Taste-Test: Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

First, I never played the original Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation all the way through. I was quite interested when I heard about the upcoming remake for the GameCube, especially after discovering the developer behind it would be Silicon Knights, the creators of Eternal Darkness. In fact, I think it may be safe to say that I was not only merely interested, but delighted at the prospect. From what little I did play of the original Metal Gear Solid, the control was probably the aspect of it that I disliked most. (This may be because I never fully adapted to the use of the Playstation controller... but I digress.) The point is that I found myself looking forward to playing the game on the much more comfortable GameCube controller; not to mention, judging by Eternal Darkness Silicon Knights seems to be able to implement third person control very well.

The graphics were beautiful, at least in the preview cinematic, despite being slightly too dark. As for the game itself, I wasn't particularly impressed. I suppose it was a major improvement over the original, but this time around it seems rather bland. Perhaps I'm just used to the style of graphics found on the Playstation version, but nevertheless the game's graphics did not measure up to the level the preview cinema promised. To be fair, I did not play very much of the game (though the demo itself was supposedly pretty short,) and the graphics are likely to improve as the game progresses in development.

Despite the sub-par graphics, the game itself was fun enough. I seemed to lack a full understanding of the control, which tried to resemble the original as well as it could. If you've ever played the original, you naturally know exactly how the game plays; it hasn't changed much. The basic point is to run around an enemy base; you can go quietly and concentrate on stealth, or set off an alarm and fight your way through. If you can get close enough to a guard, you'll engage in a fist fight. Sounds fun, eh?

The controls were probably the most interesting change I noticed. It's quite easy to tell that Silicon Knights is behind it just from moving the character around for a few seconds. The controls seem to be pulled straight from Eternal Darkness, and then mixed around a bit with those from the original Metal Gear Solid. At first I found myself running into walls and such, but it didn't take too long to figure things out. While I cannot remember the exact control scheme, I do recall that they seemed very natural; no awkwardness involved.

In all, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes looks to be quite interesting, and I'm happy to see titles I never got the chance to play originally being remade. All I can say is good work so far, Mr. Dyack! Just keep any love of Blade Runner away from the title and it should turn out just fine.

Chris Tucker