Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

When I played through Sons of Liberty, being disgusted with the bizarre and implausible storyline twists (they might as well have thrown in space aliens) I couldn't stop thinking to myself that a re-make of the original MGS with the graphics and gameplay of Sons of Liberty would be quite awesome.

Lo and behold, Silicon Knights and Konami team up to do just that-- with excellent results. They even address the minor problems in the first MGS (a couple spots of weak dialogue, cheesy accents, especially from Nastasha and Mei Ling). The graphics, I daresay, surpass Sons of Liberty with ease. The cinematics have been totally redone as well-- the "hallway of death" scene alone would make it equal to a rated-R movie. And there's no idiot Raiden! The only MINOR problem with Twin Snakes is the music-- it just doesn't feel as "Metal Gear" as the original music in MGS, especially for the bosses, and the main theme introduced in Sons of Liberty makes only a few minor appearances.

Minor quibbles aside, I can't help but feel that the relentless bashing done by PS2 fanboys is merely because they're bitter that it's not coming out for their system. Don't worry, MGS3 is coming soon, quit complaining and let the Gamecubers enjoy this gem in peace.

I do not understand why anyone would complain that this project will not be successful. It is obvious that Silicon Knights is doing everything they can to maintain the storyline, dialogue, and stylistic visuals. MGS is one of the greatest videogames of the past 10 years, but, truth be told, the original is no longer graphically impressive. Don't believe me? Try popping the game into your PSX or PS2, you may be surprised at how awful the game looks when compared to today's standards.

I'm in no way bashing the game, it was groundbreaking in terms of storytelling, gameplay, and graphics. However, like many 3D PSX games (including other revolutionary games like Final Fantasy VII and Tekken) MGS has not survived the test of time.

The Twin Snakes is a fantastic way of bringing new life to a dying classic. I have much faith in Silicon Knights, they know how to make videogames and make them right. Their great, yet overlooked, title Eternal Darkness is one of the best Gamecube titles to date. Working with material as strong as the original MGS, there is little chance that The Twin Snakes will disappoint. For all you PS2 and XBOX owners who are bashing this game, give it a rest. XBOX was lucky enough to get MGS: Substance, and PS2 is getting the sure-to-please title MGS: Snake Eater later this year.

Nobody should overlook this remake of the original genre-defining game.

Master Video Game Creator Shigeru Miyamoto one of the greates game makers teams up with friend and video game creator Hideo Kojima to bring the classic Metal Gear Solid to the Gamecube.. with next generation graphics. The game is being handled by Silicon Knights that have on their resume the award winning ETERNAL DARKNESS that created a brand new genre for video games.. the cinematics and direction are being handled by Ryuhei Kitamura japanese film maker.. known for VERSUS and AZUMI... this game will be as fun as the first one with the inovations of the second one... and the visual style taht only HIDEO KOJIMA could bring to a video game.. this is going to be a timeless classic that should not be passed...

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is an excellent remake of the original Metal Gear Solid. (For the following, note that I have only played the PC version of MGS, which is almost identical to the Playstation version).

That said, I have to admit I haven't so far seen much in the game that had directly benefited from the polishing. The original game was slightly ugly, but not *too* ugly - acceptable. We live in the age where improvements in game graphics are starting to become less and less significant. The cutscenes are more impressive, of course, but again, you can't leap much higher from the original. Epic is epic. The voices have been rerecorded, which has had some benefits, namely that it has eliminated a couple of rather annoyingly badly delivered lines (a few seem to remain).

A little bit more of humor has been injected here and there, which is always good - hidden bits of humor are always fun to find.

The only thing where the game has really benefited from is the AI. The enemy soldiers have suddenly started to feel like the IQ 180 battle machines they're advertised as. Once the alarm rings, it's very tricky to stay out of trouble. (I wish, however, they had made the "game over if discovered" option available right from the start for all difficulty levels!) The boss fights, on the other hand, so far have seemed a whole lot easier! Also, the tranquiliser guns are a good addition.

One thing that bugs me is the lack of the VR training missions. Due to them, the PC version was good for both longer play sessions (the main game) and short time fun (the VR missions). As it is, sitting in front of the game is very likely to take approximately two hours out of our lives.

In summary, it is a great port of the game, it works wonderfully on GameCube, plays better than the original, has smarter enemies, slightly better graphics, good new guns and items - but yet, there's something in it that makes me to say "it's *just* a MGS remake, nothing more". It is, however, still a classic that I can't be without.

I feel Silicon Knights really did a great job with remaking MGS. With Konami's help, they took the story and characters from MGS and added updated gameplay taken from MGS: Sons of Liberty, a new and epic soundtrack and a great graphical presentation. Also, with the help of Ryuhei Kitamura (one of Japan's most gifted directors) they've created some of the most impressive real-time cinematics in a video game ever. The most impressive involving a certain Cyborg Ninja.

The graphics are more on par with MGS2 and in some places even better. Some textures look a lot better while some look rather plain. As for character models, they all look great except for one or two, but even then they are still very decent. The voice actors who did the original are all back (and even a new one) and of excellent quality like every other MGS game. Although they changed some of the characters accents and changed one characters original va they did just as great a job as in the original. Liquid Snake sounds even better this time around. Anyways, if you like Action/Stealth games then this is exactly what you want. The original MGS single handedly created the Stealth genre and after playing The Twin Snakes, it's easy to see why they remade such a great game. With one of the best and most intriguing stories and some of the most memorable characters in a video game ever, it's very easy to recommend this game.

9/10