Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

Written by Tim McGrew  on March 22, 2004

Full Review: Snake returns once again and he's packin' a port!

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The Metal Gear franchise has blossomed into something of a colossal entity over the past six years with four versions of Metal Gear Solid over various platforms, one extra disk for its fun expansion pack-like VR missions with various versions of Metal Gear Solid 2: The Sons of Liberty and on top of this, without going into too much detail, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater will be hitting state-side this year on the PlayStation 2 as well. However, the latest version in the series is actually a well-crafted remake of the original Metal Gear Solid entitled Ц Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.

Co-developed by Silicon Knights with Hideo Kojima and Konami Entertainment Japan supervising, Twin Snakes mixes the incredible gameplay features of Metal Gear Solid 2 with the classic enriched story and characters of the first Metal Gear Solid that made the series a smash hit during this past generation. Though a very bare generalization, the game does feature a number of upgrades to please even the most casual of Metal Gear fans.

For those who have not played the original game before, the story unfolds as the player fills the shoes of our very own espionage agent, Solid Snake. It's your job to storm their newly captured remote facility in Alaska and rescue two hostages captured by a next-generation Special Forces unit codenamed Fox Hound, which consists of the best military personnel the world has to offer specializing in, but not limited to, heavy weapons, hand to hand combat, and telekinetic powers.

As Solid Snake, players will be given a variety of ways to dispose of your enemies including breaking their necks, knocking them unconscious with a series of punches, kicks, and throws or, new to this particular version of the title, tranquilizer darts, and finally, simply blowing them away with a well placed shot below the belt, to the head, or a series of shots to anywhere else on the body. At your disposal will be a number of weapons including handguns, machine guns, missile launchers, sniper rifles, grenades, plastic explosives, and the more divine weapons such as knocking on a wall, throwing an empty ammunition clip, or even placing a dirty magazine on the floor. Metal Gear is nothing if it doesn't have quite a bit of variety.

The guards have also been given an overhaul. Their vision is still limited based on difficulty, but nowhere near as limited as in the first game where simply dodging their cones of vision on the soliton radar was all that was necessary. Guards this time around are actually acutely aware of different floors, sudden movements, and radio check-ins from other guards. The guards actually present the most fun and the most challenge the game has to offer as guards will suddenly and inexplicably appear after you are detected and your position is radioed in. The "new" guards now assigned to hunting you down during alert status come equipped with combat shields made of strong plexi-glass, handguns, shotguns, and Kevlar armor so they can withstand a number of hits. Plus, the guards are also very agile rolling and ducking from cover fire and clearing rooms of your presence if you are seen going into one and they will hunt until they find you unless of course you have a cardboard box handy to hide under.

Just as the guards are the most difficult aspect of the game, which adds to the realism of it, the boss battles are now ridiculously easy. What once was a great battle is now just a former shadow of itself as Revolver Ocelot now falls to no less then four headshots achieved on normal without even moving from your standing position with an occasional peek or strafe move here and there around a large pillar. The weapons in the game also do a lot more damage, but this adjusts based on difficulty concurrently with the number of hits. Certain action sequences that play out like enjoyable mini games have also been simplified and made easier overall in comparison to their original Playstation counterparts, but detailing such differences would tread into spoiler territory.

Aside form the redone abilities of both Snake and the guards, the game's cinematics have also been redone entirely. Players will be able to watch all new confrontations between certain characters which were once very subtle in the first iteration of the title. Snake and the Ninja, for example, meet on two separate occasions for battle in the game now, including the playable encounter roughly mid-way through the game. Some of the cinematics, however, are rather overbearing and overuse slow motion to an almost appalling degree mimicking special effects similar to the Matrix in many respects. Given that, the scenes are good viewing material for one sit through, but are worth skipping after that.

Additionally, the original voice talent from the game has returned and the script of the game has been tweaked in some areas, but the general story is still exactly the same. The only problem with the returning voice talent is that they tend to be overly flat in their presentation. Campbell in particular was much more fluid and life-like in the original and just comes off as flat and monotone here, even after the player dies or even during a more dramatic or tense scene. Plus, some of the accents of the actors have been lost and none of them sound nearly as charming or as foreign as before. Mei Ling and Natasha Romanenko now sound more American than ever and that can be good or bad depending on your view of the details, but this will hardly be a fault if this is your first time playing the game.

Graphically, the game looks stellar and is on par with the now two year old Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance on both the Xbox and Playstation 2, but there are a number of problems still apparent in the game. For instance, a number of the textures throughout the different areas look like they were directly ported over from the original game which tends to look low-res and pixilated while minor shimmering and slowdown can be seen from a number of different areas, particularly in first person view. None of the graphical problems hinder the gameplay, but they are noticeable to those who look for it. The graphics of the new cut-scenes are a joy to view despite these minor faults. The special effects, speed, and motion-capture animation are all amazing and a testament to Konami's facilities and Silicon Knights skills with the GameCube.

The audio in the game is a bit of a mixed bag. Just about every theme in the game has been redone in one way or another. The Metal Gear theme, which appears notoriously in every iteration of the series, is subtly planted in a number of tunes in the game, particularly the danger and evasion tracks that change as you play. Much of the music in the game is much more subtle taking a Metal Gear Solid 2 approach and swaying away from the overly mechanical sound present in the original game. Returning, much to this reviewers delight, is the original theme, "The Best is Yet to Come" performed by Rika Muranaka, unchanged by any of the musical staff at SK or KCEJ. The difference of the music from heavy and brooding to subtle and flowing doesn't exactly match up with the original score as it was simply amazing the first time around, but any Metal Gear Solid fan will enjoy many of these themes through and through.

On top of all this, returning to the series is the dog-tag hunt which began in Metal Gear Solid 2 and was expanded slightly in Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance as a nice diversion. Players will be able to collect these tags on five various difficulty levels with different end game extras given to you at the end of the game depending on which particular ending you acquire. Otherwise, the game is pretty sparse in terms of replay value and any seasoned Metal Gear Solid player will blow through this in about five hours, but the newer players will probably have a tougher time and complete the game in about seven or eight hours.