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The Metal Gear series seems to be making a comeback with a remake of Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater. Despite being the third game in the series, the developer has said the decided to remake it as it’s the first game chronologically in the Metal Gear Timeline.
The Metal Gear timeline, in general, is a confusing web of military politics, social commentary, and straight-up silly stuff, so we figured we’d take a look at how each main series game sits into the timeline.
The Big Boss Games
So the first thing to note about Metal Gear is that series mainly follows two central protagonists: Big Boss (originally called Naked Snake) and his clone son Solid Snake. While Solid Snake is the protagonist of the original Metal Gear games and Big Boss was actually the villain of the first two titles, several games have revisited Big Boss as prequels showing how he turned to villainy. In chronological order, these games consist of:
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
- Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops
- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
- Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The story of Metal Gear Solid 3 starts in 1964 during the cold war as CIA operative Naked Snake under the US military unit known as FOX, is sent into Russia to uncover a secret new weapon being built called the Shagohod. It’s a mobile tank that can shoot nukes, a weapon powerful enough to end the Cold War if completed. The machine is being protected by the Electrifying Colonel Volgen, a young sharpshooter named Ocelot, and The Boss, Snake’s old mentor and something of a surrogate mother figure.
The game ends with Snake killing The Boss, however, it’s revealed that the Philospher’s Legacy was essentially a large wad of bills. While her death does also prevent World War III, seeing his mentor sacrifice her life essentially so the government can get a payday disillusions Big Boss, leading him to wish to create a country for soldiers where they won’t be exploited or die meaningless deaths.
Creating Outer Heaven
While Portable Ops for the PSP can be considered something of a filler title seeing Big Boss undergo a new mission, the following games: Peace Walker and the Metal Gear Solid 5 duology are direct sequels to one another, showing Big Boss as he gradually builds his nation of soldiers, beats back terrorists and slowly founds a group called The Patriots that a secretly controlling the USA.
The important thing to note here is the twist in MGSV: The Phantom Pain that connects the Big Boss games and The Solid Snake titles. At the end of Ground Zeroes, Big Boss, and a medic are caught in a bomb blast attempting to rescue agent Paz Ortega from a military prison. After spending time hospitalized in a coma Big Boss wakes up and takes the name Venom Snake.
By the end of the game, however, it’s revealed that Venom Snake is actually not Big Boss but rather the medic that was caught in the bomb blast acting as a body double while the real Boss builds up his military nation.
The Classic Metal Gear Games
And here we are at the first two games in the series that most fans probably haven’t played. These consist of the following:
- Metal Gear
- Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
We should note that only the MSX pre-solid games are canon to the timeline. The faulty NES version of Metal Gear 1 and its sequel Snake’s Revenge are not.
The plot is fairly simple for the first outings. It’s discovered that a top-secret weapon is being made in a military fortress called “Outer Heaven” in South Africa, led by a “Legendary Soldier”. The Special Forces Unit Foxhound led by Big Boss sends their top agent Grey Fox but loses contact with him. With no choice, they then send rookie agent Solid Snake who finds Grey Fox and stop the machine from being made.
Of course, that top-secret weapon is really a Metal Gear and Outer Heaven’s leader is really Big Boss himself. Snake manages to destroy the former and kill the latter, blowing Outer Heaven up in the process. At the end of the game, however, he receives a message from Big Boss saying they’ll meet again. Of course, thanks to MGSV, we know that the Big Boss we kill in Metal Gear 1 isn’t the real Big Boss but rather Venom Snake, the last entry in the series bringing it back to the first.
Metal Gear 2
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake shares a familiar similar plot to the first. A new military fortress has been set up called Zanzibarland complete with another Metal Gear. Snake is brought out of retirement by FOXHOUND’s new leader Roy Campbell to take care of it. Snake confronts the base leader, who this time is the real Big Boss, and manages to actually kill him.
It’s kinda amazing to think Big Boss is meant to be one of the big villains of the series but you barely notice because all the games with him that were released internationally have him as the main character.
The Solid Snake Games
Oh look, it’s the first few Metal Gear games people actually played. This brings us to the modern era of the Metal Gear timeline which starts with Solid Snake in the 3D, cinematic stealth games we expect from the franchise. The final games in the timeline are:
- Metal Gear Solid
- Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots
The first Metal Gear Solid which launched the series into critical acclaim intentionally follows a similar plot structure to the last two games. A group of terrorists has put a base, this time Shadow Moses Island, on lockdown and have acquired the use of Metal Gear Rex, the most powerful one yet. Snake is called out of retirement by Colonel Campbell to sort everything out.
The key difference is here Snake learns that he and the main antagonist Liquid Snake are both clones of Big Boss. This is also where we meet several important Metal Gear characters like Otacon, and Mei Ling, as well as antagonists like Ocelot, and Psycho Mantis.
MGS2 is a direct sequel to MGS1. It’s also the controversial game that tricked you into believing you’d be playing as Snake when you really spend most of the game playing as Raiden, a rookie operative who’s played through VR video game versions of the Shadow Moses Incident to be more like Snake and prepare him to infiltrate the Big Shell, that’s been taken over by more wacky terrorists including the recurring villain Ocelot who has now been possessed by MGS1’s villain Liquid Snake as grafting Liquid’s severed hand to his arm.
MGS2 is known for its complex meta-commentary, centering on the role players take in video games and Data collection in the internet age.
The Guns of The Patriots
The final chapter of the Solid Snake titles and the Metal Gear Saga overall is Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots originally launched and still trapped on the PS3.
Taking place five years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 2, the world economy is being fueled by endless civil wars fought by private military companies (PMCs) with soldiers injected with nanomachines that enhance their strength.
Snake is still fighting when he is hired by Roy Campbell to assassinate Liquid Ocelot, who now leads a new organization named Outer Heaven which is in charge of 5 of the biggest PMCs rivaling the entire US military in their power. Without spoiling anything, the game wraps up the remaining plotlines with The Patriots, the remaining characters, Raiden (who was transformed into a ninja cyborg between games), Ocelot, Big Boss, and of course Solid Snake himself due to his clone DNA and aged rapidly since the previous game and does not long to live.
Metal Gear
The final game chronologically in the Metal Gear timeline is the spin-off game Metal Gear Rising Reveangance, a hack ‘n slash game where you play as MGS2 protagonist Raiden. It’s a fantastic game in its own right but for this article, we wanted to focus just on the main series titles.
The Metal Gear timeline and story are key examples of how intricate and detailed stories in video games can be. This article has barely scratched to surface of everything these games have to offer partially because there’d be way too much to cover for one article and also because you should really experience these games for yourself.
With the news of the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection coming to all consoles later this year, now’s a better time than ever to get into the mad world of political intrigue, nanomachines, and tactical espionage that Metal Gear has to offer.
