Metal Gear Solid - The Twin Snakes

[Earl]

I'm about halfway through and I find myself in the exact same position. What's there of the gameplay is great, I really enjoy it but mother of god do not make me watch another cutscene that lasts 10-15 minutes. I would be able to take it if there was a decent amount of gameplay between them, but sometimes you only get to play for a few minutes. It's just too much and has dampened my enjoyment to such an extent that I don't think I'll ever go back to it. A shame because what's there of the game is enjoyable.

[Supergoal]

Press start during a movie section, that works

[marcus]

Second time round that would be a wise thing to do, but to skip any of the movie scenes could mean missing a vital piece of information or plot development which you have little option but to watch on first play. Plus,, some are actually quite good, Id of been gutted had I of skipped the brilliant Ninja sequence for example. They got the mix totally wrong in my opinion, what could of been a wonderful game to play was for me a chore in the end.

[marcus]

Second time round that would be a wise thing to do, but to skip any of the movie scenes could mean missing a vital piece of information or plot development which you have little option but to watch on first play. Plus,, some are actually quite good, Id of been gutted had I of skipped the brilliant Ninja sequence for example. They got the mix totally wrong in my opinion, what could of been a wonderful game to play was for me a chore in the end.

[Stuart Smith]

Just got my copy this morning, enjoying it a lot. The loss of the VR missions is disappointing, as they were a great way to get into the game. In particular I'm missing them this time around because in my time away from the series I appear to have become totally useless at it. I recall last time finding the process of selecting and deselecting the weapon in mid-combat in a moment of panic quite fiddly, but was over that fairly quickly. An hour or so in and it's still frustrating me here, but hopefully again that won't last too long. Still immensely enjoyable though, and I don't really mind the cutscenes, at the very least they do competently tell an intriguing story.

[Tom Salter]

After playing this I've just started up MGS2, and I'm appreciating that title far more now the original's story is fresh in my head. The whole Gurlukovich thing slotted neatly into place, which I found odd first time. I'd advice the people who just finished this to play the sequel again

[Darwock]

Maybe we'll finally see MGS2 getting the credit it deserves, since it is (in my opinion) the finest example of a Metal Gear game there is. I hope Snake Eater betters it!

[ojlim]

MGS2 is *the* definitive Metal Gear game for me, crazy storyline, Raiden and all. Although I have no doubt that Snake Eater will be fantastic. Kojima isn't likely to release a **** Metal Gear game.

[JibberX]

Just got this, popped it on, not RTFM yet, but I am digging the production design and quality, never played an MGS properly so I have NO idea what I am doing, caught up with the breifings, nice to move and change camera angles. It is a little too Ham for my liking so far, but I might get into it.

One thing that strike me odd is that you can't first person whilst leaning round a corner is that right?

[James Harvey]

I pm'ed 'Leccy Boog with my thoughts on Metal Gear Solid after I finished TTS. He told me I should re-post what I said up here, so I have done... this post is quite long by the way.

N.B: SPOILERS

I really like the actual gameplay, the sneaking, the hiding in toilets, the boss battles... (actually, Sniper Wolf was a stupid bitch, she's the worst sniper in the the world! The rest were cool, though.)


But the story and plot... jeeeeeesus, don't get me started! Oh, you have done.

Ok, first the good points:

I liked the whole premise of the game, the way you're alone in this facility, the way there are these other characters going around at the same time as you like Grey Wolf, Meryl and Otacon- this is exciting and adds a lot of life to the game enviroment, and I liked how the characters are often shades of grey- no one seems to be just good or evil and you're never sure who you can trust. This is all excellent and perfect for this sort of game. Grey Wolf coming in at the last minute to save the day only to be absolutely massacred- excellent. The whole Metal Gear Rex battle: awesome.

The motion-captured fight choreography: great! Stupid, over-the-top but great, like the action in John Woo films. But more enjoyable than a John Woo film because John Woo films are TEH SUCKS.

Mixing in live-action footage of things like the warhead storage facilities was a stroke of genius, it conveyed the way the situation could really happen (and how any nation could have a nuclear arsenal now and not just the superpowers blah blah blah) very well.

Then the bad points:

Why does everyone feel the need to talk for about 30 minutes at a time? Often just repeating themselves too, there's a LOT of dialogue that could be cut out.

Why does Meryl play around with the laser dot for what seems like an age in that one scene before she gets shot, and more importantly, why does Snake WATCH HER DOING IT instead of yanking her into cover?

And, why does every woman in the world want to have sex with Solid Snake, and make sure they hint at this fact about five times during every conversation?

Plus, as lot of the whole appeal of the story lies in its believability that it could happen to some degree, it's a shame that certain points of it are just stupid... like how apparently Gulf War Sickness being caused by radiation poisoning from depleted uranium bullets was just a cover story. If that's a cover story, it's a ****ty one! Cover stories are supposed to cover the horrific truth with something palatable, not with something equally horrific that will draw just as much criticism if not more.

However, I don't mind stuff like how the plot partly revolves around the fact that they've built a giant two-legged robot that houses nuclear missiles... even though this is ridiculous and greatly diminishes the believability the story strives for (it would be far more realistic and practical if it was just a tank- bipedal robots are possible but extremely energy inefficient and tracks can do everything that legs can) it's part and parcel of the genre. Everyone knows that giant robots are cool, especially one that roars like a dinosaur.

Now the acting... most of the voice actors are passable, even Liquid Snake but they hired an awful, awful actor for Solid Snake... he doesn't seem able to convey any emotions more complex than 'I'm wearing pants'. Also: He-Man: the Movie had better dialogue.

Otacon is a ****ing idiot.

And some of the cut-sequences go on for so long... In the section after I downed Metal Gear Rex and Liquid Snake started talking, I'd got so settled in to just watching the game that when it faded to white and I had to control Snake during the fistfight, it was like 'Oops, am I playing? *hurriedly picks up the controller*' And the part of the fight that I controlled wasn't nearly as spectacular, interesting or even as fun as the one I'd watched in the fmv. After a while it's as if you just want to watch the movie and the game bits inbetween are hindering you from doing that.

Sooooo... I really liked Metal Gear Solid, but I thought the story was actually seriously detrimental to the game as a whole.

I give it one star out of two.

*

[dmg]

I've just started this and first impressions are a bit mixed.

The original PS version completely knocked me out, the production values and style gripped me from the start and the game play was so fresh and new but also very intuitive.

MGS2 then came along on the PS2, the production values still very high but the storyline and splitting the game didnt really do as well for me, I think the rig was a bad choice of venue as it seemed to make the game feel more constricted, you always new what to expect more or less.
However, the start was amazing and up there with MGS1.
The outstanding feature of MGS2 I thought was the control system on the PS2, the use of the analog buttons was spot on, giving you total control.

MGSTS seems to be a good mix between the two, but not perfect. First thing I noticed was that the production values had dropped, and I have to say that so far I still think the cut scenes of the PS original are much better. The opening cut scene introducing the game is so haunting on the original (have they changed the music?, writing this I cant remember hearing it when I played it last night) but the new cut seems to be a lot less dramatic and they have totaly over done the wavey type effect when looking through water. Then theres the pumping techno music on the lift..

The game play has improved though from the original, AI has noticably increased and I can't use the same methods and routes I did in the original which I totaly didnt expect dispite all the hype. The control system is OK, better than the Xbox version of MGS2, but the PS2 system is so sublime that it would never be able to do as good a job on the GC. I really wish they had done this for the PS2 as in all the other versions I've played the issue with the twitchy controls and button combos has made the game less accessible.

Having said that though I'm still loving it and am sure I'll play it through, its just not as perfect as I was hoping.

[Stuart Smith]

Just finished this for the first time, will probably have a go at barreling through some of the other difficulty modes. I had a go on the original Metal Gear Solid on PSone earlier on for comparative purposes, and it has to be said, the first one still holds up really well. The inferior graphics are handled with some panache so that while obviously worse, there's a neat kinda style to them that makes them bearable, although not as good as those of TTS, naturally.

I personally didn't find the cutscenes so bad, if anything they seemed shorter and more managable than I remembered them. Personally, I have few complaints though, because for me it's still a cracking story, with some nicely handled twists.

One question though:

If the whole point is to let Snake get to Metal Gear in one piece so that he can activate it (bearing in mind that the death of the DARPA chief appears to happen either just after the Meryl rescue, or potentially even before Snake arrives on Shadow Moses), why does Liquid send the rest of FOXHOUND to get in Snake's way and ultimately, die. Or more to the point, why does Liquid try to kill Snake himself in the Hind? Snake didn't seem to need convincing of the severity of the situation, so the idea that it's all a big bluff doesn't hold up that well...ah well, I guess in a plot with this many twists, the odd plothole is unavoidable

[/quote]

[James Harvey]

...ah well, I guess in a plot with this many twists, the odd plothole is unavoidable

Or a plot this dumb.

[jimtendo]

RE: Privateer

My take on why they opted to tackle Solid Snake instead of just letting him do the PAL card business more easily, and starting up Metal Gear.

Well, it would be more suspicious if there was no resistance in the form of the genome soldiers/ Fox Hound members.

Or, it's a bravado thing and each member of Fox Hound wants to test their ability against the "legendary" Solid Snake...

I have no other realistic plausable reasons... other than, it's a videogame and you need your boss battle varieties ;p

[Mayhem]

On the other hand there is the fact that is they actually DID beat and kill Snake... the authorities would know he wasn't successful and quite likely give in and hand the money over to the terrorists... without knowing they didn't actually have the ability to launch the nuke.