Characters
The cast of the game comprises mainly characters from previous Metal Gear Solid games, although a few new characters are introduced as well. A prematurely aged Solid Snake returns as the game's sole playable character under the new codename Old Snake. Assisting him are Roy Campbell, his former commanding officer; Otacon, his sidekick since the original Metal Gear Solid; Naomi Hunter, the scientist who injected him with the FOXDIE virus; Meryl Silverburgh, heroine of Metal Gear Solid, now the leader of Rat Patrol Team 01, a military unit sent to investigate PMC activities; Mei Ling, Snake's former data analyst and now Captain of the recommissioned USS Missouri (BB-63); Raiden, the protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, now a Cyborg Ninja; Rosemary, Raiden's former wife, who now works as a psychological counselor; and EVA from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, now a resistance leader named Big Mama.
Also assisting Snake is Drebin, a gun launderer accompanied by his pet monkey, Little Gray; Sunny, Olga Gurlukovich's daughter, who was rescued from the Patriots; and the other members of Rat Patrol Team 01, which consist of Ed, the team's second-in-command, radio man, and sniper; Jonathan, a hulking soldier; and Johnny, nicknamed "Akiba", the team's electronics expert. Jonathan and Ed are named after the main characters of Hideo Kojima's 1994 adventure game Policenauts, from which Meryl debuted as a supporting character. Johnny was the guard that was stripped naked by Meryl in MGS1.
The antagonist of the game is Liquid Ocelot, formerly Revolver Ocelot, an agent of the Patriots until his mind was apparently possessed by Liquid Snake as a result of an arm transplant. On Liquid Ocelot's side are: Vamp, the sole surviving Dead Cell member from Metal Gear Solid 2; The Beauty and The Beast Corps; and his private army, the elite all-female Haven Troops. The ghost of Psycho Mantis from Metal Gear Solid also makes a special cameo in the game.
The Beauty and the Beast Corps serves as the central boss characters of Metal Gear Solid 4: It's members are Laughing Octopus, Raging Raven, Crying Wolf and Screaming Mantis. They are jokingly referred as the "Snakehound Unit" as their recent mission is to kill Snake on sight. Their animal names openly reference the members of FOXHOUND from MGS, their emotions relating to the Cobras from MGS3, and their weapons taken from Dead Cell members from MGS2. A close inspection of Screaming Mantis reveals two marionettes of previous MGS bosses: Psycho Mantis and The Sorrow, both of whom were psychics. All four of them are women who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and, as a result of this, have become war machines. Their outer appearance is referred to as "Beast", while their inner appearance is referred to as "Beauty". Four models were chosen for their in-game appearances as their "Beauty" side: Lyndall Jarvis (Laughing Beauty), Scarlett Chorvat (Screaming Beauty), Mieko Rye (Crying Beauty), and Yumi Kikuchi (Raging Beauty). The voice acting for the characters is done by having the female voice actors perform the lines while a male voice (Shozo Iizuka in Japanese and Fred Tatasciore in English) overdubs on top of the female voices, creating a split-voice effect for the characters.
[edit] Story
| Metal Gear series fictional chronology |
|---|
| Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Metal Gear Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake Metal Gear Solid (The Twin Snakes) Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots |
Set in 2014, five years after the "Big Shell Incident" (the events of the Plant Chapter from Metal Gear Solid 2), Metal Gear Solid 4 portrays a world where the restriction of military intervention on foreign soil has been eased, fueling the need for private military companies (PMCs) to fight proxy wars for business purposes. Nanotechnology has become prominent, both to enhance the capabilities and enforce the loyalty of mercenaries. The nanomachine system that PMCs use is called "Sons of the Patriots" or "SOP". The five largest of these PMCs (Praying Mantis, Otselotovaya Khvatka, Werewolf, Pieuvre Armement and Raven Sword) are owned by a single mother company named Outer Heaven[14], operated by Liquid Ocelot. Amassing an army whose manpower rivals that of the United States, Liquid prepares to launch an armed insurrection by taking control of SOP. With the world once again in crisis, a rapidly aging and disillusioned Snake (now known as Old Snake) is deployed into the Middle East by Roy Campbell to terminate Liquid. Guns of the Patriots takes place in five locations: the Middle East, South America, Eastern Europe,[15] Shadow Moses Island, and Outer Haven.
[edit] Act 1 - Liquid Sun
Snake begins his mission by infiltrating a war-torn Middle Eastern city with a local militia convoy. The militia is locked in conflict with troops from Praying Mantis, one of Liquid's PMCs. After the convoy is decimated by Praying Mantis troops and Gekko (a mass-produced, bipedal Metal Gear variant) units, Snake meets up with the Metal Gear Mk. II, a robotic drone Otacon developed to assist him remotely, and receives orders to meet up with Campbell's informants, Rat Patrol Team 01. On the way to the rendezvous point, Snake encounters Drebin 893, a self-proclaimed ArmsTech employee who offers his gun laundering services. Snake accepts after much hesitation, and Drebin injects him with what he says are merely "suppressor nanomachines". After their meeting, Snake rendezvous with Rat Patrol in the abandoned Advent Palace hotel and is shocked to learn that Meryl Silverburgh is the team's leader. After Snake and Meryl discuss their assignments and pasts, Advent Palace is raided by Liquid's elite soldiers, the FROGs. Rat Patrol, with Snake's help, escapes the building. Snake continues towards the main Praying Mantis camp, where he sights Liquid, and prepares his assassination attempt. Before he can carry out his objective, an unknown force causes all of the soldiers in the area to collapse in pain and begin violently attacking each other. The nearby members of Rat Patrol are also affected. As Liquid escapes in his helicopter, Snake also collapses, but as his vision fades, he is approached by Dr. Naomi Hunter, who gives him a syringe. Snake is carried away to safety by Johnny Sasaki, the lone unaffected member of Meryl's team.
[edit] Act 2 - Solid Sun
Following Snake's rescue, Otacon receives an encoded message from Naomi, which explains that she is being held captive in South America. Snake plans to take advantage of a rebel uprising in the area to sneak into the base of Pieuvre Armement, another of Liquid's PMCs, where Naomi is being held. Snake infiltrates the area and once again encounters Drebin, who reveals that The Patriots are actually a network of five AIs. Four AIs are named after US Presidents: GW, TJ, TR and AL. These are controlled and regulated by the 5th AI named JD (John Doe), the core AI. After Snake finds Naomi, she explains that Liquid is planning to use Big Boss's genetic information to access JD and take control of SOP (Sons of the Patriots), the system of nanomachines and ID-authentications which allow the Patriots to monitor and control soldiers. She also explains that Snake's aging is due to intentional gene manipulation of Big Boss's clones, and that he will have a shortened lifespan; she estimates that he has less than 6 months left to live.[16] However, his shortened lifespan is less of a concern to Naomi than the fact that the FOXDIE virus in Snake's body has begun to mutate. She estimates that in 3 months the virus will have become mutated enough to attack anyone, not just the people it was programmed to target; he has become "a walking biological weapon". After Snake defeats Beauty and the Beast Corps. member Laughing Octopus, Snake and Naomi escape with Drebin, defended by Raiden, who mysteriously resurfaces as a Cyborg Ninja after disappearing for several years. Raiden holds off numerous Gekkos and a resurrected Vamp while Otacon rescues Snake and Naomi via helicopter, but is seriously wounded in the process. Raiden leaps onto the helicopter but soon loses consciousness; before he blacks out, he tells Snake to go meet "Big Mama", the leader of a resistance group based in Eastern Europe.
[edit] Act 3 - Third Sun
On the Nomad, Naomi explains that Big Boss is in fact alive, although brain dead. His body is in the control of the resistance group Paradise Lost in Eastern Europe. While Snake locates the group, Naomi and Sunny take Raiden to get his required dialysis from Dr. Madnar. By stalking a Paradise Lost member Snake manages to find their leader, Big Mama, who reveals herself to be EVA, and the surrogate mother of both Liquid Snake and Solid Snake himself. She explains the origins of the Patriots, founded by Major Zero forty years ago. After the Raven Sword PMC, led by Raging Raven, suddenly attacks the group's hideout, Snake and Big Mama escape on a motorcycle, along with decoy vans to keep the attackers from finding Big Boss's body. At the end of the chase, the motorcycle crashes, and Big Mama is wounded. After battling and defeating Raging Raven, Snake helps Big Mama escape down a sewer connecting to the Vltava River, where Liquid is waiting for them, and displays his power over SOP by incapacitating an entire army of American troops using his ability to lock down the system controlling their nanomachines. He incinerates Big Boss' body, and Big Mama is severely burned attempting to rescue him. The left side of Snake's face is also badly burned as he rescues her from the flames. As Liquid makes his escape in a gunboat down the river, Big Mama dies in Snake's arms.
[edit] Act 4 - Twin Suns
Liquid's final plan is to destroy JD, the Patriot's core AI, so that he may seize control of the Patriots' network with GW (which Liquid apparently repaired and took control of shortly after the Manhattan incident). To this end, Liquid plans to use the only WMDs still not controlled by the Patriots - the stealth warheads launched by Metal Gear REX's rail gun - to fire a nuclear warhead at JD, which is housed within a satellite disguised as orbital debris. Snake returns to Shadow Moses Island, where REX has remained in the nine years after the events of Metal Gear Solid, to stop Liquid from stealing it. After defeating Crying Wolf and a squadron of FROGs, Snake approaches Metal Gear REX to find that its Rail Gun has already been removed. In the hangar, Snake is attacked by Vamp (accompanied by Naomi, who had escaped the Nomad and defected back to Liquid's side) until the timely arrival of Raiden. Snake suppresses the nanomachines in Vamp's body that cause his apparent immortality, and fights off a unit of Suicide Gekko while Raiden finally defeats and kills Vamp. Naomi, filled with guilt and remorse over all the sins she has committed during her lifetime, ends her own life by disabling the nanomachines that had been previously suppressing the effects of the cancer that would have normally killed her years ago. Using the Mk. III, Otacon manages to reactivate REX, and Snake and Raiden pilot it to escape the building just as the Suicide Gekko self-destruct. Raiden, defending from the rear, becomes trapped underneath a large pile of rubble, while Snake uses REX to fight Metal Gear RAY, piloted by Liquid. After the fight Liquid reveals his ultimate weapon: a battleship based on stolen Arsenal Gear prototype blueprints, named "Outer Haven", with REX's Rail Gun mounted on it. Liquid attempts to crush the crippled Snake by ramming the ship into the dockside, but Raiden cuts off his own arm to escape the rubble and is able to restrain the ship temporarily, allowing Snake to escape with his life but crushing Raiden in the process.
[edit] Act 5 - Old Sun
Aboard the re-commissioned battleship USS Missouri, Mei Ling plans to catch up with Outer Haven, which needs to wait until it is as physically close to JD's satellite as possible in order to get the most precise shot from the Rail Gun. A strike team consisting of Snake, Meryl and Johnny is created in order to infiltrate GW's physical processor and upload a computer virus that will destroy the AI. Infiltrating the vessel, Snake defeats Screaming Mantis, who is revealed to have the implanted personality of Psycho Mantis. After the battle, Snake plans to stay behind and fight the FROGs, but Meryl insists he continue and disable SOP. Snake apologizes to Meryl, who assures him they will meet again on the outside. Meryl and Johnny stay to hold off swarms of FROG units as Snake approaches the final corridor to GW, where he is ambushed by FROGs but saved once again by Raiden, who is still alive but missing both arms. Snake makes his way through the corridor, which is lined with microwave emitters that nearly burn him alive. Though Snake is severely weakened by the heat exposure and overwhelmed by mobs of countless Dwarf Gekko, Otacon takes control of the Mk. III to upload the virus. The virus unexpectedly uses GW as a conduit to infect the whole AI network, destroying all five Patriot AIs, disabling SOP and all military systems implementing it worldwide, including Liquid's, saving the lives of Raiden, Meryl, Johnny and all personnel aboard the Missouri who were under attack from Outer Haven. A video recording of Naomi set to play back after the destruction of the Patriots explains to Snake and Otacon that SOP was just the beginning of the Patriots' plans, and that they had intended to implement nanomachine personality control worldwide. She goes on to explain that she and Sunny designed the virus as the antithesis to FOXDIE; as the nanomachines used in SOP were technological derivatives of Naomi's FOXDIE, the new virus would atone for Naomi's mistake by shutting down the nanomachine system. For this reason, the new virus was named 'FOXALIVE'. Sunny's programming also made sure that in destroying the Patriot AIs, SOP and the war economy, FOXALIVE would preserve the systems controlling vital and benign world infrastructures such as water, air, telecommunications and the internet.
The U.S. Marines easily take over the now-defenseless Outer Haven, its unmanned units deactivated and its soldiers in a state of withdrawal from the SOP nanomachines. In the confusion, Liquid Ocelot takes Snake to the sail of Outer Haven and thanks him for accomplishing Liquid's own goals. His plan to use REX's rail gun was just a diversion so that Snake's own attempts to bring down the system would go unnoticed by the Patriots, who had anticipated Snake protecting them by stopping Liquid. Ocelot had allowed the will of Liquid to live on within his body through the use of hypnosis and auto-suggestion, perpetuating both Liquid's own agenda against the Patriots, as well as the feud between the two sons of Big Boss. Ocelot allowed Liquid's personality to carry out its plan against the Patriots, knowing that JD would be allocating its resources into stopping Liquid and not into preventing the upload of FOXALIVE. After this revelation, Liquid's personality declares that they have 'a score to settle', and acts upon his final wish within Ocelot's body for the sons of Big Boss to engage in one final unarmed fight on top of Outer Haven. As Snake and Liquid wage their brutal fist fight, Ocelot's personality gradually resurfaces, culminating in the use of his trademark hand gestures. His last words are "You're pretty good...", echoing his taunt against Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid and which was said to Naked Snake during the events of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
[edit] Epilogue - Naked Sin
In the epilogue, Meryl and Johnny get married. Their wedding, held on an airfield, is attended by the members of Rat Patrol, Otacon, Sunny, Drebin, Mei Ling and Campbell. Meryl reconciles with Campbell and finally accepts him as her father. Raiden's body is freed from the machinations of the Patriots and is back to its original form, and he reunites with his ex-fiancée Rosemary and their son, John (voiced by Nika Futterman), whom Rosemary has lied about miscarrying. Rosemary reveals that her marriage to Roy Campbell was a charade to keep her and John protected from the Patriots during the course of Raiden's mission. The scene changes to Snake, where he attempts to commit suicide by gunshot in the graveyard housing the graves of Big Boss and The Boss in order to prevent his mutated FOXDIE strain from spreading further, stating that killing himself is his "final mission." Meanwhile, Drebin reveals to Otacon that he was a child soldier who was adopted by the Patriots with the intention of raising him to become a gun launderer. He also explains that Rat Patrol 01 (which, in its shortened form ("RAT PT 01"), is an anagram of "PATR10T") had been manipulated by the Patriots from behind the scenes as well. Sunny gives the Mk. III to a local boy (her first "outside friend"), and asks Otacon where Snake is, to which Otacon - knowing that Snake has gone to commit suicide - replies tearfully that "Snake had a hard life" and "needs some time to rest."
[edit] Debriefing - Naked Son
Back at the cemetery, it is revealed that Snake could not bring himself to end his own life. A familiar voice approaches Snake and encourages him not to kill himself. A bewildered Snake turns around to find Big Boss standing before him. He starts to approach Snake, the two engage in CQC over Snake's Gun, and suddenly Big Boss disarms Snake and gives him a fatherly hug. Big Boss tells Snake that the body burned on the Volta was actually that of Solidus Snake (as both he and Big Boss had an identical genetic code), and that he was reconstructed with surgery using parts from both Solidus and Liquid's bodies, and kept alive with extensive nanotechnology similar to that used to restrain the members of the B&B Corps. He brings Major Zero along with him, who is now an elderly 105 years old and confined to a wheelchair in his vegetative state.
Big Boss explains that he and Zero founded the Patriots as an interpretation of The Boss' will, along with EVA, Ocelot, Sigint and Para-Medic. As the Patriots became more and more influential in society, Zero became a megalomaniac, obsessed with uniformity and erasing individuality, leading Big Boss to become disaffected enough to leave the Patriots and form Outer Heaven as another interpretation of The Boss' will. Big Boss was followed out of the Patriots by EVA and Ocelot, who joined him in his struggle to end the Patriots. As Zero became elderly, control of the Patriots was increasingly left in the hands of JD and the proxy AIs, who further misinterpreted Zero's will and completely alienated themselves from the original will of The Boss. JD sought ways to control the masses through manipulation of the economy, (which lead to the War Economy), digital information (which lead to the creation of Arsenal Gear) and eventually personalities (which became the SOP system). He goes on to explain that Ocelot willingly used hypnosis, nanomachines and psychotherapy to assimilate the personality of Liquid Snake, in order to fool the system and propagate the feud between the sons of Big Boss. He takes it upon himself to "send Zero back to nothing", and euthanizes Zero by turning off his life support.
Big Boss reveals that the injection given to Snake by Drebin in Act 1 included a new strain of FOXDIE, created by the proxy AIs in order to kill the surviving defectors of the Patriots, explaining the deaths of EVA and Ocelot. Big Boss also relays Naomi's message that the new FOXDIE strain has neutralized the older strain, meaning that Snake is no longer in danger of becoming a biological weapon. After telling Snake this, Big Boss also reveals that the newer FOXDIE is already affecting him, and that he, Big Boss, is being attacked one last time by the Patriots through Snake.[17] He finally makes peace with Snake before dying on The Boss' gravestone, his last words being: "This is good... Isn't it?"
In the post-credits dialogue, Snake explains to Otacon that he will spend his remaining days attempting to simply live his life (and has also quit smoking). Otacon wishes to come with him in order to chronicle the last days of Solid Snake. Snake initially refuses - but with some persuasion he ultimately relents, allowing Otacon and Sunny to accompany him.
Following this is a final "cooking eggs" FMV, wherein Sunny calls the other characters to breakfast. In the "making of" disc accompanying the limited edition of the game, Kojima explains that the identities of the characters besides Sunny--perhaps Solid Snake, Otacon, Raiden, etc.--are left intentionally ambiguous for the gamer to fill in. Sunny speaks the final words of the game, saying that the eggs finally look "yummy," like the sun which is also, symbolically, rising
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