Metal Gear Solid is Awesome

My super awesome older brother John suggested that I blog about the awesome of Metal Gear Solid, and I thought, what an awesome idea!

Metal Gear Solid is a video game series mainly on the Playstation consoles (all three of them) but has been seen on the Gamecube. There is a series that takes place before this one called Metal Gear, but it was made in the NES days. All I know you need to know about those games, is that a man called Big Boss was the bad guy. In Metal Gear Solid, you play a government agent codenamed Solid Snake. His mission is to infiltrate a base on Shadow Moses Island in Alaska and rescue several important figures that are being held hostage and stop a nuclear threat. Snake must go in alone and do his best to remain undetected as long as possible and stay hidden as best he can while still accomplishing his mission. Because of the stealth aspect, Snake goes with almost no gear so as to leave as little evidence of his involvement as possible. Any weapons he needs to use he must find on location. Eventually, Snake meets with the leader of the terrorists (his twin brother, Liquid Snake), learns a bit about himself (he's a genetic experiment), and faces off against Metal Gear Rex, a bipedal nuclear tank. The game is deep in plot that wont ever make sense no matter how hard you try. At first it doesn't seem very deep, but as you progress you learn about government conspiracies and a lot about Snake's genes. If you only play the first game in the series, you miss out on a lot of plot stuff that is revealed in the second game.

When you insert Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, there is an epic opening scene with some amazing music that wont leave my head for a good couple of days having just listened to it.



Epic. This game has some bonus features and in those bonus features you can read "articles" written by some of the characters from the first game that reveals a lot you didn't know was happening in the first game and what has happened since the first game to the second one.

This game differs from the first in that Snake is not the main character. A lot of fans weren't happy about that, but they bore with it. You play as Snake for about the first two hours of the game, infiltrating a tanker that is rumored to hold a new type of Metal Gear. You learn that Snake no longer is working for the government, as they didn't treat him very well in the last game. Snake's portion of the game ends with the tanker sinking and things looking bad for our hero. You then play as a character whose codename is Raiden. Raiden is sent to an ocean clean up facility that was supposedly built to clean the mess left from the tanker that sank two years earlier (the one Snake was on) because the President is being held hostage by a group of terrorists. Raiden is told that Snake is the one who is holding the president hostage and was responsible for the tanker sinking. Having just played as Snake, you know that this cannot be true. You eventually meet up with Snake who has infiltrated the facility himself in order to find out who is doing things in his name. You eventually learn that it is another brother of Snake (Solidus Snake) who is behind all the badness. There is even more government conspiracy in this game. Solidus is holding the president hostage and threatening to detonate a powerful nuclear bomb on American soil because he wants to dethrone a group called the Patriots, who apparently control the United States government. In the last five minutes of the game, more plot twists are introduced than you can keep track of and you would have to play it a few times to ever make sense of what is happening. It still confuses me. The game ends with more questions than answers. Maybe they will answer them in the next game?

In Metal Gear Solid Three: Snake Eater, Snake still isn't the main character. Instead, you play Snake's father, codenamed Naked Snake, way back in the cold war. Snake's mission is to escort a Russian scientist across the border to safety. The mission goes to ruin as a famous American soldier, and Snake's mentor, codenamed The Boss, defects to the Soviet Union. The Boss brings a nuclear weapon to the Soviet Union and joins a group in the Soviet army that is plotting against the Soviet government. Snake is nearly killed in a run in with The Boss but he learns that a horrible nuclear weapon, called the Shagohod, is being developed. A week later, Snake must return to the same area and destroy the Shagohod and kill The Boss in order to prevent an all out nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Along the way, Snake learns of the Philosophers, who later become the Patriots. When Snake learns why The Boss defected at the end of the game, he becomes disgusted with the United States government and later becomes Big Boss.This game does answer some of the questions you have about the plot, but not all. Maybe Metal Gear Solid 4 answers them all.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots finally lets you control Solid Snake again. Something is a little different though. He's old. Because of genetic experiments the goverment did on him, he ages very rapidly. He's still awesome though. I haven't yet beat MGS4, so I don't knw if it answers all the questions I still have about the series. I have to play it more to find out. Since this will be the last game, I think its safe to say that yes, it does.

Snake was also featured in Super Smash Brothers Brawl on a side note. The creators of both games are friends, which is how this came about.

Keep in mind that all the games in the Metal Gear Solid series are rated M for mature. The series is not for children. Even so, John and I very much enjoy these games and think that they are worth playing.

All the games in the series are very cinematic, and long cut scenes are a big part of it. Some say that playing the game can be like watching a very long movie that you play a bit. Even if the cut scenes can get a little long, they are all very well done.

MGS is awesome!