Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

Overview

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is the 2004 remake of Metal Gear Solid developed by Silicon Knights of Eternal Darkness fame as part of a special partnership between Nintendo, Konami, and Silicon Knights. The game uses the levels and story of Metal Gear Solid and reworks the gameplay to include elements that were introduced in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Portions of the script were retranslated, as well, and all of the game's voicework was re-recorded. According to various sources, David Hayter (the voice of Solid Snake) used half of his paycheck to bring the original actors back to reprise their respective roles. The Ninja however, was voiced by Rob Paulsen instead of Greg Eagles. The Twin Snakes was the last game developed by Silicon Knights as a Nintendo studio.

Story

The game stars Solid Snake investigating the nuclear disposal facility which had been taken over by FOXHOUND, a special ops unit led by Snake's brother Liquid Snake. He enters from an underwater entrance and then sneaks past the guards and onto the ground level of the facility on Shadow Moses Island. He proceeds throughout the game by sneaking past enemies and, when necessary, by engaging them in gun fights. He then talks to the DARPA Chief who has been imprisoned and finds out about a nuclear bipedal tank called Metal Gear REX. Early on he encounters the niece of his CO, Col. Campbell, Meryl Silverburgh. Shortly after he encounters the first boss battle with gunslinger Revolver Ocelot. Then a Cyborg Ninja comes in and cuts off Ocelot's right arm.

He runs away to recover after the ninja leaves in a crazed state. He then talks to the head of the fictional weapons company called ARMS Tech. He learns that there are keys needed to stop the Metal Gear from launching its nukes. He then calls Meryl via the codec found on the back of the game box and he heads outside where he fights a tank driven by FOXHOUND's Vulcan Raven. Snake fights the Cyborg Ninja who reveals himself to be Gray Fox and then befriends Hal Emmerich aka Otacon. Soon after they both meet up and head towards Metal Gear's location. They encounter Psycho Mantis of FOXHOUND in one of gaming's greatest boss battles. Afterward, Meryl in incapacitated by FOXHOUND's sniper, Sniper Wolf which leads to a duel between her and Snake. Snake is then incapacitated and brought to the torture chamber where the player has to resist electric shocks administered by Revolver Ocelot. In order to do that the player to resist they must mash on the action button. This is where the ending of the game is determined. If Snake resists it leads to the Meryl ending. If Snake surrenders to the torture it leads to the Otacon ending. Snake then goes to fight Sniper Wolf, but this time she dies. After that Snake fights off Liquid who is in control of a Hind D helicopter. After that Snake sets off toward the underground base were Metal Gear Rex is contained. On the way Snake fights Vulcan Raven again, without the tank.

After Snake defeats him he makes it to Metal Gear Rex and learns the that instead of having three seperate key cards, the card was sensitive to heat and would change shape when exposed to heat and cold. Snake uses the key card in each terminal. To his surprise this activiated REX and Liquid exposes that Snake was being used to activate REX. Snake then fights REX by shooting it's radar with stinger missiles. Gray Fox then appears to aid Snake in destroying the radar. This makes Liquid exposes his cockpit allowing Snake to fire at him with missiles. After Snake destroys REX the explosion throws Snake into the wall with enough force to cause him to pass out. When Snake comes to it eventually climaxes into a fist fight between the two brothers resulting in Solid Snake's victory. Liquid dies after a vehicle chase from the FOXDIE virus which was responsible for the deaths of both Decoy Octopus, who was disguised as the DARPA chief and the ARMS Tech president.

After the credits a phone conversation is heard between Revolver Ocelot, the only survivor of FOXHOUND, and a mysterious person. The person is later to be revealed as George Sears, the President of the United States, and the third clone of Big Boss whose nickname is Solidus Snake.

Cast of Characters

Protagonist

Image	Name	Voice Actor	Description
	Solid Snake	David Hayter	The legendary soldier send back from retirement to stop a group of terrorists from launching a nuclear weapon to the world

Supporting Characters

Image	Name	Voice Actor	Description
	Meryl Silverburgh	Debi Mae West	Campbell's niece who is captured by FOXHOUND and is being held captive on Shadow Moses Island. Meryl may lack field experience but her courage is what makes her a great ally for Snake
	Colonel Roy Campbell	Paul Eiding	FOXHOUND's former Commanding Officer and Snake's former mentor. He serves as Snake's primary radio contact in the game and gives information about his mission objective and general gameplay tips.
	Dr. Naomi Hunter	Jennifer Hale	Naomi is FOXHOUND's chief of medical staff and is part of Snake's radio support
	Mei Ling	Kim Mai Guest	FOXHOUND's communications expert who designed the codec radio and soliton radar. Mei Ling also handles the saving data
	Dr. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich	Christopher Randolph	An ArmsTech employee who designed Metal Gear REX. Nicknamed Otacon for his love of Anime
	Master MacDonnell Miller	Cam Clarke	FOXHOUND's former drill instructor and have since retired in Alaska. Master serves as Snake's radio support.
	Nastasha Romanenko	Renee Raudman	Nastasha was born in the USSR and is a weapons expert. She can be contacted for any enquiries about weaponries that are found on Shadow Moses Island

Villains (FOXHOUND)

Image	Name	Voice Actor	Description
	Liquid Snake	Cam Clarke	Main antagonist and leader of the terrorist group
	Revolver Ocelot	Patric Zimmerman	Second-in-command and an interrogation expert
	Vulcan Raven	Peter Lurie	An Inuit member of FOXHOUND who wields a giant Vulcan cannon and has shamanic powers of intuition
	Psycho Mantis	Doug Stone	A psychic expert for the FOXHOUND unit. Has the ability to read people's mind and manipulate his victim's body movement
	Sniper Wolf	Tasia Valenza	A beautiful and deadly Iraqi-Kurd sharpshooter of the FOXHOUND unit, who uses a Heckler & Koch PSG1. Though snipers usually work in pairs, Sniper Wolf works alone.
	Decoy Octopus	N/A	A master of disguise. As a perfectionist, Decoy Octopus goes to great lengths in impersonating someone by injecting the blood of those he impersonates into his own body for a more "perfect" disguise.

Others

Image	Name	Voice Actor	Description
	Cyborg Ninja	Rob Paulsen	A mysterious cyborg ninja who wields a katana blade. Apparently, he is on neither side and his main agenda is unknown
	Donald Anderson	Greg Eagles	The DARPA chief who is taken hostage by FOXHOUND
	Kenneth Baker	Allan Lurie	President of ArmsTech who is also being held captive against his will
	Jim Houseman	William H. Bassett	The United States Secretary of Defense who observes the situation on Shadow Moses Island aboard an AWACS command plane
	Johnny Sasaki	Dean Scofield	An enemy guard whose uniform is stolen by Meryl. Has a long history of suffering from cold and diarrhea

Changes

The Twin Snakes boasted many changes from the original game, including:

Graphics and Audio

• The graphics were subject to a major overhaul, bringing them more in-line with the second game.
• The cut scenes were completely re-choreographed and directed by acclaimed action director Ryuhei Kitamura.
• The audio was completely re-recorded in a higher fidelity. Additionally, the script was revised, and characters that previously had thick accents have their accents either lessened or removed completely. Mei Ling no longer speaks with a Chinese accent, Naomi no longer speaks with a British accent, and Nastasha's thick Russian accent is now only a slight inflection. The Twin Snakes versions of the character voices were reused in audio flashbacks during Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Gameplay Enhancements

• The ability to aim in first-person view, first introduced in Sons of Liberty, was added to the game.
• The ability to hang over ledges, also taken from Sons of Liberty, was added as well.
• The Mk-22 tranquilizer gun is available for use. This weapon was introduced in Sons of Liberty.
• As in the original game, there is a lengthy sequence in which Snake must use the temperature-sensitive PAL key. To progress, Snake must use the key after it has been heated and cooled one time each. In the original version, this requires the player to backtrack to earlier areas with extreme temperature environments and then race back to the control room before the card's state resets. Twin Snakes features a streamlined option to solving this puzzle by including hot and cold pipes in the Rex hanger that can be shot. The steam from these pipes is capable of cooling or heating the PAL key, preventing the need to backtrack, though the option to backtrack is still present.

Easter Eggs

• Dog tags were added for Twin Snakes as collectable items. If Snake successfully performs a hold-up, he can raise his gun to the face or crotch of a soldier and scare him into shaking loose a dog tag. These tags feature the names of programmers on them and can be viewed from the main menu.
• Mario and Yoshi make a cameo appearance as mini statues in Otacon's office.
• When Psycho Mantis reads the player's memory card, he names Nintendo titles such as Super Smash Bros. Melee and Eternal Darkness.
• The three portraits hanging in the office where Psycho Mantis is fought are pictures of Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, cutscene director Ryuhei Kitamura, and Silicon Knights head and game director Denis Dyack.

Reception

For the most part, The Twin Snakes was openly accepted by fans. Many believe that it captured the story and atmosphere of the original, but also introduced necessary improvements which made the game more accessible. However, the new gameplay elements have been deemed as unnecessary by some. The level design of The Twin Snakes is practically unchanged from the original Metal Gear Solid which makes the new control scheme seem almost out of place. It has also been stated this new introduction makes them game too straightforward, and practically ruins many of the once challenging battles.

The Twin Snakes also received some negative feedback regarding changes to the script and cutscenes. Seemingly unnecessary small changes to the script and voice acting were jarring to fans and the new over-the-top cut scenes were felt to detract from the experience for some. The cutscenes were also criticized for its heavy use of the bullet-time effect, which many people felt to be too excessive and felt like it was trying to be the next Matrix movie. For this reason, many fans of the original still prefer to play the PlayStation version.