Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes

Metal Gear should never be taken seriously, but Twin Snakes turned up the ridiculousness to 11. Even some of the less over the top cutscenes make no sense. Let's not forget the cutscene where Meryl get's shot by Wolf. Instead of quickly realizing it's a sniper laser pointed at her (like a normal soldier would), she stands there like a moron with a goofy look on her face. Even Snake, the badass legendary hero, stands there like he's never seen the laser sight of a sniper rifle before. In the original, the scene was much less stupid.

Original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa52nAmFR5o#t=1m15s

Remake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGr_PdaIgB4#t=5m13s

Like I said, it isn't an awful remake. I enjoyed it, and I'll defend it from a lot of the hate it gets from fans. But I just can't bring myself to defend the cutscenes and the acting. Even as a kid, I thought the original was better in those regards.

Woah, really? I never noticed that. I'll have to try that the next time I replay Twin Snakes. Neat little Easter egg.

I also just found out that you can skip most of the PSG-1 backtracking as well. Instead of going all the way back to near the beginning of the game, just go a few rooms from where Meryl got shot and find the PSG-1 T instead.

 

Just watched the cutscenes you posted and I don't see Twin Snakes the same as you. Meryl and Snake both know exactly what the laser is... the looks on their faces, and body language make it quite obvious. A sniper had her in his sights, and they knew what was coming next. She bravely took the shot because she knew she was going down anyway.

At least... that's the way I see it.

 

Twin Snakes would have been infinitely better if Kitamura wouldn't have been involved. It's because of him alone that I can't play that game. If you're into that style, watch the movie Versus. Same kinda thing.

 

Sorry, I don't see it that way. If they know what it is, why do they both stand there like they have no clue what to do? Wolf even gives them all the time in the world to react, but they both stand there frozen. If I'm a soldier on a battlefield and I see a laser pointed at my chest, my first instinct isn't to just stand there and wave my hand over it. I'm getting my ass into cover immediately. But the problem isn't really Meryl, it's Snake.

Meryl being unsure at least makes a little sense, since she's a rookie and has little to no experience on the battlefield. Snake on the other hand, should have known instantly what to do. You don't stand there and let the sniper shoot your only comrade, especially when it's aimed at a woman you have a crush on and is also the niece (as far as he knows) of your best friend. Snake, with his many years of experience, should have immediately tried to warn her and push her out of the way before a shot was fired, which is exactly what he tried to do in the original version.

Even what happens after she's shot was directed better in the original. Snake knew as soon as he heard the gunshot to run to cover since there was nothing more he could do at that point. In Twin Snakes, he stands there for about 5 seconds dancing around trying to avoid being shot while trying to help Meryl after shes been shot (I guess helping her before she got shot would have been, I dunno, smart). He acts like a rookie in this situation, which is not only false characterization given his back-story, but ironic considering he previously teased Meryl for acting like one.

 

I have to agree that the new cutscenes were worse, but for me it was because of the Matrix-style effects which had really gotten tired by the time TTS was released. The missile cutscene never bothered me as much as it did some people because it's in a game that also has an undead ninja cyborg.
Overall, I liked TTS but at the same time was kind of disappointed with it since the new MGS2 mechanics didn't really add that much with the exception of the 1st person mode, which made the game a lot easier along with the new tranquilizer gun. A lot of people probably agreed since TTS was such a big failure sales wise.

 

Here's a cutscene from the original that could've used a revision in the remake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amWlGTBqrss#t=05s

Snake stands there casually for nearly 5 seconds as if there isn't two enemies and a camera standing right in front of him. There's no way they could make that any worse, right?

Wrong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6jOa5yJOTc#t=03m55s

Damn, I wish I could jump that high whenever I needed to.

Was that flip necessary? That's not even humanly possible. Snake is not a cyborg ninja, he's a human being. There's no excuse for that.

 

The cutscenes in Twin Snakes are hilarious. They particularly remind me of Sonic Adventure 2 where the characters just do completely stupid things for absolutely no reason.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwfkLzjBi2Q
Check out 5.33, what on earth is Sonic doing?

Of course, this being a Metal Gear Solid game makes it much more serious, there was no excuse!

 

when in years was that scene based? like 1980? Maybe laser pointing devices were still uncommon at the time?

 

MGS takes place in 2005, so no. Actually, I think I like these cutscenes just because they annoy people who take MGS too seriously, since it should've never been taken seriously in the first place.

I'd like to remind you: undead cyborg ninja.

 

Yeah, alright you've already made your case with this. That does not mean that the game shouldn't be taken seriously. Christopher Nolan's Batman movies are about a dude wearing a suit and a cape fighting crime, but they're still pretty serious. The Legacy of Kain games were about Vampires, Time Travel, "Aliens"... Still quite serious. And what about most Fantasy Western RPG games? Magic dude, that's ridiculous. You know, games like Baldur's Gate, Planescape Torment... Oh and the Fallout games. MUTANTS!
I can go on forever, point is, it all comes down to the storytelling. So yes, MGS was a (mostly) serious game.
There is no excuse for the sillyness of the TTS cutscenes.

 

On top of that, the cinematics were just pure shit. We're talking cliché B movie fluff that the industry has worked on getting away from for the past decade or so. If the series didn't want to take anything seriously, why did Kojima hire Mori? The cutscenes go directly against pretty much everything Mori strived to establish in the Metal Gear series.

 

The difference between those and MGS is that I'm pretty sure MGS is tongue in cheek. Well, either that or the storyline is just shitty and convoluted and the contrast between cyborg ninjas and the more serious military stuff is incredibly jarring. Either way it can't really be taken seriously. And my point is that I don't have much of a problem believing that a guy can jump higher than a normal human being in a game where undead cyborg ninjas exist. If you can accept the latter, the former really isn't that much of a stretch.