Earlier this month, Konami finally unveiled its new plans for the Metal Gear Solid franchise. The big show stealer for the series, announced during the PlayStation Showcase, was the confirmation that a Snake Eater remake was in development. If Konami is able to follow through with these plans, it will give future Metal Gear Solid remakes an obvious direction to go in.
Often cited as one of the best entries in the franchise, a remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was rumored to be in development for some time. The game also takes place at the very beginning of the series' timeline and offers an obvious direction for future remakes to go from there. Specifically, following the release of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, the games should be remade and released in chronological order.
The Confusing Chronology of Metal Gear Solid
The timeline of the Metal Gear Solid franchise is more than a little confusing. In order to understand some of the references and callbacks in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, for example, one must be aware of what happened in the first game, Metal Gear. The timeline of the franchise can easily be divided into three parts. First, there were the Metal Gear games which were released on the MSX2 and featured Big Boss as the main antagonist, with Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty dealing with the fallout from those stories. Then the timeline began to diverge in multiple directions.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is a game with deep lore and was released in 2004. It told the origin story of Big Boss from the first two games before a direct follow-up, titled Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops was released in 2006. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots came out in 2008, which more or less wrapped up the story of Solid Snake and the Big Boss clone storyline.
Hideo Kojima and Konami would return to the well once again for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Sold 5: The Phantom Pain, which saw the Big Boss character fully develop into a villain. This is where the Metal Gear Solid Delta games can offer new fans a more clear direction.
The Direction Metal Gear Solid Delta Remakes Should Go
Should Konami continue to develop these games the obvious direction for them would be to establish them in chronological order. With Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater being the first installment of this new remake franchise, it would allow the developers to continue in this order. The natural next game would be a remake of either Portable Ops or Peace Walker before wrapping up Big Boss' story with a remake of the fifth game. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain had troubled production and a remake could help fill in a few gaps. From this point onward the direction might be a little more challenging.
At this point, Konami could simply remake Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty before moving on to Guns of the Patriots. This seems like the obvious direction given the games' popularity but if the company wants to keep the timeline coherent it could also remake Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. This would bridge the gap between Big Boss' story and Solid Snake's story in a way that would make the timeline more accessible to new players.
Ultimately it's still too soon to say what Konami has in store for the franchise. In addition to the announcement of the Snake Eater remake, the company also revealed that it would be releasing a collection of the first three Metal Gear Solid games. It is also likely that the company won't make any long-term plans regarding remakes until it sees how the first one turns out.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
