Kept you waiting, Huh?
Hey Retro of the Week readers! Join me live for a live play of Metal Gear Solid V:Ground Zeroes, the prologue to MGSV: The Phantom Pain as we commemorate the return of one of gaming's legendary stealth franchises and the return of Big Boss. I'll be playing live via Ustream from my PS4, answering questions and reveling in the glory of a new Metal Gear Solid title! It's sure to be a stealthy tension filled playthrough of one of my most anticipated games of the year thus far barring all of the recent controversy. I look forward to playing this live in HD and connecting with the Retro commmunity!
I'll be streaming live at 5pm Mountain Time on ustream! Join me March 18th,2014!
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/royaleduke-s-ps4-live-show
What Is Metal Gear Solid?
Metal Gear Solid is a series of games precluded by the titles Metal Gear(1987), and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake(1990) originally made for the MSX PC Engine platform and ported(rather badly) to the Nintendo Entertainment System, and later re-translated and remastered for the release of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Subsistence Edition. Since the series inception it has primarily featured the main protagonist, a weary Battle-hardened soldier named Solid Snake sneaking about the environment to avoid detection by enemy forces and to infiltrate various locales, known the world over for its trademark cinematics and boss battles and fantastic stealth action gameplay.
With the Later entries, the games became even more tense and complex while also introducing new characters and expanding the series universe canon, from the future to modern day to prequels set in the 1960s and 1970s, and 1980s the story of the Metal Gear Saga is a rich, decades spanning tour de force. A modern treasure amongst video games, it's good to have you back Snake.
Below I've included a brief summary of the Metal Gear timeline(in chonologic order, and not order of release) that pertains to Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain:
1964(MGS3)-
Operation Virtuous Mission begins, Fox Unit Special Operations CIA Operative Naked Snake is sent to Tselinoyarsk, Russia to retrieve a Scientist named Sokolov, and kill a defecting US soldier named The Boss, and her fellow comrades the legendary Cobra Unit. She is trading information and weapons to GRU Unit Commander, Colonel Volgin. He is supported via codec(a burst transmission radio system) by a team of experts in various fields, Dr.Clark(Para-Medic, Emergency Medical Services and Nutrition), Sigint(Donald Anderson, Weapons Expert), Major Zero(Fox Unit Commander).
After a brief fight with the commander of a small GRU unit named Ocelot, and Sokolov explains the nature of his work and the development of Metal Gear Shagohod. Naked Snake and Sokolov exit for extraction and encounter The Boss, Volgin and the Cobra unit. After a brief fight Naked Snake fails to apprehend The Boss and is injured, and due to Volgin firing a Davy Crockett miniature nuclear device to cover his tracks, is exposed to radiation making him sterile. He makes it back to an American hospital via Fulton Recovery.
In August of the same year, Operation Snake Eater begins; Naked Snake is sent once again to neutralize The Boss, Stop Volgin and retrieve The Philosopher's Legacy(a Large sum of money and information collected by the Allied Powers of WWII, forming the precursor to The Patriots), Meet with the CIA informants known as ADAM and EVA, and Destroy Metal Gear Shagohod. Upon meeting up in the ruins of Rassvet, he fails to meet ADAM instead meeting the female operative named EVA who is doubling as Sokolov's wife and Volgin's prisoner.
Along the way he meets Granin, of the Granin Design Bureau who came up with a better design for Metal Gear(that was stolen from American Scientist Huey Emmerich) for whatever reason; Volgin goes with Sokolov's Design, a large quadroped nuclear capable tank.
After fighting the entire GRU and Cobra Units(The Pain, The Fear, The Sorrow, The End, and The Boss), and surviving being tortured by Volgin, Snake eventually destroys Shagohod and defeats Volgin and in a climactic battle with his Mentor, The Boss; is forced to kill her to hide the US Governments involvement in the operation. He learns that it was all a ruse, that she died for nothing and the world will never know the truth. She only wanted to unite and free the people from the shackles of opressive governments the world over, after experiencing how her country used her and her unit as a means to an end, a tool in the constant race of capitalism, militarism, and communism.
She wanted to reunite The Philosopher's using the Legacy, and put an end to it all.
EVA steals a fake Philosopher's Legacy from Snake, who has now gained the title of Big Boss for his duty to his country.
He finds little comfort, and leaves the service to become a transient mercenary. Zero continues working inside the CIA.
Ocelot reveals in a phone call that he was a triple agent, playing both the Soviet Union and American Intelligence divisions and an agent of The Philosophers. He reveals that the Legacy EVA stole was fake and that half of the Legacy made it back to America and the other half to the Soviet Union's KGB. He plans to steal the other half of the Legacy from the Russians to revive the American faction of The Philosophers.
1970(MGS:Portable Ops)- San Hieronymo Incident and FOX unit Uprising
In 1970, Big Boss is captured by a rogue FOX unit headed by a mysterious man named Gene who has captured a small nuclear base in the middle of Central America. He is tortured by a Lieutenant Cunningham, whose orders are to find out where Big Boss hid the other half of the Philosopher's Legacy. He eventually escapes with the help of fellow prisoner and Green Beret, Roy Campbell, with Campbell's help they form a small army and take on Gene's army, Metal Gear RAXA, and cybernetic soldier Frank Jaeger(Null), Python and put an end to the rogue FOX Unit. Gene also reveals his origins, while he wasn't a clone he was indoctrinated with the history of The Boss and all her techniques, ideals and beliefs; this was known as the Perfect Soldier Project.
On his deathbed, Gene gives Big Boss the other half of the legacy hoping that he would one day found Outer Heaven; A place for disillusioned soldiers to be free.
Ocelot phones the CIA and informs them he won't be their pawn, or anyone elses from now on; working for himself.
1971- The FOX unit is disbanded, and a new unit is formed as a special operations group offshoot of the Army. FOXHOUND, Zero invites Big Boss back as Commander and to help him form The Patriots so that they could honor The Boss's legacy and dream.
1972- The Les Enfants Terribles project begins, and three clones of Big Boss are made without Big Boss's knowledge. They are code named after the various states of matter in the universe: Liquid, Solid, and Solidus(Neither liquid nor Solid, a.k.a Gas). Solid is born from a certain female agent, while the others are born from stasis.
After some time, Big Boss becomes increasingly frustrated and disillusioned over the direction of The Patriots and Zero's interpretation of The Boss's ideals and dream, feeling that he is the only one that could understand her being that he was her last Pupil. Big Boss leaves the Patriots amidst conflict with Zero, ending their friendship and putting The Patriots in jeopardy.
He leaves to form the mercenary group, Militaires Sans Frontières, or "Soldiers Without Borders" using the funds and forces amassed during the San Hieronymo Incident
1974(MGS:Peace Walker)- The Peace Walker Incident
Dr.Ramon Galvez Mena and Paz Ortega Andrade aka Pacifica "Paz" Ocean travel to Columbia and plead with Big Boss and Kazuhira "Master" Miller to help defend a small defenseless country from hostile takeover. After much convincing, Big Boss agrees to mobilize MSF to Costa Rica to conduct peace keeping operations on behalf of these two clients and the damning evidence presented; An odd tape featuring the voice of the legendary Soldier, The Boss seemingly alive and persuing someone through a jungle had roused Big Boss's curiosity. Galvez gives Big Boss and his forces a place to put down roots, and provide a forward operations base in the form of a large off shore oil rig later renamed Mother Base.
After getting the lay of the land, and meeting with Sandinista Rebels and their leader, Amanda Velenciano Libre, who clues Big Boss into an old prison facility where her brother, Chico had been taken prisoner, and she asks Big Boss to save him as he could also give him information on where the Nukes might be transported to.
Big Boss eventually frees Chico, despite Chico wanting Big Boss to kill him for being weak and giving up information on his comrades. Big Boss decides to ask him to prove himself by fighting with him, and Chico joins his sister at MSF to support Big Boss.
Big Boss eventually finds the storage facility that was being used by CIA Central American Director Hot Coldman to allow Huey Emmerich and Dr.Strangelove to design, build, and test an AI Controlled nuclear deterrent variant of Metal Gear. While infiltrating the base, he overhears an argument between Hot Coldman and Huey Emmerich, about how he intended to use Huey's experimental VTOL to launch a Nuke, and use Strangelove's Peace Walker to detonate it creating a false Nuclear crisis, and thus giving him leeway to become Director of the CIA.
Big Boss helps Emmerich back into his wheelchair, after Coldman pushed him down a flight of stairs and persuades Huey to join MSF. Huey agrees as long as he stops Coldman.
Eventually, Snake discovers the person who had recorded The Boss's voice, Cecile Cosima Caminades, who had accidentally recorded a testing excersise conducted by Strangelove, and the voice of the boss was really just an AI. Strangelove had created a model of her conciousness in the form of artificial intelligence, which she then used to power the high level threat processing for Peace Walker. The idea being, that if anyone should have control of a Nuclear weapon and when to push the button; it should be her. The reason strangelove developed The Boss AI was to ask her if she really died for her country or if she was a traitor, for Strangelove loved The Boss. Eventually dissatisfied with that, Strangelove tortured Big Boss using electrical rods, Big Boss breaks and passes out. He awakes to find Coldman gloating over the success of the completion of the final piece of Peace Walker; The Mammal Pod, and reveals himself as the mastermind behind Operation Snake Eater.
Peace Walker activates, and Miller informs Big Boss that Paz had gone missing.
Eventually, after much resistence Big Boss reaches a nuclear facility in Nicaragua where Coldman prepares to finish his plan to end the Cold War, but not before Galvez appears with Paz, and Galvez reveals that he is actually Vladimere Zadornov and that he was working for the Russians all along. His plan being to usurp Peace Walker, and fire the nuke at Cuba instigating a large war between Russia and USA.
MSF and FSNL forces storm the base and rescue Big Boss and Paz from being executed by Zadornov. Coldman dies from his wounds, refusing to give the codes to shutdown Peace Walker.
Eventually Big Boss defeats Zadornov, Peace Walker disarms itself due to the conciousness of The Boss.
After some time it is revealed that Paz is an agent of Cipher, who is controlled by Zero and The Patriots, eventually Paz hijacks the secret Metal Gear Zeke project that Big Boss and Huey had been developing to help Mother Base become "An Army without a Nation", and a nuclear deterrent in the world. With no other options, Big Boss destroys Zeke and it sinks into the sea. He returns to Mother Base and gives a speech. He mentions Outer Heaven, and becoming an Army without a Nation, following no ideology, or any flag, merely a force for hire.
A tape is found, and it is revealed that Miller is also an agent of Cipher and has been all along; The difference being he only works for himself and his own means, at the end of the tape he renounces being a pawn of Zero.
1975(MGSV: Ground Zeroes)- Operation Trojan Horse
Big Boss infiltrates an american Military Base on the island of Cuba to rescue Chico and Paz, Miller theorizes that Paz may have information regarding an upcoming UN Inspection of Mother Base in regaurds to possible nuclear weapons being there. Unbeknownst to Big Boss, Skullface and his choppers head south towards Mother Base as Big Boss scales a cliff, successfully infiltrating the cuban base manned by United States Marine Corps soldiers.
Big Boss eventually falls into a Nine Year Coma.
1977- After some time, the South African Military abandons an underground facility in South Africa.
1984(MGSV:The Phantom Pain)- Big Boss Awakens, escapes a hospital, Rescues Kazuhira Miller from enemy hands in Afghanistan, and founds Diamond Dogs and takes the fight to Skullface.
Solidus trains Raiden and a small army of Child Soldiers at some point in the 80s, Frank Jaeger joins Big Boss when he founds Outer Heaven.
1995(MG1)- Outer Heaven Uprising
Special Operations Unit FOXHOUND's top soldier and new recruit Solid Snake is sent into Outer Heaven, once an abandoned underground nuclear facility in South Africa turned mercenary base. The threat of a new type of Metal Gear, and the disappearence of Grey Fox(Frank Jaeger), and a mysterious leader claiming to be Big Boss, Solid Snake is sent in, Operation Intrude N313 begins.
Operation Intrude N313 is a success as Solid Snake infiltrates and manages to nullify the situation, finding out that Big Boss, commander of FOXHOUND was behind the Uprising all along. Grey Fox presumably dies in a fight with Snake in the middle of a minefield, Big Boss reveals that Snake is a clone of himself, and eventually they fight to the death and Big Boss is defeated.
Metal Gear TX-55 is destroyed.