Jungle warfare… with friends!
Two months after its original release, Metal Gear Solid Delta finally gets its online multiplayer mode, which allows players to take on the role of Fox cadets simulating real battle scenarios. Fox Hunt is a match-based online mode in which 10-12 players get dropped in a medium-sized map with no equipment, similarly to a battle royale, and have to fend for themselves while fulfilling different objectives.
Fox Hunt iterates upon Metal Gear Online’s stealth game modes, like team sneaking and stealth deathmatch, by creating new missions where every player has access to AT-Camo, a full-body camouflage suit that realistically mimics certain patterns like grass, gravel, snow, and rusted metal. Cooperating with your teammate and outsmarting your opponents becomes the key to survival in Fox Hunt’s fast-paced competitive matches full of stealth action.
As of right now, Fox Hunt only features two mission types, both objective-based and centering around the collectible mascots found in the base game. Survival intrusion requires players to hold down a capture zone activated by shooting hidden GA-KO rubber ducks, while survival capture requires players to collect a Kerotan figure before the phase timer runs out. Despite being exclusively played in duos, you or your partner can end up getting disqualified individually by failing to collect a Kerotan figure or stay inside of a GA-KO capture zone, creating tense moments where cooperation is needed for your team to move forward into the next phase.
Since the two modes available are both objective-based, death ends up becoming a momentary setback, as you can redeploy with some of your equipment and limited ammo after a small timeout. I’m personally not a fan of modes structured like this, as it makes every match feel like a constant push and pull where the early game is meaningless and players that die repeatedly still have a chance to qualify into the next phase and slow the match down. Giving each player a limited amount of lives would be a much more interesting way of handling this, not only increasing the need for actual stealth but also increasing the stakes of getting caught and killed.
Fox Hunt also introduces a new mechanic called Naked Sense, which allows every player to use their stamina to track surrounding items and enemies, becoming more accurate the more stamina is spent. Using this mechanic too much can be detrimental, as your enemies are notified whenever they are being tracked and can even end up tracking you back if they are close enough to your location. Useful as it is, Naked Sense’s addition is somewhat unfortunate, as it ends up taking away from the mode’s main method of skill expression, which is tricking other players with your active camouflage.
When it comes to meta progression, leveling up rewards you with coins, which can be used to purchase reward packages that contain a random assortment of radio voice lines, skins, and camouflage patterns, some of which feature passive bonuses whenever equipped. The reward packages are very similar to loot boxes, but there’s no need to worry; there are no instances of microtransactions, FOMO, or battle passes present in the Fox Hunt mode, as the packages only serve as a way to give you small incremental rewards for playing matches.
Fox Hunt seems to be doing a good job at keeping its player base stable, as the queues have been reasonably fast so far, usually dropping me into a match in less than a minute. This is pretty standard considering I was able to start playing the day the mode launched, but I do worry about its future, since the small spike in active players suggests that maybe not enough marketing was done for it and that a good amount of people are either uninterested or unaware that it exists. Delta currently averages around 800-1000 active players, although it’s not possible to know how many of those players are active in Fox Hunt, since those numbers are shared with the base game.
Most of my testing has been done on the Steam version of MGS Delta, but your mileage pertaining to player availability might vary on other platforms, since there is no cross-platform or cross-region play. On a better note, Fox Hunt features three dedicated servers, one per region, including North America, Europe, and Asia, meaning you don’t have to deal with the inconsistencies that come with player-hosted matches through P2P. The available servers are incredibly consistent, and I don’t believe I ran into any major instances of lag, desync, or disconnections, as the game does its best to keep you in a match even if your network goes unstable for a few seconds.
Metal Gear Solid as a series has always rewarded players for their game knowledge and ability to outsmart enemies, and Fox Hunt is no different, allowing for a good bit of creativity when it comes to approaching enemy encounters thanks to the AT-Camo suit and the wide variety of tools available. Fox Hunt is only held back by a lack of variety when it comes to its game modes and certain mechanical choices like Naked Sense, but still serves as a solid bit of fanservice for fans of the series, as you get to sneak around and ambush players disguised as your favorite Metal Gear characters in matches that are very fun to play in short bursts.
Fox Hunt has done surprisingly well for a multiplayer mode locked behind a $70 purchase, succeeding in bringing players back to the game regardless of its small audience, but perhaps a standalone release would have benefitted it more. While fans of the franchise might have expected the return of Metal Gear Online, it’s quite clear that this mode only takes a small amount of inspiration from it, perhaps as a test for a future release. As it stands, Fox Hunt was always meant as a small novelty for players to get more fun out of Metal Gear Solid Delta, something it does a pretty good job at.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.