Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes Updated Impressions, Part 1

We recently got our hands on a near-final build of the soon-to-be-released Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, the GameCube-exclusive remake of the 1998 classic. While the game won't ship for another month, we'll keep you informed about what to expect between now and then, and we'll be showing you plenty of new screens and movies of the game, if you care to have a look. If you're familiar with the original game, you'll see from that footage that The Twin Snakes is a pretty faithful adaptation of the original game's content. However, it features some of the gameplay mechanics of Metal Gear Solid 2, such as the ability to drag enemy bodies and shoot from a first-person perspective. The description that The Twin Snakes is "Metal Gear Solid with MGS2's gameplay" is a pretty accurate one. What, exactly, can you expect, though? Read on.

The Twin Snakes can concisely be described as Metal Gear Solid with Metal Gear Solid 2's gameplay.

Let's set the stage here, for a second. Two types of people are going to play The Twin Snakes: those who've played the original Metal Gear Solid, and those who haven't. Naturally, both types of people are in for different experiences. On the one hand, those who've played Metal Gear Solid before already know it has a deep and at times even heavy-handed storyline that combines James Bond-like superspy action and gadgetry with plenty of anime-style coolness and a big dose of cautionary wisdom. Fans of Metal Gear Solid have undoubtedly played its sequel and therefore won't be surprised by any of the core additions to the gameplay of Twin Snakes.

They'll notice things like how Snake's life meter doesn't increase after he beats the game's various bosses and how he starts bleeding when his health is low and can crouch down for a while to recover. They'll notice that you can shake down defeated enemies for a power-up or two and how you can sneak up on and hold up enemy guards and get them to relinquish their dog tags. They'll also notice that some of the game's animations and effects are lifted straight from Metal Gear Solid 2. Explosions, blood effects, and enemy death animations will look familiar.

The cutscenes are different and in some cases significantly longer now, but purists won't necessarily be thrilled by the changes.

Fans of Metal Gear Solid will also notice that all the game's cutscenes have been redone. In many cases, they're even longer than before, which is a questionable move since critics of the Metal Gear Solid games rightfully point out that the games often force you to sit back and watch more than actually play--this, for better or worse, is true of The Twin Snakes. The newly redone cutscenes are impressively choreographed in many cases. For instance, the first time Solid Snake meets up with the enigmatic cyborg ninja, the two have a little showdown that's completely new. Watching these revised cutscenes will probably be the most exciting aspect of the game for veterans of the series, though Metal Gear Solid purists may frown upon some of the changes. For example, prior to the fight with Revolver Ocelot, the first boss in the game, Ocelot now drones on even longer. The two have a standoff, then for some reason lower their weapons, and then draw once again for the fight--this arguably throws the pacing of the sequence off a bit.

Someone who has never played Metal Gear Solid before might wonder why these people don't just hurry up and shoot each other. Indeed, The Twin Snakes' pacing from a gameplay perspective is probably going to surprise even veterans of the series, who might find themselves feeling less forgiving of the extensive dialogue coupled with the relatively short gameplay sequences. Another surprise comes from seeing the codec sequences. Snake often communicates with off-site operatives via a top-secret communications device, and the dialogue here is portrayed exactly as it was on the PlayStation in 1998--using the same hand-drawn, slightly animated character portraits. It's somewhat of a jarring transition from the fully 3D graphics, though it's an interesting stylistic decision, if nothing else.