Metal Gear Solid Series Recap

If you are playing Metal Gear Solid 4 and you are all little confused or fuzzy on how the Metal Gear Solid series has gone down thus far, fear not because we've got ya covered.

Here is a compilation of plot outlines for the games in the Metal Gear Solid series as present on Wikipedia.

Click the game titles to see the complete Wikipedia page.

Enjoy!

Metal Gear Solid (1998) - Playstation, Gamecube

In 2005,^[25] FOXHOUND and a genetically enhanced Next-Generation Special Forces unit, lead an armed uprising on a remote isle in Alaska's Fox Islands called Shadow Moses. It is the site of a nuclear weapons disposal facility.^[20] They have acquired the nuclear-capable walking tank Metal Gear REX, and have threatened the U.S. government with a nuclear reprisal if they do not receive the remains of the "legendary mercenary" Big Boss within 24 hours.^[26]

As the game begins, Solid Snake is dispatched at the request of Colonel Roy Campbell to penetrate the terrorist defenses and neutralize the threat.^[27] Snake is also ordered to locate hostages Donald Anderson, the DARPA chief, and ArmsTech president Kenneth Baker. After finding the DARPA chief, he informs Snake of the new Metal Gear REX unit housed at the facility, but then suddenly dies of what appears to be a heart attack.^[28] Snake then finds the other hostage, Kenneth Baker. Revolver Ocelot challenges Snake to a gunfight, which is interrupted by a mysterious cyborg ninja. Baker briefs Snake on the Metal Gear project and, like the DARPA Chief; he suddenly dies of a "heart attack".

Snake then contacts Meryl via Codec, and agrees to meet her in the base's warhead disposal area on the condition that he contacts Metal Gear's designer, Hal "Otacon" Emmerich. Snake locates Otacon in his lab. The ninja reappears, and Snake realizes that it is actually his former ally Gray Fox, whom he believed he had killed years earlier. Otacon agrees to aid Snake remotely, using special camouflage to procure information and supplies while he remains invisible. Snake meets with Meryl and agrees for her to accompany him on his mission. Meryl gives Snake a PAL key and they head for the underground base. Part way through the base, Sniper Wolf ambushes them, wounds Meryl, and captures Snake.

While imprisoned, Liquid confirms Snake's suspicion that they are twin brothers.^[29] Snake is tortured by Ocelot^[30] and the player can choose to give in to this torture, or not. Eventually Snake is able to escape.

Snake descends into the bowels of the Shadow Moses facility. He discovers that the DARPA Chief who Snake encountered was actually FOXHOUND member Decoy Octopus in disguise.^[31] Shortly after, Master Miller calls and reveals that Dr. Naomi Hunter, a support agent, has given Snake the genetically engineered virus "FoxDie" during his mission preparations, and is sending coded messages into the facility. Campbell swiftly orders her arrest. The virus, designed to kill people with particular genetic markers via cardiac arrest,^[32][33] was responsible for the deaths of Octopus and the ArmsTech president.^[34] Naomi contacts Snake and confesses that she joined the mission to sabotage it. But upon learning of Snake's own past, she no longer had the heart to kill him directly having reprogrammed the virus.^[35]

Infiltrating Metal Gear's hangar, Snake overhears Liquid and Ocelot preparing the launch sequence for Metal Gear REX. Thinking he is deactivating it, using the PAL key, Snake activates Metal Gear REX.^[36] Master Miller then reveals himself to be Liquid in disguise. He informs Snake that his entire mission was manipulated by the renegades to allow the launch of the nuclear weapon.^[37] Liquid explains that they are the product of the Les Enfants Terribles project, a government sponsored effort to clone Big Boss, that was conducted during the 1970s. Solid received all of Big Boss' dominant alleles while Liquid received all the recessive alleles.^[38][39]

Snake destroys Metal Gear REX and then defeats Liquid in a fistfight. He is then reunited with Meryl or Otacon, depending on the player's actions (see next paragraph). They escape, while being chased by Liquid, in a jeep. Liquid dies from the FoxDie virus.^[40] Colonel Campbell, briefly ousted from command of the mission, calls off a nuclear airstrike intended to obliterate the evidence of the day's events and officially declares Snake killed in action to stop the US Government's search for him in the future.

There are two possible endings, depending on the player's actions during the torture sequence. If the player gives in to the torture, Snake finds Meryl dead and escapes with Otacon. If the player does not give in to the torture, Meryl survives and escapes with Snake while Otacon volunteers to stay behind and sacrifice himself to help Snake and Meryl get out not knowing that the nuclear strike intended to hit the disposal facility would never come.

After the end credits the player finds out Snake is actually genetically inferior to Liquid^[41] and has an indeterminate amount of time left before FoxDie kills him. Ocelot is revealed to be a double agent for the President of the United States (the third Snake, Solidus). His intention was to obtain Baker's disk containing Metal Gear's specifications and deliver it to the President, and kill whomever knew of his true motives, the reason for his "accidental" killing of the DARPA chief.^[42]

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) - Playstation 2, Xbox

Sons of Liberty opens on a dark, foreboding George Washington Bridge in New York City,^[27] in 2007, two years after the Shadow Moses Island incident (the events of the original Metal Gear Solid). Solid Snake and Otacon, now members of the NGO Philanthropy, are investigating the development of a new Metal Gear^[28] consistently described as being amphibious and having been designed as a counter-Metal Gear unit to "wipe the floor with all the other models"^[29] which have been built since Metal Gear REX's design was leaked.^[30] Shortly after Snake's arrival on the disguised oil tanker U.S.S. Discovery, a group of Russian terrorists under the command of Russian nationalist Sergei Gurlukovich attack the ship.^[31] After sneaking up to the bridge, Snake encounters Olga, Sergei's daughter, who has refused to leave the tanker despite being pregnant.^[32]

After he successfully tranquilizes her in combat, he sneaks his way down to the holds in order to record pictures of the new Metal Gear, RAY, an amphibious anti-Metal Gear prototype.^[33] Matters rapidly escalate as Revolver Ocelot betrays and murders Sergei Gurlukovich^[34] It is revealed that Ocelot has received a new arm following Metal Gear Solid, that of the late Liquid Snake, which via unknown means causes a change in Revolver Ocelot's demeanor and behavior, with Liquid somehow 'possessing' him.^[35] Under Liquid's control he sinks the tanker,^[36] and escapes with RAY before regaining command of his body.^[37]

The player finds himself in control of Raiden, supposedly operating under a reformed FOXHOUND two years after the Tanker Chapter on April 29,^[38] 2009. Initially referred to as "Snake",^[39] his orders are to rescue hostages, including the US President, from the terrorist group Sons of Liberty (backed up by the rogue anti-terror training unit, Dead Cell), who are also threatening to destroy the Big Shell Clean-Up Facility they have seized.^[40] Raiden infiltrates the Shell via sea while SEAL Team 10 enters by air.^[41] He joins forces up with SEAL Lieutenant Junior Grade Iroquois Pliskin^[42][43] and bomb specialist Peter Stillman to disable explosives planted on the Shell by Stillman's former pupil, Fatman, now a member of the terrorists. While Raiden successfully eliminates Fatman, Stillman is killed as a result of one of Fatman's traps.

With the assistance of a mysterious cyborg ninja calling itself Mr. X,^[44] Raiden locates the President, and discovers that the Big Shell is actually a disguise built right on top of a new Metal Gear. Known as Arsenal Gear, it houses a powerful AI supercomputer, "GW", capable of controlling information transmitted digitally. The President also claims the democratic process is a sham, and the true rulers of the United States are an organization known as the Patriots.^[45] Revolver Ocelot kills him soon after, and Raiden proceeds to his final objective: disabling Arsenal Gear and thus halting a nuclear strike. Pliskin, having revealed himself as the true Solid Snake, and Emma Emmerich, an Arsenal Gear engineer, assist Raiden in attempting to destroy the "GW" AI by uploading a virus. On the way to the computer room, Vamp attacks Emma. The virus transfer is still installed, but aborts partway through; Emma dies due to a fatal knife wound from the attack from Vamp. Snake and Raiden are left with no choice but to disable Arsenal physically. As Snake's partner Otacon escapes with the surviving hostages by helicopter,^[46] Mr. X returns, revealing itself to be Olga Gurlukovich,^[47] and knocks Raiden unconscious by hitting him in the back with her sword.

Awakening naked in an Arsenal torture chamber, Raiden is probed by Solidus Snake, the true terrorist leader. Solidus reveals that he once adopted Raiden, a former child soldier, as his son during the Liberian civil war^[48] and that Raiden is now a Patriot agent. Olga, working as a Patriot double-agent within the Sons of Liberty, helps Raiden escape, and he locates Snake within Arsenal Gear. As they fight through the mammoth vessel, Raiden's commanding officer begins to act extremely erratically. It becomes apparent that the "Colonel" that Raiden has been taking orders from is actually a creation of the GW super-computer, pieced together from information about Colonel Roy Campbell coupled with Raiden's own expectations in order to manipulate him. The erratic behavior of the simulation is the result of the virus uploaded earlier beginning to damage GW's systems.

With Snake holding off a vengeful Fortune,^[49] Raiden is forced into battle with the battalion of 25 Metal Gear RAY units guarding the Big Shell. Olga intervenes to protect him, but is restrained by one of Solidus' robotic tentacles. Olga explains that 2 years ago, right after giving birth to her child, the Patriots took her away and have been holding her child hostage ever since. Olga continues to explain that the Patriots blackmailed her, ordering her to become a double-agent and make the S3 plan a success or her child would be killed. After explaining, Solidus shoots Olga in the head and throws her corpse out of the way. Her last words are: "Live, you have to!" The RAY units begin to malfunction, attacking each other and Solidus as the virus tears through the GW AI's program.^[50] Arsenal begins an emergency ascent,^[51] and Snake- now restrained by Fortune,^[52] Solidus, and Raiden are carried to the roof of the fortress as it surfaces. To Solidus' increasing rage, Ocelot reveals that he too is a Patriot agent, the entire episode of the day was a carefully coordinated attempt to reenact the events of the Shadow Moses Incident; what Ocelot describes as the 'S3 Plan', or Solid Snake Simulation, designed to turn Raiden into the perfect soldier.^[53] He kills Fortune and boards the prototype Metal Gear RAY stolen from the Tanker two years previous, and attempts to finish off the survivors of the exercise. However, Liquid possesses him, and announces his plan to hunt down the Patriots based on his host's knowledge.^[54] Setting Arsenal on a collision-course with New York, Liquid-Ocelot launches RAY into the ocean, followed by Snake.^[55]

Arsenal comes to a halt in downtown New York, launching Raiden and Solidus onto the roof of Federal Hall.^[56] Solidus reveals to Raiden his reasons for trying to steal Arsenal: a nuclear electro-magnetic pulse would take down Manhattan's digital infrastructure and allow Solidus to lead it as a republic against the Patriots, a nation of "Sons of Liberty".^[57] Likewise the Patriots, via another AI, contact Raiden to reveal the truth of their actions, the AIs being programmed to becoming "digital censors", removing trite and needless information from the electronic world in what they call "Selection for Societal Sanity", or "S3 Plan". The information fed to Ocelot was another part of this plan.^[58] However, with such a control over the flow of digital information, they could as easily be manipulating perceived history for the Patriot's needs. Believing the only option available is to track down the Patriots using the information in Raiden's neural implants, Solidus offers his son one final duel.^[59]

Raiden defeats Solidus, and as crowds descend upon the wreckage of Arsenal Gear, Snake and Raiden meet one last time, where his mentor informs him that only he can choose what to believe in, and that he must pass on what he believes to be true.^[60] Having planted a tracking device on Liquid-Ocelot's Metal Gear, he and Otacon plan to follow him, and to hunt down the Patriots, whose details were hidden in the GW computer virus disc.^[61] As Snake disappears into the crowd, Raiden is finally reunited with Rose, on April 30, 2009 - the 220th anniversary of George Washington's inauguration as President of the United States, and the anniversary of Rose and Raiden's first meeting.^[62]

In a brief epilogue, Otacon and Snake discuss the decoding of the virus disc, which reveals that all 12 members of the Wisemen's Committee (the Patriots' high council) have been dead for approximately 100 years, and that one of them is a major sponsor of Philanthropy.^[63]

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004) - Playstation 2

Metal Gear Solid 3 is set during the Cold War in 1964, where Naked Snake is sent to the jungles of the Soviet Union.^[12] Aided over radio by Major Zero, Para-Medic, and his former mentor The Boss,^[20] his mission is to rescue a defecting Soviet scientist named Sokolov who is secretly developing an advanced nuclear-equipped tank called the "Shagohod."^[20][12] The mission goes smoothly until The Boss defects and provides her new benefactor Colonel Volgin with two Davy Crockett miniature nuclear shells.^[21] Sokolov is captured by the Cobra Unit and Snake is heavily injured in combat by The Boss, allowing Volgin and his cohorts to escape with Sokolov. Volgin detonates one of the nuclear shells to cover up its theft,^[22] which is subsequently blamed on The Boss.^[23]

Having detected the US aircraft which deployed Snake flying over Soviet soil, the Soviet Union declares the United States responsible for the atomic attack, tipping both nations to the edge of a nuclear war. In a secret conference between US President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, a deal is hatched to prove the US's innocence and restore peace.^[24] The United States agree to stop Volgin's renegade faction, destroy the stolen Shagohod and eliminate the American defector, The Boss.^[25]

A week after being rescued from the region, Snake is redeployed into the Soviet jungle as part of Operation Snake Eater,^[25] to fulfill the United States' promises. During the mission, he gains the assistance of another American defector, ex-NSA agent EVA, who defected a few years earlier.^[26] After numerous encounters with the elite Ocelot Unit (led by a young Ocelot), and defeating every member of the Cobra Unit, Snake succeeds in locating Sokolov and the stolen Shagohod, only to be captured in Volgin's military fortress, Groznyj Grad. After witnessing the apparent death of Sokolov, Snake is tortured and has his eye injured when Ocelot shoots to kill EVA; Snake ultimately escapes.

When he returns to the facility to destroy the Shagohod, Snake learns of The Philosophers. Made up of the most powerful men in the United States, Soviet Union, and China, they are an Illuminati-like organization who control the world behind the scenes.^[27] However, after the end of World War II, they began to fight amongst themselves, and the organization broke down. The Philosopher's Legacy, a fund the organization had jointly amassed to finance their wars ($100 billion, about $1 trillion today when adjusted for inflation) was divided up and hidden in banks all over the world.^[28] Volgin had illegally inherited this money,^[29] and Snake learns that the US is attempting to retrieve it.

Snake continues his mission, destroying the facility and the Shagohod tank, while engaging Volgin, who is killed by a bolt of lightning during the battle. Snake and EVA travel to a lake, where a ground effect vehicle is hidden. Before they use it to escape the region, Snake confronts his old mentor, The Boss, whom he must kill to complete his mission. During this time a cut scene is shown stating that The Boss gave birth to a child (the father being The Sorrow) during a battle. Before this time however, during a radio call, EVA tells Snake that the reason Ocelot achieved the rank of major at such a young age was due to the fact that his parents were legendary soldiers. She also tells Snake that Ocelot's mother needed to cut Ocelot out during the birth, leaving a snake-like scar. This scar is seen on The Boss, which proves that she is Ocelot's mother.^[25] After an emotional battle, Snake overcomes his feelings and defeats her. He and EVA escape to Alaska, and spend the night together. During the night EVA disappears, and leaves behind a tape revealing herself to be a Chinese spy sent to steal the Philosophers Legacy for China.^[30] The tape continues, and EVA reveals that The Boss did not defect to the Soviet Union; rather, she was under orders to pretend to defect so she could infiltrate Volgin's ranks and find the location of the Legacy, which could be brought back to America.^[31] The final part of her mission was to sacrifice her honor and die at the hands of Snake, under the guise of a traitor, to prove the US's innocence in Volgin's nuclear attack from the beginning of the game.^[32]

Snake is awarded the title of "Big Boss" and given the Distinguished Service Cross for his efforts.^[33] Later, he arrives at an anonymous grave, The Boss', just one of thousands in the huge military cemetery he visits. Laying down The Boss' gun and a bouquet of lilies upon the nameless gravestone, he scans the endless rows before him, salutes, and sheds a single tear.

After the credits roll, Ocelot is heard talking (a telephone conversation), and reveals that the microfilm containing the information on the Philosopher's Legacy given to EVA was a fake, that Ocelot himself was ADAM, that half of the real legacy is in the hands of the US Government thanks to Snake, and that he was working for the CIA.^[34]