Plus, Twin Snakes' cut-scenes are perhaps a bit too over-the-top, often performing feats of anime ridiculousness as easily as one would boil a pot of water. So if Twin Snakes is such an improvement over the original, why does it end up ranking lower? Well, for one, the changes to the gameplay actually make Metal Gear Solid way easier, as the level design and boss encounters weren't originally meant to be tackled with first-person shooting, tranquilizer darts, or by hanging from ledges. Helmed by Eternal Darkness developer Silicon Knights, produced by Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto, and featuring new cutscenes by Japanese action flick director Ryuhei Kitamura, The Twin Snakes takes the classic Metal Gear Solid experience and completely overhauls it for the GameCube, featuring updated graphics and controls found in Metal Gear Solid 2, as well as a re-translated and re-recorded script. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (opens in new tab) is the glorious result of the unlikeliest of partnerships. MGS: GZ set precedents for AAA game delivery (as a prologue and a digital release), mid-tier pricing, open-world stealth and big budget gaming’s reluctance to tackle ‘taboo’ issues. Sure, Ground Zeroes was likely a cash grab to offset the spiraling development costs of MGS5, but this doesn’t belie its worth.
Tonally, this is the darkest MGS game, skirting real world themes of rendition (with contentious results) in an analogue to Guantanamo Bay. Snake could tag foes with binoculars (like Far Cry 3), drive vehicles, shoot while side-rolling, and evade alerts using the last-chance Reflex Mode.ĭedicated players could easily clock 20-40 hours+ with the game, drilling deeper into the focused sub-missions to learn new approaches to stealth or all-out gunplay. Ground Zeroes streamlined the series’ trademark cut-scenes, ditched the comedic incongruity and embraced open-world stealth. Set in one location, the compact and oppressive Camp Omega encourages you to explore the game’s renewed, trench-deep, mechanics, which might get lost in a wider canvas. In fact, MGS: Ground Zeroes can be finished in four minutes by its world-record speed runner but the main campaign earns you a mere 9% completion rating.
‘MGS Ground Zeroes can be finished in an hour’ chorused the headlines, assuming outrage on behalf of the audience – while largely missing the point.
13 years later, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes (opens in new tab) highlighted digital media at its most reactive. In 2001, Metal Gear Solid 2 delivered a stark warning about the internet’s lack of context and echo chamber of opinion.