Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater offers a highly customizable gameplay experience, allowing both series veterans and newcomers to tailor their mission in a surprising number of ways. Beyond the standard difficulty settings, the game introduces a choice between two distinct play styles, which fundamentally change the way you interact with the world.This comprehensive guide will break down all six difficulty options and explain the critical differences between the "Legacy" and "New Style" control schemes, helping you choose the best way to approach your first mission.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Difficulty and Play Style Guide
All Difficulty Options Explained
Metal Gear Solid Delta features a total of six difficulty settings. All except one are available from the start, but you cannot change your selected difficulty once you begin a new game.
Very Easy
This mode is designed for players who want to experience the story without the stress of combat. Snake's life gauge is doubled, and he is equipped with the silent, tranquilizer-firing
EZ Gun, which has unlimited ammo. Enemies are much less aware of your presence, have a significantly reduced attack power, and their reaction times are very slow. You can also use the
Motion Detector,
Active Sonar, and
Anti-Personnel Sensor to easily spot enemies.
Easy
A step up from Very Easy, this setting still favors the player. Snake has 1.5 times his normal life gauge, and enemies have slower reactiontimes, reduced awareness, and lower damage output. Like Very Easy, youhave access to the Motion Detector, Active Sonar, and Anti-Personnel Sensor to help you navigate enemy patrols.
Normal
This is considered the standard and most balanced experience, ideal forfirst-time players of the series. All of the game's mechanics, fromSnake's health to enemy damage and awareness, are set to their defaultlevels. You can still use the Motion Detector, Active Sonar, and Anti-Personnel Sensor to aid your infiltration. The highest title you can earn for a Normal playthrough is Doberman.
Hard
Hard mode significantly ramps up the challenge, putting the advantagesquarely in the enemy's hands. Snake has a standard life gauge, butenemy attack power and detection abilities are greatly increased. Guards will spot you from much farther away, making mastery of camouflageessential for survival. Additionally, your available equipment isrestricted; you can only use the Anti-Personnel Sensor, and the Motion Detector and Active Sonar are unavailable. The highest title you can earn on Hard is FOX.
Extreme
Recommended only for players who are intimately familiar with the original game'smechanics, Extreme is the hardest difficulty available from the start.Snake's life gauge is reduced to two-thirds of its normal size, andenemies have exceptionally fast reaction times and deal devastatingdamage. On Extreme, you are completely on your own, as you cannot useany detection items. Completing a run with a high score can earn you the prestigious FOXHOUND title.
European Extreme
This ultimate challenge is only unlocked after you complete the game for the first time. European Extreme is identical to Extreme difficulty, withone major exception: the game ends immediately if you are spotted by anenemy. However, caution phases do not trigger a game over, allowing youto still engage in tactical combat as long as you don't enter a fullalert phase. This is the true test of your stealth skills.
Play Style Differences: Legacy vs. New Style
Metal Gear Solid Delta introduces a choice between two play styles, which affects more thanjust your controls. You can switch between them at any time from thegame's settings menu.
Legacy Style
This style is a faithful recreation of the original Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater experience on the PlayStation 2. The camera is fixed overhead, and youmust stand still to aim your weapon from a first-person perspective.Shooting while moving is only possible from the hip, which is best forclose-range combat.
New Style
This is the modern, revamped control scheme. It offers an over-the-shoulderthird-person camera perspective, similar to other contemporary shooters. This perspective makes it much easier to spot distant enemies. You canalso aim and shoot while moving, providing a much more fluid and modernfeel to the combat.
The game's developers have balanced the difficulty to account for these changes. If you choose New Style, enemies will have faster reaction times and increased awareness tocompensate for your improved controls and wider field of view.Conversely, if you choose to play with Legacy Style, the gamewill be slightly more forgiving, as your restricted camera and aimingmake the experience more challenging by default.
Tags: MGS Delta: Snake Eater
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 PS5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X/S
Genre(s): Action-adventure, stealth
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