Difference between revisions of "Metal Gear Solid"

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Genre	Action, stealth, third-person
Gamming Style	Single player, multiplayer
Platform	PC, Playstation, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Release Date	Metal Gear Solid series: September 3, 1998 (Metal Gear Solid)[3] November 13, 2001 (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty)[4] November 17, 2004 (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater) [5] December 5, 2006 (Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops) [6] June 12, 2008 (Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots) [7] June 8, 2010 (Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker) [8] March 18, 2014 (Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes) [9] September 1, 2015 (Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain) [10]
Developer	Konami, Hideo Kojima
Publisher	Konami
Website	Metal Gear Solid

Edit in progress by So Min An

Metal Gear Solid is a stealth-action video franchise written and directed by Hideo Kojima and published by Konami. The Metal Gear Solid franchise is a subset of the Metal Gear franchise, which was also created by Kojima and published by Konami. The franchise, which is often renowned for its writing and exploration of various world-critical themes, saw its first entry in Metal Gear Solid, released in 1998 for the Playstation. ^[11] Its final installment, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, released in 2015 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One systems ^[9]. Beyond praise for the series' gameplay elements, consistent praise has been leveled at the compelling, relevant, and subversive nature of much of Kojima's writing ^[12]. Prominent themes in some of the series' entries include genetics, the control of information and identity, war and conflict, and cycles of violence. In the games, the player typically takes control of various iterations of an operative named Snake, completing special missions. As time goes on, more critics have described Kojima's writing and handling of some of the themes in the games were described as prophetic to the modern day position of society and the flow of information. ^[13]

Gameplay

Gameplay varies between entries in the Metal Gear Solid series. Commonalities between the gameplay of all the games in the series include some sort of third person player control (whether it be a birds-eye view or an over the shoulder view), gun-shooting and close-quarters-combat, and an incentive for stealthy traversal and remaining undetected by enemies ^[14]. The first two games, Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Guns of Liberty, feature a birds-eye-view style of gameplay, where the player controls Snake or Raiden. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater introduced an option to adopt the over the shoulder third person view that more games began adopting in the mid 2000s. This became the sole viewing options in all entries after and including Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. ^[15]

Gameplay screenshot from the first Metal Gear Solid ^[16]

Keeping with the series subtitle of "Tactical Espionage Action", finding ways to neutralize or outsmart enemies without lethal means is incentivized in the games. The player can tap on walls, disorient enemies with non-lethal stun grenades, choke them out and hide their unconscious bodies, or distract them with erotic magazines, among other methods. ^[14] Games in the series offer special unlocks like certain items, weapons, and outfits for achieving certain feats, such as completing the entire game without killing anyone, without being detected by enemies, and by completing the game quickly ^[17] . The player can hug walls to reduce their detectability (and in some instances can alter the camera angle to view down certain hallways and corridors), and can crawl prone to reduce the sound they make while moving ^[14].

Relevant Plot Summary

Notably, the chronology of the Metal Gear Solid timeline is not completely in-line with the order that the games were released.

The Big Boss Era: Snake Eater, Peace Walker, and Phantom Pain

The chronologically earliest entry in the franchise is Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. In 1963 and 1964, Naked Snake (later known as Big Boss) has infiltrated the Soviet wilderness to rescue a Russian defector who is also a nuclear arms scientist, and also to halt the development of a new cutting edge Soviet nuclear weapon ^[18]. Snake is remotely assisted on the mission by a group of colleagues, including a man named Zero. Following the mission, Snake (now Big Boss), Zero, and their other colleagues form a group known as the Patriots. The goal of the Patriots was to uphold the will of Big Boss's and Zero's idol, The Boss. ^[19]

The Patriots grew more popular and prominent, with Big Boss becoming the group's mascot. However, a rift began between Big Boss and Zero. Zero worried about losing Big Boss's influence, and then created three clones using Big Boss's genetic material: Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, and Solidus Snake. Big Boss, disillusioned by this, left the Patriots. ^[20]

At this point, Big Boss engages in numerous exploits worldwide, portrayed in the events of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker ^[21] and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. He aims to build an army without a nation. Meanwhile, Zero is growing old, and creates a cluster of artificial intelligence' to carry on his bidding after his passing, as he did not trust the next generation with his or The Boss's will. ^[20]

The Modern Era: MGS1, Sons of Liberty, and Guns of the Patriots

Metal Gear Solid 1 sees the player taking control of Solid Snake, the son of Big Boss, in the early 2000s, where he infiltrates Shadow Moses Island to stop a terrorist cell led by his genetic twin, Liquid Snake. Liquid is demanding a ransom, threatening to activate a Metal Gear, a weapon capable of launching a nuclear weapon. Liquid is stopped by his brother. ^[22]

Metal Gear Solid 2 sees the player taking control of rookie operative Raiden, as he infiltrates the Big Shell oil rig to rescue the President and disarm a terrorist cell. The terrorist cell is led by Solidus Snake, the third of the clone triplets. Along the way, he allies with Solid Snake. As the story progresses, Raiden uncovers that the real enemy is not the terrorist cell, but an AI construct. Specifically, the AI cluster had was created by Zero and had stuck around after his demise. The AI cluster created by the Patriots had essentially taken over the functions of the US government, information control worldwide, and critical infrastructure. Solidus planned to liberate society from the Patriots' control using terrorism, but at the cost of the institution keeping society intact. Solidus is stopped and killed by Raiden. ^[23]

Metal Gear Solid 4, the final chronological entry in the franchise, sees Solid Snake nearing the end of his life. His brother, Liquid, has returned in the body of Ocelot, an old acquaintance of Big Boss. Liquid, like Solidus, aims to dismantle the Patriots in order to free the world from the Patriots' control, at the cost of risking societal collapse. Snake is able to defeat Liquid, and use a mutated computer virus, FOXALIVE, to destroy the AI cluster while keeping the institutions necessary for the continuity of modern society intact. Big Boss reappears, along with a comatose Zero, to reunite with his son Solid Snake. Big Boss and Zero then die, bringing an end to the era of the Patriots. ^[24]

Ethical Commentaries

Censorship, Access to Information, and Central Authorities

As it relates to digital information and their ethics, for a large part of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, the over-arching antagonizing force is the Patriots. The Patriots began as an organization that aimed to be a benevolent force for the world. However, it morphed into a rogue censorship tool that believed it was serving a benevolent purpose that an ordinary person would likely consider to be an infringement on their liberties.

As discussed in the Metal Gear Solid 2 plot summary, it is revealed that in the Metal Gear Solid universe, access to information is limited by a group of AI that curates all of the digital data that is generated by people. ^[25] The game analogizes the evolution of information in modern society to the way that genes are passed on through natural selection ^[26] - with the caveat that without a central authority, the information would remain unregulated. With the sheer quantity of information produced, it poses the potential to be problematic. The AI take on that role of the central information authority in the story. ^[27]

The AI describes the potential danger of the masses having unlimited access to all of the information generated in the modern age. To the AI, much of the information is trivial, useless, and detrimental ^[25]. From the AI's perspective, the same way that natural selection serves as a driving force for the evolution of species in nature in order to out compete their rivals, so too must humanity in the Information Age have a way of discarding irrelevant or distracting information ^[28]. The AI in the game discusses examples like salacious petty scandals and slander as examples of commonly generated information that serves no positive impact to society ^[23], and in fact has the potential to be a detriment. If one were to apply the principles of a decentralized free-market economy to a hypothetical economy of information, then there exists the potential for the quantity of irrelevant information to overwhelming, thereby stagnating the advancement of the human race. ^[27] The AI mentions how since the quantity and trivial nature of some of the information generated is too overwhelming for any typical human to curate - therefore, humans can not be trusted to uphold a rigorous and systematic decentralized methodology of processing, curating, and maintaining information that is generated digitally. Experts on digital and information ethics such as Luciano Floridi remark upon instances of low informational friction in the digital age, something that the AI remarks would be a detriment to the continuing advancement of human society. ^[29]

References

1. ↑ Image: Metal Gear Solid Art https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/assets/uploads/2020/09/Metal-gear-solid-ps5-remake-rumor-650x365.jpg
2. ↑ Image: Metal Gear Solid logo https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Metal_Gear_Solid_logo.png
3. ↑ Gog.com: METAL GEAR SOLID (PC RELEASE 2000) [1]
4. ↑ IGN.com: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty [2]
5. ↑ IGN.com: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater https://www.ign.com/games/metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater
6. ↑ IGN.com: Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops https://www.ign.com/games/metal-gear-solid-portable-ops
7. ↑ IGN.com: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots https://www.ign.com/games/metal-gear-solid-4-guns-of-the-patriots
8. ↑ IGN.com: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker https://www.ign.com/games/metal-gear-solid-peace-walker
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} IGN.com: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes https://www.ign.com/games/metal-gear-solid-ground-zeroes
10. ↑ IGN.com: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain https://www.ign.com/games/metal-gear-solid-5
11. ↑ IGN.com: Metal Gear Solid https://www.ign.com/games/metal-gear-solid
12. ↑ Haynes, J. (2008, Jun 12) IGN.com: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Review https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/06/12/metal-gear-solid-4-guns-of-the-patriots-review
13. ↑ Wiltshire, A. (2016, Nov 14) Flashback: How 'Metal Gear Solid 2' Foretold Our Post-Truth Future https://web.archive.org/web/20161119172715/http://www.glixel.com/news/how-metal-gear-solid-2-foretold-our-post-truth-future-w450225
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1 14.2} Metal Gear Solid Game Manual https://web.archive.org/web/20070127192856/http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/1/8/b180af00-6eae-490e-88d6-71ec4f4af01a/metalgearsolid_booklet_EN.pdf
15. ↑ Sahdev, I. (2013, Jun 28) Siliconera: Hideo Kojima Recommends Starting With Metal Gear Solid 3 As Your First https://www.siliconera.com/hideo-kojima-recommends-starting-with-metal-gear-solid-3-as-your-first/
16. ↑ Image: MGS1 gameplay https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/pDbCBLVia250dK1HzlpxAItinMQvvAix89U1l2jt3ymb5SPX8-vO4_lt1NMeJrU_ucYe6RVo4ZcqFviXyt-JmspMCUIojeWVWOlWpyLmX6JYn643QBqfLQA7Y0OEge0-pyy__JnzjDU
17. ↑ IGN.com: Metal Gear Solid 4 Wiki Guide: Unlockables and Rank Emblems https://www.ign.com/wikis/metal-gear-solid-4-guns-of-the-patriots/Unlockables_&_Rank_Emblems
18. ↑ GrindingDown (2015, March 4th) Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater Takes on a 1960s Soviet Jungle Setting https://grindingdown.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater-takes-on-a-1960s-soviet-jungle-setting/
19. ↑ Konami Entertainment Support: (SPOILERS) What is the story of Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater? https://eu-support.konami.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360007920153--SPOILERS-What-is-the-story-of-Metal-Gear-Solid-3-Snake-Eater-
20. ↑ ^{20.0 20.1} Metal Gear Wiki: The Patriots https://metalgear.fandom.com/wiki/The_Patriots
21. ↑ Konami Entertainment Support: (SPOILERS) What is the story of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker? https://eu-support.konami.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360007921633--SPOILERS-What-is-the-story-of-Metal-Gear-Solid-Peace-Walker-
22. ↑ Stamenković, D., Jaćević M., Wildfeuer, J. (2016, Dec 8) Discourse, Context & Media: The Persuasive Aims of Metal Gear Solid: A Discourse Theoretical Approach to the Study of Argumentation in Video Games https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=065004099094075111093027025112120077008034068021065036067100096107016074125003112118017016059047050120097083125008101075067065123047029051078016080097074119029071073060054040125003002085125024073097099029109068097026103098029004065069113087097090072088&EXT=pdf&INDEX=TRUE
23. ↑ ^{23.0 23.1} Vanderhyde, L. Youtube: Colonel JD AI Codec Conversation MGS2 HD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKl6WjfDqYA
24. ↑ Fontes, R. (2018, Apr 16) Goomba Stomp: 'Metal Gear Solid 4': An Act By Act Analysis https://goombastomp.com/metal-gear-solid-4-an-act-by-act-analysis/
25. ↑ ^{25.0 25.1} McCarter, R. (2019, Jul 19) USGamer: Metal Gear Solid 2's Commentary On America On The Brink Resonates Just As Strong Today https://www.usgamer.net/articles/metal-gear-solid-2-america-commentary-okay-hero-book-excerpt
26. ↑ An analysis on genetics, evolution and information regarding Metal Gear Solid 2:Sons of Liberty http://junkerhq.net/MGS2/Analysis.html
27. ↑ ^{27.0 27.1} Watson, C. (2020, July 14) Freegame Tips: Metal Gear Solid 2: A Postmodern Vision https://freegametips.com/metal-gear-solid-2-a-postmodern-vision/
28. ↑ Dawkins, D., Parnell, C., GamesRadar: How Metal Gear Solid manipulated its players, warning us of an age of Fake News, Cambridge Analytica and data surveillance https://www.gamesradar.com/how-metal-gear-solid-manipulated-its-players-warning-us-of-an-age-of-fake-news-cambridge-analytica-and-data-surveillance/
29. ↑ Floridi, Luciano. 2010. Cambridge Handbook, Chapter 1, “Ethics after the Information Revolution.”