{"id":364339,"date":"2025-08-22T09:52:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/364339\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T09:52:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:52:12","slug":"even-after-20-years-i-still-cry-the-enduring-brilliance-of-metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/364339\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Even after 20 years, I still cry\u2019: the enduring brilliance of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater | Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

You never forget your first Metal Gear \u2013 yet there\u2019s one title in Konami\u2019s legendary stealth series that is universally heralded as its pinnacle: 2004\u2019s Snake Eater. This prequel-cum-threequel was something of a reset. Originally intended as a PS3 game thanks to its sheer technological ambition, but then released on PS2, writer and director Hideo Kojima yearned to take gravelly voiced protagonist Solid Snake away from dimly lit military bases and have him slither outdoors. Featuring hunting for food and snapping broken bones back into place, Snake Eater felt more grounded and immersive than any of its 2000s PlayStation<\/a> peers.<\/p>\n

Yet for all Snake Eater\u2019s sweeping changes, one classic element remained intact \u2013 the stellar voice acting. It\u2019s telling that as Konami releases its remake, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater<\/a>, every wonderfully absurd line of the original script remains untouched. Boasting modernised controls and lavish new visuals, Delta feels closer to a 4K restoration of a cherished film than a maximalist Resident Evil-style remake.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo their credit, Konami didn\u2019t want to change it or make it a different thing,\u201d says David Hayter, the voice of Solid Snake. \u201cThey really wanted it to feel like the original experience, just updated to today\u2019s technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018So cinematic\u2019 \u2026 Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Photograph: Konami<\/p>\n

Hayter, who is also a screenwriter (he penned 2000\u2019s X-Men film and its 2003 sequel), remains immensely proud of his role as Solid Snake, attributing his quirky performance to the unusual way the actors recorded. \u201cWhen we did the first Metal Gear Solid, we recorded it in this weird house in Hollywood,\u201d he says. \u201cThey had five mics set up, and it was just me and the other actors, and we did it all like a radio play.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was an unusual setup: in games, voice actors largely record separately, their performances stitched together in post. Hayter found this method highly effective. \u201cI asked it to be in my contract that we would do every other game the same way. For every Metal Gear game, I would just go into the booth and then the greatest voice actors in the world would come in and act with me for months. Having that experience on all of the games was just such a gift for a young actor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whereas Metal Gear Solid was largely finished when the actors recorded their roles, for Snake Eater, they were just given their cues, the spectacle left largely to their imagination. \u201cWe weren\u2019t seeing anything,\u201d Hayter says. \u201cIt was very difficult to grasp the full gravity of what we were doing at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I can see why you would go back to it again and again\u2019 \u2026 Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Photograph: Konami<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a memory shared by Hayter\u2019s costar Lori Alan, the voice of Snake Eater\u2019s mentor and Russian double agent, the Boss. \u201cThat\u2019s where the voice director comes in \u2013 who was amazing,\u201d says Alan. \u201cA recording session for this particular game is so intense. You come out and you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh my God!\u2019 [The voice director] is in your ear whispering: \u2018You love him. You trained him. You\u2019re leaving your country!\u2019 \u2026 It was amazing. You really do leave quite exhausted and fulfilled at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Hayter has completed every game he\u2019s been in, once Alan left the booth, she never truly knew the impact of the character that she\u2019d brought to life. \u201cWe have incredible fans who have sent me bits, but I\u2019d never played it,\u201d says Alan. Now, 21 years later, she\u2019s finally seen the iconic character she helped bring to life. \u201cWe were doing some promo videos for the remake,\u201d says Hayter. \u201cLori said she wanted some advice on what we did 20 years ago, but it\u2019s a little complicated to explain! So I sent her the full cutscenes from the game \u2026 and an hour or two later, I got a call and she was just in tears, [saying]: \u2018Oh my God. I didn\u2019t understand. I get it now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is so cinematic,\u201d Alan adds. \u201cThe complexity of the relationships is so at the forefront, it gives me chills. I got really immersed and caught up in a way that I just should have from the beginning. It\u2019s like watching an amazing film or reading a wonderful book. I can see why you would go back to it again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018There was no need to change what was already great to begin with\u2019 \u2026 Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Photograph: Konami<\/p>\n

Aside from some vocal cleanups and lines about the new control schemes, the cast tell me that they didn\u2019t add anything new to Delta. \u201cI like to think that I\u2019m a better actor today than I was back then,\u201d says Hayter. \u201cBut these recordings had to match the originals perfectly \u2013 and to step into the booth and do the same role 20 years later was pretty surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s not just Hayter and Alan who have returned to the jungle: Cynthia Harrell, the singer of Snake Eater\u2019s iconic theme, re-recorded her James Bond-esque anthem for the remake. According to Harrell, she recorded her vocals with little to no direction: \u201cI just went into the booth and laid down what felt right. I had no idea how it would sound until I actually heard it finished, and it was like, oh, wow! [Spoiler alert] That ending scene, when you\u2019re hearing the song and she\u2019s dying, and the red petals are coming down \u2026 even after 20 years, I still cry.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a scene that still hits decades later, forcing the players to pull the trigger after an emotional final showdown \u2013 whether they want to or not. \u201cI wanted them to put in an option where you could just shoot [the Boss] in the leg, but no dice,\u201d says Hayter.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

While the very public falling out between Kojima and Konami means that Snake Eater\u2019s director didn\u2019t work on Delta, the publisher recruited members of the original development team to help. \u201cFor me, that thrill and that amazement I felt 21 years ago playing for the first time \u2013 that is the experience we really want to bring back,\u201d says Yuji Korekado, producer on Delta and part of the original team. Fellow producer Noriaki Okamura adds that the aim was to be creatively conservative: \u201cWe decided that it was not necessary to add in twists or new plot points. We felt that there was no need to change what was already great to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, with a whole generation growing up without knowing their Raiden from their Revolver Ocelot, Hayter sees Snake Eater Delta as the perfect reintroduction to one of gaming\u2019s most beloved series. \u201cSomebody asked me last night, why did they start remastering with number three?\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s because that\u2019s the one, you know? The characters are amazing, the story is perfect \u2013 these are some of the most tragic and beautiful scenes in gaming history. It\u2019s like living inside a great movie for 60 hours. They\u2019re all great games, sure, but Snake Eater is the one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is released on 28 August, on PC, PS5 and Xbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You never forget your first Metal Gear \u2013 yet there\u2019s one title in Konami\u2019s legendary stealth series that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-364339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-technology","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115071807940519467","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}