N-Philes

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

Posted by Kenny.

Indeed I happen to be in the fortunate minority of those who have never played the original Metal Gear Solid. The level of my knowledge extends only to what I've read, videos I've seen, and the brief attempts at the MGS2 demo I've tried. So judging from what the critics are saying, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is a game geared directly to people like me. While I feel sorry for those who were hoping for at least a semblance of something new, I personally couldn't be happier. The Twin Snakes is filled with clever plot twists, intriguing puzzles, and solid gameplay. It isn't perfect, even on the standards of a remake, but like so many fans have been saying for so long, you owe it to yourself to try this game.

For Metal Gear Solid Virgins Only

If you're not aware of the story, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes recounts the exploits of Solid Snake, an ex-member of the elite military group, FOXHOUND. Living peacefully in Alaska and raising sled dogs, Snake is suddenly whisked onto a submarine by his former employer, Colonel Roy Campbell, and given an offer he literally can't refuse. From there the Colonel explains the situation. A top-secret weapons lab in Archipelago, Alaska, was seized by members of Snake's old militia, and they're making unusual requests. Demanding the remains of their old leader and Snake's previous rival, Big Boss, the rebels claim to have nuclear weapons, and will use them if their orders are not met. It's Snake's job to rescue those taken hostage, and to stop the nuclear threat if it exists. Naturally the story is much deeper than that, spiraling into complex conspiracies with surprises at every corner. It isn't that complicated, but there is clearly more effort put into this story than most brainless Hollywood action flicks.

The gameplay is exactly like Metal Gear Solid 2, and depending on how you look at it, that can either be good or bad. For those expecting something new, you won't be getting it. But to the people who loved the second MGS, what can be better than playing even more of it? Whether you're pessimistic or not, the general consensus is that this title has superior gameplay to the original Metal Gear Solid. Not much of a surprise there. As I've mentioned, I played Metal Gear Solid 2 for a brief period. With too little time to truly grasp the controls, I only had the opportunity to understand what I could do. The Twin Snakes has given me a chance to really get the hang of things. For me it's fantastic, because my biggest fears lay with Silicon Knights, and how much effort they were willing to put into this title. The developer did cut a few corners, but in the gameplay, where it mattered most, the goods were delivered.

The Twin Snakes plays heavily on stealth, more so than other espionage titles such as Splinter Cell, so the action can be severely limited, especially when coupled with the cut-scenes that occur every 14 seconds. The concept is pretty familiar. Avoid detection otherwise security will be informed and a troupe of guards will come pouring in. There are also puzzles, ranging from very easy to balancing on the edge of obscure, but all are satisfying to solve in the end. And you never get stuck for long, because the mission log always informs you of where you last left off. Hints are also provided through the conversations in your codec (communications device) with headquarters. Though the game is extremely linear, the mechanics are very open-ended, which allows you to perform tasks in different ways. To pass sentries you can shoot them from afar, hold them up at gunpoint, sneak by using the railings, or even avoid them completely. When the alarm goes up and you're being hunted, you can conceal yourself in lockers, slip through cracks, crawl through vents, hide in boxes, or gun enemies down the old-fashioned way.

Why Metal Gear Makes It Look Like You Suck

To perform all the great things Snake can do, there has to be a trade-off. That means Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes has an awful learning curve to overcome. I'm not here to complain about the GCN controller, because it seems to plays just as well as the PS2 one. The design of the gameplay in general makes it rather difficult to master. The camera chooses odd angles. The button combinations are tricky to remember. And the game itself is supposedly harder than the original; not something I can vouch for but I can certainly say it is not forgiving. I must have died at least two dozen times on the absolute beginning, where there are only two guards and several places to hide. Keep in mind though, that I suck. Normally I can catch onto a game pretty quickly, but for some reason I can't figure out MGS:TTS for the life of me. Easy bosses? I have yet to beat a boss without using two rations and continuing 10 times. I practically deserve an award for my awful skills. It's like, am I playing the game with my hands, or my feet? Either way, I would have judged this game to have a 20-hour learning curve if I didn't recognize my suckitude right away. It will probably take two to three hours for regular players to gather completely.

Part of the game's difficulty comes from its eerie AI. I can't say if these guards are smarter or dumber than their Playstation counterparts, but they certainly seem clever to me. If you render an enemy unconscious, he'll eventually wake up and call for help. Let them spot a body and the alarms will sound. If they catch you sneaking into a hiding spot, they'll either squeeze through to shoot you, or stand guard until you die of starvation. If you knock someone out while they're in the middle of calling for help, the man on the other line will send reinforcements anyway, because something fishy is going on. If you disappear from sight and hide in a different area, the enemies will sequentially clear out every single room. Your opponents are also very insightful. They'll spot footprints in the snow or water marks from your shoes, even though they can't see 25 feet in front of them. And yes, the sentries have ears, which can work for or against you. You can knock on walls or throw empty ammo clips to draw their attention. However, if you ever make too much noise say, inside a locker, they'll quickly have you surrounded.

Because I stink so much, this game took more than 20 hours for me to beat the first time. However, after solving all the puzzles and knowing how to defeat all the bosses, it's pretty clear that The Twin Snakes is not a long game. The timer counts your time viewing cut-scenes, so my actual duration of play was probably two-thirds of that number. I'd expect something around 10 hours for new players to beat, and easily less than five on your second run through by skipping all the movies. I don't want to spoil anything, but there are a few things to do afterwards, like collecting the dog tags and playing harder difficulties. I tried a harder level without my radar, and it is damn near impossible to beat. By all means though, this game does not feature enough additional things to do after you beat it. If there is only one thing I can say to encourage you to purchase this game rather than rent it, it's that you're almost guaranteed to play it again, provided you never ventured through the PSX version before. I don't hesitate to say this because I'm one of the few folks who never play games twice. I've played Metroid Prime once, as I did with Wind Waker, Beyond Good and Evil, Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, Resident Evil, Pikmin, and Mario Sunshine. The only game that makes a true exception to this case is Viewtiful Joe. I'm not one for milking every last bit of enjoyment from a game, because my attention span bailed out on me a long time ago. But after beating Metal Gear Solid once, I feel like I want to play it again. I have to play it again, and if I weren't writing this review right now, I probably would be.

The Sights to See In Archipelago

While The Twin Snakes is a lot of fun to play, its graphical prowess is where most of the problems crop up. To start things off, it's not very impressive looking. It's got nice polygons and terrific cinematics, but the whole package isn't exactly inspiring. This is not an ugly game by any means, but there's still a dispute between which game looks better, The Twin Snakes or Sons of Liberty (MGS2). The whole fact that an argument can exist means there's something wrong. I wasn't expecting the GCN version to eclipse the PS2 one graphically, but I was hoping that Silicon Knights and Konami would leave no room for debate. That is not the case, which means MGS:TTS is a great looking title – as is Metal Gear Solid 2— but nothing new. There are also a few things to rag on with this game. Prior to playing The Twin Snakes, I myself had read a number of reviews. I was frightened by what some critics had to say in terms of graphics, but they often cushioned their words by adding ‘It's not that bad.' That's not exactly the case, since the problems exists, and they are very apparent. I'm going to cushion my words as well, but I'm going to change things by saying ‘It doesn't matter anyway.' Really, it doesn't. To say it's not that bad is misleading, because it isn't just not bad, it's irrelevant. The actual game rarely chops up, if ever, which means the real perpetrator is the cut-scenes. The cinematics, all done in real-time, more often than not run at less than 60 frames per second. But with all the stylish effects and camera poses, you can hardly hate the game for it. Because in the end, the cinematics are still the best in the world bar none, save for a few corny moments that were probably unchanged for the sake of nostalgia. If anything, watching the scenes that do run at 60 is a real treat, and they almost look like an effect on their own.

In the very least, the great in-game movies help to draw away the eye from the occasional blurry texture. People can say I'm nitpicking about these things, but it happens more than once, and they can be extremely distracting when you become accustomed to the level of polish this game boasts. Like its predecessors, a lot of thought was placed into MGS:TTS, so expectations are pretty high when you play the game. There is accurate hit detection when you shoot glass panes and bottles, when you roll down the stairs you'll slip on your face, water runs down your view screen as you exit a pool, clipping is almost nonexistent thanks to some intriguing physics. There is so much effort that you can't help but wonder why Silicon Knights couldn't brush up on certain things. Perhaps it would not have made a difference anyhow. For example, though the game has hours of spoken dialogue, the characters aren't lip-synched. It did not make a difference for me, and the effort involved to accomplish that is probably more trouble than it's worth.

On the Topic of Spoken Dialogue

On the topic of spoken dialogue, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes has everything vocalized. Whether it's the speech during the cut-scene moments, or if you're just talking on the codec, everyone speaks their lines and they all do a fantastic job. Ironically, one of the worst voice actors happens to be David Hayter, who plays the role of Solid Snake. He isn't bad, but when compared to the great job done by most of the other players, well... he's got stiff competition. He isn't even the worst, Nastasha can't decide whether she's Russian or not. Forget that though, because that is indeed nitpicking. The voices are well done, but the music could have used a little more work. It uses the well-known MGS2 theme often, changed to be a little more modern, and ultimately a little less inspiring. Really, I can't tell what overall alterations they made to the music, but it is somewhat suitable. It is frequently quiet, which helps the stealth atmosphere but makes music difficult to judge in a review. You can tell that many of the old songs, perhaps coming straight from the 8-bit days of the original NES, were remixed into this game. You can't really complain, since this is a sequel to the original Metal Gear way back when, but it does fail to fit the overall sophistication of MGS.

This game gets an N-Philes score of A.

Even without the amount of effort Silicon Knights and Konami both placed into this game, it would probably still have been worth playing at least once. You can't deny the amount of praise this game received while it existed on the Playstation, and the ability to play an updated version is too big an opportunity to ignore now. Fortunately the corners cut aren't debilitating, and it will really wow folks who've never played the original. It's easy to see why old fans are miffed, because the real draw of the first Metal Gear Solid comes from its story, its clever puzzles, and really, its whole revolutionary feeling. All these things you can't recreate when developing a remake. For us ‘virgins' though, it is truly a great game to play. The only question is should you purchase it? I for one am glad I did, because I know I'll be playing it several times over. As well, for connoisseurs of gaming, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is one of those titles that belong in your library. If you're a casual gamer, who just beats a game and avoids the extra hubbub, then a rental is not bad advice to consider.

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