Delta Might be MGS3's Twin Snakes Moment
Delta Might be MGS3's Twin Snakes Moment
A hot, new trailer for Metal Gear Solid đťť™: Snake Eater aired during the Xbox Games Showcase over the weekend. It quelled a lot of my fears and concerns about the game given Konami's hit or miss decisions with remasters, collections, and remakes over the years. Then Konami gave us a deeper look with David Hayter. That video dug into presentation and gameplay. All while watching these videos, I couldn't help but wonder if we have another Twin Snakes situation on our hands.
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes was a ground up remake of the original MGS, but with gameplay mechanics from its more modern counterpart, MGS2: Son's of Liberty. This broke or enhanced the game, depending on who you asked. As for myself, I loved my experience with Twin Snakes and it is a shame that it is locked to the GameCube twenty years later.1
The parallels are undeniable. Look at these quotes from E3 2003 compared to Summer Video Game News that Can't Be Called E3 Anymore™ 2024. Anything in bold, is my own doing.
Metal Gear Solid® The Twin Snakes combines the thrilling story of the original Metal Gear Solid® with the spectacular graphics and extraordinary gameplay from Metal Gear Solid® 2: Sons of Liberty™. Using a specially designed engine based on Metal Gear Solid® 2: Sons of Liberty™, this Nintendo GameCube™ exclusive is being developed by Silicon Knights...
With Unreal Engine 5, expansive stages are rendered withcutting-edge technology. Incredible new graphics bring the wild growth of the jungles, forests, and swamps to life in exquisite detail. Characters are rendered in such fine detail that facial wrinkles, pores, and even separate eye and iris movements are visible, allowing for rich and emotive facial animations.
How about the cutscenes?
Additionally,Metal Gear Solid® The Twin Snakes will feature all-new CG sequences led by Japanese film director and writer Ryuhei Kitamura as well as new character voiceovers, including the voice of the renowned screenwriter (X-Men) and actor, David Hayter as Solid Snake.
The story, characters, voice acting, gameplay, and music that made the original a sensation return, remade for modern consoles. This evolutionary leap breathesnew life into every cutscene, and rebuilds every corner of the world.
In fairness, MGSđťť™ is promising shot for shot matching, which Twin Snakes did not.
For my final comparison, how about those gameplay differences?
Delivering the essence ofMetal Gear Solid® and Metal Gear Solid®2: Sons of Liberty™ into one unique experience, Metal Gear Solid® The Twin Snakes adds new elements to the gameplay that were not available with the original release of Metal Gear Solid®, such as aiming and shooting in first person view, hanging from ledges and opening lockers.2
Players can elect for anewly added, more modern control style. These intuitive controls let you focus entirely on the game, and the immersive thrills of the survival stealth experience. You can also choose to play with a classic control style that more closely recreates the feel of the original game.
I can't not see these similarities. How can you not? The pitch is essentially the same; and why wouldn't it be? The goal of marketing a remake is to hook old and new fans into buying the new game.
"Remember that thing? Here it is with improvements! But not too many to not be the thing you remember!" or "Heard how great this thing was? Well, now you can play the ultimate version of said thing!"
But looking back at Twin Snakes, I am curious how the reception will be to Delta. Will the shiny new coat of paint and mechanics be too much for the diehards?3 Will the foundation of MGS3 bear the weight? Only time will tell. But right now, it just feels like time is a flat circle to me.
I didn't know where to fit this in, but I came across this wild IGN quote from their Twin Snakes coverage.
"We're huge fans of the first MGS game (which we still consider to be vastly superior to the second)..."