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Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
The same gripping story and engrossing world, but now with cutting-edge graphics and 3D audio, which bring the jungle to life. Get ready for the ultimate survi…
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is almost here, and as someone who still hums Snake Eater while cooking, I’ve been primed for this remake from the day it was announced. A full Unreal Engine 5 rebuild of Kojima’s 2004 classic sounds like the right way to bring the Virtuous Mission to a new audience-modern controls, new lighting, denser foliage, the whole jungle vibe. But the first deep-dive from Digital Foundry throws a curveball: on PS5 Pro, the game is currently underperforming in ways that shouldn’t be happening on Sony’s “premium” console.
On a standard PS5, the setup is familiar: a Quality mode capped at 30 FPS with a dynamic resolution that floats between 1080p and 1584p, and a Performance mode that targets 60 FPS by dialing back visual features. Nothing shocking there, and for a UE5 jungle bristling with alpha effects and dense geometry, 60 FPS with trade-offs is a fair ask.
The surprise is PS5 Pro. DF reports that the Pro configuration taps into the visual perks you’d expect from a Quality-style setup and leverages PSSR-Sony’s new machine-learning upscaler-to enhance image clarity and reduce shimmering. In theory, PSSR should make sub-pixel detail (think leaves, branches, and chain-link fences) look stable in motion. In practice, image noise isn’t being suppressed well enough, and shimmering pops off the screen whenever you pan the camera. Worse, in some sequences near the start of the game, the Pro’s frame-rate can dip below the PS5’s Performance mode.
Shimmer is a classic temporal anti-aliasing challenge, and UE5’s heavy use of foliage makes it brutally obvious when an upscaler or TAA pass isn’t locking things down. But that’s exactly what PSSR was pitched to alleviate on PS5 Pro. If it’s not squashing the crawl here, something’s off—either in Konami’s integration, the current PSSR profile, or both.
Across platforms, DF also notes frame-rate wobbles in effects-heavy scenes, especially underwater. That tracks with other UE5 projects that struggle when translucency, particles, and post-process layers stack up. What stings more is the absence of a middle-ground “balanced” option—ideally 40 FPS for 120 Hz displays—which has become a smart compromise in current-gen games. Given the jungle’s density, a 40 FPS Quality mode could be the sweet spot for a lot of players.
This caught my attention because PS5 Pro should be the best place to play an ambitious UE5 remake out of the gate. We’ve seen early PS5 Pro patches land a bit unevenly as studios figure out PSSR and retune their render budgets. Temporal upscalers are only as good as their data and integration, and sub-pixel geometry in a jungle is the final boss of stability. When that pipeline isn’t tuned, you get crawly leaves and sparkling fences, even if the static image looks sharp.
Konami’s recent PC and console bundles haven’t inspired ironclad confidence on the tech side, and Delta is a bigger swing than repackaging old ROMs—it’s a full modern visual refit. The good news is that shimmer and performance issues are fixable: tweaks to anti-aliasing history weighting, sharpening, motion vectors, or PSSR settings can dramatically improve stability. The bad news is that players expecting a flawless “Pro-enhanced” experience on day one might be in for a wait-and-see scenario.
If you’re on a standard PS5 and sensitive to input latency, the 60 FPS Performance mode is likely your safest pick, even if you sacrifice some visual flourish. Quality at 30 FPS will deliver the prettiest stills, but in a stealth game where camera sweeps are constant, shimmering and motion stability matter.
On PS5 Pro, DF’s findings suggest the current build prioritizes the “Quality + PSSR” route yet still stumbles, occasionally under the PS5’s 60 FPS baseline. Until Konami confirms a dedicated Performance mode for Pro or pushes a patch, that’s a strange spot for a premium box to be. I’m also baffled there isn’t a 40 FPS option—it’s 2025 and that middle lane has saved more than a few UE5 titles from this exact dilemma.
None of this dims how exciting it is to revisit Snake’s formative op. The vibe matters: the tension of CQC in wet grass, the rustle of branches masking a footstep, that first look at the jungle canopy. If Konami nails the fixes quickly, PS5 Pro could still become the definitive console experience. But based on DF’s analysis, early adopters should temper expectations and watch for the day-one patch notes.
Metal Gear Solid Delta looks the part, but PS5 Pro’s early showing—shimmering foliage, occasional frame dips—doesn’t match the hardware hype. Standard PS5’s 60 FPS mode might be the smoother ride at launch, and a patch could quickly change the picture. Keep your eyes on those Pro-specific updates.
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