Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes Review

The first remake of a Metal Gear Solid game that makes me ask "why" when I think about it. Might be more so here since Twin Snakes was and still is an exclusive to Nintendo and MGS' player base by 2004 was on Playstation. MGS3 would come out on PS2 the same year. Portable Ops and Peace Walker would come out on Playstation Portable and of course MGS4 would be exclusive to PS3. The idea of a remake on a Nintendo system when the original game for the longest time wasn't even on Nintendo is also head scratching. That is going to be a recocurring theme of this entire game. I decided to emulate TS out of sheer curosity since it often gets bashed for breaking the original game's difficulty and of course the rather infamously reimagined cutscenes featuring action sequences seemingly inspired by the Matrix.

The best way of describing TS is this: what if you made MGS on Playstation and retroactively turn into Metal Gear Solid 2 and make it even more Hollywood? That is pretty much the whole game in a nutshell. TS' is so committed to this that I can't help but admire the game for that.

Have MGS and give everything a higher graphical fiedlity with the "power" of the Gamecube. Also have first person aiming, hanging mode, tranq gun, rolling, MGS2 guard AI, and Snake's 3 hit combo from that very game. The music is also more in line with MGS2 with different sneaking songs for each area with bits and pieces of the original game's motifs.

The story is interesting in that it's mostly the same story as MGS. With re recorded voice acting and cutscenes having transitions and having more Hollywood cinematrograhpy than before. If I can give this over Snake Eater Delta is at least there was some effort at creating a new experience where that game is just an Unreal Engine 5 paint job with detracting gameplay additions.

Since it's story of MGS. It has everything it's qualities and detriments. The former being the interesting villains, characters, and bizarre interwoven conspiracy ridden plot with backstabbing and betrayal. I didn't mind the voice acting too much here and some being an improvement like Mei Ling for example. The infamous Matrix cutscenes I just kind of laugh at more than anything since the series has made it's name off absurdity.

It also has it's detriments like a lot of Solid Snake's moment to moment dialogue of asking questions that are obviously spelled out to him or finding ask a question that end with him saying, "huh?" It can be really distracting consider it almost seems like it takes a few seconds for the information that is told for him to process. The rather bizarre section towards the end of the game which I like in theory can feel rather cheap and a waste of time in hindsight.

The gameplay is where things get bizarre. Yes, the much derided first person aiming does break the auto aim heavy fights but not all of MGS' boss fights were focused on that. If you play on emulator, it takes a little while until the game will actually let you hit Psycho Mantis. The fights with soldiers on the elevators are broken due to the the guards having MGS2 enemy health, no I frames with first person mode and Snake's health.

The last part is where TS' problems lie. MGS1 is a very unevenly paced game to the point where the more the game goes on it's more of a boss rush game broken up by set pieces and small stealth levels than an actual stealth game. The tranq gun does break stealth sections but it's counter acted by guards having larger sightlines of MGS2 and hearing in MGS's smaller maps. The Nuclear Warhead Storage building is the hardest stealth room since it has everything I mentioned but can't use the tranq gun so you have to actually sneak around meaning you got to hear with guards investigating where Snake is much faster. Getting caught is an instant fail where it takes ages for the game over screen to pop up. The only challenging stealth area is this room. Everything else is bizarrely harder due to MGS2 guard AI in MGS' smaller maps but easier due to the game encouraging tranq gun even more.

Snake's health is where the difficulty gets broken in half. In the original game, his health started small but with every boss defeat, it slowly grew larger. In TS' Snake right at the start can take a lot of damage. MGS' challenge came from bosses but now it takes quite a lot of hits for many of the bosses to even get you to a game over screen. Combine that with roll from MGS2 and even evading attacks also becomes easier combined with the added health.

With the exception of Vulcan Raven, the bosses are pushovers in TS. Raven being the hardest due to the only boss requiring stealth and only surprise attacks like stinger, nikita, C4 and claymore being reliable enough to hurt him. It's the only boss where just shooting and being a tank won't be enough to win which makes him stand out even more so. This boss is the same as the original so it can't be a point given to TS.

Overall, TS is one big "why" but it is an interesting one to ponder on.