The 100% Accurate Chronological Storyline of Metal Gear (From Memory) [PART 2]

Originally posted to /r/JNDDeskscraps on January 19, 2021.

…So it’s been a while since I did the first part of this, but Metal Gear’s been on my mind lately so I want to go back to whatever this dumb project was now. The idea is to recount as much as I can of the games’ storyline in chronological order, trying to avoid looking anything up if I can. Anyway, after MGS3, there are a couple side games which are questionably canon that I never actually played. Basically, all you need to know about those games is that sometime after the events of MGS3, Ocelot tracked down the full Philosophers’ Legacy and used the money to found a secret organization called the Patriots, alongside Snake (aka David), SIGINT (aka Donald Anderson), Para-medic (aka Dr. Clark), and Major Zero (aka I forget if he actually had a real name). At this point, the Patriots were still in their infancy, their ultimate goal being to enact the Boss’s will and establish a new world order where nationality and the ever-changing political climate would not force otherwise peaceful men into needless conflict. Around this time, Snake/Big Boss also began working with a fellow ex-soldier, Kazuhira Miller, to establish a paramilitary base called Outer Heaven, where soldiers of all backgrounds could live together and serve common interests independent of any larger governing bodies. This is around where the next game, Peace Walker, picks up. (This is probably the game I remember the least, so there’s a lot of story elements I’m going to end up getting wrong or completely forgetting here.)

Outer Heaven at this stage was based out of an abandoned offshore oil rig near Cuba, which Big Boss and Miller retrofitted into a military operating base. While scouting for new recruits in the area, the two were approached by Professor Galvez and his student, Paz. The two were growing increasingly concerned over the presence of CIA operatives in the country, and asked Big Boss to investigate their activity. Big Boss was initially hesitant to take time away from developing the base, until discovering that the CIA operatives were secretly shipping unrefined uranium to an undisclosed location. He also observed several mysterious drones patrolling the area, humming a song with a strangely human-sounding voice. Later on he crossed paths with several others who were caught up in the political unrest in the region, including Cecile, a birdwatcher who was captured after unwittingly venturing too close to the CIA’s classified base, as well as Amanda Libre and Chico, two members of a resistance cell working to remove the CIA from the area.

Before long Snake arrived at the CIA’s base, where he made contact with one of their lead scientists, Huey Emmerich. Though Huey refused to provide Snake with any useful intel, Snake soon discovered one of the projects they had been working on: a highly advanced computer with an AI developed using The Boss’s memories, and using her voice. Hearing her voice again opened up old wounds for Snake, forcing him to relive the trauma of watching his former mentor betray him, and being forced to ultimately take her life.

In addition to Huey was another scientist, Strangelove, who Huey found himself both attracted to and deathly afraid of. The two were working under the supervision of Hot Coldman (yes, I’m serious) to develop a new weapon called Peace Walker, which Hot Coldman believed to be the only true means of nuclear deterrence. In his view, mutually assured destruction had a fatal flaw: if country A decided to nuke country B, they could confidently assume that country B would be too afraid to launch a counter-attack, knowing the devastating consequences. In other words, country A would have the ability to launch a nuclear weapon unchallenged. Peace Walker would patch that weakness by removing the human element: if it detected a nuclear launch from any target, it would immediately launch a counter-attack. Before he could call the project a success, all Hot Coldman needed was a demonstration: His computers would create a simulated nuclear launch condition, and Peace Walker would respond by launching its own simulated missile.

Before long, the CIA was finally ready to put Peace Walker to the test. Unbeknownst to Snake, however, Peace Walker had in fact been equipped with an actual nuke the whole time, and worse yet, the simulated nuclear attack used to test Peace Walker was instead set to target Washington, D.C., who believed it to be a genuine attack. Snake attempted to contact the panicked war room in D.C., where tensions were mounting between those who wished to retaliate, and those who wanted to wait and hear him out. In the end, however, Hot Coldman was proven wrong– America decided that it would retaliate in the end, despite believing their fates were sealed. Snake was then forced to take down Peace Walker himself, deactivating the false nuclear attack readings at the last minute. Seeing the readings suddenly disappear, the members in the D.C. war room stood down as control was finally re-establsihed.

Now that the crisis had been settled, Snake once again returned to building up Mother Base. Several of the new allies he had met remained on Mother Base with Snake and his soldiers. Huey and Strangelove, now under Snake’s supervision, began working on a new weapon for Outer Heaven called Metal Gear ZEKE. To Snake’s surprise, though, Galvez and Paz were soon revealed to be Russian spies Vladimir Zadornov and Pacifica Ocean (yeah, I know) when Zadornov attempted to kill Snake, and Pacifica tried to steal ZEKE. Snake easily thwarted their efforts to take down Mother Base, although ZEKE was destroyed in the process. Pacifica disappeared after the struggle, though her time on Mother Base caused her to question her role and whether or not Snake was truly her enemy.

…At least I’m pretty sure that’s how this game went down. To be honest, I didn’t actually play it all the way through, I just watched the cutscenes and moved on. Hopefully the next one won’t take so long to make, but then again, the next game I have to cover is MGSV, so, uh

there’s a lot to talk about