Metal Gear (Franchise)

Background

Metal Gear is a series of stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, Metal Gear, was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces operative (usually Solid Snake or Big Boss), who is assigned the task of finding the titular superweapon "Metal Gear", a bipedal walking tank with the ability to launch nuclear weapons.

Several sequels have been released for multiple consoles, which have expanded the original game's plot, adding characters opposing and supporting Snake, while there have also been a few prequels exploring the origins of Metal Gear and recurring characters. The third game in the series, Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation, marked a transition to 3D graphics and gained the series international fame. As of September 2021, over 57.7 million copies of games in the franchise have been sold worldwide, with individual installments critically and commercially acclaimed and receiving several awards.

The series is credited for pioneering and popularizing stealth video games and "cinematic video games". Notable traits of the series include stealth mechanics, cinematic cutscenes, intricate storylines, offbeat and fourth wall humor, and exploration of cyberpunk, dystopian, political and philosophical themes, with references to Hollywood films to add flavor. The franchise has also been adapted into other media, such as comics, novels, and drama CDs. Solid Snake has also gone on to appear in other games, such as the Super Smash Bros. series, Ape Escape 3, and LittleBigPlanet 2.

This dropdown contains the synopsis of Metal Gear’s story & Chronology. Read at your own risk as you may be spoiled otherwise!
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which is chronologically the first game in the series, introduces Naked Snake (or Snake for short), an operative working for the fictional Force Operation X (FOX) unit of the CIA during the Cold War. The game focuses on the rise of Snake from an apprentice to a legendary soldier, as well as the downfall of his mentor and matriarchal figure, The Boss. After The Boss defects to the Soviet Union, Snake is sent into Russia to kill her and end the threat posed by Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin, a GRU colonel with plans to overthrow the Soviet government. Snake's heroics during the game earn him the nickname "Big Boss" at the end. The origins of The Patriots, an organization founded by Zero, are also explored. The next game, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, is set ten years after the events of Snake Eater and returns to the story of the young Big Boss. Now the head of the mercenary corporation Militaires Sans Frontières (MSF), Big Boss discovers that nuclear warheads are being transported to Latin America and decides that he must put a stop to it. Peace Walker features a new cast of characters to provide both aid and intelligence for Big Boss. A few characters from later games, such as a younger Kazuhira Miller, make appearances in the game. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, serves as the direct sequel to Peace Walker and is composed of two chapters. The prologue, Ground Zeroes, is set a few weeks after the final mission in Peace Walker, as Big Boss is tasked with rescuing two VIPs from a U.S. military black site on the coast of Cuba. Big Boss' mission coincides with a visit to Mother Base by the IAEA, which turns out to be a cover for an attack on Mother Base orchestrated by the mysterious organization XOF. In the chaos, Big Boss' helicopter collides with another, and he is sent to the hospital for nine years, which leads to the events of the main chapter, The Phantom Pain. The basis of the main story revolves around Big Boss forming a new private military company, the Diamond Dogs to retaliate for the destruction of MSF and the loss of his comrades. However, this "Big Boss" is revealed to be a part of the medical staff who survived the helicopter crash, who was brainwashed to believe himself to be Big Boss, while the real Big Boss went into hiding to create Outer Heaven, a place where soldiers can live without having to abide by any particular ideology. The first Metal Gear game for the MSX follows Solid Snake, a rookie of the FOXHOUND special operations unit. He is sent by his superior Big Boss to the fortress in South Africa known as Outer Heaven, with the goal of finding the missing squad member Gray Fox and investigating a weapon known as Metal Gear. However, after Snake unexpectedly completes his goals, Big Boss is revealed to be the leader of Outer Heaven, which he has created as a place for soldiers to fight free of any ideology that he believes has been forced upon them by governments. He fights Snake and is killed. However, it turns out that this was actually the body double from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake the real Big Boss has established a new military nation, Zanzibar Land, and he and Snake face off again, with Snake achieving victory and seemingly killing Big Boss for good. Metal Gear Solid elaborates on the storyline of the earlier games and reveals that Solid Snake is a genetic clone of Big Boss, created as part of a secret government project. An antagonist is introduced in the form of Liquid Snake, Snake's twin brother who takes control of FOXHOUND after Snake's retirement. Liquid and FOXHOUND take control of a nuclear weapons disposal facility in Alaska and commandeer REX, the next-generation Metal Gear weapons platform being tested there. They threaten to detonate REX's warhead unless the government turns over the remains of Big Boss. Solid Snake destroys Metal Gear REX and kills the renegade FOXHOUND members, with the exception of Revolver Ocelot. A third Snake brother known as Solidus Snake is introduced as the United States President at the end of Metal Gear Solid and serves as the main antagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. During his time as president, Solidus became aware of a secretive cabal known as "The Patriots" who were steadily manipulating the course of history. After his tenure as president is over, Solidus takes control of the "Big Shell" offshore facility, which is being used to develop Arsenal Gear, a mobile undersea fortress designed to house and protect a network of AIs created to influence human development by filtering the availability of information across the Internet. The game is set four years after Liquid's death in Metal Gear Solid, and it puts the player in control of Raiden, a soldier who fights against Solidus, who is revealed to be his former commander during his time as a child soldier. Raiden joins forces with Snake and learns that they are being manipulated by Revolver Ocelot, who has been working for the Patriots. At the end of the game, Ocelot seemingly becomes possessed by Liquid Snake as the nanomachines from Liquid's arm (which Ocelot took to replace his own arm after Gray Fox slices it off in Metal Gear Solid) work their way into Ocelot's thought process. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots deals with a rapidly aging Solid Snake (now branded "Old Snake") who is on a mission to find and defeat Revolver Ocelot, now known as Liquid Ocelot. Despite the destruction of the Arsenal Gear in Sons of Liberty, the Patriots have continued in their plans to influence the course of human history, installing artificial intelligence systems around the world. Ocelot, opposed to this, has assembled armies with which to fight back and intends to hijack their entire operating system for his own ends. Solid Snake's objective later changes to destroying the AIs of the Patriots and stop their oppression. After he and his allies succeed, Snake decides to live out his life peacefully.

Canon

The Metal Gear series has a vast array of games that aren't all apart of the main timeline or aren't supervised/looked over by Hideo Kojima himself. The following will explain which is apart of the main timeline and considered canon, which are alternative timelines, and which are completely non-canon.

Main Timeline

Anything apart of the official Metal Gear timeline and the Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection are canon entries.

Games

Metal Gear
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid: Integral
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Videos

Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel
Metal Gear Solid 2: Digital Graphic Novel

Booklet

Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Book

Alternate Continuities

These are games outside of the main timeline, they're considered alternate stories though overall are apart of the Metal Gear Canon.

Games

Metal Gear Solid (The Bad Ending: Meryl dies in the bad ending of Metal Gear Solid, which is shown not to be canon in Metal Gear Solid 4)
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (Wasn't included in the Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection due to not being considered apart of the main series' canon)
Metal Gear: Ghost Babel
Metal Gear Acid
Metal Gear Acid 2
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is excluded from the official Metal Gear timeline. Kojima also didn't list it when listing games that are apart of the Metal Gear Saga)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Metal Gear Rising is excluded from the official Metal Gear timeline. Kojima has stated that Rising is a parallel story continuation of the Metal Gear Saga, along with not listing it when listing games that are apart of the Metal Gear Saga)

Non-Canon

These are works that are completely non-canon and are not even recognized by Kojima.

Games

Metal Gear NES
Metal Gear 2: Snake's Revenge
Metal Gear Survive (Directly stated to not be canon by Konami)

Terms

Metal Gear: Metal Gear was the titular designation to various models of bipedal tanks. Metal Gear were behemoth machines capable of decimating lesser machines. Metal Gear had the distinction of being nuclear capable, firing warheads from their rail gun, eliminating the need for a missile, or launchpad allowing them to attack targets from anywhere in the world, on any kind of terrain. This peaked with Metal Gear REX which was sophisticated enough to launch a nuke and hit a target from anywhere in the world. REX also had the distinction of being completely untraceable.

Nanomachines: Nanomachine is the general term for a machine ranging in size from one micrometer (one-thousandth of a millimeter) to one nanometer (one-millionth of a millimeter) using MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) technology. An example of a nanomachine would be a protein aggregate resembling the structure of a man-made motor using biomolecules such as DNA, proteins, and resins as parts. Nanomachines are used to alter the bodies of human hosts, enhancing their abilities and their performance in combat situations.

The Patriots: The Patriots, originally known as Cipher, also known as the La-li-lu-le-lo, were a secret organization that, by the early 1990s, covertly controlled the United States of America. The group was formed to fulfill the ideal of a unified world that was envisioned by the legendary soldier The Boss and later sought to control the entire world to ensure this.