Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

The Good
Ok, for this review i ASSUME you have played the original ps1 version or pc version. If not, read a review of them first...

Right, lets go! This game is absolutely fantastic. I enjoyed the story and the gameplay A LOT. Everything blended perfectly and was an absolute joy to play again and again.

You see, Metal Gear Solid is neither a film or a game, its a good mix of both. The gameplay is more of a "Fill the gap" between the next exciting chapter of story to behold. And the gameplay is a lot of fun. The stealth aspect is not entirely realistic or anything, it's not re-creating the world of a spy here. The whole game is crafted to show it's characters and story and levels. There is nothing stereotypical here at all. which is why the series is so popular.

Many games have tried and lead the story on their characters. some work well, some perfect it (final fantasy series) and have the player depend on the reaction of the character to take you through the rest of the game.

All the voice acting is great, some sound a little cliched, but it's all part of the Metal Gear Solid world. Much like Star Wars, you couldn't NOT have a funny moment or strange accent or two could you? Metal Gear takes everything with a pinch of salt. Reality takes a back seat for the first part, but to zip up the tension the plot becomes longer and more reality-serious featuring things about nuclear attacks (very relevant for today) and cloning (also very relevant for today). The story poses a lot of questions and the whole thing is taken out by this character Snake.

Snake is one great guy, he has a great depth, you love his voice but you also can't understand him sometimes. But, still it's almost as if he's a great friend of yours, stuck out here against all the odds. Oh, and the odds are obviously "It's either YOU alone save the world.. OR the world ends".

This game features almost exactly the same everything as the other game. But this time they didn't just port it over to the gamecube, they totally did it again! re-recorded the voices (which sounds better this time). And everything is pretty much the same, same story, same outfits, same weapons (with an exception of the m9 tranq gun). Everything is different though, its like looking at metal gear 1 via a dvd player and not traditional video tapes. All of the controls are better, the movement is better, the abilities are better, the music is really, really great and the cinematics are inspired art-forms or high-octane eye-candy! The cut-scenes are worth seeing by any old metal gear fan. They are all added and re-directed and there are a lot of very exciting scenes (some are totally astounding). Some though are a little over the top, Snake spends a lot of his time flipping around in the air and doing "Matrix" style stuff. But it's all good. Just remember you are in the world of metal gear again and you will be thoroughly treated.

The Bad
The new features are fantastic, sniping from first person with handguns etc and using lockers and dragging bodies in a variety of ways is all great fun and adds a lot to the gameplay. But it all seems a little pointless to have (except the first person shooting views). For example, why would you want to hide in a locker when you don't really need to? The game is structurely the same as it was when you couldn't do all this new stuff, the enemies patrol the same kind of areas etc.. so you can just get by without using the new abilities just fine. I would of love to seen some more use of new abilities here, especially using enemies as body shields and hiding in lockers. And maybe some more new locals too. And maybe a new boss to fight or an extended boss fight or something. SOMETHING which isn't directly converted.

The Bottom Line
This game is pretty much the same as the original version, but this is the version it SHOULD of been. The dated graphics are not up to class of the voice acting it had and the story which was being told. I found the old meal gear was like watching puppets act out a fantastic story. You just blurred the faces with your imagination and instantly the game became enjoyable... But this time the game impresses you throughout. I love all of the characters. This is so much more fun than getting a bunch of dvds and having a weekend in. The quality of this game and the story and everything is fantastic.

Ok, one of the only things which kind of bugs me about metal gear is the way Snake is the legendary hero, but seems pretty clueless to what is going on around him. He constantly asks questions about a question which was just answered.

But it's these reasons which bring a warm smile to my face and i think "oh yes, metal gear is back!"