Metal Gear

Metal Gear Solid title

This article is autistic and stinks of fanboy drooling over irrelevant horseshit. You can help 1d4chan by stripping it down to only the stuff /tg/ cares about.

This is a /v/ related article, which we tolerate because it's relevant and/or popular on /tg/... or we just can't be bothered to delete it.

This article contains spoilers! You have been warned.

"Nanomachines, son!"

– Senator Armstrong, explaining how Metal Gear gets away with anything it can't explain with traditional technobabble. (replace with parasites for pre-nanomachine era).

If you're here on the Internet and have not heard of Metal Gear, we'll help.

Metal Gear and the subsequent games coming after it are action-adventure stealth games starting in 1987. While Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 on the EN EE ESS EM ES EX TWO were well-received and iconic, it was Metal Gear Solid in 1998 on the PEE ESS JUAN that changed not only the franchise but third-person shooters in general and practically being the herald of stealth games. Though each game has a different story, it typically follows the supersoldier agent Solid Snake or Big Boss during the 21st century and the Cold War as he infiltrates something, destroys whatever's inside, and is a badass while doing it. We would explain more of the story here but honestly it gets stupidly complicated with government conspiracies, clones, ghosts, sudden but inevitable betrayals, and many more. While somewhat grounded in reality it has a very obvious sci-fi feel to it, similar to BattleTech, Shadowrun, and in some ways Warhammer 40K. Bedsides it's well crafted game play and basically always uneven and twisty plot, Metal Gear is mainly known for it's memes.

Metal Gear and /tg/

Like much of the Internet and 4chan, /tg/ has a pretty distinct love for Metal Gear. We've had several quest threads following the Metal Gear universe, most notably Rise from Ashes and Revengeance Quest. While there's not a definitive homebrew for it, there's limitless potential and that certainly hasn't stopped us from trying.

Metal Gear Vindicare is a pretty obvious /tg/-MSG relation, being inspired by the famous codec used by Solid Snake in the game. Centers around Love Can Bloom with Doomrider as a special guest. DO COCAAAAIIIINNE!

A lot of things about Metal Gear correlate with the interests of fa/tg/uys. Despite what most people think, /tg/ loves their giant robots, which Metal Gear Solid has in spades. There's also a good enough amount of both grimdark and hilarious stupidity to keep a wide variety of neckbeards entertained.

Characters

Solid Snake

I am happy

The protagonist for most of the games. He starts out his career in Metal Gear as a rookie FOXHOUND agent, uncovering the existence of the Metal Gear and the double-crossing of his superior, Big Boss. He later discovers that he's actually the clone-son of Big Boss, created for reasons that change from game to game. Snake spends the rest of the games fighting Big Bosses' other clones as well as uncovering the grand conspiracy his father had been retconned into fighting, while people talk about how hard the life that he chooses to live is even though it's his own fucking choice.

Big Boss

Good night, sweet prince.

Basically General Sturnn. But with an eye-patch. Farsight seems to take a lot of inspiration from him too.

While initially portrayed as the villain due to how much he loved war so he could get child soldiers to train into regular soldiers, one could argue whether or not his actions were justified given the later retcon of the Patriots existence (and then they'd remember that whole child soldier bit - then again, who knows if that was actually Big Boss or Venom Snake). Big Boss stars as the protagonist of all the Metal Gear games before Solid begins his career, dating back to the 1960s when he was known as Naked Snake (get it?). Naked Snake discovers the progenitor of Metal Gear in Soviet Russia while also being "betrayed" by his former leader, The Boss. He decides to abandon the United States (even though patriotism was the theme of the previous game) and create his own military group "Militaires Sans Frontieres." After fighting a number of early Metal Gear models, Big Boss began building a few Metal Gears of his own to try and even the odds. During a battle against one of the Patriots' splinter groups, Cypher, Big Boss pussies out and decides "Fuck this war, somebody else can deal with this shit" and leaves a body double, Venom Snake, to become the public face of his PMC while he fucked off to who knows where. He can also bench press 200 simi odd ton tanks and recharge batteries by eating glowing mushrooms for some reason.

Gray Fox

Initially just an NPC with some backstory as FOXHOUND's best soldier. In Metal Gear 2 he's retconned as Solid Snake's best friend in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.( To differentiate it from the load of fail that was Metal Gear 2 on the NES) Mid-way into the game in he is revealed as the second in command of Zanzibar Land under Big Boss & the pilot of the first real Metal Gear battle and first of the melee only boss battles, with land minds surrounding boss arena. Because the AI was shit (and he isn't the player character) he loses to Snake. In Metal Gear Solid he comes back as the first Cyborg Ninja as a tutorial battle for the game's melee system. In short telling the player how to beat him. His final act is damaging Metal Gear Rex with some kind of laser or plasma weapon that he didn't have in previous appearances before being squished by Metal Gear. So Snake can finally defeat Rex with his Stinger Missiles. Also appears in a prequel game of questionable canon.

Liquid Snake

Liquid quite literally most of the time. This even extends to when Ocelot brainwashed himself to become Liquid.

The antagonist of Metal Gear Solid and Snake's clone brother. Liquid has a distinctly British accent and blond hair. According to the game's very loose grasp of genetics (later ret-conned into Ocelot convincing Liquid this is how genetics work, which is even more dumb since this implies Liquid, an elite ex-British SAS member, could not pick up a goddamned high-school science textbook to do extra research), Liquid inherited all the recessive genes of Big Boss, while Snake inherited all the dominant genes, and because of this he believed he was made from "inferior genes" and that's the reason he's evil. No seriously, the entire reason he's evil is because he doesn't like how he looks, and thus becomes Doctor Doom. Even as a child, he was a surprisingly competent soldier.

Ocelot

A Russian gunslinger and a guy with a LOT of mixed loyalties that make no sense when you think about it. Formerly a member of GRU (the Soviet Military's version of the civilian KGB) and a secret agent for the USA, Ocelot joined with Big Boss (due to a combination of charisma and because Ocelot has a major crush on Big Boss, bordering on actual romance.), helping him in secret despite nominally being a member of the Patriots (and later deciding to destroy them, for Big Boss' sake). Ocelot joined Liquid's rebellion, but only to act as the Patriot's inside man and steal the plans for Metal Gear REX, even though as the governing intelligence they would already have had them. He also manages to steal Metal Gear RAY, but at this point he starts acting out his secret plan to destroy the Patriots from within. How does he do this? Well.... Yeah... when we talk about how convoluted the story is, it's usually Ocelot's fault. Still, for an elderly old bastard, he's pretty damn badass. Dude can also pull off some Taskmaster level shit and bite CQC moves from his opponents. He's also the third canon cyborg via replacing Liquid's Arm with a prosthetic and dented his own ship with it (but somehow, couldn't break Solid Snake's face during their fist-fight).

Otacon

The weeaboo of the series. We're not exaggerating, by the way. He wanted to work on Metal Gear REX specifically because he's obsessed with anime. Otacon is your typical nerdy support character, giving Snake technical assistance in his fight against the Metal Gears and is the only reason REX was able to be defeated because he intentionally developed it with an exploitable weak spot that would have made it a hindrance against on the battlefield. This carries over to the next several games where he'll design something far inferior to what already existed, only to let you use that better thing later on anyway. He's also a quite literally hopeless romantic, as his two romantic interests ended up dying.

Huey

Otacon's dad. Despite having the same general appearance, voice actor, and role as Otacon, Huey deserves special mention for how much of a cock he is and how despite all his faults, Otacon is infinitely more tolerable. So, he's a paraplegic engineer who got drafted by the CIA into helping to build Peace Walker, not realizing how insane the project really is (this is a persistent theme for him). After being rescued by Big Boss, Huey works for him and develops Metal Gear ZEKE as a counter to the various AI weapons the CIA had built. He also ended up marrying his design partner, the heavily-implied-to-have-had-a-lesbian-crush-on-The-Boss Dr. Strangelove, with whom they had a son named Hal (aka Otacon). Now, here's where the dark shit settles in: after getting tricked by Cipher into letting them onto Mother Base to destroy it after selling out Big Boss and MSF to Cipher, Huey gets abducted and is forced to work on a new Metal Gear.

Meryl

Colonel Roy Campbell's daughter (he told everyone she was his niece because he didn't want them to know her mother had an affair with him) and the only FOXHOUND agent to not join Liquid's rebellion. She starts out as a rookie way in over her head, but she helps out Snake by providing him with useful information. Snake also starts to develop a romantic interest in her after all the shit they go through, and then dumps her to go hunt Metal Gears because Snake decided that Metal Gears shouldn't exist, a plan which was doomed to failure since their design was on the internet and literally everyone could download it.

Raiden

He's introduced as the "true" protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2, but his original appearance is nowhere near as badass as Snake. He's a white-haired effeminate Bishie that tends to rile up most people who loathe anime stereotypes. Raiden starts out as a Child Soldier in Africa (despite being whiter than white-out) before being taken in by the Patriots as their successor to Solid Snake. He's lived nearly his entire life in simulations and being fucked over by AIs. Once he's actually let out into the real world to stop Solidus and his terror cell, he meets Snake, and together they discover the existence of the Patriots.

Raiden gets a significant upgrade after MGS2, where he gets kidnapped by the Patriots and has his entire body below his upper jaw cut off and replaced by a cyborg ninja body (akin to a reverse Ferrus Manus). Everyone agrees that his version of Raiden is much better, and he ends up starring in the spin-off game Metal Gear Rising, where he uses his sword and ninja athleticism to fight other cyborgs and a regular human who was stronger than him due to having a better weapon, Power Armor and skills. In the Metal Gear verse your top of the line upgrades are barely useful in less than four years.

Solidus

The last of Big Bosses' clones, Solidus was much more under the control of the Patriots, sometimes. He spent some time fighting in Africa, where he picked up an orphaned Raiden and turned him into a pawn of the Patriots. While he was eventually made President, this really didn't count for much as the Patriots still made all the decisions and he was basically a puppet. Solidus decides that he's had enough of this shit and steals the Patriots' new warship, Arsenal Gear, and decides to take the fight directly to them. Of course, this didn't end well for him when Snake and Raiden interfere and the ship crashes into Manhattan. He gets killed by Raiden, sort of-not really as nobody bothered to check the body (falling into a coma instead of dying), but his body ends up being a macguffin because his DNA is an exact match to Big Boss, allowing Ocelot to hack into the Patriots network, because even though the Patriots know what's happening and could stop it they let it happen anyway.

The Patriots

Also known as "Cipher", or "La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo" if you're under their direct control since they decided the best way to hide their name is telling everyone that they can't say their name. Financed by the inheritance of the 20th Century's wealthiest men, the Patriots control literally everything. Originally this was a group formed by Big Boss, Zero, Sigint, Para-Medic, Ocelot, and Eva in order to fulfill The Boss' wishes of creating a world without borders and ending the Cold War since the entire series is based around people wanting to do what The Boss wanted to do, despite most of them having minimal attachment to the boss at best. However, this group split in half over differences on how to fulfill this vision. Zero wanted to control the entire world and all facets of human life through all-knowing AIs, while Big Boss wanted to create "Outer Heaven," a place where soldiers would always belong and not be the puppets of governments (because having people always ready to fight would obviously mean everyone becomes peaceful and happy). When Zero went comatose, the group was taken over for a short time by Skull Face, the guy responsible for cleaning up the mess in MGS3 even though there wasn't anyone like that originally (retcon) and the location should have made it impossible.

Types of Metal Gears

If the title of the game didn't hint at it enough, a prominent part of the game(s) are these giant mechs called (you guessed it) Metal Gears. In the beginning they're simply mobile platforms to launch nuclear weapons, but they evolve to fulfill many other roles and become far more dangerous in general.

Shagohod: Technically not a Metal Gear, but created the precedent for mobile nuclear platforms. This crazy contraption was basically a giant armored hovercraft (Move Trough Cover) that would rocket-boost (one-turn Fast Tank) in order to give its nuclear payload an extra boost and was designed to launch nukes from any surface, giving the Soviet Union the edge in the Cold War. Of course the whole point of the Cold War was that both sides were fucked if ANY nukes were launched so it became pointless before it was built. It also had point-defenses up the wazzoo.

Metal Gear RAXA: The first proper Metal Gear ever built. A four-legged Metal Gear that could be launched from a ICBM. If you're asking why in the fuck they have to use a Metal Gear as a middleman nuclear platform when they're already launching it from an ICBM, supposedly it's because the missiles are harder to intercept on the Metal Gear than on the ICBM... but who's to say they can't intercept the ICBM carrying the Metal Gear?

Peace Walker: A four-legged walker that was fully AI controlled. It's described as having a stealth frame, but it wouldn't exactly be hard to spot considering the size of the thing. It could only fire nukes defensively, but could be tricked into launching a premature attack through a plot that understood little to nothing of mutually assured destruction.

Metal Gear ZEKE: Big Boss' first attempt at a Metal Gear, this one was fully bipedal. Originally it was AI controlled too, but was modified to use a human pilot when Cypher attempted to steal it, the modifications being completed in days or minutes depending on when you last checked it, and nobody guarding it thought that it was a good idea to stop the modifications that weren't supposed to happen, and the two people doing them would never have been able to make them in the first place. This metal gear was also customizable and could be sent out on combat missions alongside MSF soldiers.

Sahelanthropus: This one was designed by Otacon's Dad, Huey. While technically more advanced than Metal Gear REX in that it could walk upright, one flaw was that the cockpit was too small for a full-sized human. Cypher got around this by using Pyscho Mantis to control it psychically, because in Phantom Pain Psycho Mantis could do whatever he wanted, which makes you question why they need robots when they already have control over a superhuman. Sahelanthropus is also the absolute proof of why Metal Gears are useless (as if Metal Gear: Rising didn't already do that), despite costing millions to make and countless resources, it's easily defeated by a man on a man-sized robot that would have cost a fraction of the resources to develop, and if it didn't have the ability to create clouds that destroyed metal, it could have been easily defeated by one tank.

TX-55: The Metal Gear that appears in the first game (which is now chronologically not the first one). This model didn't have that many frills, though it could fire two nukes despite being relatively tiny. It does nothing while Snake just uses C4 to blow it up and dodges the annoying laser cameras. Presumably it's the most durable one because the only way to hurt it is to use a shitload of C4 on its legs in a certain order, because that's how explosives work.

Metal Gear D: The first real Metal Gear the player ever fights in the release order. An upgraded version of TX-55. It only had a machine guns and missiles during it's boss battle, but apparently it could also fire six nukes one after another.

Metal Gear REX: This dinosaur-looking motherfucker takes the original Metal Gear concept one step further by firing nukes from a railgun instead of a ballistic missile, making nukes nearly impossible to track (though it was never designed to do so, it just happened to work out that way). It also had a badass assortment of weaponry, from Gatling Guns to crotch lasers and a crap-ton of missiles. Even after Snake battled it in MGS1, it was still tough enough to take on RAY in MGS4. After MGS1, hundreds of REX knockoffs started spreading throughout the world thanks to Ocelot's douchebaggery.

Metal Gear RAY: Designed to be the ultimate anti-Metal Gear weapon, RAY failed fucking hard in that regard. It's amphibious by design, and instead of carrying nukes, its weapons include a powerful water cannon that can cut metal. Despite being built specifically to fight Metal Gears, it still loses in a fight against an already damaged Metal Gear REX. For some reason Ocelot never uses the missile spam attack seen in Metal Gear Solid 2 when he pilots the manned version in MGS4. Still not a cake walk though since you need too spam the fire button instead of holding it down to make this fight easier. Since Metal Gear battles that are not the first boss hardly ever are. The others seen in MGS2 and Rising are smaller unmanned knockoffs.

Metal Gear RAY MOD0: An upgrade over RAY seen in Metal Gear Rising. With the rise of carbon nano-tube tech; the armor was made lighter and stronger, allowing it to carry more weapons. Upgrades include: 4 limb-mounted twin-linked gatling guns, micro and macro missile launchers, an HF arm blade roughly the size of a small building, and a mouth-mounted plasma cannon. Despite all this, every last one of these guys encountered were destroyed by some Rhodesian weeaboo ninja with a sharp stick and a smart-talking Brazilian samurai with an incomprehensibly powerful sword and fighting technique.

Metal Gear EXCELSUS: Not really a Metal Gear, it was only named so for marketing reasons, but still impractically awesome either way. Seen only in Metal Gear Rising; EXCELSUS was meant as an anti-cyborg gear, because cyborgs were becoming too powerful for conventional warfare. Due to this, people thought the only counter to this was to go back to making giant mechs with impractically large and powerful weapons (under the logic that if you can't outmanuver them; outgun them). EXCELSUS is basically a scorpion-shaped mech roughly as tall and wide a sports stadium and armed with two giant HF blades and twin plasma cannons. Its destroyed by Raiden in the most hilariously over-the-top way possible; he SUPLEXES THE DAMN THING, rips one of it's arm blades off, and engages it in an arm-wrestling match with one of it's severed arms. Reminder, this was designed to kill cyborgs.

Gekko: Small Metal Gears made up of a combination of synthetic organic muscle and mechanical technology. They have the head/upper body of a REX, but they have a pair of lizard legs to walk around on. You'd think that those legs would be easy pickings for bullets, but actually they won't buckle for anything less than explosives. They also allow the GEKKO to jump really high, climb on walls, and sweep kick you, so good luck running away from them. They also moo like cows and take shits. Seriously. We're not fucking joking.

Plot

Metal Gear

The original story on the NES. While the future 3D games are the stuff of legends, the old ones didn't get better with age (they're good for nostalgia, but gameplay as expected during the pioneer age of vidya gaems, is unpolished at best).

It has rookie FOXHOUND operative Solid Snake infiltrating Outer Haven, a mercenary empire led by a mysterious legendary mercenary. Big Boss, leader of FOXHOUND, originally sent one of their best operatives named "Grey Fox" to infiltrate the area, but was captured, leaving only the message "Metal Gear" before disappearing. BB then only sends Snake to investigate, in an operation dubbed "Operation Intrude N312".

So to make a long-story less long and all the obligatory plot twists: Big Boss is actually the leader of Outer Haven (this was later ret-conned to being Big Boss' body double: Venom Snake) and the real Big Boss (we think) only sent in Snake thinking that he would be killed as he didn't have the experience to go up against hardened war veterans (all those guys you fultoned in MGS5? They're these guys). Metal Gear is actually a bi-pedal tank capable of launching nuclear weapons from anywhere. Also Grey Fox is alive, and wants to kill you after being convinced by Big Boss to turn on the US government.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake

Sequel to the first game. The game now features the fictional nation of Zanzibar, another mercenary empire led by another "legendary mercenary". Zanzibar kidnapped Dr. Kio Marv, a scientist who created a compound named "OLIX" which could create an oil-substitute compound at little cost. Due to diminishing oil supplies, Zanzibar plans to hold the world hostage by controlling the only new reliable source of oil. They plan to enforce their position using OLIX and of course, a nuclear-equipped walking battle tank. Snake retired after the events of the first game, but was pressed by Campbell into service, due to this new crisis. Now, Snake must rescue Dr. Marv and bring an end to Zanzibar.

Surprisingly, this mission also goes well for Snake, managing to save Dr. Magnar and destroy Zanzibar's Metal Gear. But you guessed it, plot twists: Grey Fox is still alive, and this would be his final days as he dies after fighting Snake (but is forcibly brought back from the grave by the Patriots later), and Big Boss is actually still alive (although technically he was always alive, you just killed his body-double at first, with recent retcons considered), but Snake puts him down, once and for all (And this is the actual Big Boss now, but he didn't actually die, rather he was saved by the Patriots after the battle, but was in a coma. This plot point gets wrapped up in MGS4.).

Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid is a bit of a "reboot" of the franchise, where most of future games will follow this style of gameplay (or improve upon it).

The story involves Solid Snake being forced back into service after Liquid Snake, his brother, stages a coup with the Next-Generation Special Forces, and Fox Hound, taking Metal Gear REX and several personalities hostage. Their demands are money and for the US government to surrender the remains of Big Boss, as they require his DNA to fix their genetic flaws. Failure to do so, will cause the terrorists to launch a nuclear weapon from REX.

As a solo infiltrator; Snake must alone; defeat the members of the NGSF and Fox Hound, save the DARPA chief and president of the ArmsTech corporation, and retrieve Metal Gear REX. But as much as it was intended; he wasn't alone. He's assisted by an operations team that he contacts via codec that's currently operating from a submarine, an NGSF defector named Meryl, and REX's designer; Otacon. Also a mysterious cyborg ninja who is there to both assist and kill you, specifically in a first-fight.

But, plot twist, the ninja was Grey Fox all along and only got you here as a duel to the death with you was his final wish, you were just there to be a carrier of the FOXDIE virus, to ensure the members of Fox Hound are killed either way, then allow the US government to retrieve REX undamaged. Snake sort of "succeeds" in his mission (Revolver Ocelot is still alive, two of the hostages are dead, and REX is "kind of" destroyed.), failing most of his objectives, but managing to prevent nuclear holocaust from occurring.

As an additional Plot Twist: Revolver Ocelot planned everything with then-president George Sears (AKA: Solidus Snake), and everything went all according to plan from his stand-point (Whether him losing his gun hand is part of it or not, is up to debate).

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Known mostly as where the story of the Patriots and information control started.

After MGS1, Ocelot leaks plans of REX to the world, causing numerous countries to start making their own home-grown nuclear weapons programs through this data. Due to this, the US Marines are commissioned Metal Gear RAY, a not-metal gear that's designed to take on other giant robots, rather than launch nukes. This is caught by Snake's and Otacon's attention, who infiltrate the tanker transporting RAY to get photo evidence of the US government building another Metal Gear (never actually considering that in the age of Photoshop, the USG can easily deny these claims). Things go not as planned after Ocelot and a bunch of Russian mercenaries take over the tanker. Things are even more complicated after Ocelot betrays the mercenaries, then takes RAY for himself, sinking the oil tanker, and pinning the entire incident on Snake. Snake is assumed to have died during the tanker incident.

Fast forward a few years, and a facility called "Big Shell" is built on-top of the oil spill, to facilitate clean-up of the patch of water. Said facility is then taken over by the "Sons of Liberty" a disenfranchised US Special Forces group, led by former president George Sears, who intends to rid the world of the Patriots' influence, supported by a group of Russian mercenaries. He plans to do this by gaining access to nuclear weapons and requires the President's authorization to allow him to use it. During this time, they take the US president, and his cabinet hostage during a routine visit from them.

Along with a SEAL team, the US government sends "Raiden" a bishie "rookie" (he's trained with VR, but has no field experience to speak of. If you discount his stint as a child soldier) of Fox Hound. Also there's this SEAL named Iroquis Pliskin who sounds, looks, and acts a lot like Solid Snake, but it can't be him because he's dead. Plus there's also this cyborg ninja with a thick Russian accent, who's....just there, I guess.

His objectives were to rescue the president, prevent the terrorists from blowing-up Big Shell (as the chemicals used for de-contaminating the oil would poison the area around Manhattan), and neutralize the Sons of Liberty....atleast that was the plan. As with the first game; Raiden fails his original mission as the Big Shell is eventually destroyed, the US President is dead, and Solidus gains access to another superweapon that he was able to use. But he was able to prevent Armageddon by stopping Solidus by having a sword-duel to the death.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Chronologically the first game in the series, MGS3 is pretty much a Fix Fic for the half assed story of MGS2. The game is still plays out like the old games, but as most of the activity is now in outdoor environments, additional features are added like the need to hunt and eat food for stamina, and the wound system that would cripple the player in certain areas due to injury (which was later pulled out of later games, because its just kinda dumb and needlessly slows the action down).

MGS3 follows the adventures of "Jack", code-named "Naked Snake" (named so because he has little gear during missions, hence "naked"). He was selected to be the pioneer of the Fox group, a military initiative aimed at training elite operatives for deep-infiltration missions, which is overseen by an ex-SAS operative known only as Major Zero (why the blue blazes the American government would enlist a British national as the leader one of their black ops groups is only something Kojima could explain) and also by The Boss, Jack's Mentor.

Their original mission that acts as a trial for fox is to help scientist Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov defect to the West, growing tired of his creations becoming weapons of war (not really realizing the west will pretty much press him for the same ends), by rescuing him from a stronghold deep in Russian territory. Said weapon is a giant tank, capable of launching nuclear missiles without the use of a silo named the "Shagohod". Things originally went well, up until the ambush led by GRU officer: Major. Ocelot (who is appears to have mellowed with age, as he's an insufferable fanboy during his youth), which Snake manages to overcome, thanks to Ocelot's cockiness. But things went Not as Planned when he realized his mentor, The Boss, defected to a Soviet seperatist faction led by Colonel Volgin. This led to Sokolov being kidnapped again, the Shagohod being stolen, and Snake being left almost for dead after a fight with The Boss. Things went even more not as planned after Volgin uses one of the portable nuclear weapons The Boss gave him, in order to destroy one of Russia's top-secret nuclear facility, blowing up any chance of the US keeping this operation a secret, completely out of the water.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

A game of questionable canon not directed or written by Hideo Kojima. The main antagonist is a bigger Villain Sue than Armstrong and Ocelot put together. Which is saying something because either would whip the floor with him. It was also a considered the worst game until recently (see Survive). Which is what you get when the primary writer is known for making shitty harem novels for morbidly obese otaku and directed by a script writer instead of a real director.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

MGS4 is officially the "end" of the Solid timeline, as MGSV is in the past about Big Boss' wacky misadventures. The game is constantly criticized for basically being one long cutscene, due to the fact a lot of the game has a lot of cinematic content, than actual gameplay, to the point that MGS4 actually holds the world record for the longest cutscene in videogame history, who's finale spans a whopping 71 minutes (and reminder, this is JUST the ending).

The game follows Solid Snake, who has rapidly aged to an old man in his 60s due to FOXDIE, and apparently he's going to be a WMD as the FOXDIE virus injected in him in the first game is evolving into a dangerous bio-weapon. He's called in for one last mission by Colonel Campbell to assassinate Revolver Ocelot, who has now become the leader of one of the largest PMCs in the world, who has amassed too much power and is deemed a threat by world leaders. He reluctantly take to the field again, as this is his final mission to end the madness he and his extended family was responsible for, before finally dying (by his hand if necessary). Along the way he's helped by just about every MG character from the previous game as one big nostalgiafest, including:

• Otacon, who's there for exposition
• Raiden, who is now an impractically awesome near-immortal cyborg ninja
• Dr. Naomi Hunter, who's attempting to atone for her sins
• Colonel Campbell, who married Raiden's wife after becoming estranged to him
• Rosemary, Raiden's wife who after a miscarriage, separated from him. Acts as a psychologist to Snake.
• Vamp, who's trope as a bi-sexual vampire is really drilled into your skull here
• Ocelot, because Kojima killed Liquid too early in the series (we're not kidding, this is the main reason why Ocelot became the series' big bad)
• Solidus, who's now in a coma
• Meryl, who is now working for the US as an observer for PMCs.
• Johnny Sasaki, who somehow turned from comic relief to part-time action hero (because.....eh?)
• Mei Ling, who due to certain assets, is now a USN captain of her own ship
• Big Boss, who finally woke up from his near-death coma
• Eva, who's now leading an Eastern-European resistance group under the name "Big Mama".

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

The other direct sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3 on the PSP. A much better game between the two. It should have been released on consoles instead as Big Boss can't move and be in the prone position at the same time. This is where the series started it's slow decline that was fast tracked by Konami's sabotage of MGSV and the release of Survive. As the real brains behind Metal Gear. Tomokazu Fukushima, left the company during the early development of MGS4.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Set four years after Guns of the Patriots, Revengeace is a completely different beast from any other Metal Gear game. First off, you play as Raiden for the entire game instead of Snake or Big Boss. Second, since this game was developed by Platinum Games instead of Konami, stealth is mostly thrown out the window for glorious carnage (you can still try to use stealth when it's applicable to make the game easier, as enemies are vulnerable to insta-kills while you're undetected, but nothing's stopping you from just going in and murderfucking everyone.). And third, the stupid over-the-top tropes Metal Gear Solid was known for are hitched up to eleven. Seriously, look at this shit. That's the equivalent of tossing around a Warhound Scout Titan like a rag doll.

Long story short, Raiden receives a far more powerful cyborg body and is sent to eliminate Desperado; an off-shoot faction of the Patriots led by U.S Senator Armstrong, known for the "Nanomachines, son" meme and the most patriotic villain ever known. Besides that the plot is pretty much nonexistent, with Raiden running around and pretty much being the living avatar of RIP N' TEAR. The plot though did have some really funny moments where Raiden discovered the villains plan to create an army, kidnap children from third-world countries, put their brains in jars, have them remote control robots/cyborgs, and once they were skilled enough put their brains in those bodies so that they could get killed on the battlefield, not to mention there's a part where Raiden just lets a bunch of children die because he's too busy posing to help them out. Much like most of the series, this plan is doomed to failure before it starts when you realize that there's already a far better alternative in the form of nanomachines that make you invincible, they only stop working when it's plot convenient. It also regresses Raidens' character a bit (because much like every MGS sequel, the theme of the previous games are ignored), but nobody really gave a shit about that because of all the over-the-top ninja bullshit he constantly pulls off.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

Ground Zeroes

The story begins with Ground Zeroes, set one year after the events of Peace Walker. It turns out Paz, a former friend of Big Boss and secret agent for Cipher, is alive and is being held in an American Interrogation camp on the southern tip of Cuba. Big Boss originally wanted to assassinate Paz because of her ties to the mysterious Cipher organization and suspects she might may have leaked critical information about the Militaires Sans Frontières. Miller on the other hand doesn't believe this and convinces Big Boss to bring her back alive for questioning.

The Phantom Pain

A pretty cool opening scene of Big Boss waking up to The Man Who Sold the World in a hospital bed in Cyprus. The doctors show Big Boss after the explosion that not only did he get shrapnel sticking out of his head and the inside of his body, but he also lost his left forearm in the process. The following night an assassin kills the doctors who took care of Big Boss and nearly kills Big Boss himself. That is until another patient stops the assassin and sets her on fire causing her to jump out the window. The patient reveals himself as 'Ishmael' and helps Big Boss escape (This isn't the only reference to the book Moby Dick, Ishmael calls Big Boss 'Ahab' while Big Boss is equipped with a hook hand prosthetic). As they both approach the elevator, they encounter a child wearing a gas mask and a straight jacket floating in the air (we know what you're thinking and yes, that is Psycho Mantis as a little kid) and a man covered in fire. Since gunfire is useless against him his only weakness is water. They both see that XOF units start killing the patients and hospital staff to ensure there are no witnesses. It becomes clear that they were sent in to eliminate Big Boss after finding out he had just woken up. After facing certain death against XOF soldiers and the Man of Fire, Big Boss and Ishmael escape the hospital using an ambulance. Unfortunately, the ambulance gets attacked by XOF forces and crashes. Big Boss survives, but Ishmael has disappeared leaving Big Boss to fend for himself.

Metal Gear Survive

A portal in the sky transports you to an alternate dimension after Mother Base was destroyed by XOF, where nanomachines has mutated everyone into Romero-like zombies (we're not kidding, this is as "Nanomachines son" for a plot device as it gets). As the name implies; your objective is to survive. Its basically every indie survival horror game you see on Steam, except this comes in with a hefty pricetag of 40 USD/EUR.

As the first game ever worked on without Kojima's input, it was originally suppose to be a testament if Konami can indeed replicate Kojima's brand of absurdly hilarious yet engaging writing, or if Kojima was indeed the only thing keeping Metal Gear afloat, and it indeed shows: it can easily be called the worst Metal Gear yet. The story is worse than Snake's Revenge and makes Bethesda era Fallout look good with sentient nanomachines from the 22nd century via time travel as the main villain.

Right out plagiarizing another video game made by Sqaure Enix, Gunslinger Stratos. Just without the alternate universe dopplegangers. One could also argue that it ripoffs the premise from Doctor Who two parter "The Empty Child". However, unlike Steven Moffat the people behind Survive have no idea how to make a coherent plot. Proving for a second time that Gakuto Mikumo (who wrote the shitty story of Portable Ops) is a no talent hack like most light novel writers. Blatantly ignoring that the real future of the Metal Gear universe is the much superior Zone of the Enders.(Sahelanthropus looks like a much less advanced Jehuty.)

The game mechanics are something the olden survival games of yore (which aged about as well as bread left out in the open for 6 years), with you having to build a base using resources that you grind for, and such.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. After 30 years, this is how Metal Gear ends: not with a bang, but with a whimper as it's dying body cannibalized by Konami to salvage whatever profit they can from it, before it finally dies. (Well, that and a return of Snake to Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, but that's Nintendo doing all the work, and Konami not needing to do jack anything.)

See Also

• Metal Gear Vindicare
• BattleTech

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