Pros: Intriguing and surprising plot, Good voice-acting, Fun
Cons: Long cutscenes, Unrealistic at times Small problems with controls
The bottom line: At least rent it, and buy if you like to own good games.
Metal Gear Solid: the Twin Snakes is a remake of the older version. The story has remained pretty much the same, and it goes like this:
The fate of the world is threatened once again, by terrorists claiming to have a nuclear warhead this time. They have a list of demands, and if they are not met, they will launch the missile at a populous area. Solid Snake is called back from retirement to fix this little problem. He is to sneak into enemy territory and find out if the terrorists really have a nuke at their disposal. He is also supposed to rescue two important men who have been captured by the terrorists. But things don't go as planned. He finds out that the terrorists do have a nuke, but that's not all. They also have a top-secret giant robot called Metal Gear (I would tell you more, but that might spoil the story). Plus, both the two men he's supposed to rescue die before his eyes from what appears to be a heart-attack. Coincidence? Of course not. Throughout his adventure, Snake meets several interesting characters and learns that even his own government may not be trusted. It's an intriguing story, and one of the main draws of the game. That would explain the fact that there are several hours of cutscenes, and they sometimes seem to drag on endlessly. You can skip them, though, so if you aren't very patient, you don't have to sit through them. There is humor, tragedy, romance, and action all rolled into one little package. Plus many twists in the plot. It seems like almost every cutscene, there's someone dying or betraying someone else or revealing a secret about him/herself. I was pulled into the story soon after I started playing. I felt bad for almost all of the bosses I killed, because they told their stories before they died and it turned out that they've had pretty tragic lives. At times, the characters repeat themselves too much or they monologue for too long, but mostly, its a well-written story with good voice-acting. The voice-acting went very smoothly, with few lines or voices that are completely idiotic. Which is an accomplishment, since most other games have major problems with that. Sometimes, though, the action in the cutscenes seems quite unrealistic. For example, when Solid Snake, the main character, sees a metal bar flying at him from an explosion, he doesn't just dodge it like a normal person. He leaps five feet into the air and throws a grenade at the pesky hunk of steel. There are a lot of crazy stunts like that in the game, but whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is a matter of opinion. It's not nearly as well done as the Matrix, but if you like over-the-top action, this might be for you.

This game is a third-person sneak/shoot type game. You can take the enemies on, with your fists or with various weapons, without dying in the easier modes. But they might send for re-enforcements, and then you're in trouble. So it's wise to just avoid detection. There are cameras, guards, and lasers to avoid if you want to be sneaky. You can shoot a camera out, kill/knock out a guard, and crawl under lasers (sometimes). It's pretty fun, figuring out an enemies path to avoid them, or distracting them by throwing an empty magazine.

There is no start screen or pause in the game. Instead, you have a Codec, which is some kind of radio built into Snake's head. You can communicate with different people for advice when you're stuck. You also talk to one of them to save. There's a 3D map, too. And you have an on-screen radar that shows the locations of enemies and large objects in the room, which really helps when you're trying to avoid enemies.

Something that impressed me was the uniqueness and variety of some of the boss battles. *Spoiler ahead* For example, one boss has psychic powers, and he demonstrates them by reading some of the games on your memory card and making your controller move. During the fight, he could read your every move through your controller, so you have to put the controller into another port to block his telepathy. I've never seen that one before. *Spoiler ended* The other battles make you use strategy, too, which keeps it interesting. You have to be creative sometimes and use your head. There is a lot of variety in this game, too. In each area, you find something new. In one place, you're being chased through caves by a pack of wolf huskies. In the next, you're creeping along a ledge in a blast furnace, hoping you don't fall and melt.

Movement isn't quite as smooth as I would have liked. An issue I had was that when you walk towards a wall, you automatically put your back to it. This could be a problem when you need to face something on the wall, like a switch, and you keep turning around. But mostly, the gameplay is alright, fun at times. There is a first-person mode for more accuracy, and a top-down view the rest of the time, looking down at Snake. You can collect a variety of weapons, from a stun grenade to a missile launcher. You can even pick up adult magazines and place them on the ground to distract enemies. And the controls are fairly easy to figure out.

For moves, Snake can lowcrawl when hiding behind something or crawling under an obstacle. He can roll when he's running to avoid attacks. He can also sidle against a wall, to stay concealed or get along on ledges. In a fight, he kicks and punches to knock the opponent out.

For the remake of the original Metal Gear Solid, the graphics would be improved, of course. It looks good, with nice weather effects and facial expressions. And I liked the details in the backgrounds. But, the characters don't look smooth, or that detailed, except for some belt buckles and kneepads. It's not the best looking GameCube game out now, but it beats the old graphics. And as I stated before, the voice-acting is quite good. None of it sounds really horrible, and the characters have different accents and tones. The music matches the situation well, most of it being fast and exciting for the action scenes, or slow and sad for death scenes, and the sounds match what they represent.

This game doesn't have much replay value. There are different difficulties, so you can keep challenging yourself, and there are a few different paths you can take at certain points in the game. You can also collect dogtags from the enemies by sneaking up on them and holding a gun on them, but you can't do much with them except look at them. The game is short, too. It only took 9 hours for me to finish, and I'm slow.

I really liked this game and I plan to try Metal Gear Solid 2 next. I would definitely recommend renting this game, at least. It's pretty cheap now, so if you're the type to buy good games, this would be a nice addition to any collection.