| Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes |
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''Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes'' is a Stealth-based Game that was developed by Silicon Knights and Konami for the GameCube and released in March 2004 . It is an Enhanced Remake of the 1998 PlayStation best-seller '' Metal Gear Solid '', the third Canonical game in the '' Metal Gear '' series. Vast updates were made to the '' on the PlayStation 2 . Also, the Voice Acting was re-recorded, with most of the original voice cast from ''Metal Gear Solid'' returning. PLOT SUMMARY In February of 2005, during a training mission on Shadow Moses, a nuclear weapons facility on a remote island off the coast of Alaska, the Next-Generation Special Forces unit rebels against the United States government, led by the covert . The Next-Generation Special Forces (colloquially known as the "Genome Soldiers", because of their advanced gene therapy) need the genes of Big Boss to rectify the genetic defects caused by their gene therapy, saving their lives and turning them into the ultimate soldiers. The government cannot let this happen. At the request of the Secretary Of Defense , Colonel Roy Campbell , the former commander of FOXHOUND, summons Solid Snake out of retirement (reluctantly) and sends him to infiltrate Shadow Moses in one last solo covert operation. His objectives are to find out if Foxhound have nuclear strike capability, and to recover the hostages, ArmsTech President Kenneth Baker and DARPA Chief Donald Anderson. Though Snake will be going in alone, he has significant intelligence support via his two-way "Codec" radio. Col. Campbell is in operational command of the mission. Mei Ling, a genius at improvisational hardware, handles Snake's data needs (IE saving the game), as well as inspirational quotes from both Eastern and Western cultures. McDonell "Master" Miller, a war buddy of Snake's, passes along advice on Alaskan conditions and wildlife. Nastasha Romaneko, a civilian weapons specialist in Los Angeles, California , provides data and operating instructions on most of Snake's weapons and equipment. Dr. Naomi Hunter, who can only be accessed via Campbell's frequency, augments Campbell's experience with FOXHOUND members from her experience as the unit medic. Finally, several residents of the base—REX's designer, Dr. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich ; Meryl Silverburgh , Col. Campbell's niece (or daughter, depending on what ending the player gets); and a mysterious informant calling himself Deep Throat —occasionally work alongside Snake, but mostly can only be contacted by Codec. All of these characters have their own histories and personal demons, which can be explored via Codec conversations (the game includes over four hours of recorded dialogue). After a successful insertion, Snake meets with DARPA Chief Anderson and confirms that FOXHOUND has his half of the codes necessary to launch a nuclear weapon. Shortly after, Anderson is killed by what looks like a , a skilled and grizzled gunslinger; Vulcan Raven, an Inuit shaman who attacks Snake using an M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, and the bizarre levitating Telepath Psycho Mantis. Since FOXHOUND appear to have most or all of the ability to launch a nuclear weapon, Snake makes contact with Otacon, REX's primary designer. First, though, he must rescue him from an odd cyborg ambush. Snake is able to dodge fire from FOXHOUND's Sniper Wolf, but Meryl is shot in both legs and an arm. To save her, Snake must backtrack to one of the first buildings in the game and retrieve a PSG-1 sniper rifle, and then duel Sniper Wolf at long range. Meryl, however, has been captured during the interval; and when Snake attempts to cross after defeating Wolf, he too is captured, and meets Liquid Snake, the man who shares his code name. He reveals that they are twins. Each of them is a genetically-manipulated clone of the 20th century's greatest soldier, Big Boss , and both of them were created as part of a secret genetic manipulation and cloning project titled " ''Les Enfants Terribles'' ." Liquid hates Snake, as he believes that Snake was given all of Big Boss's dominant traits, while Liquid was given the recessive traits. After a , which Snake uses to fake a bloody death, and then escape when the panicking guard (Johnny Sasaki) comes to investigate. Snake returns to the communications tower and climbs it, but before he can cross a bridge to its other half and descend again, Liquid destroys the bridge in a Mi-24 Hind-D attack Helicopter . Snake escapes and crosses using a lower bridge. Searching for something to use against the Hind, like a Stinger Missile launcher, he meets up with Otacon;who, improbably, has fallen in love with Sniper Wolf and begs Snake not to harm her. Snake manages to shoot down the helicopter, and finally descends to the bottom of the second tower. Just outside it, however, Sniper Wolf is waiting. Snake disables her, and Otacon arrives in time to bid her a tearful goodbye. Snake has finally reached the Underground Base where REX is kept. At this point, Master Miller calls with startling news. Naomi claimed earlier that her that kills only specific people. Supposedly, it was deployed by Snake during this mission... And it kills by simulating a heart attack. With all this in mind, Naomi is placed under arrest. Otacon, who has been Hacking his way into Shadow Moses's files, has finally figured out the secret of the card key Snake got from Meryl. The nuclear weapon requires three card keys, but the single key Snake has ''is'' all three of them, because it is made of a "shape memory alloy" and will change form when exposed to different temperatures. The card keys are one-use-only: inserting them when the nuke is armed will disarm it, and vice-versa. Snake uses his three-in-one card key—and then, to his alarm, hears the computer report that the nuke is armed. Liquid Snake, chortling triumphantly, reveals how he's been manipulating the mission from the start: by posing as Master Miller. He explains that the DARPA Chief died under Ocelot's torture without revealing his half of the nuke's arming codes, but from Baker they learned the existence of the three-in-one key, which functions ''regardless'' of arming codes. Decoy Octopus then disguised himself as Chief Anderson to fool Snake into arming the nuke, exactly as he just did. Snake now has only one option: destroy Metal Gear REX. Snake is in trouble until Gray Fox reappears. At the cost of his own life, he destroys REX's radar dish, forcing Liquid to open the cockpit itself and observe the situation manually. Snake succeeds in totalling REX, but is knocked unconscious, while Liquid remains intact. He lectures Snake for almost half an hour on the details of the ''Les Enfants Terribles'' project, not to mention the gene therapy that created the Genome Soldiers, and reveals Meryl, bound and near death. Campbell then calls and explains that he has been removed from command in favor of Secretary of Defense Jim Houseman, who is about to drop nuclear weapons onto Shadow Moses. Liquid and Snake duel hand-to-hand aboard the carcass of REX, and after Snake wins, he escapes in a Jeep , using its mounted machine gun for a final confrontation with Liquid (who appears to be impervious to bullets; it's FOXDIE that ultimately does him in). Finally, Campbell reasserts his command by getting in contact with President George Sears, recalls the bombers and nukes, and helps arrange for Snake's departure. The game features two possible endings, affected by performance in the torture session. The player is given an option to 'break' and surrender, but if s/he does, Meryl is revealed to have died during Snake's bout with Liquid, and Otacon drives the jeep. If the player succeeds in withstanding Ocelot's torture, however, Meryl lives and drives the jeep, while Otacon stays behind in the "doomed" base. The game's sequel, ''Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty'', makes it clear that the "Meryl" ending is canonical. Finally, after the credits, the player is treated to a one-sided , a "well-balanced individual" and the man with whom Ocelot is now conversing. Finally, he signs off: "Yes. Thank you. Good-bye. Mr. President." DIVISION OF WORK ''The Twin Snakes'' is interesting as a collaboration between Nintendo 's then second-party developer Silicon Knights , Konami , and film director Ryuhei Kitamura . In ''. Nintendo ultimately found an available team with suitable experience; Silicon Knights' lead designer was casually offered the "commission" by Shigeru Miyamoto during a lunch meeting. Silicon Knights Silicon Knights handled the bulk of gameplay development and technical work. They created the character and stage models, and their in-house music staff also created some of the in-game music. Some might consider Silicon Knights working on ''Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes'' ironic in light of the fact that the bizarre effects suffered by Ryuhei Kitamura Cult director Ryuhei Kitamura was responsible for directing the new Cut Scenes for the game. The action sequences are far more dynamic than those in the original and utilize Bullet-time photography and Choreographed gunplay extensively. Konami Konami developed all of the game's cut scenes under Kitamura's direction. Kojima oversaw the game as a whole. MUSIC The game's composition duties were split: some of the in-game music was handled by Steve Henifin and Silicon Knights' and music staff, while the rest of the music (in-game, menus and cut scenes) was handled by Konami's music staff, including ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' co-composer Norihiko Hibino . As with previous games in the series, the cut-scene music has a more orchestral/choral basis than the in-game music, which is more electronic with an emphasis on strong beats during action sequences. As the game is a remake, many of the themes recall the music in the original game. Hibino composed a military-themed take on the "Metal Gear Solid Main Theme" for the game's Trailer ; "Mantis' Hymn" was transformed into a driving battle theme. The main theme itself was largely excised from the game, and replaced by a slightly modified version of Sniper Wolf's theme. However, a Soundtrack Album was not released. VOICE ACTORS The highly acclaimed voice cast from the PlayStation version returns in this update. The voice cast used Pseuduonym s during the recording session for the original PS version (due to union regulations), except for David Hayter and Doug Stone. In ''The Twin Snakes'', the cast used their real names. One exception is that the Cyborg Ninja is now voiced by a different actor. At the time of the game's release, it was widely speculated that George Byrd (Greg Eagles), original voice actor for the Ninja, had passed away, when in fact it was Kaneto Shiozawa , the Ninja's Japanese voice actor. Greg Eagles did reprise his role as the DARPA Chief in the remake. Unlike previous ''MGS'' titles, no Japanese voiceovers were recorded for ''The Twin Snakes''. Instead, the Japanese release used the same English voice acting as the North American and European versions. Cast Legend: Voice Actor (name used in PS1 Version) — Character
WEAPONS Along with all of the weapons from the original ''Metal Gear Solid'', four weapons from '''' are available: the M9 Pistol, the PSG1-T, the Book and the Magazine.
RELEASE INFORMATION Originally planned for release in November 2003 , ''The Twin Snakes'' was pushed back four months. As with previous ''Metal Gear Solid'' titles, a Premium Package of ''The Twin Snakes'' was released in Japan in addition to the stand-alone version. The box includes the game itself; a platinum-colored GameCube adorned with the FOXHOUND logo; a 44-page book titled ''Memorandum'' containing production notes, sketches and photos; and a GameCube disc called the "Special Disc" containing an emulated version of the Famicom version of the original '' Metal Gear '' and a ''Twin Snakes'' trailer. In contrast to previous ''Metal Gear Solid'' releases, there were virtually no differences between the actual contents of the game themselves outside the packaging. No '' did in their Japanese releases. Presumably this is why no updated version of ''Twin Snakes'' was produced. CRITICAL & FAN REACTION ''The Twin Snakes'' received mostly positive reviews from critics though the scores it was given were slightly lower than those given to original '''' [http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/914828.asp . ''Metal Gear'' fans generally agreed it was a quality title, but not one without flaws. Most of the criticism stemmed from the fact that the structure of the original game was not designed for features from ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' that were included, such as the ability to fire weapons in first-person mode (making what some already called an easy game even easier), hang from ledges, and hide bodies in lockers. The boss Revolver Ocelot, for instance can be defeated with four shots to his head in moments, whereas in the original game he took significantly longer to beat. Also, some were disappointed with the direction of the new cut-scenes, despite the fact that Ryuhei Kitamura was hand-picked by Hideo Kojima to direct the cinematics. One particularly controversial cutscene involves Snake and Meryl standing for ten seconds just watching what is obviously a sniper's laser sight dancing over Meryl's body. However, proponents argue that the style of the new cut-scenes are more similar to the over-the-top nature of the rest of the franchise. TRIVIA
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