Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

As it has been said and inferred all over the site, we here at Gametrash absolutely love the Metal Gear Solid series. Combining the unique sneaking style gameplay with great stories and interesting characters, virtually every single author is obsessive about the series, and it's only natural that we continue this by reviewing the games in the series.

Metal Gear Solid was the first game in the “Solid” series of the Metal Gear franchise, and was really the key that turned it from an once somewhat mediocre NES title (Or titles, depending if you acknowledge Snake's Revenge) into a quality game series that everyone had to play. So, naturally, when the new line of Next Generation consoles came out, there was quite a large push to get the Metal Gear Solid series from the Playstation to the Playstation 2. But, interestingly enough, there was another demand- a remake of the original on a next gen console. As the original game had problematic graphics (Which were really the only thing limiting the game), any remake of the game would be welcome to really get the whole series into focus like it deserved to be. And, this time, Hideo Kojima's team didn't actually work on it- they actually “Outsourced” it to Silicon Knights, one of Nintendo's main second party developers.

You either love or hate Silicon Knights, and this is another time in which this kind of differentiation shows. Obviously sticking to the original game, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is a direct upgraded port from the Playstation and PC to to the Gamecube, meaning that The Twin Snakes is exactly, bit for bit, Metal Gear Solid. Be it the scenes, the level layouts, weapons locations- all of it is the same as usual, which is actually somewhat unusual for a game like this. The reason for this is simple- there was absolutely nothing wrong with the original game (Thus why it's a perfect 5 stars on this website), and there's no reason to mess with it because of that. That's good thinking.

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is upgraded in a few key ways, which make and break this game. First of all, the game is graphically updated to make it beautiful, which is basically taking what needed to be done and doing it. Abandoning the muddy textures and somewhat ugly models of the original (As well as the irritating lack of eyes..), this game is photo realistic, and really comes off like the game should have originally. From the start of this game, it is obvious that Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is much like a movie in that it is made to feel cinematic and linear, almost like a movie version of the PS1 original. The whole game, from the movements to the enemies, is made specifically for this purpose, and the team at Silicon Knights even went so far as to hire Japanese screenwriter Ryuhei Kitamura to write the original cutscenes.




Of course, I have to gush about these graphics, because it seems like Silicon Knights knew exactly where to take this game. While it still somewhat keeps the “Arcade” look of the original (Not trying to be TOO realistic), everything in the game looks detailed and real enough to feel like it should, and the game really excels at this. The character designs look perfect, and even the soldiers that you have to beat up are well done, showing truly how much work was put into making this game quality. It gets to the point where the game is so detailed that, in outdoor areas, Solid Snake's bandanna that he wears will flap in the wind, and you can see him breathe after walking a lot. I remember the first time I played Metal Gear Solid and saw the footsteps in the snow and went “Whoa, that's detailed”- I got the exact same impression from the overall graphic upgrade Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes received.


But, as Silicon Knights upgraded the graphics, they also upgraded the game, which was somewhat of a mistake. In the original, the soldiers, while you feared them and ran from them quite often, were resoundingly stupid. As long as you made sure not to deliberately get in their line of sight or shoot a gun, they would generally not notice you, like normal soldiers. However, in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, Silicon Knights completely forgot that, if you are going to make these same soldiers in the same situation smarter, that logarithmically makes the game harder- and you have to accommodate for that. They didn't do that, and that hurts, because it makes this game much harder than it originally was, which is good or bad, depending on how you look at it. Sometimes, though, I felt like it was a little overboard, like the fact that when I get spotted, enemies will “magically” appear and sweep the area (Ala Metal Gear Solid 2), except they also magically are armed and will always go straight to where you hide. Not only that, but I also noticed Silicon Knights implemented hearing in the guards, which means you can pretty much NEVER run in this game. Irritating.




But, there are some new features (All stolen from Metal Gear Solid 2, I might add) that make this game a bit more detailed than the original. For one, most of the environment is now more detailed and interactive, from little things on desks to snow in the sky. Lockers can now be opened (Leading to the never ending fun of locking sleeping soldiers in closets), as well as a few other touches, like Snake's ability to hang from ledges (and get spotted and shot at). There is nothing so new that it in and of itself justifies this game, but it is enough to remind gamers that this is like Metal Gear Solid 1.5 (Well, 1.9 or something, considering the original was re-made for the PC as well as the PS1 and all that...), instead of “Metal Gear Solid for the Gamecube”.

One thing that managed to piss me off about this game are the controls. I've voiced my discontent about the Gamecube controller for games like this, primarily because the Gamecube controller, while it serves great for games like Super Smash Brothers, fails when it comes to really using it with precision. The shoulder buttons (Being as they require you to push them a half an inch down to “click” in) are still used for the item menus, but feel somewhat unwieldy in this fashion. The Z button (Right near the right shoulder button) toggles first person, which is VERY unwieldy, and worst of all, to call up your codec, it's “Start + A”. There is no reason they force you to hit Start + A, it just is another silly requirement that Silicon Knights has thought up to make life hard on me. When all of these little quirks are grouped together, I was left longing for my Playstation controller.






As I mentioned before, the cutscenes in this game are very good, which is actually somewhat surprising. One of the big problems with ports from companies having nothing to do with the original is that they have a nasty tendency to lose the “edge” or original concept the game had, but I actually found Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes to have better cutscenes with more depth and better dialogue than the original. Even the music is slightly better (Though I miss the somewhat chiptune-ish feel of the Playstation version's music), orchestrated and expansive, which really makes my day as a big Metal Gear Solid geek. I need to note, though, that some have found the cutscenes stupid (As they sometimes feel a bit Matrix-esque), and there have been huge debates about some of the lines (Something regarding Meryl being raped, don't ask me), but I still enjoyed it. I may be stupid.

I find it hard to really explain this game without virtually attaching my original Metal Gear Solid review to this game, which is somewhat sad, but very nice to realize. Silicon Knights did a good job of taking the original Metal Gear Solid and putting it in an updated format on the Gamecube, but I still ended up with a bad taste left in my mouth. The original was so good and well done, and small quirks in The Twin Snakes really somewhat distract from the greatness. However, this is counterweighted by the great cutscenes, which manage to do much better than the original cutscenes from the Playstation version. So, with that, I can't say “Buy this” or “Don't buy it”- if you are a Metal Gear Solid fan with a Gamecube, this may be a fun blast from the past. If you're looking into entering the series, this might be a good choice. But, in no way is this a reason to get the Gamecube, nor is it a perfect port, so some may be disappointed a bit more than I was.

4.5 star(s) out of 5

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