The Days of Ideals

Ok guys, so I got in the mail today the Collector's Edition Strategy Guide for the upcoming hit Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Instead of continuing what I started by writing about the story of each individual game in order of release and then typing up a bio of each main character up to said game, I'll be typing up word for word the whole Metal Gear Synopsis from the guide.

WARNING!!!! CONTAINS SPOILERS TO METAL GEAR SOLID 4!!! DO NOT CONTINUE UNLESS YOU HAVE BEATEN THE GAME OR YOU WILL HAVE RUINED A GREAT STORY!!!!

I - THE DAYS OF IDEALS

The starting point of the Metal Gear saga, the creation of The Philosophers, occurred during the early 1900s. This unique and deeply secretive organization was established by a select group of eminent figures from the three countries that were to dominate the century that lay ahead: the United States, Russia and China. Together, these individuals gathered a practically boundless sum of funds, known as The Philosophers' Legacy, that they believed would be sufficient to win any present or future world conflict. Those who wield the resources to wage war also possess the means to prevent it, and The Philosophers sought to achieve this noble goal by using their incredible resources and powerful influence to steer world history away from brutal, needless warfare. However, with time and the death of its founding members, the raison d'être of this clandestine committee was gradually corrupted; The Philosophers' philosophy was not passed on to posterity. In the confusion and chaos that ensued after the Second World War, the USSR - or, more precisely, an individual named Colonel Volgin - recovered and gained sole possession of The Philosophers' Legacy.

Much of the story behind Metal Gear Solid 3 (the first episode in the chronology of the series) concerns the fight between the three countries that created The Philosophers' Legacy to claim it for themselves. During the Cold War, the growing nuclear arsenals possessed by the US and USSR led both nations to adhere to a doctrine of mutual assured destruction - the fact that a strike by one nation would lead the other to retaliate with equal or greater force. With a full-scale ground war deemed impractical (and, moreover, a catalyst for the inevitably lethal escalation that would surely follow), and any potential nuclear strike certain to trigger "launch on warning" (or "fail deadly") systems, both sides instead engaged in proxy battles on both actual and ideological battlefields. The events of Metal Gear Solid 3 take place in 1964 following the Cuban Missile Crisis, a breakdown in diplomacy that brought both nations closer to Armageddon than ever before or since.

An American agent (Naked Snake) is sent in to Soviet territory by the US secret services to facilitate the defection of a scientist (Nikolai Sokolov) who is poised to finalize the creation of a weapon so powerful that it could disrupt the delicate balance that prevents nuclear warfare between the two superpowers. To accomplish his mission, Naked Snake has the support of a remote team that includes his commander (Major Zero), a medical adviser (Para-Medic), an expert in technology and intelligence (Sigint), and his former mentor, a legendary female warrior known, with due reverence, as The Boss.

A master in the arts of infiltration and survival techniques, Naked Snake succeeds in making contact with Sokolov. When attempting to escape, however, they are confronted by The Boss, who, against all odds, chooses to join forces with Colonel Volgin, and provides him with two US-made portable nuclear warheads as a token of her sincerity. Volgin, in possession of The Philosophers' Legacy and aided by The Boss and Ocelot (a young prodigy of the Russian military), plans to overthrow Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's government and use the Shagohod weapon created by Sokolov to enable the USSR to win the Cold War. In a distinctly one-sided fight, The Boss seriously injures Naked Snake and leaves him near death. Volgin and his allies then leave with Sokolov in order to force him to complete his invention. Gravely wounded, Naked Snake witnesses the explosion of the research center where the Shagohod was developed when Volgin activates one of the two nuclear devices.

As Naked Snake is convalescing in hospital in the week following his rescue and extraction, the President of the United States receives a call from Soviet Premier Khrushchev. Aware that the destruction of the research center was caused by an American bomb, Khrushchev demands that they make amends by eliminating Volgin who, being an ally of his political rival Leonid Brezhnev, he regards as a dangerous adversary. Major Zero and Naked Snake are given the opportunity to find redemption for their earlier failure by helping to avert a major global crisis. The objective of their mission (dubbed "Snake Eater") is to retrieve Sokolov, destroy the Shagohod, and execute Volgin and The Boss.

Naked Snake is sent back to Soviet territory, where he is told to expect the assistance of two local agents, Adam and EVA. On arrival, he finds EVA - but not a trace of Adam. A CIA mole operating within Volgin's organization, EVA reveals where Sokolov is detained. Naked Snake eventually succeeds in destroying the Shagohod and killing Volgin after a protracted and spectacular battle. One last task then awaits Naked Snake: to fulfill his mission, he must bring down his mentor, his spiritual mother, his former lover, The Boss. As they stand poised to fight she talks of her life, and relates many of the numerous sacrifices she has made as a soldier. Naked Snake battles with his emotions and wins the duel to the death, and is given the microfilm containing the access codes to The Philosophers' Legacy just before The Boss dies. Naked Snake then escapes with EVA, who steals the microfilm as he sleeps. In the message she leaves behind, it is revealed that EVA was actually an agent of the Chinese government, tasked with the responsibility of gaining control of the Legacy for her country.

The closing moments of Metal Gear Solid 3 provide answers to many questions. It appears that the defection of The Boss was a huge deception to enable her to approach Volgin and retrieve the Philosophers' Legacy. Her final duty was to accept her role as a traitor to the last, and die at the hands of her apprentice in order to conceal her true mission. For killing The Boss, Naked Snake is promoted to the rank of living legend, Big Boss, and is entrusted with the command of the elite FOXHOUND unit. It also becomes clear that EVA (having served the United States, Volgin and, ultimately, China) was not unique in her status as a triple agent. In a startling twist, it is revealed that Ocelot was actually working for the United States government, despite his involvement with the two Soviet factions in the story. The microfilm he left for EVA to steal was a fake; the genuine article is returned to the US.

The events of Metal Gear Solid 3, as we learn during its denouement, are all due to a complex yet slickly executed series of maneuvers devised to retrieve The Philosophers' Legacy from the clutches of Volgin. The Boss irrevocably tarnishes her reputation by defecting in order to infiltrate Volgin's organization, her gift of two nuclear warheads an irredeemable act of treason, a point of no return; The clinically brutal (yet, as we understand with hindsight, subtly restrained) humiliation of her protégé in their first battle underlines her apparent dedication to Volgin's cause. Volgin's use of one of the two miniature nukes to destroy Sokolov's research centre leads to a rabid chain of events that enables the US Government to return Naked Snake to Soviet soil to play his unique (and unwitting) role in the Byzantine ploy. Ocelot, loyal to the Americans (and, incidentally, the biological son of The Boss), is the contact that Naked Snake is supposed to meet (under the moniker "Adam"). However, Ocelot chooses to remain deep undercover, allowing the Chinese agent EVA (ostensibly a second American spy, but in truth attempting to gain control of the Philosophers' Legacy for her country) to greet him instead.

For Volgin, the defection of The Boss was to be the final ingredient in his plan to overthrow Khrushchev and employ Sokolv's Shagohod weapons platform to gain a decisive advantage in the Cold War. Ironically, he simply succeeded in introducing another enemy agent to his ranks, and instigated his own downfall. The Boss and Ocelot were loyal to the United States, and EVA to China; As for Sokolov, he would hate to see his weapon in the hands of the Colonel. The Boss and her son Ocelot cleverly steer events in the required direction, all the while knowing perfectly well the game each protagonist is playing. The Boss assists EVA because she knows the microfilm EVA seeks will ultimately prove to be a fake; She also "protects" her apprentice Naked Snake, as she intends for him to take over her role after her death. Ocelot, meanwhile, does his part to ensure that the Shagohod and Volgin are eliminated before he carries off the Philosophers' Legacy on behalf of the United States. In doing so, he additionally satisfies the agendas of Khrushchev (Volgin is dead), of Brezhnev (Khrushchev's position as Soviet Premier is weakened by the crisis, with Brezhnev his most likely successor) and, most pertinently, of the US (whose recovery of the Legacy is concealed in the aftermath).

The Boss was certainly the one who knew best what the whole incident had in store for her. A patriot to the very last, she chose to die for her country by assuming the mantle of traitor. Naked Snake understands her gesture and the significance of her sacrifice at the end of the adventure. His grief and disenchantment are heightened by the sheer perversity of his elevation to the rank of Big Boss by the superiors that so casually discarded his predecessor, the woman he worshiped above all others.

This was the price of The Boss's ideal, the cost of her commitment. She was ready to die for the way of life she freely chose, the expression of liberty that she lived for: love and loyalty to her country. It was this ideal that led to the birth of the infamous "Patriots".