The recent announcement of the Snake Eater remake has put Metal Gear on my mind, so I figured I'd give The Twin Snakes a go, the only canon Metal Gear title I had yet to play.

I imagine the Snake Eater remake will be one of those re-release-ey remakes that primarily builds new art assets over the original game, akin to Bluepoint's Shadow of the Colossus and Demon's Souls, the Halo Anniversary duo, or the recent Metroid Prime Remastered. Conversely, The Twin Snakes is built from the ground up, and thus is a truly distinct game. It's not distinct in the manner that the Resident Evil remakes are, but rather is one of those weird remakes that plops its new gameplay and engine into a strongly adhered to recreation of the original design doc (the Spyro and Crash remakes come to mind). What we get with The Twin Snakes then is Sons of Liberty's gameplay in the context of the original Metal Gear Solid. It's an odd fit.

On the plus side, I love this gameplay, so having a whole other game to enjoy it in is great. I also love how it offers a way to get the MGS1 experience in a way that feels consistent with the other games in what I view as the core tetralogy of the series, MGS1-4; non-lethal play is now a factor, unlike the original MGS and its MSX forebears, and unlike the post-4 titles it has a holistic structure, i.e. not mission based.

However, this design doc was never meant for this gameplay, and it often shows. There's a case for the silenced tranq gun being overpowered in the games it was actually designed for, so as you can imagine it's ridiculous here. Guards can't deal with this thing, especially in some of the more open spaces where the player can snipe everyone across the map. I think the problem has been overstated though. The first boss is totally ruined by first-person aiming, but the second is actually much more dynamic with the new mechanics. Forced combat sequences now offer more options, and bosses which require a specific weapon to defeat have escaped unscathed.

While the gameplay is enjoyable and offers great replayability, that the encounters weren't originally built around it means I can't recommend this to a player before they play the original. And that's not the only reason - this is a much worse telling of this story. I shan't get into it too much, but there are three main elements at play here: 1) atmosphere is less thick, with less ambient sound and brighter, cleaner visuals; 2) voice acting isn't as emotive; 3) the cutscenes are hilarious, goofy, wannabe-Matrix nonsense. When treated as a fun alternate take, that last one is greatly enjoyable, but it really shouldn't be someone's first experience with this story which is so brilliantly told in the original game.

Taking this for what it was to me, not a replacement of the original Metal Gear Solid but a silly alternative take, I had a great time with The Twin Snakes. That core gameplay is so strong and flexible, and though that flexibility may break the game, it's a damn fun game to break.