The history of Metal Gear
Metal Gear, a fearsome and fictional weapon that threatens the world with nuclear holocaust, serves as both the basis and the title for one of the most acclaimed interactive entertainment. The creation of director Hideo Kojima is composed of 14 games (spin-offs included) with their own script on which each game is the sequel of the other (except MG Acid series, MGS PO and POP, MG Ghost Babel and MGS Mobile) to form a whole and unique story:
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- Metal Gear Solid Mobile for mobile phone.
- Metal Gear Ghost Babel for Gameboy color.
- Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriot for the PS2 and PS3 (only MGS4).
- Metal Gear Acid, Metal Gear Acid 2 and Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops, Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops Plus for the PSP.
- Metal Gear Solid The Twin Snakes for GameCube.
Since 1987, MG story has developed a rich and unforgettable world full of fascinating characters, epic conflicts and futuristic themes. Not only that but it offers players like me an unique survival-based game play with stunning visuals and soundtracks combined with a powerful narrative. So let’s start by the beginning which is not the first game of the series ?
Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater
After playing the previous games with Solid Snake, I went back to the past with MGS3 in 1964 during the Cold War period playing the future Big Boss. Indeed, Kojima and his team decided to take me in the genesis of this saga and by this way, to provide me the missing background.
Released in North America and Japan for PS2 in 2004 and in Europe the following year, Snake Eater put me in the skin of Jack (real name John), a green beret with codenamed Naked Snake.
In order to abate the cuban missile crisis, US negotiated with the Soviet Union the return of the soviet scientist Nikolai Sokolov. My mission was to bring him alive to America. To accomplish it, I had to survive in the jungle of Russia but most importantly to survive against my mighty enemies who were Revolver Ocelot, Colonel Volgin, Shagohod and the Boss (known also The Joy) with her Cobra unit (The Pain, The Fear, The Sorrow, The Fury and The End).
The most difficult part was to kill the Boss who was my mentor but considered more like my mother and after this sad victory, I got the title of the Big Boss.
From an interview of Hideo, he explained that for this game, he wanted to explore “maternity” so he developed a mother like character who represented the Boss and who had a very complicated sentimental relation with Jack. Hideo imagined this mother with one breast out, feeding her child so in his first design, he drew her with a tattoo of a snake around her chest. When firing with a gun, her breast would shake, making the snake look like it was laughing and would create this legend “that when you saw the laughing snake, your life would soon be over”.
Jack, now Big Boss, will come back in the last chapter MGS to reunite with his cloning son Solid Snake to tell him the whole truth with his last breath.
Metal Gear
I didn’t play this game but it doesn’t mean that I can tell its story !!! It represents the first game of the MG series created by Hideo for MSX2 computer system and only released in Japan in 1987.
Hideo said during an interview that Konami management asked him to design a new combat-driven game for MSX2. This system had many restrictions to create a combat environment and with that in mind, he came up with Metal Gear, a game where players have to flee and not fight.
The game was a success because of its tension-filled, hide and seek style of play. So Konami decided to develop it for NES (Nintendo game system) and it has been launched worldwide in 1988 to become a blockbuster.
Hideo explained that he was not involved in the development of this NES version and it is completely a garbage because the final boss Metal Gear wasn’t at the end, replaced by some computer monitors.
The original MSX2 version picked up where the events of Snake Eater left off, delving deeper into the troubled life of Jack and gamers played Solid Snake, a new recruit of the Foxhound unit created by Big Boss. In 1999, Outer Heaven, a hostile South African country, threatened to unleash a nuclear strike upon the world with its mobile nuclear arsenal known as Metal Gear. The goal was to infiltrate and to sabotage this plan. During the mission, Solid Snake discovered that Big Boss was behind all this and he was forced to confront his former commander and destroy MG.
Hideo said that the era he grew up was overshadowed by the threat of nuclear war and he wanted to express the anxiety of these time. After studying the United States armament, he found out that a truly mobile nuclear weapon didn’t exist, something which can go everywhere and fire from any place. It was how he came up to create Metal Gear, a walking nuclear tank.
This complex tale of hide and seek served as the origin of the Metal Gear series and of the stealth genre, as well.
Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake
After the success of MG for NES version, Konami decided to release in North America a sequel of MG called Snake’s Revenge (released in 1990 and in Europe in 1992).
Hideo revealed us during an interview that, again, he was not involved in this project. Taking the train to go home, he met the team who developed Snake’s Revenge and they asked him to come back to create another MG, a true sequel !!! The next day he arrived at the office with the plans for Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake.
This game was launched in 1990 for an exclusive distribution of 15 years only in Japan. With the release of Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence in 2006, worldwide gamers could play it.
The story took place one year before the turn of the millennium. Dr Kio Marv, a czech scientist, was going to discover an efficient solution to the world severe energy crisis. Big Boss with a rogue group of mercenaries took Dr Marv in hostage, amassed a nuclear stockpile, and secured themselves in the fictional Zanzibar land. Solid Snake was called back to infiltrate this place, to dismantle the new Metal Gear D and to battle Big Boss. After victory, Snake took refuge in Alaska, concluding the lost chapter in the MG saga.
Metal Gear Solid
With the new console of Sony in 1994, the Playstation, MG changed from 2D to 3D and with the CD technology, Hideo included cinematic presentations with an impressive soundtrack and full voiceovers for characters.
I started to play the saga with this game released in 1998 and since now I’m one of the big fan !!!
In 2005, a new Foxhound unit took Shadow Moses, an off-shore alaskan army base, which hided the Metal Gear Rex. Liquid Snake, brother of Solid Snake, was the leader and after threatening Washington DC to launch nuclear missiles, Solid Snake infiltrated the base and again, with the help of Gray Fox, he sabotaged the plan to save the world. It was on this mission that he met Shalashaska, known as Revolver Ocelot, the first time and he will meet him again in the last MGS series for a final and deadly fight.
Hideo confessed that he is a big fan of Lee Van Cleef and so he decided to design Ocelot character like him.
In this game, Solid Snake not only fought against powerful enemies (Liquid Snake, Revolver Ocelot, Cyborg Ninja, Sniper Wolf, Vulcan Raven, Psycho Mantis, Metal Gear REX and Decoy Octopus) but he met friends also (Meryl Silverburgh and Dr Hal Otacon Emmerich) who will play an important role in the next game.
With its cinematic visuals and full voiceover presentation, MGS would become one of the best selling, most highly revered games in history with many serious actual themes like nuclear proliferation, cloning experimentation and the concept of transmitting something to the next generation.
Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty
After the events of Shadow Moses, Solid Snake and Otacon disappeared and formed Philanthropy (an UN sanctioned, anti Metal Gear watchdog group). They reappeared in late 2007 when Ocelot hijacked a military tanker which hided the new Metal Gear Ray developed by the US marines and he revealed to Solid Snake the implant of Liquid Snake right arm on his chest. During the battle, the tanker sank with Snake into the Hudson river and MG Ray fleeing with Ocelot.
Hideo revealed us an interesting script for MGS2 but which had not been able to design. Indeed, the original plot for the game was very different. The setting was Iran and Iraq and the story focused on nuclear weapons inspections. Metal Gear was rumored to be hidden behind closed doors and inspectors were being denied access. At that time, a Metal Gear type was being transported by aircraft carrier which must be stopped within a certain time limit. And the ones who showed up to hijack the ship was none other than Liquid and his crew. But about a half year into the project, the Middle East started to heat up again and Hideo and his team realized that they couldn’t develop a game like that and MGS2 was released in 2001 in Japan and North America and in 2002 in Europe.
2 years after the tanker event, an incident happened at Big Shell, a cleanup facility. Solidus Snake (known as the president George Sears), the 3rd son of Big Boss, took in hostage the US president during his visit and hided the new Metal Gear, Arsenal Gear.
From this section, I started to play a new character Raiden who fought, with the help of Solid Snake (calling himself Iroquois Pliskin) and Otacon, against enemies like Solidus Snake, Vamp, Metal Gear RAY, Fortune and Fatman.
Hideo told that the idea to create Raiden was after a survey done to a group of women who normally didn’t buy game. Only one response stood out “I hate games about stupid old men. They’re so worthless. I can’t stand them. No way would I buy this stupid sort of game”. Character artist Shinkawa and Hideo asked themselves what they could do to fix this problem. So with the users in mind they came up with the new lead character Raiden.
After defeating a host of Metal Gear Rays and killed Solidus Snake, Raiden disappeared in the street of New York with Solid Snake and they reappeared in the last chapter of MGS.
Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriot
The last chapter of this series was released in 2008 worldwide which put the saga in its climax.
In 2014, 5 years after the Big Shell incident, war has changed and it is now controlled by Private Military Companies known as PMCs to fight proxy wars for business purposes. Id-tagged soldiers carry id-tagged weapons and use id-tagged gear where nanomachines, inside their bodies, enhance and regulate their abilities. PCMs use this nanotechnology called “Sons of the Patriots (known as SOP)” to manage and control everything.
The company Outer Heaven, directed by Liquid Ocelot, owns the 5 most important PMCs : Praying Mantis, Otselotovaya Khvatka, Werewolf, Pieuvre Armement and Raven Sword. Ocelot prepares to launch an armed insurrection against the US by taking control of SOP and Solid Snake known as Old Snake enters into this battlefield to save the world. In order to accomplish this ultimate mission and with the help of his new and old friends, he has to fight and kill his old enemy friend brother Liquid Ocelot and his team (Frogs, Laughing Octopus, Raging Raven, Crying Wolf, Vamp, Metal Gear RAY and Screaming Mantis).
Days after the end of the battle, Old Snake visits the grave of the Big Boss but the Big Boss, he thought to be dead during the event of Outer Heaven in a hostile South African country, has become an Old Big Boss who stands in front of him. Old Big Boss- Old Snake, father-son, together at the end and with his last breath, father is telling to his son the whole truth.
October 30, 2008