There’s never been a better time to revisit the Metal Gear Solid series – and it fills me with dread.
Usually, I’m very happy whenever I have an excuse to recommend an old game I love. Although I’ve spent my life gaming alone in separate living rooms, I believe those experiences are meant to be shared. It’s fun to introduce something special to someone who has never played before and then get their reactions. But when it comes to Metal Gear Solid, that recommendation usually comes with a somber tone.
This is where I find myself with the release of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, The new compilation is unquestionably a must-see, bringing together some of the best games of all time into one bonus-rich package. Whether you’re a seasoned player of the series hungry to get back to playing or a newcomer trying to get up to speed before metal gear solid 3 Remake, it’s the perfect time to revisit the stealth classics.
And it’s always the right time to visit them again. It will never stop being the right time. That’s because Metal Gear Solid’s prescient commentary on war and the powerful who perpetuate and encourage its atrocities has never been more relevant. As long as we remain trapped in a cycle of government-backed violence and misinformation, Metal Gear Solid will always earn another replay.
Weapons of Mass Destruction
The landmark Metal Gear series would begin its life on the NES in 1987, introducing the world to Hideo Kojima’s ambitious spy thriller series. That game would pack a lot of narrative into a limited cartridge, telling the story of super soldier Solid Snake as he foils a mercenary group’s plan to take control of the Mechanized Metal Gear, a mechanized weapon of mass destruction. Although it would soon spawn two sequels (one of which was made immediately without Kojima’s input), the series would actually begin with a quick-fire trilogy of games between 1998 and 2004 under a new Metal Gear Solid branding.
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is a celebration of that lineage, packing the first five main entries of the series into one package. It includes several titles that wouldn’t be out of place on a list like “Best of All Time”. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty And Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, I don’t need to say anything else on the package to sell anyone. The included HD remasters don’t mess with the originals and each game comes with some excellent bonuses that make it feel like a definitive collector’s edition. The inclusion of the script is a particular highlight, giving a small glimpse into how Kojima’s dense stories are structured. I’m sure people who have played these games repeatedly will have their flaws (it’s annoying that each game has to be downloaded as its own separate app), but that’s what most players are getting here. Should be happy with that.
But it doesn’t really matter how these games are packaged. Whether they’re randomly dropped on Steam or given a lavish remaster, it’s all the same: the Metal Gear Solid series endures as one of gaming’s most important and disturbing enduring stories. Going any further than that necessarily requires some spoilers, so if you haven’t immersed yourself in the series yet, be warned.
To date, Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid installments remain some of the few big-budget games that dare to say anything significant about our world’s military-industrial complex. Never mind the cybernetic ninjas, memory card-reading psychics and complex cloning schemes – for all their technological silliness, the Kojima-directed entries offer a detailed critique of the world’s obsession with war and the way superpowers distort the morals of the powerful. Keeps pushing the boundaries. Weapon. Basically, it’s a series about the irresponsibility of nuclear weapons and high-tech death machines. At first, me metal Gear SolidSolid Snake is sent on a mission to retrieve the deadly Metal Gear Rex from a terrorist organization threatening America, it’s a typical rah-rah American rescue mission… until it isn’t.
metal Gear Solid The story takes a deeply serious turn, as it is revealed that the Snake is merely a tool of the US government – itself an unwitting weapon. The Pentagon isn’t as concerned about thwarting terrorists as it is about trying to get their hands on Rex, giving them control of the most powerful war machine imaginable. There is nothing fair or equitable about the operation; This is just a game of violent power.
And we’ve been living in a real world series of them ever since.
controlling information
The first time I really experienced the Metal Gear Solid franchise was around 2002. I was a grumpy kid still reeling from the horrors of September 11, and I would go over to my cousin’s house to play. At that time, he was in deep Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of LibertyWhich was released for the PlayStation 2 in November 2001 – only two months after those terrorist attacks.
It seemed like the perfect game at this time. For its first few hours, it presents itself as an all-American spy thriller, as Solid Snake foils a terrorist threat on an oil tanker off the coast of New York City. He must stop the bad guys from obtaining weapons of mass destruction. Even now, it’s a little strange to think how that story, which was in development for years, would come to fruition so close to September 11. At the time it seemed almost prophetic.
And this, though not in the way I realized it at the time. metal gear solid 2Their nationalist pride is like a dark curtain that begins to fade midway through the game. For most of its runtime, players control the blonde Raiden (a twist that enraged fans at the time) on a quest to save the President from terrorists two years after Snake’s mission. It’s all standard 2000s spy movie fare, but distorted like never before metal Gear Solid Does. A twist midway through the game reveals a larger conspiracy: a shadow group called the Patriots secretly run America and want to gain control of a giant weapon called the Arsenal Gear. The terrorist threat is a convenient cover for them to carry out their shady plans right under the noses of the American people.
Patriots have two objectives. More clearly, they want to control the most invincible weapons chain known to man, in order to maintain America’s status as a military superpower. Their second goal is much more nefarious. Since the game is set during the rise of the Internet age, the Patriots feel it will be easier to distribute information to people. They face an era where they will no longer be able to commit their most heinous war crimes in the shadows. Arsenal Gear has the power to control the flow of information, making it the most valuable commodity in the world.
War – and the consumption of lives in it – has become a well-oiled machine.
As the 2000s progressed, it retroactively became a sharp criticism of America’s War on Terror. Revenge for the horrific September 11 attacks would turn into a violent hunt for oil. The media will continue to repeat the Bush Administration’s false narratives about hidden weapons of mass destruction. Middle Eastern civilians will be caught in the crossfire as the US turns the war into a resource-rich advantage. This would occur almost under the radar of the American public, but the increased democratization of information would draw the ire of the Bush administration from vocal critics. No amount of wool could hide what was happening from watchful eyes.
war becomes routine
Despite knowing that story intimately, I wouldn’t experience it first-hand until I saw it as part of the Master Collection. As it turns out, it’s just as relevant now as it was upon its release. I’ll find myself playing it in the midst of yet another heated world conflict, as Israel continues its all-out assault on Gaza in retaliation for a deadly terrorist plot perpetrated by Hamas. The group responded to the gruesome massacre with a barrage of bombs, killing thousands of Palestinian civilians. No matter which side of the conflict one is on, the images of innocent people caught in the crossfire are difficult to digest. Worse, it has become difficult to separate fact from fiction amid conflicting reports on the proportionate damage from the media and government officials.
Terrorism, revenge, massacre of civilians, misinformation are adding fuel to the fire. It brings me back to the chaos of the 2000s, as I am forced to watch my own government mindlessly support a military campaign that has already taken the lives of countless innocent people. In the absence of concrete information to clarify the situation, I can’t help but feel the pressure to match the global war machine’s insatiable appetite for blood. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Once again I give voice to those concerns, as has happened many times in my life. I, Raiden, am struggling to grapple with a complex plot that feels as if it was designed to mislead me.
As I struggled with those painful feelings during my game, my mind drifted to a game that didn’t involve master collection (At least not in this first volume). Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Opens with a wonderful monologue that sets up its dystopian future where the narrative of never-ending conflicts is held in a tight grip by those invested in them.
“War has changed. It is no longer about nations, ideologies or ethnicity. It is an endless series of proxy battles fought by mercenaries and machines. War – and the consumption of lives in it – has become a well-oiled machine… The age of deterrence has become the age of containment, all in the name of preventing devastation from weapons of mass destruction. And he who controls the battlefield controls history. War has changed. “When the battlefield is under complete control, war becomes routine.”
Metal Gear Solid is once again the video game series of the moment. God, I wish it wasn’t like that.
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collect Volume 1 Launching on October 24 for PlayStation 5, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.