Therefore, this week’s review is for Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes by Konami for the Gamecube. I remember when I was a wee lad and this game was first released and I said, “I’d never buy this crap!” Now, after several years of maturity, I said, “I’d never buy this crap…for full price!” And so, a compromise was made with a Blockbuster Gift Card and life continued. Back to the game, what could be said about Metal Gear Solid, other than its spawining of overdone box and “idiot guard” jokes? Course, the thing that motivated me to play this game was the same motivation for me playing FF7, to see if the game truly lived up to all the hype. Did it now? I can tell you that it wasn’t a total disappointment as I expected it to be, but it does have one factor that inhibits it, only about an hour of actual play time. Read on!

Name: Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
Game Ownership: Yes
Game Status: Beat game on Easy and Normal.
How it was Acquired: Bought it
Condition when Bought: Used
Game Type: Third-Person Shooter (I guess)

Preliminary Comments:
I’ve only played the original PSX version once, and not for very long. Keep that in mind.

Rant: …….

Rant: A kid at my old school used to call himself “Shalashaska” a lot.

Rant: FOXHOUND needs to come up with better code names.

Fact: The voice of the Cyborg Ninja isn’t the same as the PSX version because apparently the original voice actor died.

Fact: The Gamecube remake of this game has extra cinema scenes that weren’t in the original.

Rant: A lot of people don’t like those new scenes for some reason.

Fact: The cinema scenes in this game amount to over 3 hours.

Fact: Cam Clarke, the voice of Liquid Snake, also played the voice of Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Graphics - 8.0
When I played the original Metal Gear Solid on PSX years ago, the first words out of my mouth were “These graphics suck!” Yes, my psycho bias back in the day contributed to that comment, but even now looking back, the graphics really weren’t that great. Even though the game pioneered the technique of using ingame models for cinema scenes, those models were…not the best quality. However, now that there is a much better medium to put this game on, the models look great. No longer are they choppy-moving and super blocky. They have been made to look more like the models in the sequel. I do get annoyed when Snake’s bandanna clips his body every once in a while, but it’s not important. Scenery in the game looks pretty nice too. Lacks lighting at times, but it’s still pretty good. Animation is pretty average, nothing much to talk about.

Of course, the one thing that you’ll be doing the most in this game (and it’s been proven) is watching cinema scenes. The cinema scenes are almost entirely made from the ingame models and look great. From what I hear, there are new cinema scenes in this game that weren’t in the original such as Snake fighting the Cyborg Ninja after defeating Revolver Ocelot. Though others didn’t like the scenes because they were unrealistic, I don’t think it should be too much of a bother.

Sound - 7.0
The music in Metal Gear Solid is somewhat popular. However, I think it deserved a score of 6.5. The main reason why? There isn’t that much music in-game. The only times you hear music are when you are spotted, during a cinema scene, and during a boss fight. Other than the song in the opening sequence and the main theme of Metal Gear, I can’t remember any other song at all. I remember it being pretty well composed, but still nothing to really get excited about. I do remember the variation they had in the music from techno to orchestral for different parts of the game, which was nice. Sound effects are pretty decent. None of it is any different from the sound effects of other gun games.

Something I would like to comment about is the voice acting. At the time of this sentence, 8:38 PM of February 27, 2006, I mean this in all honesty when I say that this game has the best voice acting of any other game I’ve ever played. I think it’s because this game takes on more of a movie characteristic, which drove the voice actors to actually care what they’re saying. I don’t really think there would ever be another game with voice acting as good as this game (except maybe the other Metal Gear Solids, but I never played them, nor have plans to in the future). I have heard from other reviews that the voice acting in this game is inferior to the original because the characters are lacking accents, but I still don’t think it really makes that much of a big deal since the voice acting is still very good.

Story - 8.0
Other than Final Fantasy 7, the original Metal Gear Solid has been called the best game ever on PlayStation. Similar to FF7, Metal Gear Solid has been completely swallowed up by story, even to a degree beyond FF7. If you’re gonna spend over three hours watching cinema scenes, the story had better be good! Now, the story isn’t as intensely incredible as everyone tells you. In fact, a lot of it was predictable and cheesy, but it still is nice enough to watch through. Also, something that this game has over other story heavy game is the ability to skip cinema scenes, which is the most valuable thing ever.

Onto the story itself, a special team of the army called FOXHOUND has gone renegade and taken over a military base on Shadow Moses island off the coast of Alaska. With the people on the base taken hostage, the terrorists have threatened to launch a nuclear strike unless the U.S. government gives into their list of demands. You are Solid Snake, an ex-member of FOXHOUND, that has been hired by the government to stop them. So has begun the fight for the fate of the world! So has begun Metal Gear Solid!

Even though I said a lot of the story is predictable and cheesy, there is also a good chunk of it that isn’t. There are many twists and turns in the story that will always leave you wondering what will happen next. The story also does a pretty nice job of character development. However, some of the twists are a bit too farfetched (McDonald Miller, case closed). Not only that, but a lot of the story is really sappy and boring. Some of Meryl and Snake’s conversations were putting me to sleep, and all this talk about “love in a battlefield” made me gag. Perhaps it’s because I’m not into that sort of thing, I dunno. Another problem is that there is a large plot hole, namely whatever happened to the supposed hostages? After the intro, the game makes no mention of them at all. Sure, there are two guys that you save, but you’d suspect a large army base like that one to have more.

Some interesting things to note are the following: A lot of the game actually involves the two prequels released on the NES. However, the game does include a brief synopsis of the two games so that you know what is going on as well as a long cinema briefing that is supposed to take place before the long opening sequence. Another thing to note is that this game is known for breaking the fourth wall. If you want proof, just fight Psycho Mantis. You’ll see all the proof you need. Also, this is probably the first game that was made to convey a moral message. What is that message? You’ll have to beat the game and see for yourself.

Fun - 7.5
This game is practically a movie. You could just skip the actual playing part of the game and still walk away with the same impressions. However, unlike other movie-ish games, this game actually does a good job with the actual game part. Now, I’m gonna tell you now that I hate third-person shooters. I always have, and I always will. The only thing I hate more than third-person shooters are covert third-person shooters. My style is more run-and-gun-bang-bang-blow-up-crap than just wait-in-corner-for-guy-to-walk-in-then-hold-him-hostage-and-not-get-detected. Despite this, I still liked this game. The game is very innovative and has many different ways for Snake to trick the bad guys. We all should be familar with his ability to hide in a box, but there are other ways such as using a porno mag as a diversion or throwing an empty magazine (gun clip) to distract the soldiers. You could also aim a gun at their backs and make them surrender or sneak up behind them and crack their necks. A problem, though, is that normally the bad guys are so stupid that you don’t have to go through all that trouble. Most of them can just be easily shot or avoided. You actually have to make a bit of an effort if you want to avoid them in that manner.

Boss battles in this game are pretty cool. Each one has its own little quirk that makes them special. Just wait till you fight Psycho Mantis to see what I’m talking about. Along with that, there are some fun single parts to the game such as rappeling down a wall or being chased up a tower by guards. The game does try hard to add a bit of variety to the game to keep the gameplay from just being stealth. However, these segments are normally very short and not that incredibly interesting.

With all this good stuff being said, why is the score slightly above average? The main problem with the game is that the actual gameplay portion is way too short. The whole game without cinema scenes is only about an hour long! Even though there are some cool parts to the game, they’re over so fast that you don’t get to enjoy them. The rappeling part I just mentioned is at most 3 minutes. I am a staunch believer in gameplay over everything, and the realization that this is a movie with gameplay in it truly disappointed me. This game really could have been one of the best games of all time, but the severe lack of play time is just too severe of a handicap.

Difficulty - 6.0
Even with all the good parts of the game, the game really isn’t very difficult. Yes, it does get more difficult on higher difficulty, but that’s just because enemies do more damage and sense you faster. Many people say that this is due to this version of Metal Gear Solid integrating several features from Metal Gear Solid 2 such as running while shooting and first person aiming. Some feel that this game wasn’t made to integrate those features, and made the game too easy. However, this may just be a case of “making an easy game even easier.” It is true that this game is easy, but from what I hear, the original Metal Gear Solid wasn’t a hard game to begin with. Heck, if you don’t like things like using a first person mode to aim, then don’t use it! It still doesn’t change the fact the game was too easy.

Replayable - 6.0
I do recommend playing the game once just so you’ll know what everyone else is talking about when they reference this game. If you play the game more than twice, it gets kinda boring since you know what to do and where everything is and what everyone is going to say. Really, the game only requires one playthrough unless you’re trying to get everything. For those of you that are, there are many things to collect and unlock such as alternate outfits or the dog tags of every enemy soldier in the game. If you’re one of those people obsessed with finding every little thing in a game, then go ahead and play it a billion times. Otherwise, your time could probably be better spent elsewhere.

Posted in Gamecube, Nintendo |