Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater feature-2
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Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is an embarrassment for an 80-euro game

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Konami has just released Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater on PC. From the looks of it, Konami went greedy with its pricing, making it one of the first games to cost €80. An €80 price tag means higher expectations. And for a game at that price, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a huge embarrassment.

Now I want to make it crystal clear that I’m not solely talking about the game’s performance. From my initial tests, the game appears to run fine on the NVIDIA RTX 5090. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is powered by Unreal Engine 5 and uses Lumen. Lumen is a form of Ray Tracing. So, to game at 4K/Ultra, you’ll need DLSS Quality. If you believe you can run Ray Tracing at Native 4K/Ultra on an NVIDIA RTX 5090, you are a complete idiot.

I’ve included a video below, showing the first 15 minutes of it. To capture this gameplay footage, I used an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
with 32GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founder’s Edition, Windows 10 64-bit, and the NVIDIA GeForce 581.15 WHQL driver

We’ll talk more about the game’s performance in our upcoming PC Performance Analysis. But, as I said, when a publisher sets an €80 price tag, we have higher expectations. And, sadly, MGS Delta: Snake Eater is not the most optimized UE5 game. So, it makes no sense to ask for a premium price when the game is not the most optimized game. At least in my opinion. Plus, the game suffers from other major issues, too.

For starters, the legacy code runs behind this remake. In other words, this isn’t a fully fledged, built from the ground up, remake. Instead, it relies on the game’s legacy code. As such, it suffers from some legacy issues that the devs have not fixed.

Due to its legacy code, the game is locked at 60FPS. As I’ve previously reported, you can unlock the framerate on PC, but the developers should have done this themselves. We shouldn’t be relying on modders. Again, this is an 80-euro game, so there is no excuse here. If you’re going to raise a game’s price, you should also raise its quality.

Another issue is the fact that the game does not seem to support VRR. As such, it does not look THAT smooth on PC (compared to other games that support VRR). It still looks and feels better than consoles. But that’s a completely different thing. Not only that, but there is no ultrawide support.

Now, while the game supports NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR, it does not support Frame Gen. Since this is a GPU-heavy title, it would greatly benefit from Frame Gen. And I know some hate Frame Gen. However, it’s inexcusable for an 80-euro game not to support it from the get-go. Again, it all comes down to the game’s price. If this were a €50 game, I wouldn’t have any issue with the lack of it. When you’re asking for a premium price, we demand premium features. Plain and simple.

The good news for KB&M users is that the game works like a charm with keyboard and mouse. So, that’s at least a positive thing. Konami did not use Denuvo in this game. This could be a double-edged sword. Still, this is something that some PC gamers may appreciate.

All in all, Konami shows why gamers are against new games costing over 70 euros. This isn’t more “optimized” or “polished” than the previous triple-A €70 games we’ve been getting these past couple of years. So, dear devs. If you want to charge €80 for your PC games, you should make sure they are greatly optimized and have lots of PC features. Otherwise, no one will ever recommend buying your game at that price!

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater - Launch version runs fine on NVIDIA RTX 5090

54 thoughts on “Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is an embarrassment for an 80-euro game”

  1. A worthwhile remake that deserves my cash is something on par with Resi 2 remake; on the other hand, something like UE5 Oblivion, or MGS Delta should be 40 bucks at most.

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    1. Since their release, both the RTX 4090 and RTX 5090 have been unable to run ray-traced games at native 4K. This is nothing new. These GPUs were never "Native 4K Ray Tracing GPUs".

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      1. I played quite a few RT games at 4K native with over 60 fps on my RTX 4080 Super, some with lighter RT implementations (just RT reflections) like RE3 remake or Doom Eternal runs at 150-190fps. RT GI is way more demanding though, but still there are games when my card has over 60fps. For example metro expdus runs around 85fps. There are even UE5 games that run at 4K 60fps if I use high settings instead of epic, so I would expect a GPU that is three times more expensive (the 5090) to be able to run games with hybrid RT or software lumen at 4K native with at least 60 fps. Only PT games should require DLSS to be turned on to reach 60 fps at 4K on the 5090.

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        1. I'll say that you're both wrong. "Native 4K" is stupid. If you can't afford the GPU power (not financially. I mean GPU power available for the game), you should be running DLSS 4 which looks better than native + TAA. If you have extra headroom, then you should be running DLDSR + DLSS. I haven't played a game at "native 4k" in years.

          DLDSR 2.25x + DLSS Q looks better than Native. Guaranteed. Every single time. By a mile. And I'd argue even DLDSR 2.25x + DLSS P (with DLSS 4 Transformer model) looks better than Native 4K. And in the majority of games, even DLDSR 1.78x + DLSS P looks better than Native.

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          1. I used DLDSR on my old 1440p 170Hz LCD monitor. Currently I'm using 4K 240Hz QD-OLED and my card doesnt even support DLDSR when DSC is enabled. I need to turn off DSC and limit my monitor to 120fps in order to use DLDSR, so theorethically I could still use it. I however dont miss DLDSR, becasue at 4K image is reasonably sharp anyway even in TAA games (especially if game support HDR), and with DLSS transformer I see abslolutely zero reason to use DLDSR, becasue it will look worse (DLDSR is oversharpening the image, it look razor sharp, but also a little bit overprocessed) and performance would be much worse too. At 1440p it was possible to balance DLDSR performance hit with DLSSBalance, however. at 4K even DLSSPerformance is slower. Maybe tensor cores on my card are too slow to run both DLDSR and DLDSR at higher resolutions.

            I'm not suggesting that people should play UE5 games at native 4K. I was just demonstrating what's possible, even on my card. Games like Robocop at 4K with TAA run at around 70 fps with high settings, although I played it with epic settings at 140fps thanks to DLSSQ and FGx2. Even the new Mafia often runs at 60 fps with DLAA if I use high settings (with epic draw distance and textures).
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f28d71c8db51b950c7a17bad21bb759a7cfdcaf3b5a458c29ea853fa3c1daf18.jpg
            If Mafia supported standard TAA instrad of DLAA, it would run around 3-5 fps faster.

            The 5090 is very expensive GPU, even compared to my RTX 4080 Super. It also draws twice as much power. Given its price and power usage, I would expect it to provide a meaningful performance boost and run every single UE5 game at 4K 60fps, except for those with PT. It seems that the 5090 fails to do that. However, John probably received the card for free from Nvidia, so he tries to justify its disappointing performance by making statements such as '5090 owners shouldn't expect to run UE5 games at native 4K with 60 FPS'. People paid $3000 and John tells them they should temper their expectations 😂😂👌.

            I see little reason to play UE5 games at 4K DLAA on my current card, however in the future (when I upgrade my GPU) I will definitely want to play them at 4K DLAA, because nanite and lumen lighting look better if game renders at native resolution internally. For example, Robocop: Rogue City has noisy reflections, and Lumen starts boiling in some areas when DLSSQ is enabled. These problems are even more intense with DLSS performance. However, DLAA fixes this almost completely and lumen lighting look fairly stable. Similar problems can be observerd in hybrid RT games. When RT effects are rendered at lower internal resolution, they start looking pixelated, or noisy. Ray Reconstruction is supposed to help with that, but it applies too strong DNR filter and can make the image look like an oil painting. Even raster games look the best with DLAA because SSR reflection quality is determined by internall resolution too. Try playing DeadSpace remake or Warhammer Space Marine 2 at 4K DLAA and DLSSQ, the later has more pixelated reflections. These are small differences, and I'm satisfied with DLSS image quality, but DLAA offers even better quality for sure. Even TAA native will offer better quality than DLSSQ (transformer) in some areas (texture quality in the distance and SSR quality).

          2. I never liked DLAA. DLDSR + DLSS was always much better looking. Unfortunately for you yes you’re stuck behind DSC. I also have a DP 1.4 240Hz 4K monitor as well but with the RTX 5000 series cards the DSC/DLDSR issue was fixed. If DLDSR is looking too sharp it’s probably because you didn’t set smoothness to 100%. Anything below 100% adds sharpening to the image. It’s a confusing setting name. But 100% smoothness is 0% sharpening. 50% smoothness is actually 50% sharpening.

            With some games I don’t have a choice but play at native. Like Cyberpunk 2077 which I have to play at 4K with path tracing maxed out + DLSS Q + MFG 4x. I was upset that I had to turn off my DLDSR in that game because it looks so much better. But alas…when it’s available…it’s better than Native. That’s not to say Native is bad. Just to say that Native 4K isn’t the undisputed best image quality.

          3. The DLAA transformer produces an extremely sharp image, almost as sharp as MSAA or SMAA, so I'm 100% satisfied with the image quality. When games support HDR and I use the default sharpening settings, the image becomes even oversharpened. I tested DLDSR on my 4K monitor and didn't see a meaningful difference compared to the DLAA Transformer. The game would need to use extremely blurry TAA implementation in order to make me want to use DLDSR, becasue downsampling can fix blury image. I was using DLDSR often in the past, because older DLSS versions at 1440p looked a little bit soft, but now I dont need it.

            By the way. I tried adjusting the DLDSR smoothness (i.e. the amount of sharpening), but at 100% the image appeared too soft to me. Something within the 40–50% range produced the best result, in my opinion.

    2. Yeah, WTF is John smoking? If he was talking about native 4K and path tracing he'd be right, but there are several games that can do around 60FPS with ray tracing (or more) on an RTX 5090. It's like he's become so demoralized by poor optimization and overpriced hardware that he's starting to turn on those of us who are calling it out.

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  4. John, regarding frame-gen with DLSS someone on ProtonDB mentioned they got it working by adding this to the Engine.ini file:

    [SystemSettings]
    t.Streamline.Reflex.Enable=1
    r.Streamline.DLSSG.Enable=1

    Can you confirm?

    Otherwise I might take a look on my Linux workstation with a 4090 when I find the time…

    (And before anyone wonders: Yes, DLSS4 + frame-gen is possible on Linux, too.)

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    2. cool now do doom the dork ages that ms keeps spamming on my windows feed, 80 euros and the game isnt selling but they dont drop the prices.

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      2. Surprisingly…the veilguard is at least visually appealing. Game is trash and I couldn't force myself more than a few hours into it. But still looked great imo.

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  7. I've read the game doesn't even preserve the original the subsistence versions controls and switchable camera for those who don't want to play another remake that discards all originals purpose built mechanics to make another homogenized trivial third person shooter.

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    1. MGS Delta runs on a old build of UE5. it will need to be at least ver "5.6" in order to see faster performance out of the box. All UE5 games will need to be at least ver "5.6" from now on, in order to see the better performance.

      https://www.reddit.com/r/UnrealEngine5/comments/1kn6zky/unreal_engine_56_preview_promises_consistent_60/

      https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/unreal-engine-5-6-promises-60-fps-ray-tracing-on-current-hardware-features-hardware-ray-tracing-enhancements-and-eliminates-cpu-bottlenecks

      this was exactly the same for UE4.
      Games for UE4 needed to be at least at Version "4.10"
      to see major visual and performance upgrades.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toLJh5nnJA8 FFVII Remake also benefited greatly from it.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG7f_OQFnKQ

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  10. 91 dollars essentially for a engine port with new assets. Too short to worth the price. Also the fact that the top selling games from monster hunter wilds and oblivion remastered and claire obscure are all badly optimized it means most people dont care eiher. So they gonna keep on doing it. Their new plan is to sell as many copies to as few people as possible for the highest price since no one buys new games anymore precisely for those reasons.

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    1. Even that's almost over-selling it, because they also messed up the cinematography: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/88ce1faae9dc7e3f1603a8c0a7d6605e06a4bd38e7aefbd68b9cf6b8141a45cf.png I get the removal of the filter (the screens themselves have changed enough to cause problems,) but this was supposed to show how effective camo is even for people standing up and walking around, and it makes the gear the soldiers wear look suffocatingly hot, which sells the fact that their probably quite tough by the fact that they're wearing it anyway.

      Instead, the soldiers are blaringly obvious even from a distance, so there's little reason to worry about the possibility of overlooking other soldiers in the area, and the soldiers seem like easily dealt with mooks instead of people you might want to avoid.

      These greedy hacks actually want more money for making the game worse!

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      1. Are you talking about the camera framing there? Because the difference you're seeing in that picture is because the person has activated the alternate view in the original version but hasn't activated it in the current gen version.
        As for the pee filter I personally like it in this game but I understand why they made it an option since a lot more people dislike them in modern games.

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  11. I'm playing at 50–60 fps in 4K with DLSS (77% res scale, DLSS Ultra Quality), and I haven't noticed any judder. VRR works normally on my PC. I'm extremely sensitive to judder and would have noticed immediately if VRR wasn't working.

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  12. – "If you believe you can run Ray Tracing at Native 4K/Ultra on an NVIDIA RTX 5090, you are a complete idiot."
    Running a UE5 game on any PC is a idiotism itself. The devs using it are the biggest, lamest idiots game industry is witnessing. Don't forget KONAMI had FOX Engine already & they choose UE5 over that.

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  13. Wait what do you mean VRR doesn't work? Am I going crazy I think it is my screen is showing it's syncing refresh rate on the framerate of the game?

    @JohnDio:disqus are you sure it's not a you issue?

    Not defending the game it's a mess but bruteforcing with 4090 + smooth motion it's an ok experience on my end thankfully. But I would agree it's an embarassment not worthy of its price…

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  14. GAMERS and Reviewers:
    Japanese studios release unoptimized garbage that can't do 60fps with PS3 graphics? That's fine! 9/10!
    Japanese studios release remakes for $80? That's fine!
    Japanese studios release DLC after DLC after DLC? That's fine!
    Japanese studios take months to patch their games? That's fine!

    Ubisoft releases a brand new optimized game for $70 that even runs on potato PC , but the game has 1 small glitch that is immediately patched the next day? HOW DARE UBISOFT!

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          1. Do you even bother to check if that is true? These games largely struggle on PC markets.

    3. Gamers have been complaining about this stuff for years, you are simply delusional. The irony is that you are blaming the public and not the companies.

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  15. Higher game prices + Lots of other games to play = Skip if can't pirate

    I haven't even been able to make it a quarter of the way through my backlog of games since getting a 5090.

    Also got 3 months of Xbox Gamepass with my new laptop and that's pretty good value to pick up once every few months to play through new content. Definitely not paying $80 for a trash game.

    Edit: Although it's just showing at the regular $69.99 for me here.

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  16. "Due to its legacy code, the game is locked at 60FPS."

    Is this one of those Oblivion/Ninja Gaiden style remasters?

    "If you believe you can run Ray Tracing at Native 4K/Ultra on an NVIDIA RTX 5090, you are a complete idiot."

    So what use is ray tracing again other than off loading the lazyness of the devs to the consumer? If the most powerful hardware can't run it, maybe it would be better to focus on other neglected graphical features.

    Also, i eagerly await the kojima haters to say Konami was right in firing him.

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  17. This game is the definitive embarrasment for a PS2 title remake. Almost no graphics options, no FOV slider, still contains letterboxed cinematic rendering, the movement mechanics is flawed. All in all, this is the worst form of the shiniest remakes of a game can be. If Konami expects us to buy this trash, I guess they have to dial down the price to 25$ default. Maybe on discounts, I will give it a try. Utter disappointment.

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    1. well these are the devs that did the elder scrolls 4 remaster where they just slapped unreal engine 5 over the original engine.

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      1. WTF! They were developing these two games in parallel? I think the Horizon Zero Dawn initial PC release port was also developed by this studio. That one was another big flop. How the hell Konami did not know this? or, maybe Konami was just looking for an engine top up slapper?

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  18. I'm happy with the DLSS4 image quality (it's razor sharp image) on my 4K QD-OLED monitor, however I can easily spot imperfections. Unfortunately the quality of RT and Lumen is tied to the internal resolution. At a lower internal resolution, RT starts to look pixelated, especially when looking at shadows or reflections. Also UE5 lumen quality look worse at lower internal resolutions. Lumen lighting starts to boil and "move". Also the reflections in general will look much noisier. DLAA improves these problems a lot, making lumen GI and reflections almost perfectly stable. What's more even raster games can look pixelated with DLSS. Try playing RDR2 with DLSSQ (or even better Performance mode because you will see it even easier) and look at the clouds. You will easily spot pixelations. Similar thing with SSR effects in many games. Try playing Warhammer Space Marine 2 and look at water reflections with DLSS turned on. It will be pixelated because SSR quality was tied to the internal resolution and DLSS can do nothing about that. Saying that DLSS offers the same image quality as native DLAA is simply not true. DLSSQ look amazing overall, but if you know where to look, you will see small imperfections. I

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  20. Every time John writes something he just further proves what a pathetic sack of cack he is. Incel douchebags should just stfu, then again most of this comment section wouldn't exist then would it? Anyway game is reviewing through the roof, selling massive numbers, and is not the price n*mbnuts is having a cry about.

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