure sensitive face buttons and so on - these are relics of a bygone age that will never come back. The original controls made sense at the time, but would be borderline incomprehensible to a modern audience. I'd prefer what we got over something that took way too many liberties.
The bullet drop was a good decision - sniping enemies from across the level with a pistol just doesn't make sense and it needed some nerfing. But all in all - thanks to the ability to move while manually aiming in third and first person, and other Phantom Pain like gameplay features, combat is much easier regardless. I don't think it's as severe as what happened with Twin Snakes.
The "legacy mode" is a good idea, but I haven't used the top-down camera since Subsistence and have no desire to go back. If there were a gameplay mode that emulated Subsistence, that would probably be the best of both worlds, but I can't see them adding that in this late.
I'm torn. There's some things that make this an absolute improvement over the original, and not just graphically. And there's some things that were fixed compared to the HD and Master Collection versions. But the little annoyances do add up. At worst, I guess it's the second-best version of Snake Eater, which isn't bad at all.
What it really boils down to is this - it accomplished its mission of being a very faithful rendition of a classic that should appeals to both longtime fans and newcomers alike. But I think it's geared more towards the later. Things like pressure sensitive face buttons and so on - these are relics of a bygone age that will never come back. The original controls made sense at the time, but would be borderline incomprehensible to a modern audience. I'd prefer what we got over something that took way too many liberties.
