Not pictured: cigarettes or cardboard boxes.

The Metal Gear series, produced by Konami in 1987, is the Trope Maker and Trope Codifier of the Stealth-Based Game genre. The idea came when the series' creator and lead designer, Hideo Kojima, realized that the MSX2 couldn't show more than a few enemies at a time without flashing epileptically and generally breaking — so why not make a game where avoiding your enemies is the theme? This concept received a lot of criticism — one famous quote from Kojima's boss is, "Hiding from your enemies? That's not a game!". But then they started playing it. And it became quite a hit, spawning a great many sequels (with countless ports and editions).

The storyline is famously complicated, but, in its simplest possible form, can be described as an episodic plot that follows a dynasty of mercenaries, each with the Code Name "Snake", in various military events that take place from the mid-20th to the early 21st centuries, involving a revolutionary nuclear weapon called "Metal Gear".

open/close all folders

Franchise summary

note

Said instance clocks in at 27 minutes.

note

The 71 minute ending and epilogue sequence that wraps up the entire series arc (excluding the later-released Big Boss prequels).

To boil the franchise's plot down to the essentials, a former CIA Agent codenamed "Naked Snake," traumatized after his first mission, became a freelance soldier during the Cold War , making a name for himself as the infamous mercenary commander "Big Boss." Eventually, he returned to America and helped the US Army train an elite black-ops unit known as FOXHOUND. Later, his clone joined FOXHOUND and inherited his "father's" former codename, becoming equally famous as "Solid Snake." While the two go through similarly harrowing adventures throughout their careers, they come out of them with near-opposite worldviews, the former growing jaded and ruthless while the latter remains hopeful for the future.Fighting a vast global conspiracy which secretly rules the world, their adventures also invariably revolve around the titular Metal Gears — walking battle tanks capable of launching nuclear strikes from any geographic position. A major theme is the spiritual cost of being a soldier. Particularly in a post-Soviet/World War II world in which battles are not always fought for great ideological or religious causes, but are prolonged, brutal proxy wars, where soldiers are sent to die, and then discarded when they're no longer useful. If that's not enough explanation for you, we do have a Recap page for you to check out.The series loves Breaking the Fourth Wall and has a distinct quirky sense of humor—running jokes involve the iconic use of a cardboard box to sneak around a base (wait until nobody is looking, run to a new location, and repeat) . Another trademark is a general tendency for each new installment in the series to retcon at least one more-or-less significant plot detail about at least one of its predecessors. Kojima's irreverence is such that he's been trying to kill the series off since Metal Gear Solid 2 made its protagonist switch, so he can get on with more interesting things, but a rabidly devoted fanbase simply won't let him.One of the most engaging parts of the games is the huge focus on multiple uses for items; for example, whilst smoking cigarettes seem like a gag item that just drains your health and earns you a lecture from your contacts, they come with the hidden bonuses of showing laser beams with the smoke, and allowing for steadier aiming by calming your nerves. Metal Gear was also a pioneer of non-lethal gameplay. Every title in the series after Metal Gear Solid allows the player to complete the game without killing enemy soldiers. There are pros and cons to each approach, and the player's willingness or refusal to kill becomes a plot point in several stories.Following the initial Metal Gear, each game has been a deconstruction of action movies and video games, playing tropes so painfully straight they curve right back in on themselves. Very few tropes are invoked without logically following them through, especially those of spy movies - we see exactly what kind of mind and complete control of a situation would be needed to pull off the absurdly complex Gambit Roulettes that happen once per game, exactly what happens to a Tyke-Bomb forced to take up a normal life, and there's a female on male sexual abuse subplot which is not at all okay, to name just a handful.Solid Snake began as a Deconstructed Character Archetype of the Action Hero trope, as his wartime experiences had not turned him into the ultimate action hero, but into a bitter, broken-down wreck of a soldier who just wanted to retire but could not escape the life of conflict that had entwined him for so long. After fans missed the point slightly, this theme was hammered home with Raiden, who was put through the same torments as Snake in explicit detail. Not even Big Boss is immune to this theme: as Naked Snake, he's not the suave, impeccable agent that would fit perfectly into the '60s spy film pastiche of Metal Gear Solid 3, but a likable, kinda-dorky (though admittedly brilliant at what he does) everyman. Only after going through immense psychological and physical scarring does he begin to resemble the ultimate soldier known as Big Boss.The series is acclaimed for a lot of good reasons — stellar gameplay, superb boss fights, very complex plots with pitch perfect deconstructions, excellent direction, intelligent character development and weird stylized dialogue. Just prepare for a lot of cutscenes. A lot of cutscenes. As in Metal Gear Solid 4 seriously holds the world records for both "longest cutscene"and "longest cutscene sequence."Honestly, you play the game for two-fifths of the time and watch a full-length movie the other three-fifths, though if you like the plot you probably won't mind too much.The 2013 spinoff game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, features Raiden, a controversial bait-and-switch protagonist who has certainly Taken A Level In Badass since his introduction in Metal Gear Solid 2. Although stealth is present to some extent, it is an (very over the top) action game, because Finally, there's Metal Gear Solid V, released in 2014/2015 and, following his departure from Konami, Hideo Kojima's last entry for the series. Acting as the first Wide Open Sandbox and (as of yet) the finalé to the Metal Gear saga, the game is split between a stand-alone prologue and main game, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain respectively. The story chronicles the remaining gaps in the Big Boss story, detailing the final steps that made him Greater-Scope Villain for the main series (albeit not in the way many expected), and finally bringing the story full circle with an ending scene that led directly into the events of the original Metal Gear. The Phantom Pain was ultimately well received as the Grand Finale of the series, though like the other titles, it is still divisive among fans.