When you take all the basic elements of one of the best action titles of the PS1 era and mix it with the gameplay elements of it's successor, MGS2, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is what you're left with - an excellent fusion of the best of the old, and the best of the new.
Classic Metal, new Gear.
Story: "The nuclear weapons disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island in Alaska's Fox Archipelago was being used to train next generation special forces unit FOXHOUND when the unit suddenly revolted and captured the island. The terrorists have secured hundreds of nuclear warheads and are demanding that the government turn over the remains of Big Boss. They warn that if their demands are not met within the next 24 hors, they'll launch a nuclear weapon. Solid Snake is once again called back to duty in a top-secret mission to deal with the greatest terrorist threat the world has ever seen."
You have two mission objectives: Rescue the DARPA chief, Donald Anderson, and president of ArmsTech, Kenneth Baker, who are being held as hostages and find out whether or not the terrorists actually have the means to launch a nuclear weapon. This is a procure-on-site weapons acquisition, so you will have to obtain any and all firearms while you are on the island.
With just 24 hours left, the clock is already ticking...
Gameplay: Even if you've mastered the Playstation 2 Metal Gear titles, you'll still be at an immediate disadvantage. Maybe it's just because I haven't played a Metal Gear game in over a year, but the controls have been revamped completely to compensate for having to use a different controller. The commands of all the face buttons seem to have been reversed, for example, the "crouch" command on the PS2's Dualshock is X (the face button positioned lowest on the controller) while the same exact command on the Gamecube's is also X (despite being the "same" button, the X button for GC is positioned near the top of the controller). I don't know if I just suck, or if this was Hideo Kojima's way of giving everyone the finger, but to quote Ben (Yahtzee) Croshaw (for another game though), "It was kicking my ass up and down like the knickers of an indecisive whore" at the very beginning (i.e. the first 3 enemies) until I lost patients and altered the difficulty. Which brings me to another point. The enemy AI has been completely redone, to the degree where they are even smarter than that of MGS2's and bordering the AIs of MGS3. It seemed like as soon as I revealed one inch of my soft, supple body, the enemy Genomes filed me with more bullets than were used in either World War. This wouldn't have been so bad if the government didn't cheap-out and just give me a damn gun. How incredibly pathetic is that!? When I finally got my bearings and found out what the hell does what and realized that getting shot isn't exactly the best thing for Snake (I guess he isn't bulletproof. Well, now I know) it started feeling like a actual Metal Gear title and less like I was just some douche running around a military base with a target painted on his head. Overall, the control scheme of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is in a solid form once you get the hang of it.
Graphics: Clearly using the same engine as Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS2), The Twin Snakes is undeniably the best looking Gamecube title and despite the power the Xbox and PS2 have, one of the best looking games of the last-gen consoles.
Sound: The voice acting was worked with a little bit (a few new voice actors), but for the most part, you probably won't notice too much difference from the outstanding work done in the original game. The music, however, is a completely different story. Almost immediately, you'll notice that just about all of the classic, catchy tunes from the PS1 version have been replaced with a mediocre (at best) soundtrack that takes away practically all the drama that the originals story line had. While the VA was very well done, it still doesn't excuse the pitiful display the soundtrack put on. What happened to the last guy, or couldn't you have at least blatantly ripped-off his work? Whoever the hell the new music director was, he clearly dropped the ball on this one.
Special: Dogtags --Just like with Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, The Twin Snakes gives you the ability to hold-up soldiers and take their dogtags to add to your collection. It's not as simple as just killing them and taking their tags, you actually have to sneak up on the guard on patrol (definitely not the guards that arrive during Alert and Caution mode) and pull out your handgun in first-person mode to stick them up. At that point, you will have to circle around them and threaten their life by aiming the gun at either their head or genitals to scare them into dropping their tags. Just about every enemy, including bosses (hmmm, I wonder how to get theirs?) carry their own tags and will have to be collected on all 5 difficulty settings to unlock them all. At first, this may seem impossible at times, but after you complete the game with the "Otacon" ending (I won't ruin it for anyone), the special item will make this so incredibly easy, you could probably get all tags on that difficulty in a single runthrough.
Boss Survival -- After you complete the game, under the special features on the main menu, you will be awarded with a boss survival mode. In this mode, you'll have to consecutively, fight all the bosses throughout the course of the game while given limited supplies.
Bonus Gallery -- After you complete the game, regarding the ending you pick, you can watch the 2 1/2 - 3 hours of cutscenes. This is a cool little feature for those of you lazy jerks who want to experience all of the story without the hassle of actually playing the game. You can watch either the Otacon or Meryl ending after you complete the game with that conclusion.
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is a solid title for anybody looking for a great Gamecube game. One of the major problems I see with this game though, is that , if you choose to skip all of the cutscenes of story, the game itself is surprisingly short. Also, now you might not be able to find it for less than $30 used. I don't know why the prices of Gamecube games has gone up so drastically, but if that's the case, it might not be worth it for those of you who have already played the original PS1 classic to death.
Classic Metal, new Gear.
Story: "The nuclear weapons disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island in Alaska's Fox Archipelago was being used to train next generation special forces unit FOXHOUND when the unit suddenly revolted and captured the island. The terrorists have secured hundreds of nuclear warheads and are demanding that the government turn over the remains of Big Boss. They warn that if their demands are not met within the next 24 hors, they'll launch a nuclear weapon. Solid Snake is once again called back to duty in a top-secret mission to deal with the greatest terrorist threat the world has ever seen."
You have two mission objectives: Rescue the DARPA chief, Donald Anderson, and president of ArmsTech, Kenneth Baker, who are being held as hostages and find out whether or not the terrorists actually have the means to launch a nuclear weapon. This is a procure-on-site weapons acquisition, so you will have to obtain any and all firearms while you are on the island.
With just 24 hours left, the clock is already ticking...
Gameplay: Even if you've mastered the Playstation 2 Metal Gear titles, you'll still be at an immediate disadvantage. Maybe it's just because I haven't played a Metal Gear game in over a year, but the controls have been revamped completely to compensate for having to use a different controller. The commands of all the face buttons seem to have been reversed, for example, the "crouch" command on the PS2's Dualshock is X (the face button positioned lowest on the controller) while the same exact command on the Gamecube's is also X (despite being the "same" button, the X button for GC is positioned near the top of the controller). I don't know if I just suck, or if this was Hideo Kojima's way of giving everyone the finger, but to quote Ben (Yahtzee) Croshaw (for another game though), "It was kicking my ass up and down like the knickers of an indecisive whore" at the very beginning (i.e. the first 3 enemies) until I lost patients and altered the difficulty. Which brings me to another point. The enemy AI has been completely redone, to the degree where they are even smarter than that of MGS2's and bordering the AIs of MGS3. It seemed like as soon as I revealed one inch of my soft, supple body, the enemy Genomes filed me with more bullets than were used in either World War. This wouldn't have been so bad if the government didn't cheap-out and just give me a damn gun. How incredibly pathetic is that!? When I finally got my bearings and found out what the hell does what and realized that getting shot isn't exactly the best thing for Snake (I guess he isn't bulletproof. Well, now I know) it started feeling like a actual Metal Gear title and less like I was just some douche running around a military base with a target painted on his head. Overall, the control scheme of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is in a solid form once you get the hang of it.
Graphics: Clearly using the same engine as Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS2), The Twin Snakes is undeniably the best looking Gamecube title and despite the power the Xbox and PS2 have, one of the best looking games of the last-gen consoles.
Sound: The voice acting was worked with a little bit (a few new voice actors), but for the most part, you probably won't notice too much difference from the outstanding work done in the original game. The music, however, is a completely different story. Almost immediately, you'll notice that just about all of the classic, catchy tunes from the PS1 version have been replaced with a mediocre (at best) soundtrack that takes away practically all the drama that the originals story line had. While the VA was very well done, it still doesn't excuse the pitiful display the soundtrack put on. What happened to the last guy, or couldn't you have at least blatantly ripped-off his work? Whoever the hell the new music director was, he clearly dropped the ball on this one.
Special: Dogtags --Just like with Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, The Twin Snakes gives you the ability to hold-up soldiers and take their dogtags to add to your collection. It's not as simple as just killing them and taking their tags, you actually have to sneak up on the guard on patrol (definitely not the guards that arrive during Alert and Caution mode) and pull out your handgun in first-person mode to stick them up. At that point, you will have to circle around them and threaten their life by aiming the gun at either their head or genitals to scare them into dropping their tags. Just about every enemy, including bosses (hmmm, I wonder how to get theirs?) carry their own tags and will have to be collected on all 5 difficulty settings to unlock them all. At first, this may seem impossible at times, but after you complete the game with the "Otacon" ending (I won't ruin it for anyone), the special item will make this so incredibly easy, you could probably get all tags on that difficulty in a single runthrough.
Boss Survival -- After you complete the game, under the special features on the main menu, you will be awarded with a boss survival mode. In this mode, you'll have to consecutively, fight all the bosses throughout the course of the game while given limited supplies.
Bonus Gallery -- After you complete the game, regarding the ending you pick, you can watch the 2 1/2 - 3 hours of cutscenes. This is a cool little feature for those of you lazy jerks who want to experience all of the story without the hassle of actually playing the game. You can watch either the Otacon or Meryl ending after you complete the game with that conclusion.
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is a solid title for anybody looking for a great Gamecube game. One of the major problems I see with this game though, is that , if you choose to skip all of the cutscenes of story, the game itself is surprisingly short. Also, now you might not be able to find it for less than $30 used. I don't know why the prices of Gamecube games has gone up so drastically, but if that's the case, it might not be worth it for those of you who have already played the original PS1 classic to death.
