The Complete Metal Gear Solid Timeline EXPLAINED

Script written by Mathew Arter

The “Totally NOT Complicated” Metal Gear Solid Timeline

Shalashaska, La Li Lu Le Lo, Klibskindoobedly, flinklboople, and other words that sound like my grandma trying to remember my name … she’s not well. The universe of Metal Gear began all the way back in 1987, with its latest canonical release hitting our systems in 2013. That's over 25 years of Snakes, Raidens, other Snakes, some different Snakes, and a Big Boss or two. The stories of the two first Metal Gear games (Metal Gear 1 & Metal Gear 2) were not particularly difficult to follow, but don’t think for a second that stopped Kojima from retroactively unpacking their lore to a sick degree to affect the series’ later entries. This requirement to have a lore knowledge stretching almost 3 decades just to understand the minute story details of a game that treats their chronology like a pinball machine, bouncing back and forth until I’m so confused and hot in the face that I put my fist through the glass case, is what makes understanding the story and timeline of Metal Gear so unbelievably difficult; and with Kojima at the helm, we should have known it wasn’t going to be simple.

Even once you’ve achieved the fairly simple task of understanding the chronological order of the games’ releases, that doesn’t make the story any easier to understand. I mean, take a look at Metal Gear Solid 2! It was the second Metal Gear Solid game released, came chronologically straight after the first, and folks are still fighting about what the f**k happened in that game. Kojima, you’ve made my job today really goddamn difficult.

Welcome to MojoPlays, and this is the Metal Gear Solid Timeline Explained.

Now, I am a massive fan of Metal Gear Solid (I have been since I was 4 years old), but I’m by no means a top to bottom expert - I genuinely believe that’s impossible! But, through replaying all of the entries, doing deep and thorough research, and cross checking my facts, I believe I’m still gonna get a comment that says “Umm, it’s actually pronounced Shadow Mowses”. Oh I just got angry thinking about it, it’s 4am. Before we begin, let’s go over some ground rules. Firstly, I’m gonna miss stuff that isn’t dire information needed to understand the timeline and story. Consider it *fart noise*. Secondly, in order to be as coherent as possible, I might be mentioning information about particular games that we don’t find out until later entries. If something happens in MGS3 that we didn’t find out until 10 years later when MGSV came out, I’m still gonna mention it when we’re talking about MGS3. I don’t want to be bouncing back and forth and my god is anyone else sweaty already? And thirdly, there are no rules, except the other two, and also ‘no hitting’.

First up in our Metal Gear universe timeline is Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the earliest canonical entry, but third entry in the MGS series. Before this game there is some PRE-lore we need to understand, and listen closely because this is gonna come up a lot… I mean A LOT! 1918! The year is 1918, MGS3 takes place in 1964 but chuck the car in R because we’re talking 1918! America, China AND Russia form a secretive club called the Philosophers. I say ‘club’ to make it sound fun, but it’s really a secret society that controls the world from the shadows. Think Illuminati, or FreeMasons, or Amazon. The members of the Philosophers from these three powerful countries pool their resources together into something called The Philosophers’ Legacy, which contained not just $100 billion in cold hard cash (or electronic cash which doesn’t sound as cool), but it also contained the identities of the Philosophers. Remember that, because the identity of these folks becomes even more appetizing to certain villains than the $100 billion, because I guess they were kicked by a horse and lack critical thinking.

Metal Gear Solid 3! 1964! By the beginning of this game, the Philosophers were fractured because *SHOCK HORROR* Russia, China, and the US were not getting along in 1964... Something about war and that. So, what’s gonna happen to the Philosophers’ Legacy? We’ll get there, you cheeky animals.

Metal Gear Solid 3. 1964! I’ll say it again, who cares, shut up. An American Operative by the name of John, codename: Naked Snake, parachutes into the Soviet Union to complete an operation titled the “Virtuous Mission”. His objective? Saving a weapons scientist by the name of Sokolov. The mission ends up as a total failure when Naked Snake’s own mentor and friend (a woman known as The Boss) defects to the Soviet Union, stops Sokolov from escaping with Naked Snake, and gives nuclear weapons to a Russian Colonel by the name of ‘Volgin’, which he immediately uses to blow up a research facility, causing countless deaths… Oh, did I mention it was a facility in the Soviet Union? Yeah, he blew it up with stolen US nuclear weapons JUST to frame the US. This isn’t totally crucial to understand the timeline, but what a b**ch, am I right? This nutjob, Colonel Volgin, also has his hands on the Philosophers’ Legacy, which he plans to use to develop an unbelievably dangerous and powerful mobile nuclear ballistic missile system to take over the world… How original. Well, actually I guess it is original if we’re talking chronologically. Damn, egg on my face.

Naked Snake does manage to escape (barely), and is sent back to the Soviet Union with a new mission: “Operation Snake Eater”. The only objective: Kill his former mentor, friend, and possibly America’s best soldier, The Boss. If he does not succeed, Russia would declare nuclear war as a response to the Nuclear attack old mate Volgin dropped during the Virtuous Mission - the one I was just talking about 30 seconds ago. STAY WITH ME, PEOPLE!.

There are a couple of important names to remember and make note of that come up during Operation Snake Eater, and become major parts of the series’ lore. Firstly, there’s Major Zero, who provides Naked Snake with intel and guidance as his commanding officer, and commanding officer of the entirety of FOX: the CIA covert operations group that Snake is a member of, and whomst are running both this operation, and the previous virtuous mission. This is important info I’ve given you a bit late in this story, in an effort to drip feed you stupid names like FOX, and Philosophers, and Kenny G.

Another important name to remember is Revolver Ocelot, who may actually appear in more games than any other character... This is not research I’ve done, I’m just guessing… And I know it would take two seconds to look up, but shut up I’ll punch you bruv. Ocelot is a KGB operative, who uses revolvers. There, I explained his entire character in 15 seconds.

Let’s boil 10 hours of gameplay down into one sentence: Naked Snake kills Volgin, and destroys the powerful mobile nuclear ballistic missile system known as the Shagohod, because they are both in the way of his actual mission, killing The Boss. At the end of the game, when Snake finally faces off against The Boss, we learn that The Boss did not defect to the Soviet Union; rather, she was under orders to pretend to defect so she could infiltrate Volgin's ranks, and find the location of the Philosophers’ Legacy. After Volgin’s nuclear attack, her mission changed, with the final part of it being to sacrifice her honor, and die at the hands of Naked Snake under the guise of a traitor, to prove the US's innocence in the nuclear attack. She died a hero of the US, but went down in history as a traitor.

Naked Snake is awarded the title of Big Boss, and becomes a hero of legend… End of game. Oh also! Ocelot was actually working for the CIA, and he obtained half of the Philosophers’ Legacy before Volgin died. End of game for reals... Mr. President.

After MGS3, and as it seems to often happen with Kojima, a bunch of stuff happens off screen, or between games. One of those things is the biggest relationship fallout of possibly the entire series. Thanks a lot, KOJIMA! Big Boss and Major Zero team up with Ocelot to form the group known as The Patriots (not The Philosophers) - one of the things that trip people up in Metal Gear is how shit often sounds like other shit, Patriots, Philosophers. Shagohod, Shalashaksa. Metal Gear, Metal Beer, a new beverage I’ve been working on, it’s completely solid and tastes like arse. THE PATRIOTS! These three boys use Ocelot’s access to The Philosophers’ Legacy to reform The Philosophers. F**k you, Kojima.

The new goal of the Philosophers was to unify the world in the name of The Boss. There is more nuance to this, but to save us some time, Big Boss and Zero grew apart due to their own individual interpretations of The Boss’ will. Zero believed in control over all people through force and power, while Big Boss believed in a world where soldiers were seen as more than tools. If you’re wondering why these two views on totally different issues forced them to clash, my advice is don’t think too hard about it, accept it and move on. It’s kinda like someone saying “I love dogs”, and someone else saying “well I hate horses”, and then they kick the shit out of each other for some reason. Moving on!

What I’m about to tell you is such a staple of the series, and is so casually talked about that I think we’ve all forgotten just how f***ed up it is. After their big blow out, Zero stole Big Boss’ DNA and created clones of him. This whole operation was titled the Les Enfants Terribles project… Wow. Two of these clones went on to become Solid Snake, and Liquid Snake, and there was a perfect third clone named Solidus Snake. Rightfully upset, Big Boss left the Patriots to start his own military group called Militaires Sans Frontieres. The group's focus was to provide help to those in need, regardless of ideologies.

Now we’ve finally reached another game! Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Big Boss establishes a base of operations for the Militaries San Frontieres (or MSF) which he calls Mother Base. Kazuhira Miller becomes second in command, and all is well… that is until a rogue CIA group takes over Costa Rica and installs a nuclear deterrent by the name of Peace Walker. With the help of a child soldier named Chico, Big Boss eventually destroys Peace Walker, and then begins building his own nuclear deterrent for the MSF called Metal Gear ZEKE… Pfft, cool name.

Uh oh! Things obviously go sour. An agent of The Patriots named Paz takes control of ZEKE, threatening a Volgin-esque repeat by using it on the US, and blaming the MSF, unless of course Big Boss joins The Patriots again. Don’t worry, I’m gonna skip through gameplay again, Big Boss destroys ZEKE, buddabing buddaboom, Paz dies, but not really... It’s later revealed that she survived, but was kidnapped by the XOF, another rogue CIA organization. XOF? Ain’t that just FOX backwards? Yes, now let’s all roll our eyes collectively.

XOF were originally formed by Zero to act as a support team for his FOX Unit, commanded by his Executive Officer Skull Face. Their existence was completely secret, which is why you never heard about them during MGS3, when they were apparently totally there. The XOFs overall purpose was to ensure the survival and success of FOX operatives during missions in order for the unit to become a success by any means necessary. XOF members would secretly provide tactical support and field Intel to FOX Operatives during missions as well as clean up after them, making sure that the operatives left no traces that they were ever there. Skull Face grew to resent Big Boss and Zero for taking all the glory, and in response to being upset about stolen glory he:

Captured both Paz and Chico

Imprisoned, viciously tortured and most likely sexually assaulted one or both of them.

And sent Zero a pin laced with a debilitating disease which would slowly destroy Zero’s cognitive function rendering him a vegetable.

It’s worth mentioning here that in the years before Zero lost all function, he organized the creation of an AI network that would act as The Patriots moving forward. And to say it once more extra loud for those who are still confused about the Patriots and Philosophers timeline after the events of Metal Gear Solid 2, ZERO CREATED AN AI NETWORK THAT WOULD ACT AS THE PATRIOTS IN THE YEARS BEFORE HIS DEATH.

Peace Walker is done, let’s move straight onto Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, where Big Boss single handedly mounts a one man rescue of Paz and Chico. Let’s do another gameplay skip and focus on the important details; Skull Face well and truly expects this one man rescue mission, and in anticipation plants two bombs inside of Paz, while simultaneously preparing an attack on Mother Base through the use of well-planted c4, which was to be placed secretly around the base to lay in wait in preparation for a later ambush. Skull Face is no sh*t, he’s a sneaky boy, and if it weren’t for the whole Skull Face, he’d be pretty good on The Bachelor… Nah, I hate that joke, cut it out.

When does the ambush on Mother Base take place? Right when Big Boss is out rescuing Paz and Chico. With the two of them saved, he returns home via helicopter to find his base of operations and everything he built in flames. The entire MSF is dead, and the only remaining members are himself, Kazuhira Miller, and a single MSF soldier *BEEP BOOP BEEP BOOP* - Uh oh, looks like you’ve set off the foreshadowing alarm, DO NOT FORGET THIS ONE SINGLE MSF SOLDIER. Actually it’s fine, we’re gonna reveal everything about him now, even though it takes the entirety of the next game to learn the truth about him.

In the helicopter, during their escape, this soldier, a medic, known as the best soldier in the MSF, removes one of the bombs from Paz’s body. Uh oh, there’s a second bomb that they don’t know about which she reveals herself once she wakes up from easily the worst sleep of her life. In an effort to save everyone on the helicopter, Paz jumps out the door. However, her jump came a fraction too late, as the explosion was close enough to their helicopter to send it flying into an XOF helicopter, causing both to crash horribly. Only Big Boss, Miller, AND the medic survive. But you’re not supposed to know about the medic, so shhh, pretend you didn’t hear that.

Welcome to the end of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and the beginning of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. To the player, they wake up as Big Boss from a nine-year coma, and continue their adventure where they left off, rebuilding their private militia to help those who need it. In actuality, Zero orchestrates the rescue mission of the three survivors of the helicopter crash, Ocelot takes care of both Big Boss and the medic during their shared nine-year coma, and he would go on to reluctantly carry out Zero’s grand plan to create another Big Boss. Oh yeah, remember when I said Big Boss and the medic were both in nine-year comas, well actually only Big Boss was in a coma, the medic was being drugged for as long as it took for Big Boss to wake up, and through hypnotherapy and plastic surgery, Ocelot convinced the medic that he was Big Boss. After Big Boss finally woke up, the medic was awoken 2 weeks later to continue the mission and legacy of Big Boss, while the real Big Boss recovered behind the scenes. The medic would now be referred to as Punished “Venom” Snake, and go on to lead the spiritual successors to the now dead MSF: The Diamond Dogs.

As in all MGS games, our protagonist (the brainwashed medic who the player believes wholeheartedly is the same Big Boss from MGS3) is faced with a villain on a mission. Skull Face has managed to get his hands on a parasite that targets only English speakers in an effort to rid the world of the language… Ouch, take that, ‘me’. Oh, and don’t forget this is a Metal Gear Solid game, so he obviously has a nuclear-capable giant mech called Metal Gear Sahelanthropus. Luckily (and also unluckily) for Venom Snake, Skull Face was betrayed by a child soldier with psychic abilities who defected from his organization (The XOF), sided with another child soldier by the name of Eli, and went toe-to-toe with The Diamond Dogs just to be fair to everyone. These two child soldiers would eventually grow up to become Psycho Mantis, and Liquid Snake, but you don’t know who they are yet so just shhh, we’ll get there.

Venom Snake ends up destroying a child soldier-controlled Sahelanthropus in a final battle that sees Skull Face pinned under the rubble of its destruction. Snake, Kasuhira Miller, and a scientist named Huey Emmerich finish him off, and the world is saved. Not really, but the game is over.

METAL GEAR! Yaaaaaay. Metal Gear was the first Metal Gear game ever released, and its story and origins take place in this lovely little window between Solid games. Speaking of Solid, our protagonist of this entry is the infamous Solid Snake, the face of the series. Now, it’s worth noting that in Metal Gear 1 and Metal Gear 2, Solid Snake goes toe-to-toe with Big Boss as our main antagonist, but there is zero mention of Solid Snake being the infamous “son of the boss”. The whole ‘Solid Snake and Liquid Snake being clones of the boss’ thing was a retconned decision made in Metal Gear Solid 1. It doesn't do anything really, the plot remains the same, but it’s worth noting that players back in 1987 were unaware that the protagonist and antagonist were related/clones. On to the story!

In this game, Big Boss plays us from two angles. He forms an elite US Army task force called FOXHOUND, from which he plucks the rookie operative David, codename: Solid Snake, and assigns him the mission of breaking into a military state in South Africa called Outer Heaven. The mission has two objectives, rescue another operative by the name of Gray Fox, and destroy a giant (you guessed it) nuclear deterrent called Metal Gear TX-55. What we don’t learn until the end of the game, is that Outer Heaven was built and commanded by Big Boss himself, and once Snake eliminates the TX-55, Big Boss reveals himself as the leader of Outer Heaven. Snake subdues his former commanding officer, leaving him to die in the exploding base.

So why did Big Boss send this rookie operative from FOXHOUND into his own base to destroy his life's work? There are two running theories. Originally it was just seen as a way to cover his arse. Big Boss expected Solid Snake to fail, he didn’t want to blow his cover, so he sent a rookie operative. Simple… Turns out Solid Snake is actually hardcore though and it ruined his plan. The retconned theory came after MGSV was released 26 years later, and we learned all the previous information we’ve been discussing. The Big Boss that was running Outer Heaven was actually Venom Snake, our brainwashed medic. This is a fact. The theory built from this revelation in MGSV is that Big Boss was using Solid Snake to kill Venom Snake in an effort to fake his own death, giving himself more freedom to continue his operations in the events of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Either way, let’s say a fond farewell to chronologically our first dead protagonist, Venom Snake. You will be missed.

Upon release, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake has us believe that Big Boss survived the explosion of Outer Heaven, making him our antagonist again. The truth that we learned (again) 26 years later, is that Big Boss did die in Metal Gear 1, but he was a clone. Whether this decision was retconned doesn’t matter, if Kojima wants to make this canon and say that he had this all planned for almost three decades then THAT’S HIS DECISION AND LEAVE HIM ALONE.

The real Big Boss sets up yet another military state in central Asia called Zanzibar Land, where Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake takes place. FOXHOUND, now under the command of Colonel Roy Campbell, sends out Solid Snake, trusting him to infiltrate and destroy Zanzibar. To add more complications to the situation, Big Boss has also kidnapped a scientist who has a method to mass produce an oil alternative. With an unbelievable amount of control over such a valuable resource, as well as ANOTHER nuclear-capable mech, Big Boss plans to gain leverage with as many countries as possible to improve treatment of soldiers around the world. Doesn’t seem like such a bad guy when you look at it this way, from Solid Snake’s perspective… Big Boss needs to be shot.

Ready for another edition of let’s turn hours of gameplay into a few sentences? Let’s go. Solid Snake tries to rescue the scientist, but discovers their corpse instead. He obtains the formula for the oil alternative, takes down the nuclear-capable mech known as Metal Gear D which was being controlled by Gray Fox (the operative Solid Snake rescued in the previous game) who reveals he has always held allegiances to Big Boss. Solid Snake takes on Big Boss, and using an improvised flamethrower he burns him alive, escapes Zanzibar and lives happily ever after… That’s not true at all, but he does escape from Zanzibar. Let’s say a fond goodbye to our second chronologically dead protagonist, Naked Snake, AKA: Big Boss…. Oh wait! We didn’t learn this till the events of Metal Gear Solid 4 over 18 years later, but Big Boss' still alive body was recovered and put into stasis by The Patriots, and he was kept barely alive through cryogenic sleep and nanomachines, as one often is. Let’s leave Big Boss in stasis, and we’ll come back to him later on.

In the events between games, Snake leaves FOXHOUND to hide away in the Alaskan wilderness, where he intended to live out his life. That was until Metal Gear Solid, the series’ PlayStation debut, and the beginning of the MGS games. The story through Metal Gear 1 and 2, was fairly straight forward, a lot of the biggest plot points were retroactively made more significant through later entries, but it’s worth noting this is where the weaving of this games’ epic narrative really began.

Solid Snake's brother Liquid Snake (another clone of Big Boss) has turned FOXHOUND into a renegade independent armed force, and after getting his hands on a new Metal Gear version called Metal Gear REX, he declares war on America. Roy Campbell (Solid Snake’s commanding officer from the previous Metal Gear games) pulls Solid Snake out of his Alaskan retirement, to infiltrate Liquid’s base of operations on Shadow Moses Island, and neutralize FOXHOUND.

While completing his mission, Snake takes on or simply encounters many notable characters. He fights Psycho Mantis, the grown up child soldier who controlled Metal Gear Sahelanthropus in the chronologically previous Metal Gear Solid 5, and he also takes on Revolver Ocelot, ex member of The Patriots, and friend to Big Boss, whose arm is cut off by a Cyborg Ninja, later revealed to be *drum roll* Grey Fox. Solid Snake meets and flirts with Roy Campbell’s daughter Meryl, and also meets Hal “Otacon” Emmerich, a scientist who eventually becomes Solid Snake’s best friend… He’s also the son of Huey Emmerich from Metal Gear Solid V… Hoo boy, the tangled plot is finally starting to heat up! Can you guys feel it?? The confusion, the upset, the Kojima sweats.

At the end of the game, Liquid tricks Solid Snake into activating Metal Gear REX, and uses it in a battle against our protagonist. Solid Snake obviously takes on the nuclear-capable mega machine with nothing but a rocket launcher (or Stinger), and emerges victorious... Because he is Solid Snake, and he ain’t no b**ch. Atop the wreckage, and in a very anime-styled showdown, Liquid reveals that he is Snake’s twin brother, and goes on to say that Snake got the superior genes as son of Big Boss. After an epic battle, a car chase, and a crash for the ages, Liquid dies from a manufactured heart attack, all thanks to the FOXDIE virus Snake was unknowingly carrying amongst his many nanomachines, of course (and I’m starting to notice a theme here) we didn’t know this until Metal Gear Solid 4. To players of the game at this point in time however, he died from all that other stuff that happened, like the giant f*cking car crash.

In a post credits scene, Ocelot is speaking to the president of the United States, revealing that Liquid was in fact the superior twin, and he then grafts Liquid's arm to his body, replacing the one that Grey Fox chopped off. Finally, in one of the wildest end game twists and setups of all time, this president is revealed through Ocelot’s dialogue to be a third clone of Big Boss, a perfect clone, by the name of Solidus Snake. Shadow Moses is wrapped up, and we can all walk away knowing that nothing bad will ever happen to anybody ever agaiMETAL GEAR SOLID 2!

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty takes place four years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 1, and we step into the shoes of another new protagonist, a FOXHOUND recruit by the name of Jack, codename: Raiden. Raiden infiltrates an offshore facility called Big Shell, which had recently become terrorist controlled. Big Shell was built as a decontamination facility directly following the sinking of a Tanker that spilled thousands of gallons of crude oil into the New York harbor. We saw the sinking of this Tanker during the prologue of Metal Gear Solid 2, while playing as our main man Solid Snake. The tanker spill would be referred to as the Big Shell Incident, and thus the Big Shell was built. Unfortunately, all of this was completely orchestrated to cover up the creation of Arsenal Gear, a massive mobile fortress that could launch nukes from anywhere, while deploying mass produced Metal Gear units known as Metal Gear RAY. Jesus living Christ that’s a lot of things happening because of other things just to make other things happen, I’m gonna pass out… Let’s keep going.

A whole arse load of gameplay happens, and towards the end, our former US president Solidus Snake reveals he orchestrated The Big Shell incident and creation of Arsenal gear to challenge The Patriots, who still control everything from the shadows. Solidus’ goal is to identify The Patriots, kill them one by one, and restore freedom to the people… Which sounds kinda cool to me.

This is where things get a little weird. Ocelot (oh yeah, Ocelot is back with his fresh new arm which occasionally takes over his body and makes him sound and act like Liquid Snake but don’t worry about it) tells Raiden about the S3 Plan: The Solid Snake Simulation. The entire mission Raiden had just taken part in, was a deliberate re-creation of the Shadow Moses mission in order to make the ultimate soldier, another Solid Snake. After defeating Solidus Snake, and after Solid Snake gets his hands on the disc that identifies the Patriots, it is revealed that the Patriots have been dead for decades. Raiden is told by the Patriot AIs (that were set up by Major Zero) that the S3 Plan is actually titled the Selection for Societal Sanity, and everything that had just occurred was a test to see how the AI Patriots could control everything during a crisis.

There is clearly a reason why people are still debating the events of Metal Gear Solid 2 over 20 years later.

Home stretch, folks. Metal Gear Solid 4, our final canonical Metal Gear Solid game, but strap in because it’s an absolute doozy. Set in 2014, the player steps back into the shoes of Solid Snake, who, due to being a clone, has aged much faster than the average person, and is now lovingly referred to as Old Snake. Forget Fallout and their ‘war never changes’ speech, and enter Solid Snake and his ‘war has changed’ speech that begins the game. Private military companies exploit the war economy that plagues the world. Nanomachines are embedded in every soldier in the world, suppressing symptoms of PTSD and improving everyone’s combat awareness. Ocelot, who now is controlled by Liquid courtesy of the arm transplant, owns the five largest PMCs, and he brings them together to fight for the Patriots’ control over the world. With The Patriots’ control, Liquid would have access to the nanomachines implanted in soldiers through the Sons of The Patriots system, and in an instant he could cripple every soldier on the planet.

It is Colonel Roy Campbell who leaves retirement to convince Snake to hunt down Liquid and across the game Solid Snake chases Liquid around the globe, witnessing the results of Liquid’s many nanomachine control experiments, where in almost all cases he causes brain damage and trauma to soldiers by turning their nanomachines off, forcing them to live all their horrors and PTSD in a single moment. Liquid eventually obtains Big Boss’ DNA (which actually turns out to be Solidus’ DNA), and gains direct access to the Sons of The Patriots system, renaming it… Yep, Guns of The Patriots.

Liquid steals a giant Arsenal gear-esque ship, and names it Outer Haven (because he’s an original thinker). Aboard this ship is GW, one of The Patriots’ AI systems. Liquid plans to destroy the Patriots’ main AI core, JD, and then take control of the entire network via his already obtained system, GW. If you’re lost, don’t worry, you’ve done really well to get this far.

With the help of some brilliant science minds, Snake uses a computer virus called FOXALIVE on GW, which is supposed to destroy the Sons of The Patriots system. In a massive twist, it goes a step further and severs the Patriots’ control over everything in America, destroying a decades-long domination.

In a final fistfight with Liquid, Ocelot shakes his control and begins to show more of himself. He reveals his entire goal for the beginning was for Snake to destroy the Patriots, shaking the world out of their control, and his entire insurrection was just to draw attention to himself. Ocelot collapses after the fight, and dies. See you later, you damned hero… I mean you’re hella evil in a lot of ways, but you’re alright in my book, tiger.

In a post credits scene, Snake finds himself at the grave of his father clone, Big Boss, about to commit suicide. After not going through with it, Big Boss himself approaches, awoken from his stasis and rebuilt using body parts of Liquid and Solidus. With Big Boss, is the vegetative Zero, in a wheelchair. Big Boss pulls Zero’s plug, and reconciles with Solid Snake. Unfortunately for Big Boss, Solid Snake was injected with the FOXDIE virus earlier in the game, which unknown to him, kills members of The Patriots simply by being near them. And finally, after enjoying a final cigarette, we say goodbye to our guy, our hero, Big Boss… Naked Snake.