Part 14: Snake's Revenge Part Two: High Seas Revenge

Snake's Revenge Part Two: High Seas Revenge


This is where we left off last time.


Now, Lt. Solid Snake finds himself on a boat. The boat also casts off as soon as you board. Snake's Revenge isn't big on letting you backtrack. This means you can lose some items permanently. Can you make the game unwinnable? Probably, but I've never tried.

Ship music:


(I think this is right. The track titles aren't very helpful.)


This game is pretty ugly, which can make it hard to find doors sometimes. I got lost at one point.


It looks like there's something important in the bottom of the ship.

Once you figure it out, though, this POW tells you that the ship is carrying some important cargo. Since that schizophrenic officer from last update told us the weapons were ready to ship, I assume the cargo is weapons.


Snake's Revenge manages not to fuck up the sneaking parts of the game too badly, but I assume this is because the mechanics are lifted straight out of Metal Gear.



On the ship, there's another officer. I, however, have forgotten to equip the truth gas, so he says nothing. I forget the truth gas every time, which tends to get annoying.



This is what he says with truth gas equipped. The second screen is there because I think it exemplifies the design philosophy of the game. Is he telling Snake to blow up the ammo? I honestly don't know.


The top deck of the ship doesn't have a lot going on, so let's use this funky-looking elevator.


Inside, you find this. The elevator here is a sort of ledge that Snake stands on and rides down to the other floor. It looks incredibly dangerous and I have no idea why anybody would design anything like this.

The second part of that can also be used as a general commentary for the entire game.


More sneaking. Why would Snake even be on the ship? I know that he heard John was on it, but wouldn't the rest of the mission be: a) taking place on land, and b) more important than running off to rescue John?

Whatever, we're getting a call.


I guess we left the enemy's airspace and now the pilot can help us? Or maybe he just means at the end of the mission.


In one of the rooms, Snake finds a flare gun.


As usual, the manual continues to be more "shitty jokes" than "useful documentation".

The flare gun lights up dark screens, like the flashlight from Metal Gear. Except the flare gun needs ammo. I don't know why they made this design decision.


These are the flare rounds for the flare gun.


I would think they would just be "flares", but who am I to question the Snake's Revenge design staff?


Pictured: Konami's attempt at a claymore mine, ca. 1990.


I haven't used claymores yet in the game, and I'm quite a ways ahead of this. I'd bet that they're never going to be useful.


Carrying on with the infiltration, we find this room. Who is yelling at Snake?


The answer: the members of the Grenadier Unit, the second boss fight. They throw grenades at you and duck behind their sandbags.

They're a boss, this is boss music:


Boss video of the Grenadier Unit.

There's not a lot to be said about the Grenadier Unit. The tactic of the hour is to throw grenades at them while eating rations to keep from dying. A much better fight than the football team from before, but still too long and boring.


The Grenadier Unit was guarding another keycard. Now Snake has even more options when trying to open doors.


Also around here is a mine detector.


Shock of shocks, the mine detector shows you where mines are. Unlike Metal Gear, though, it only shows you mines if they're about two steps away and directly in front of Snake.

I guess this creates some kind of challenge? If you think of things that slow the player down for no real reason as challenges?


Gotta take the elevator again. This is still a ridiculously unsafe setup.

By the way, early Metal Gear games fucking love elevators. I think Metal Gear 2 is the worst for this, though.


Sneaking. I think that Snake's Revenge makes one innovation over Metal Gear, but we won't see it for awhile.


The next room is pitch-black!


So Snake uses the flare gun to light it up. Gameplay!

We can see that this room is full of Metal Gears. This would be interesting if something were made of it, but instead they just sit there. I think this is more a case of Snake's Revenge missing the point of Metal Gear as a superweapon and why that's scary than anything.

I think the grey blocks on the floor are some kind of enemy, but I didn't touch them.


The next room is dark, too.


Oh, come the fuck on, game! This is just a hallway, you're not even hiding anything!


Deep in the ship's hold, Snake comes across the ammunition stores. Since that mental enemy officer told us to blow up the ammo, let's do that.


After planting some plastic explosives, Snake automatically runs out the door.


Just as the bomb explodes! Probably would have been better to use a detonator than a short timer, but whatever. Revenge clouds the mind.


The chopper pilot calls Snake as he escapes. Now we have to get up to the deck so that we can get a lift to...wherever we're going. Back to the mission site, I guess.


This portion of the ship involves running back to the deck and then finding where we have to go. It is a timed escape.


Also, there are no enemies. The only challenge comes from running out of time.

Snake's Revenge has a pretty hard time deciding where to fall on the difficulty scale.


The problems with this game really sneak up on you. At first, it's just a slightly worse Metal Gear.


Then you get to the first sidescroller and that awful boss, and they're awful to play and you realise how boring sneaking is, and then you think about how nonsensical the plot is.


I mean, technically it works, but it takes the components and puts them together in completely the wrong way.

If Snake's Revenge had been the first game, or if it had been adopted as the official sequel, I'm pretty sure the entire Metal Gear series would've ended right there.


The lieutenant's radio has a radar built in, which is on this screen. The indicator flashes, though, I think, and I missed it on this cap.


We have to go back to where we found the enemy officer earlier.


Search me as to why Snake has to go inside to meet the helicopter.


When we get to the destination screen, the pilot (who really needs a name) blows up the wall so that Snake can get through.


Through to the helipad on the back of the ship that nobody could get to because it was behind a solid wall?

Snake's Revenge is like a collection of areas that were cut from other games thrown together to cash in on the success of the original Metal Gear.


Metal Gear 2. Now Nick is missing. Contact your person at the enemy's base.

This is our "briefing" for the next part of the game. Not only is there another Metal Gear, but Nick is missing. FOX(-)HOUND must have the worst operational record in the world when it comes to operatives getting captured.

Oh well, at least this part is over. Come back next time for more hot sneaking action.