Digital Foundry’s Metal Gear Solid Delta demo impressions: controls, graphics modes and visual quality

Digital Foundry’s DF Direct Weekly covered its hands-on Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater demo, with encouraging details on the controls, visuals and PS5 modes.

Controls and enemy behaviour

Producer Noriaki Okamura confirmed that enemy behaviour has been adjusted for the greater freedom of movement offered by the New Style third-person view, addressing potential balance issues. Legacy mode stays unchanged.

PS5 graphics modes

The demo’s menu listed native resolution ranges beside its two modes: 1080p to 4K for Performance mode, and 1440p to 4K for Quality mode.

Visuals and presentation

Motion blur and depth of field could be toggled on or off. Digital Foundry praised the shadows, environmental detail and overall visual quality, along with a front-end interface that closely resembled the original while feeling snappy, clean and clear.

Okamura said ray tracing was not being used. Digital Foundry suspected some form of Unreal Engine 5’s Lumen lighting was involved; that remained their assessment rather than a confirmed technical breakdown.

Release timing

Digital Foundry thought a 2025 release was looking more likely, but could not confirm a date. These were impressions of the pre-release demo discussed in September 2024.

Sources

Digital Foundry: DF Direct Weekly #178
Our original X post
Our follow-up with the full episode