'Game development doesn't proceed at a constant pace': Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater's devs explain why there are 2 difficulty settings but won't say a word about a possible release date

Every now and then, Konami dishes out a small nugget of information about the upcoming Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater game, and while the developers have successfully avoided any questions as to when this game may be released, we do now know a bit more about its unique difficulty system.

During an interview with Famitsu (via Automaton), Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater's production producer Noriaki Okamura and the creative producer Yuji Korekado spoke about how they have approached creating a difficulty setting that works for both the New and the Legacy Style.

The New Style is basically just a full third-person mode, which lets you run even when you're firing your gun, and it also gives you a better field of view to see what lies ahead of Snake. This makes taking on enemies far easier as the movement is so fluid, and you can react to combat quickly. On the other hand, the Legacy Style is an exact recreation of the original 2004 game, which means it has a fixed top-down camera perspective.

"The New Style provides a wider, linear field of view, and you can shoot your gun while moving Snake, which made the difficulty level lower than we had expected," Korekado says. "However, if we were to adjust things to match the New Style, that would make the Legacy Style too difficult. That's why we decided to split the two play styles." If Konami manages to pull this off, then it should feel like the same difficulty no matter which style you end up picking, even though they are technically different.

However, the developers were less transparent when the topic changed to when players could expect to get their hands on this game. "That's a pretty difficult question," Okamura says (via ComicBook). "The game is actually already playable to the end, and we don't expect it to take many years to complete. However, the most important thing in the development of this game is not to disappoint the fans. We want to finish it properly and announce [the release date] once it is in a state where it can be firmly confirmed."

While pre-orders for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater have been available for multiple months, it doesn't look like we're any closer to getting a confirmed release date from Konami. "Game development doesn't proceed at a constant pace, so it's difficult to express," Korekado says. "We can see the goal, and we're just adding the parts that are still missing."

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.