Summary
Metal Gearisn’t just a stealth series: it’s heavy on drama. The series has a reputation for plot twists and double-crosses as its layered characters vie for their own agendas. The ones who get played like a fiddle the most are its leading men: most Metal Gear games end with you finding out that Snake was being used.
Whether it’s the once-decorated soldier Big Boss or his protege Solid Snake, one thing is clear: if your codename is Snake, watch out for wolves in sheep’s clothing. Here’s every time they were betrayed, in chronological order. No wonder Solid Snake wants to retire.
The first betrayal in the story came early in MGS3: after rescuing Sokolov, a Soviet scientist seeking asylum, Naked Snake comes face-to-face with the woman who trained him. Behind her is the Cobra Unit and Colonel Volgin. The Boss announces that she is defecting from the United States to the Soviet Union. When Snake tries to stop her, she gravely wounds him.
The Boss meant everything to Naked Snake: she was both a mentor and a maternal figure. The physical injuries she inflicted on him hurt, but seeing her leave him behind hurt worse.
11The Chinese Operative
Right up till the end of MGS3, you’re led to believe that it’s a power struggle between America and the USSR for the Philosopher’s Legacy: a microfilm containing information on one hundred billion dollars - enough money to fight World War 2 five times over. Snake and EVA manage to stop the Legacy from falling into Soviet hands.
But it’s not just the US and the Soviet Union who want the Legacy: EVA is a Chinese agent, and succeeds in her mission. Snake wakes up to a cold hearth and a recorded message from EVA, telling him that with this money, China will start its own nuclear weapons program.
10A True Patriot
The tell-all tape left by EVA doesn’t just chronicle her own betrayal. Snake learns that the Boss had never defected to the Soviet Union: she had gone undercover to retrieve the Legacy. Shortly thereafter, in a fit of egomania, Volgin tested a nuclear warhead on Russian soil. Tensions between the East and West rose to the point that the Cold War was about to become very, very hot.
To assure the USSR government that the United States had not launched the nuke, the Boss was deemed disposable. The real objective of Snake killing her was so that the United States could prove its innocence. This revelation was the start of Naked Snake’stransformation into Big Boss.
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops was not written by series creator Hideo Kojima, and has since been relegated to spin-off status. However, the seeds of Outer Heaven - an army without a nation - were planted in this game.
Framed for treason by the US, Snake confronts renegade FOX commander Gene: a soldier as disillusioned as Big Boss would eventually be. Gene wants to create a nation where soldiers aren’t used and disposed of by governments. His idea resonates with Snake, who makes this vision a reality.
Peace Walker’s post-game contains its most shocking twist: the sweet and innocent Paz, a student at the University for Peace, is in reality a Cipher agent meant to destroy Mother Base. Oh, and her real name is Pacifica Ocean, a revelation that’s just one of the series’many funny moments.
If not for Paz’s presence, Snake and his right-hand man Kaz wouldn’t have become involved in the events of Peace Walker. The endgame reveals that she’s working for Major Zero, who had once been Snake’s commanding officer.
Big Boss can’t catch a break: after working so hard to build Mother Base, all of it is reduced to submerged rubble. While Snake is off on a mission, the Skull Face-led XOF unit infiltrates his prized haven disguised as a United Nations inspection team.
Snake had been expecting the visit: there had been arrangements for a UN inspection to make sure the offshore base had no nuclear weapons. What he hadn’t been expecting was to come back to find all of it burned and his soldiers dying. Snake rescues a few of his men, but most die in the firefight.
After a 60-hour campaign, it comes as a bit of a shock that you’re not playing as the character you thought you were. In MGS 5: The Phantom Pain, the only time you see Big Boss is at the bookends. The guy you were playing, Venom Snake, is a Mother Base medic transformed through hypnosis and plastic surgery to believe he’s the real Big Boss.
A final voice message by the real Big Boss assures you that you’re every bit the man he was. Venom Snake accepts this treachery, transforming into the role for the events of the very first Metal Gear title.
Throughout the campaign of 1987’s Metal Gear, you’ll notice that Solid Snake’s commanding officer is a bit weird. Big Boss frequently gives Snake bad advice. You could chalk it up to being a dated title on limited hardware, but Kojima cutting corners? Never.
Big Boss doesn’t want you to succeed. He poses as your commanding officer to infiltrate Outer Heaven, but he is the leader of Outer Heaven. At the end, he reveals himself as the final boss. This is Venom Snake, not Naked Snake. The Metal Gear series does havea very convoluted story, after all.
In the series' first title, Gray Fox had been Solid Snake’s ally. Sent to infiltrate Outer Heaven, he was captured and sent back a transmission warning of Metal Gear. After the events of the first game, he disappeared. The reason: he was helping Big Boss (the real one this time) build Zanzibar Land, the successor to Outer Heaven.
Snake and Gray Fox duke it out in a minefield, with Snake emerging the victor. Gray Fox assures him that he holds no animosity, and the two rekindle their friendship as Fox dies.
In Metal Gear Solid, Snake is injected with a manufactured virus that will kill members of the rogue FOXHOUND unit when he comes into contact with them. But before injecting him, his medical supervisor Naomi Hunter modifies the virus.
Not only will the FOXDIE virus kill FOXHOUND members, but also Solid Snake. Naomi reveals this in a codec call, saying that she set it to a random time to make Snake suffer before he dies. Gray Fox was her brother, and she held a grudge over his death.
