Metal Gear Solid plotline? Spoilers

Cafe Society
1

Everyone who has played the newer Metal Gear SOlid games knows that… wel, the plotline is shot to hell. It makes no sense. Hideo Kojima has been sniffing glue again. Still, I am riven by an internal hunger to discover its deep, dark secrets.

So, in the immortal wods of Leeluu, “Plaez halp!”

MGS1= Metal Gear Solid 1, etc. For series newbies, MGS3 is a prequal to the entire series, and apparently features as its hero the villain from the original games, Big Boss.

Revolver Ocelot/Shalishaska

He shows up in MGS1 as a Russian who came to work for the US after the Cold War. He gets his hand cut off. After the defeat of “Liquid Snake,” Solid’s brother (dirty joke: and everyone knows a Solid Snake is much better than the liquid kind), Ocelot cuts off Liquid’s arm and replaces his own.

That was creepy. More creepy was the fact that this became a magic arm, which took over his body several times. I’m not even going to go into how freaky that is, and how nonsensical. By MGS3, it seems that Ocelot has worked for and doublecrossed everyone on the planet: the Russians, the Americans, FOX-Hound, every rougue terrorist group he joins up with, and so on. Why someone hasn’t put a bullet in his skull, I don’t know. By the end of MGS2, when Hideo was baked out of his skull, Ocelot was apparently working for five dead guys.
Solidus

Solidus shows up in MGS2 as the new Big Boss, leader of yet another rogue terrorist faction with ridiculously weird psychotic super-soldier agents. He was apparently the President during MGS1, and orchestrated events there through Ocelot. Or maybe Ocelot manipulated him. Ocelot is a quantum betrayer: he simultaneously does and does not betray you at any given moment. I think the “closing credits call” during MGS3 means that Solidus was the CIA director during MGS3.
Solid Snake

Poor bastard. That’s all I have to say. On the bright side, he never becomes a leader of a rogue terrorist group and is never stupid enough to trust Ocelot. It appears to be his lot in life to exterminate a bunch of angsty supermen.
Big Boss

Now, here’s something I don’t understand. In the original metal gear, Big Boss was (our basic plotline now) the leader of FOX-Hound, whom we find was also running the secret plan to create Metal Gear, a nuclear battle tank. Solid Snake exposes and defeats him.

In Metal Gear 2, we discover that Big Boss is Snake’s father.** Big Boss has convinced Grey Fox, the new leader of Fox Hound, to join him. Snake kills them both.

In MGS1, Big Boss’s DNA was used to develop super-soldiers, who are surprisingly not very effective and no more useful than regular soldiers. The original project apparently used Big Boss’s genes to create two children: Snake and Liquid. Solid Snake was apparently the “weaker” clone, which had recessive genes (yes, I know this makes no sense), while Liquyid was the stronger. I also don’t know why Liquid is about 10 years younger than Solid. Nor is it really clear if this is why Liquid is unkillable*

Some suggest Big Boss is really behind MGS 1&2, though it’s never been established why Big Boss was behind the original Metal Gear threats, either. He, after all, was apparently the man who first went all out to stop the whole nuclear battle tank idea. Some might object that he’s dead, but this hasn’t slowed down several other MGS villains, so I don’t see the problem.
*Liquid was blown up with stingers, crashed 10 stories in a flaming helicopter, and didn’t have a scratch on him. He then took a walking battle tank, got blown up (with five stinger missiles hitting him in the freakin’ face!). He was then savagely beat down by Solid. Solid then shot him full of hole with a 30 cal mounted machine gun. Then Liquid dies… of a heart attack. And still takes over Ocelot’s body now and then.

When pressed as to why he [Liquid] tried to hold the world hostage, he was only able to complain about being the “weaker clone.” :rolleyes:
**
Snake, I… am your father!

No! That’s not possible!

Search your feelings. You know it to be true!

2

Having only played the first MGS, I can’t help much here, but

just screams “overcompensating for feelings of inadequacy.”

Maybe “Liquid Snake” also referred to some of his other… physical… aspects? :wink:

3

And another thing: if I ever hold the world hostage, you can be damned sure I’m going to get myself some lethal, experienced mercenaries willing to settled down/form a new army under my control. None of this putting about with a bunch of idiots who call off alarms after 1 minute and 30 seconds. Seriously.

4

I have MGS3, Snake Eater. Haven’t gotten around to playing through it yet though. Someone told me “if you loved Resident Evil 4, you’ll like MGS.” So far, it hasn’t grabbed me.

How’s that for an entirely useless post? Well at least now I know who this guy is, I’m supposed to be playing.

5

I haven’t played any of these games, but I vaguely remember the original Metal Gear for the NES, and the ads that ran in comic books with all the different weapons and equipment you could use. I’m vaguely familiar with the looks of the characters due to McFarlane’s action figures from a few years ago, but I heard something huge happens between MGS1 and MGS2. Does Solid Snake die, or is he replaced by someone else? I heard it was akin to Transformers: The Movie, the 1986 animated film where most of the familiar characters from the cartoon were killed or replaced by a completely new cast.

6

The big thing about MGS2 was that for most of the game, you weren’t playing as Snake, you were a pretty-boy blonde soldier.

7

Kushiel has it. The biggest change, however, was that the plot went haywire.

In MGS1, there were quite a few little cutscenes or radio calls. But they were usually short and not very important. There were oddities in the plot, but overall it was reasonable. Badguys, nuclear weapon, check. Mostly, there were certain characters acting like totally idiots, or at least using some really twisted reasoning. In MGS2, the story went out the window.

In MGS2, you play as a disgusting pretty-boy (and the game encourages you to use your own name). From the get-go, the plot is really unlikely. In the opening sequence (where you do play Solid Snake) Russian soldiers neutralize a ship full of marines, and most of them don’t even notice. No one sends off an alert. :rolleyes: Yes, the power of Russia triumphs over radios again. Revolver Ocelot has “magnetic technology” or some other rubbish, so no one can shoot him. :rolleyes: Then Liquid Snake’s arm takes over his body. He sinks the ship and steal the secret super non-nuclear battle tank (SSNNBT).

Cut to the pretty boy. It’s a few years later, and terrorists have taken over more SSNNBT’s in a oil containment thingy in New York. For no known reason, he’s been sent in because he was in some guerrilla fight as a young boy. They could have used an actual experienced soldier or covert ops agent, but it was better to use a 20-year-old bishounen. Anyway, every nation on earth now has many large walking nuclear battle tanks. Because they’re obviously so much more effective than ICBM’s. :rolleyes:

From the start, the main character is really annoying. He’s a blank-eyed little b****. Blah blah, things happen, a vampire who not completely shatters the last shreds of the illusion of reality, a fat demolitions expert goes through a long and involved plan of revenge and then battles you on roller skates (I am not making this up). The evil terrorist leader is secretly the former President of the United States. He’s battling against the Sons of Liberty (a.k.a., for no known reason, the LaLiLuLeLo), a secret organization manipulating the world. How hijacking the oil containment thingy which secretly is a SSNNBT manufacturing facility. Or something.

The last section does insane. The pretty boy finds out that his radio contacts are all false. Except for his girlfriend, who has been calling him. She’s actually an agent for the SOns of Liberty. Man, she’s needy. I’m being shot by laser-wielding ninja robots, and she wants to talk about how distant I’m getting. I am not making this up, and it’s hilarious in retrospect. Anyway, the Sons of Liberty set the whole thing up, including “repeating” elements from MGS1, because that’s how they can “develop” super soldiers or something. I didn’t get this part, especially as Ocelot was already their agent (or something) and was already on the inside.

Then there’s a big fight with Solidus, and he gets beaten, and Raiden goes off with his girl, and lives happily ever after. And Snake finds out that the Sons of Liberty are actually five American industrialists dead for a century. No, it doesn’t make any more sense if you play it.

8

…dude, it took you this long to realize that Japanese video games have horrible between-series continuity with plotholes so big you could steer the Yamato through it? :smiley:

(If you think the Metal Gear series is hard to follow, try looking up the timelines for Capcom’s games sometime.)

9

I’ve beaten Snake Eater - it really is a great game. More fun than MGS2, awesome graphics, and some pretty good AI on the enemy’s part. Still has its share of mini-movies to sit through, but they’re not as mind-numbing as the epics they made you watch in MGS2. The storyline does fall apart in MGS2, but they manage to tie it back together again in Snake Eater.

10

Only after typing for twenty minutes did I realize how long this post would end up. Well, it’d be a shame to waste it…

Somewhere between apologist and unabashed fanwankery lies this post. Some nitpicks and explanation will follow:

Ocelot loses his right arm when the Ninja cuts it off in MGS. In MGS2 he appears again with two arms. Sure enough, it’s Liquid’s arm and the ghost of Liquid will once in a while assume dominance over the body and laugh at Solid. Say it with me: “I live on - - - THROUGH THIS ARM!” Where did the arm come from?

At the beginning of MGS2, Solid Snake “dies” after the sinking of the Marine tanker containing Metal Gear Ray (that’s why nobody alarmed the government - the Marines weren’t supposed to have an MG project). Liquid’s body is buried in Solid’s grave to make everybody think that the legendary Solid Snake is dead. [Here we ask why Solidus tracked down the body and somehow attached an old arm to a person without giving him fatal gangrene or something. Even if he thought he was giving O Solid’s arm, it’s still a nasty year-old corpse.]

Why does Ocelot get possessed by Liquid? In MGS2, it’s just goofy. It really is. In MGS3 it’s revealed that Ocelot is the son of one of the greatest psychics in the world, so it’s not too much of a stretch (remember, we’re talking about walking nuclear tanks, vampires, a guy who eats bees, and cyborg ninjas, so what’s a little more disbelief going to hurt) to think that such a gift would be passed on. Ocelot’s not trained at all in how to handle his power, so Liquid gets to take over his body through sheer force of will. Fair enough.

Solid and Liquid are just clones of Big Boss with no special super-soldier junk added. Solid got all the recessive genes while Liquid got the dominant ones. Liquid was told that he’d been the recessive one so that’d he’d get all angsty about it. Why does Liquid think that “recessive” = “weaker”? Maybe he just doesn’t know much about genetics. Solid and Liquid are the same age, but while Liquid was enjoying the sun in the Middle East and shooting people, Solid was crawling though minefields and eating cigarettes. Solid just looks older. Solidus is supposedly the same age as well, but he looke 60 because of artifical aging or something. Also, clones age poorly which is why Snake looks like Gene Hackman in the MGS4 trailer.

::cracks knuckles:: Hold on, because we’re going to get really complex/stupid. I promise at least one of those.

The general gameplay plot of MGS2: A bunch of terrorists are holding this ecological complex hostage, and they have the President. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President? Boom Uh oh, the complex is a front for a Metal Gear that’s being created to filter the Internet for devious governmental purposes! We must stop it! Boom Yay! You’ve saved the freedom of speech! Solidus is after the Patriots, and since you’ve destroyed the MG the only trace of finding them is in your nanomachines - the only problem is that he has to cut open your spinal cord to get to them. Fight!

Solidus: I set this up to get the Patriots to reveal themselves to me. I was a puppet President, and they were about to kill me off because I didn’t follow their directions. So I went underground and am forcing them to come out of hiding by threatening to erase Wall Street with an EMP blast! The American people will be free from their shadowy grip!

Ocelot: Aha, this whole thing is a setup to see if we can make supersoldiers. See, this whole thing (including the tanker incident 2 years ago) was a plan to create an incident much like Solid Snake experienced in MGS1. This is why the games are so much alike! You passed, Raiden, so our plan is a success - we now know that it’s possible to create superspies out of normal soldiers by putting them in very strenuous situations like this! We don’t need gene therapy, which is really expensive, not at all like releasing environmental toxins and building massive multibillion-dollar buildings to train a single man.

Liquid (taking over Ocelot again): Aha! I’ve read Ocelot’s mind and he knows where the Patriots are! I’m getting revenge for being played for a chump last game. Adios, suckers!

Solid follows Liquid/Ocelot

Audience: What the fuck?

Damaged AI being ravaged by a computer virus: In order for this country to survive we need to trim the Internet down so that free speech doesn’t die of information overload. By the way Raiden, if you die the baby of one of the Terrorists / the fake Ninja dies too. Go fight Solidus!

Another disembodied voice/AI/ghost that communicates over radio: Hi! I’m the very spirit of democracy, formed through centuries of government officials doing business in the White House. This whole thing is a test to see if normal people can become superspies by reacting properly in very strenuous situations like this! Our plan is to create supersoldiers out of yooooooooouuuuuuuu! (A giant finger points out of the television and lodges up the player’s nose) You play the game, the game plays you, suckers! The very fact that you do become superspies instead of making your own decisions means that you are too malleable to be relied upon to steer your own society, which is why I have to do it for you. Humans suck!

Raiden removes his dogtags and notices the player’s name on them: Who’s this? This isn’t me.

Audience: No, really. What the fuck?

Rose: Hi, Raiden. I’m really a spy trained to be your dream girl to keep you sane as you deal with your dark past, which is why I was always asking stupid questions about your feelings while you were being shot at. You don’t know a damn thing about the real me, but I fell in love with you. Oh, and I’m pregnant. Wanna run off together?

Raiden: Yeah, sure.

Solid (pontificating): Life’s full of choices. As long as it’s you making them, you’re still human.

Close curtain

Audience: Whaaaa…

[a year passes]

Audience (after reading Document of MGS2 and playing MGS3): Oh, now I get it. Kinda.

In short, it’s like riding an awesome roller coaster made of popsicle sticks. As long as you don’t look outisde the car, you’ll have a blast. If you take a peek at the surroundings, you’ll immediately wonder what the hell you were thinking.

11

Yeah, you pretty much nailed it. Great post. :smiley:

12

Thought this was appropriate.

Soooolid Snaaaaake!

More Sooolid Snaaaake!

13

Man, Kojima better wrap this one up soon. My head hurts just thinking about it.

14

Well if we’re putting out the cartoons Penny Arcade’s Take

15

In the first MGS, Solid didn’t look any older than Liquid - hell, if you looked at the official art enough, Liquid looked even older. It was just with MGS2 that Solid looked older. Of course, that could be the lack of facial hair for Solid in MGS1, but who knows.

16

Related question: where wasLiquid all those years? Apparently he and Solid never met.

17

I played MGS 1 up until I reached a bug during the fight with the freaky pyshic guy where I’d be unable to progress at all. The game would just freeze.

But up until that point, the plot really wasn’t much sense frankly.

And I still don’t understand why a nuclear battle tank is a superior launch platform to an Ohio Class submarine(or a Typhoon Class Submarine for that matter). I’d be looking at the Metal Gear and thinking “ARC LIGHT!”