Hideo Kojima has officially graced E3 2014 with his presence and even showed off a new game-play demo. As with every other time he has spoken about Metal Gear Solid, with new information comes an avalanche of questions from the fans.
Let’s start at the beginning of Big Boss’ legacy and touch on the points that are confirmed to be tying into Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. We’ll eventually be covering other major titles in the timeline that will be shaping the events of The Phantom Pain as well.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater gave us our first experience playing as the legendary soldier known then as Naked Snake. Our hero is sent on a mission to assist a defecting Soviet scientist in the year of 1964. The mission is going well until The Boss, Naked Snake’s former mentor, betrays the United States and incidentally is responsible for a nuclear explosion when her new employer, Colonel Volgin decides to detonate it on his native Russian soil. Snake is severely wounded by The Boss in close quarters combat and is left for dead after being thrown from a bridge.
The United States is blamed for the nuclear explosion and Russia demands they help recover the second stolen nuke in Colonel Volgin’s possession. Snake has been recovering in the meantime and after taking only a week to lick his mental and physical wounds, he agrees to go back into action. His mission, known as Operation Snake Eater, is to recover the nuke, destroy Volgin and a now reported new super weapon known as the Shagohod and finally, eliminate the defector, The Boss.
Throughout the course of the mission, Snake eliminates the members of The Boss’ “Cobra Unit” one by one and also makes contact with another American defector, known under the code name EVA. While their relationship is based on an exchange of useful information, Snake also ends up encountering a young Russian soldier leading the “Ocelot Unit” and like the Cobra Unit, he manages to defeat them through out his trek to the base housing the Shagohod.
Snake is captured when he reaches the Shagohod and is tortured violently by Volgin. The Russian soldier from his previous encounters, known as Ocelot, accidentally fires a bullet at EVA and Snake loses his right eye in the process of shielding her from harm. He later escapes the base via the sewers and on his return trip to finish the mission and eliminate all of his objectives, he learns the true nature behind his mission.
The Philosopher’s Legacy is a joint amount of funds, totaling around $100 billion, combined by The United States, China and the Soviet Union. Snake’s mission was to retrieve the stolen nuke but his foremost, unknown, mission was to eliminate Volgin because he had also managed to steal access to the funds shared by all three Countries. Nonetheless, Snake carries out the rest of his mission and destroys both the Shagohod, which turns out to be a prototype Metal Gear, and Colonel Volgin. This only leaves him with one objective left; kill The Boss. In the final confrontation between Snake and The Boss, the biggest revelation about Operation Snake Eater comes to light.
Despite everything Snake was told up to this point, The Boss finally tells him the truth, she was never a defector of the United States. She originally “joined” Volgin in hopes of uncovering the location of The Philosopher’s L
egacy. However, when he did the unthinkable and decided to detonate the nuclear weapon on Russian soil, everything changed. She knew the moment it happened, she had to die. Russia would want America to answer for this and as she predicted, they branded her a traitor and sent Naked Snake to eliminate her. The Boss accepted this fate even knowing that her protegé and friend would be the one to kill her. After a reluctant battle, Snake defeats her and forces himself to pull the final trigger when she asks him to end it.
Snake returns to the United States and is celebrated as a hero by President Johnson, receiving accommodations and earning the new title, known as “Big Boss.” Disgusted by the notion of his mission being motivated primarily by greed and the sacrifice of his mentor who would forever be remembered as a traitor, Snake leaves the ceremony and refuses to ever acknowledge the title given to him. After saying a final farewell at the unmarked grave of his friend and fellow patriot, he retires from military service.
It is also revealed in the finale of the game that EVA was a double agent working for the Chinese to recover The Philosopher’s Legacy for their government. She steals from Snake what she thinks is the Legacy information but in yet another twist, she ends up with a fake. It’s important to note that Snake and EVA were romantically involved by the end of the game and while she hasn’t appeared in future installments of the series (except for MGS4, which takes place a good 30+ years after The Phantom Pain), it would be foolish to not assume she won’t show up again in The Phantom Pain.
The real Philosopher’s Legacy ends up in the hands of Ocelot, the Russian soldier who was responsible for the loss of Snake’s eye. He turns out to actually be working for the United States and more accurately, the CIA. It is then revealed (but not to Snake!) that he was responsible in several ways for the success of Operation Snake Eater and was actually attempting to aid him throughout the mission. Through some clever dialogue and a little research on the player’s part, it’s also revealed that Ocelot is the son of The Boss and while he unintentionally was responsible for the loss of Snake’s eye, the two actually developed an almost respectful rivalry throughout the game, with Ocelot learning many improvements of his combat techniques from Snake’s critique at each of their encounters.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is arguably the most self-contained of any of the main entries in the series, making it a great entry point for anyone who hasn’t yet taken the time to see what all the Metal Gear Solid fuss is all about. It tells an extremely compelling story with dimensional characters who are believable in their motives and have depth. Playing through the game as Snake and uncovering the plot bit by bit to ultimately learn that everything you did was never for the patriotism he was motivated by was a crushing realization. It was emotionally effective and Snake pulling the trigger on the woman he considered a mother because she happened to be in the wrong place when someone did something unpredictable, makes the finale to the game one of the best out there.
Naked Snake, now relucta
ntly called Big Boss, appears in two more main titles that will tie into Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and while Ocelot and EVA do not appear in either of them, Big Boss’ has a lot more turmoil to experience over the course of their stories.
In Part Two, we’ll tackle Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes to catch us right up before diving into the known plot for The Phantom Pain and what (and who!) we know will show up in the title, along with some speculation and theories.
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