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Metal Gear?!
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is a phenomenal swansong from series
creator Hideo Kojima, easily taking the top honors of our Game of the Year
Awards in 2015. But if The Phantom Pain is your first time entering the world of
tactical espionage action, you'll quickly find yourself drowning in one of the
most ridiculously dense narratives in video game history. For 30 years, Kojima
has built upon the foundation laid by the 1987 MSX/NES classic, bolting on plot
points and new characters wherever they fit to serve the narrative of the
current entry, until the series transformed into a Frankenstein's monster of
double (and triple)-crosses, name changes, and retcons.
But you don't need to fret, because I've compiled a timeline detailing the
series' most important events. There's even a glossary at the bottom in case
you get your Snakes mixed up (it happens to the best of us). If you're hopping
into Big Boss' shoes for the first time (or simply need a refresher), and you
don't want to watch hours upon hours of cutscenes to get the big picture, this
will get you properly up to speed. The events of the Metal Gear saga cover over
a century of world history, so strap in and enjoy the ride. Oh, and if anything
doesn't make sense to you, just remember: nanomachines probably did it.
Big thanks to the Metal Gear wikia and the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database on PS3
for helping me keep my dates and names straight while I wrote this.
Metal Gear's story truly begins in the aftermath of World War 1, as the
wealthiest and most influential members of the US, the Soviet Union, and China
form a secret organization known as the Philosophers. With their vast reach
and near limitless resources, the Philosophers aim to influence world events so
we never have to experience another global conflict on the scale of WW1. As its
members die off, the group begins to splinter, and by the 1930s, the true
purpose of the organization had distorted from its original ideals, eventually
giving way to the Cold War, an era of nuclear tension that began thanks to the
infighting between members of the Philosophers.
Before their nasty break-up, the Philosophers pooled together vast sums of
money to stop World War 2 in its tracks, gathering over $100 billion (or over
$1.6 trillion, in 2014 dollars) to develop nuclear weapons and genetically-
enhanced supersoldiers. The money-laundering records needed to store this
amount of cash were kept on microfilm - called the Philosophers' Legacy - along
with the names of all of the organization's members. The Cold War started
because each of the world's three major superpowers fought over this massive
chunk of change, until a Soviet commander and Philosopher agent named Boris
Volgin stole the microfilm and passed it on to his son after his death.
Object 1
The Philosophers may have lost their slush fund and they may be fractured, but
they haven't lost their teeth. Before the events of Metal Gear Solid 3, President
John F. Kennedy goes against the will of the Philosophers during the Bay of Pigs
invasion and is subsequently assassinated - such is the power of this shady
organization.
A Soviet rocket scientist by the name of Nikolai Sokolov wants to defect to the
US, so the government calls upon FOX, a CIA covert operations unit formed by
Major Zero (a British SAS officer) and The Boss (head of Cobra Unit, a legendary
squadron of soldiers who fought numerous battles in WW2). John (code name:
Naked Snake), an ex-Green Beret and the first-ever FOX operative, is sent into
the Soviet jungles to retrieve Sokolov, but is stopped when The Boss, Snake's
mentor and mother figure, double-crosses him. The Boss recaptures Sokolov
and joins up with members of Cobra Unit and Commander Volgin (son of Boris
Volgin), who steals the Shagohod, a nuclear-equipped tank and Metal Gear
progenitor, and launches a Davy Crockett nuke at his homeland, ensuring the
US gets blamed for its illegal presence in the Soviet Union.
In order to prevent retaliation and mutually-assured destruction, Naked Snake
must return to Volgin's command center, destroy the Shagohod, and kill The
Boss. Along the way, he receives help from EVA, an ex-NSA agent/actual
Philosopher agent and Snake's sole contact in the Soviet Union. He also meets
Russian GRU officer Adamska (code name: Revolver Ocelot), forming a special
warrior's bond with him despite their opposing allegiances. With their help,
Snake defeats each of the members of Cobra Unit, destroys the Shagohod,
takes down Volgin, and faces off against The Boss. Before Snake deals the final
blow, The Boss hands over half of the microfilm containing the location of the
Philosophers' Legacy.
Snake returns to the States a hero, and receives the title of Big Boss, but he
also learns the horrible truth of his mission. The Boss was secretly working for
the US from the inside to recover the Legacy, but thanks to Volgin's nuke, the
parameters of her mission changed: she had to die by Snake's hands, forever
known as a traitor. While Snake succeeded in his mission, he grew disillusioned
with the government who betrayed him, renounced the title of Big Boss, and
quit FOX.
Snake, Major Zero, and Revolver Ocelot originally formed The Patriots to honor
The Boss' dream of a perfect world. Zero interpreted this to mean creating a
'World Without Borders', effectively uniting the nations of the world under one
rule. So Zero exaggerated and distorted the legend of Big Boss, using it as a
means of control. Snake isn't too happy about being a puppet for Zero,
believing that Zero is skewing The Boss' vision for his own gains.
The final straw was Zeros creation of the Les Enfants Terribles project without
Snake's knowledge or consent. The project aimed to take Snake's DNA and use
it to clone a series of enhanced supersoldiers. From the project came three
'Sons of Big Boss': Solid, Liquid, and Solidus, each one representing the best
parts of Big Boss' DNA, with some accelerated aging thrown in to prevent the
enemy from copying the clones' genetic code. Snake finds out about this and is
understandably pissed off. He leaves The Patriots and FOXHOUND, drifting from
skirmish to skirmish, until he meets Kazuhira Miller and forms the Militaires
Sans Frontieres. Sometime after Snake's departure, Major Zero and the Patriots
take on the code name 'Cipher'.
Snake is asked by Costa Rican agents Paz Andrade and Ramon Galvez Mena for
assistance regarding a mysterious army that's holed itself up in the Latin
American nation. He only agrees when he hears a recording of The Boss' voice,
seemingly alive and well. That voice actually belongs to an AI program
attached to Peace Walker, a nuclear-equipped weapon created to ensure that
mutually-assured destruction could never come to pass by guaranteeing
mutually-assured destruction would occur if anyone ever launched a nuke. It's
best if you don't think about that too much.
Anyway, Snake and Miller set up Mother Base off the Costa Rican coastline and
design it to resemble an offshore oil rig. Snake wanders the jungles, recruiting
soldiers for his army, researching new tech, rescuing Dr. Huey Emmerich (the
scientist responsible for Peace Walker's design), and building his own nuclear
deterrent, a walking battlemech called Metal Gear ZEKE. Snake discovers that
Galvez is a KGB agent who wanted Peace Walker for himself, but Snake puts a
stop to him and once again prevents a nuclear holocaust, finally adopting the
title Big Boss as his own.
Oh, it's not over yet. Paz is also a double agent, who actually works for Cipher
(aka Major Zero). She attempts to steal ZEKE and frame MSF for launching a
nuke should Snake decide not to join Cipher. Snake quickly defeats ZEKE, and
Paz is flung into the ocean from the resulting explosion. Miller was also
apparently a business partner with Cipher and knew all about Paz's plot, using
his connections to build MSF into a driving force of the Cold War economy.
Snake is apparently cool with this, and the two continue to operate MSF
together, growing Mother Base into massive mercenary operation.
Big Boss (aka Venom "Punished" Snake in this one) awakens from his coma
inside a hospital in Cyprus and finds himself under attack by XOF forces and
minus one left hand. He escapes the facility with the help of Ishmael, a
mysterious man covered in bandages, eventually coming into contact with
Revolver Ocelot. Ocelot helps get him back on his feet, equipping him with a
bionic arm and assisting him in an operation to infiltrate Afghanistan and
rescue Kazuhira Miller. Together, the three form a new private military
corporation, now known as Diamond Dogs, and rebuild Mother Base off the
coast of the Seychelles.
Diamond Dogs accepts various missions within Afghanistan and the Angola-
Zaire border region in Africa, both in an attempt to recruit new soldiers and
earn money, as well to gather intel on Skull Face's operations and wait for the
right time to strike back. Snake rescues Huey Emmerich from his clutches, but
Miller is reluctant to believe his loyalty, believing Huey to be the one that sold
out MSF nine years ago. Snake also brings on Quiet, a crack-shot sniper who
doesn't wear enough clothing; Eli, a kid who is suspected to be one of Snake's
offspring from the Les Enfants Terribles project until a blood test provides a
negative result; and Code Talker, a Navajo scientist forced to work for Skull
Face to create a strain of vocal cord parasites that infect and kill off people who
speak specifically targeted languages. Together they confront and defeat Skull
Face, finally taking the revenge that had eluded them for so long.
But the story continues well after the climax, drifting aimlessly as Diamond
Dogs finds itself without purpose. Eli escapes from Snake's care with a massive
Metal Gear in tow. An outbreak of a mutated strain of the parasites back on
Mother Base forces Snake to gun down his own men to prevent further
infection. Huey is accused of releasing the strain, and is exiled as a result.
Quiet gets captured and when a rescue mission goes south, she speaks English
for the first time in the game in order to call a rescue helicopter for Snake,
activating the dormant vocal cord parasites inside her body, effectively
dooming her. A series of cassette tapes reveal that Major Zero's organization
has spiraled wildly out of his control, culminating in Skull Face's mutiny against
Cipher and his attack on MSF in the 1970s. And in the biggest twist of all, it's
revealed that the true star of the game wasn't Big Boss, but rather a medic for
MSF and one of his most trusted soldiers. Through a series of hypnotism and
plastic surgery, the medic was molded to look and act like Big Boss, while
the real Big Boss (revealed to be Ishmael from the hospital) ditched Miller and
began plotting Cipher's destruction while in hiding. Eventually, Fake Boss forms
Outer Heaven during events that take place between The Phantom Pain and
Metal Gear.
1995 - Assault on Outer Heaven (Metal Gear)
The world is rapidly running out of oil, and Dr. Kio Marv has the perfect
solution: OILIX, a synthetic fuel source that could solve a potential global crisis.
So of course he gets kidnapped by a mysterious new military force in Zanzibar
Land. Roy Campbell, now head of FOXHOUND, brings Solid Snake out of
retirement to rescue the doctor.
Snake finds a hell of a lot more than that in Zanzibar Land: Gray Fox is now his
enemy, Big Boss is alive (thanks to the death of his decoy in 1995), and - you
guessed it - there's another Metal Gear. Dr. Marv is tortured and killed, and the
OILIX formula ends up in Gray Fox's hands. Snake is able to defeat both Fox and
Big Boss before the day is through. Snake leaves Big Boss for dead and retires
to the Alaskan wilderness. The Patriots pick up Big Boss' body and place him
into a nanomachine-induced coma, where he will remain for the next 15 years
as a sentimental prize of Zero's. Oh, and his genes are once again stolen from
him, this time to create the Genome Soldiers used in...
Keeping FOXHOUND around seems like a hell of a lot more trouble than it's
worth. Liquid Snake, Solid's twin brother/clone, is now commanding officer, and
- I sound like a broken record here - has gone rogue, using the newly-created
Genome Soldiers to take over Shadow Moses Island, a nuclear weapon storage
facility and home of Metal Gear REX. Liquid, Revolver Ocelot, and friends plan
on launching a nuke unless the government hands over the remains of Big Boss
and $1 billion.
Roy Campbell drags Solid Snake out of retirement once again to rescue a few
VIPs, all of whom die of mysterious heart attacks thanks to the FOXDIE virus Dr.
Naomi Hunter secretly injected into Snake's body before the mission. After a
battle against Revolver Ocelot, Snake learns that Gray Fox isn't just alive, he's
been turned into a cyborg ninja - who promptly slices off Ocelot's hand with his
katana. Snake then meets up with Campbell's daughter Meryl Silverburgh, as
well as REX designer Hal Emmerich (Huey's son), both of whom help Snake
make his way through the facility.
After a variety of trials and tribulations, Solid Snake finds himself face-to-face
against his brother Liquid and Metal Gear REX. Gray Fox steps in to sacrifice
himself, giving Solid Snake enough time to destroy REX. Liquid then gives Solid
a long-winded speech about his origin as a clone of Big Boss. The two do battle
on top of the destroyed mech, Solid Snake wins (because of course he does),
and escapes the facility alongside Meryl. Liquid continues his dogged pursuit,
ultimately dying at the hands of the FOXDIE virus. Revolver Ocelot escapes
(sans one hand), and in the game's closing moments, we learn that Solidus
(aka George Sears and the perfect clone of Big Boss) is currently President of
the United States and was essentially in on the whole thing.
Prior to MGS2's events, Revolver Ocelot grafts Liquid Snake's hand onto his arm
and begins selling Metal Gear REX's schematics to the highest bidders. Oh, and
Liquid's hand starts taking over Ocelot's mind, affecting his speech and thought
patterns (more on that later).
On a tip from Hal's sister Emma (an AI programmer who is also working on a
type of Metal Gear), Solid Snake infiltrates an oil tanker off the coast of
Manhattan. He arrives just in time to see the ship being taken over by Russian
soldiers, but Snake doesn't care too much about that - he just wants to find
Metal Gear RAY and expose its existence to the world. After wending his way
into the belly of the tanker, he finds and photographs RAY and uploads the
images for Hal. Just in time, too, because Ocelot/Liquid shows up, betrays his
Russian comrades, steals RAY and blows up the tanker, leaving Snake for dead.
Snake is framed for the destruction by the Patriots, as tons of oil allegedly seep
into the New York coastline. It's enough to greenlight the construction of Big
Shell, an offshore facility designed to clean up the 'oil leak'. But nothing is ever
so simple in this universe, as the facility is actually a front, housing the
construction site of the greatest weapon of them all: Arsenal Gear.
2009 - The Big Shell Incident (Sons of Liberty)
Big Shell is taken over by the Sons of Liberty, a terrorist group made up of
members of Dead Cell, an (ironically) anti-terrorist organization that has - say it
with me now - gone rogue. They're led by Solidus Snake (aka ex-president
George Sears), and they've taken the current US president hostage and have
demanded $30 billion in ransom. Of course, that's not why they're really there -
Solidus wants access to Arsenal Gear and GW, the AI program inside of it.
Raiden, a rookie operative trained by VR (and the player character for the rest
of MGS2), is sent to Big Shell to stop the terrorists at all costs. He finds a poorly
disguised Solid Snake, who helps him infiltrate and navigate the facility. As
Raiden closes in on Solidus, he finds a cyborg ninja, everyone he's supposed to
save mysteriously dies of a heart attack, and his ultimate goal is to find the GW
AI and upload a virus that mimics FOXDIE. If a lot of the events of MGS2 sound
familiar, it's because the Big Shell incident was an attempt to recreate the
events of Shadow Moses in order to train a soldier on par with Solid Snake.
Or not. The Big Shell incident was actually part of a Patriot plot to prove the
effectiveness of the GW AI's ability to control and distort information and
manipulate individuals through this distortion. The Colonel Campbell giving
Raiden orders throughout MGS2 was actually this AI, and thanks to Raiden's
unquestioning devotion to the mission, the program was a smashing success.
An out-of-control Arsenal Gear smashes into the Manhattan coastline, and
Raiden and Solidus are forced to do battle atop Federal Hall. Raiden emerges
the victor, completing his role as the Patriots' pawn. Ocelot/Liquid once again
escapes, this time with RAY in tow. Ocelot uses RAY, as well as the remnants of
the GW AI found in Arsenal Gear, to quickly build an army of private military
corporations, forming the basis of a newly-created war economy.
A rapidly aging Solid Snake is brought out of retirement (once again) by Roy
Campbell. His final mission: to assassinate Liquid Ocelot (yeah, he's basically
Liquid at this point) and stop the never-ending proxy battles fought by his PMC
organizations. This wouldn't be so difficult if it weren't for the fact that
everyone is loaded up with nanomachines, and Liquid controls the AI program
that governs them, causing soldiers to convulse wildly at the push of a button.
Snake fails to capture him in the Middle East, but tracks his assistant, Dr.
Naomi Hunter, to South America and rescues her - with a little help from
Raiden, who's gone full cyborg ninja by this point.
Snake then makes his way to Europe, searching for Big Mama (aka EVA, from
Snake Eater), and the remains of Big Boss. Ocelot finds Snake and uses the
remains of Big Boss to unlock the final key in the Patriots' AI program, giving
him control of virtually every army on the planet. Things are looking grim: EVA
is dead, Snake is wounded, and Ocelot escapes to Shadow Moses, where he
plans on stealing REX's nuke (because it's one of the only ones freely available
that isn't controlled by the Patriots) to use it to destroy the Patriots' global AI
network. Snake gives chase, reliving old memories in the derelict facility, but
ultimately fails to stop Liquid from stealing the nuke.
In a last ditch effort, Snake and his crew storm Liquid Ocelot's base of
operations, Outer Haven (*nudge*), where he uploads a virus of Dr. Hunter's
design called FOXALIVE (*nudge nudge*) and defeats Liquid one last time. With
the world saved and free from the Patriots' influence, Snake visits The Boss'
grave for one final goodbye... and discovers a Big Boss who is very much alive.
It was Solidus' body that actually burned back in Europe, and when the Patriots'
AI went offline, Big Boss was awoken from his years-long coma. Big Boss
explains how Ocelot used nanomachines and psychotherapy to make himself
believe his body had been taken over by Liquid's hand in order to trick the
Patriots into granting him access. He then suffocates a geriatric Zero and
shares a final tender moment with his son before succumbing to the FOXDIE
virus still mucking around in Snake's body. With their deaths, the Patriots are
effectively destroyed, and Snake can finally retire - for good, this time.