Even with creator Hideo Kojima no longer working with the franchise, leaving its future in doubt, the world still celebrates 30 years of Metal Gear like they always do and as the world honors three decades of the hit stealth action game Konami has ever made, let's take time to jot down the best 30 moments in Metal Gear history.
 |
| Metal Gear Solid |
From fistfights, man against machines, wild west shootouts, sword duels, every moment in Metal Gear is memorable in every tangible way and as the series reaches its 30th anniversary, time to remember some of the best moments that shaped the Metal Gear saga into the franchise we loved for. BE WARNED though that this stuff contains spoilers so play the rest of the saga first before coming back for this list.
1) After getting the Card8 from Coward Duck and going through pitfall-infested areas and electric floors that that led him to the Metal Gear, Snake comes face to face against the ultimate weapon of mass destruction he must destroy. After several plastique bombs that is recommended against Metal Gear, Solid Snake successfully destroyed but the timer is set and Outer Heaven's wired to blow. Still, could be worse, Solid Snake engages on a one-on-one battle against Big Boss. After defeating Big Boss, Solid Snake has escaped from Outer Heaven once and for all.
2) Solid Snake faces off against his comrade, Gray Fox, who pilots the Metal Gear. After throwing grenades on its legs, which is its weak point, Metal Gear has been blown away but most of his equipment went in flames. After throwing away his equipment, Snake engages on a fistfight against Fox and after winning the fight, Snake heard a mysterious voice which led him to a rematch against Big Boss. After getting through the locked doors and some oil spills to get the lighter and a aerosol spray, Snake sets Big Boss in flames. After defeating Big Boss, Snake reunites with Holly as they are getting away from Zanzibar Land from reinforcements.
3) Upon Snake's encounter with Hal Emmerich, he was caught off-guard by the Cyborg Ninja by surprise and the two adversaries engaged in a fistfight, the more Snake fought the Cyborg Ninja. After a bloodless fistfight, Cyborg Ninja's starting to lose control while Snake found out that the Ninja's actually Gray Fox, back from the dead. With the Cyborg Ninja retreated, Snake meets up with Hal and learned about Metal Gear. Learning the truth, Hal will help Snake to deal with the Metal Gear via codec contact under the Otacon name.
4) The battle against Psycho Mantis is by no means one the most memorable fights in Metal Gear history and who can forget his signature blackout trick that renders the screen black? What's even cool is that because Mantis knows your controls, the only trick is to use the second controller to defeat Mantis. No battle is cooler than the Mantis fight.
5) With Snake and Meryl being caught by the guards as well as Sniper Wolf, Snake is transferred to the torture chamber where he will either submit himself to Ocelot's torture. This torture involves Snake getting electrocuted and he has to survive through the torture or else it's game over. After the torture, Snake is locked in to the cell with a guard on sight before he's getting tortured again. Meanwhile, Otacon appeared out of nowhere via stealth camouflage and gave Snake nothing but a bottle of ketchup. Doesn't know why but it works as fake blood to fool the guard and it did. With Snake got his equipment, the mission continues.
6) After Snake pinned down a Hind D helicopter with Liquid in it, Snake managed to the ambush at the elevator against stealth-equipped Genome soldiers to reach through the building where MG-REX is housed. However, his race against time hits a snag with another sniper battle against Sniper Wolf. After Snake defeated Sniper Wolf once and for all, Otacon appeared as he mourn on the death of his lover while Wolf told him the truth about how she feels for him. With Wolf died, Snake placed the handkerchief on her face, attracting the wolves howling for the fallen sniper.
7) After the fall of Vulcan Raven, Snake has reached through the REX Hangar and he obtained a special key to override REX's protocols. However, there is a problem; there's only one key and REX requires three sequences with patterns matching temperatures. Fortunately, this key can change its properties when exposed to hot and cold temperatures, allowing Snake to venture back to the place where he defeated Raven and the blast furnace to change the key card's properties before inserting it on one of the computers. However, as he activated all three, he received a codec message from Miller. Turns out that it's a trap; MG-REX's now active and the Master Miller he contacted is none other than, you guessed it, Liquid. Thanks to Snake, Liquid's plot to use this nuclear weapon against the government is thriving, and he has to take it down. Out of nowhere, Gray Fox emerged and while he successfully weaken REX's functionalities, he was later killed by Liquid and Snake avenged Fox by destroying REX once and for all.
8) With REX destroyed, both Snake and Liquid woke up from unconsciousness and with Liquid told Snake the truth behind the Genome Soldiers and how did they emerged from their own genes, Snake tried to contact Colonel Campbell, only later he was cut off by Secretary of Defense Jim Houseman, who plots to bomb the whole Shadow Moses with the nukes along with it. With time running out, Snake engages on a final fistfight against Liquid with Meryl's life at stake whether how did she survived following Snake's torture earlier. With Snake defeated Liquid after that intense fistfight, he rescued Meryl and escape using a jeep. During their getaway, Liquid emerged and the two adversaries fight themselves to the finish and upon the escape, Liquid tries to kill Snake but the FOXDIE virus killed Liquid. Snake contacted the Colonel and he was relieved that the air strike was averted following Secretary Houseman's arrest. Snake told the Colonel about Otacon's whereabouts and the two finally got away from Shadow Moses safely.
9) Snake managed to get through the Marines' presentation of a new Metal Gear prototype lurking under the tanker in New York City to collect photographic evidence. After obtaining photographic evidence, the presentation ended until the appearance of Ocelot and the Gurlukovich soldiers, led by Sergei Gurlukovich, Olga's father. Ocelot killed Sergei and the Marine sergeant and threatened the Marines that he'll blow this tanker off, prompting a quick getaway using Metal Gear Ray. With the tanker blown, Snake rushed to Ocelot until Liquid's re-emergence through Ocelot's right arm made Snake panicked in despair. Ocelot got away with the RAY while Snake is caught in the sinking of the tanker.
10) Raiden encountered a person who thinks he's from the NYPD until Pliskin comes in and the man in question is known as Peter Stillman, the bomb disposal expert. Peter told the men about the bombs planted around the Big Shell are the work of Fatman from the terrorist group, Dead Cell. Fatman is the self-proclaimed Emperor of Explosives and he always leaves some sort of fragrance on the bombs he planted. To find and disarm those explosives, they will need some kind of special sensor to find one and disarm using a coolant. As they keep disarming more and more explosives, word from Stillman is that there are some bombs Fatman never left his scent on, so Raiden needs to go back to the mess hall to pickup a special sensor. After disarming bombs, Raiden was contacted by Peter until he was caught in the blast at the Shell 2 Core. As Raiden rushes through the heliport, he was blocked by a sudden encounter of a railgun-wielding female named Fortune. Raiden tries shooting her but bullets won't harm her because of some sort of force, leaving him no choice but survive until the lift has arrived. With the lift arrived, Raiden's got the chance to shoot her but instead, he shot Vamp. As Raiden reached the heliport, he encounters Fatman and engages on a duel while trying to disarm some explosives. After killing Fatman, he triggered his biggest party piece; a bomb that would blow up half of the Shell and it's hidden...at his dead body. Raiden successfully disarmed the last bomb ever planted and his mission to rescue the President continues.
11) Using the uniform he obtained from a mysterious ninja called Mr. X, and the AKS-74U he found in the storage, Raiden managed to get through Shell 1 Core unnoticed while finding a certain hostage, who revealed to be Richard Ames, a Secret Service agent. Upon their encounter, Ames told Raiden the terrorists' plot to use the President's launch code to engage the nuclear weapon. Raiden managed to eavesdrop a conversation between Ocelot and a mysterious adversary using a directional microphone. As Ocelot comes out, Raiden obtains the card from Ames and returns to his disguise. Following Ames' sudden heart attack after his rage against Ocelot, Raiden's disguise was busted by the troops and with Mr. X emerged, Raiden tries to getaway from Shell 1 and heads to Shell 2 Core.
12) As Raiden tries to reach Shell 2 Core, he encounters a mysterious caped adversary who claimed to be Solid Snake but Pliskin protested he's not Solid Snake. The caped adversary revealed to be Solidus Snake, the third of the Les Enfants Terribles project, and with Raiden discovered Snake's real identity, he tries to fend Solidus off, until he's inside a Harrier with Vamp along with it. Snake tosses Raiden some Stinger missiles as the Kasatka he's on can't stand up with the Harrier. Using the Stinger missiles, Raiden tries to fend off the Harrier until that moment when they witnessed that Metal Gear's already active! After the shocking revelation, Raiden continues to rush to Shell 2 Core to rescue the President. During the rescue, the President told Raiden the truth about Big Shell and the cover story that fooled everyone regarding the Tanker incident two years ago. He also mentioned Solidus' true identity as a former US President who became the leader of the Dead Cell terrorists as well as the Metal Gear that houses Metal Gear known as Arsenal Gear. Only a woman named Emma Emmerich, Otacon's stepsister, can disrupt Arsenal with the virus and he lends Raiden a keycard that will take her to Emma and the code against Arsenal. After the President revealed the truth, he wanted Raiden to kill him to prevent a nuclear strike until Ocelot emerged out of nowhere and shot the President by surprise.
13) After defeating Vamp, Raiden managed to rescue Emma, who has a serious childhood trauma regarding bodies of water, and he will do whatever he can to reunite Emma with her stepbrother by all means necessary. As they reached the rendezvous point with Snake on the other side, the two men are using sniper rifles to keep Emma safe from incoming threats, be it a soldier or a Cypher UAV, until when Emma's going to reach Snake, Vamp jumps out and Raiden shot him, but Emma was fatally stabbed by Vamp. As the countdown before Arsenal Gear gets off, Raiden rushes back to the Shell 1 Core and with Emma passed away from Otacon's eyes, the virus was implanted on the mainframe but it will take moments before it goes into effect. In the meantime, Snake told Otacon to evacuate the hostages while he and Raiden have unfinished business to do, which involves using Raiden as bait to get into Arsenal.
14) As the naked Raiden sneaks his way through Arsenal, he keeps receiving eerie messages from the Colonel until Rose contacted him to tell the truth about how the two feel. After a shocking conversation, Raiden was reunited with Snake and got his equipment back. Also, Snake gave Raiden a weapon from the ninja, who revealed as Olga all along, an HF Blade that Raiden would love to use it. As the two fend off an army of Tengu troops, Raiden gets on the top of Arsenal Gear until Solidus emerged and an army of mass-produced MG Rays attacked him. Raiden was outnumbered by those mass produced Rays until the virus went in effect, causing them to go haywire. After the mess, Ocelot steps in along with Fortune, who got Snake during Raiden's ascend to the top of Arsenal. Ocelot shots her but Fortune's railgun couldn't hit Ocelot because of some sort of electromagnetic device he's using. However, the strain in Ocelot's right arm caused Liquid to take over Ocelot's body and he gets inside Ray to finish the job once and for all. However, as the Ray fired its missiles on everyone, Fortune, using her last strength of her energy, managed to deflect the missiles using nothing but a miracle. As Snake pursues Liquid, Raiden and Solidus emerged at New York City's Federal Hall for a denouement and following such revelations between them, the sword fight between father and son emerges. In the heat of the battle, Raiden defeated Solidus once and for all and after the battle, Raiden's starting to wonder who he really is until Snake gave him a little pep talk on his future.
15) Following Snake's rescue mission on a Russian scientist named Sokolov, they were caught in a battle between the KGB troops and the GRU's Ocelot unit, led by a young Ocelot. As Snake fended them off with CQC, he escorts Sokolov to safety until his encounter with The Boss changes everything. The Boss told Snake he's defecting to the Soviets and following her shocking move, she and her Cobras took Sokolov and throw Snake out into the falls. Following Snake's injury, he witnessed a devastating nuclear attack on Russian soil using an American-made Davy Crockett portable nuclear warhead. Following the Virtuous Mission incident, the Russians are blaming the US Government and they're going on an all-out war with the Americans unless they sent someone to assassinate The Boss and that someone none other than Naked Snake. This is the start of Operation Snake Eater.
16) During Operation Snake Eater, Snake faces off against a ragtag group of super soldiers known as The Cobras. There is The Pain, who uses insects as his weapon, The Fear who can fall victim using crossbows loaded with pipe bombs and venoms as well as invisibility to blend himself through the jungle, The End who is a ancient sniper hidden through the forests, and The Fury who shoots flames all over.
17) When Snake's Major Raikov disguise was caught off guard by Volgin, Volgin shot Sokolov in the legs while Snake trying to fend off Volgin until The Boss steps in to knock Snake unconscious. Moments later, Snake was tortured by Volgin and after the torture, Snake sees Ocelot doing Russian Roulette to intimidate Tatiana, who is actually EVA in disguise, until the bullet hit Snake's right eye. Ocelot lodged him with a transmitter while The Boss shot him with a revolver before lending the empty gun to him and said "Run." Tatiana whispered to Snake that she has her equipment and she set up a rendezvous point. Snake tries to fool the prison guard by any means necessary and escape from the Groznyj Grad to the rendezvous point while the Ocelot units tailing him. Snake jumps out from the sewers to get away from Ocelot until one moment, he woke up with the sudden encounter with a Cobra member known as The Sorrow. After woken up from such a nightmare, Snake ventured to the rendezvous point and uncovered Tatiana's real identity, who happens to be EVA. After getting his gear back, EVA lends Snake some C3 explosives to plant on the fuel tanks at the Shagohod's hangar.
18) After his clash with Volgin, the C3 explosives set off and the hangar's destroyed. Snake and EVA tries to get away while reaching to the point where he'll face with The Boss. However, the Shagohod's already active and the intense sidecar getaway sequence begins as they are racing their way to the rail bridge, where EVA planted a bomb on the struts for Snake to shoot it when the timing's right. The bridge's destroyed but the Shagohod jumps out, prompting Snake for an epic do-or-die match against this monster machine. With Volgin and the Shagohod defeated, the pursuit continues until they've reached through the woods when the bike got shot and jumped out from the bike. After Snake treating EVA's wounds and gave her the revolver, the two are working their way out from the woods and as they reached the escape point, Snake comes back to face against The Boss for a final showdown. With The Boss falls, she gave Snake the remnants of the Philosophers' Legacy as well as her signature Patriot assault gun and then took her life with her own gun.
19) As Snake reached the missile silo in the pursuit of Gene, he faces off against Cunningham for the last time and explained about how the war unfolds into greater heights and his true intentions, prompting Snake to finish off Cunningham once and for all. After defeating Cunningham, he's going to use the nuke on themselves but failed when his hoverjet blown into smithereens. As he reached Gene, he told Snake everything about this conspiracy. As Gene's about to launch the nuke, Ursula (Elisa) appears out of nowhere and used every ounce of her psychic power to fend him off until Gene killed her. As Gene tries to carry on with the plan, Snake vowed Elisa to avenge her while Ursula witnessed his future. With Gene triggered the nuclear launch, Snake engages Gene on a climactic battle to decide the fate of the world. As Snake outsmarted Gene's psychic powers and defeated him, Gene lend him a film that contains information on his planned world domination but didn't lend him how to stop the nuke. Listening in to Sokolov, Snake used by whatever means necessary to stop the launch but despite efforts from him and the group of soldiers helping him, the nuke was launched. However, the nuke witnessed a malfunction and exploded into many pieces. Snake and his men succeeded from destroying a nuclear weapon.
20) During Old Snake's pursuit on Liquid Ocelot in the Middle East, he was reunited by his old ally Meryl and after all the bickering over personal interests, she introduced him to the her team called RAT PT 01 consisting of her, Akiba, Ed, and Jonathan. After their little introduction, their rendezvous point was raided by Liquid's personal army, the Haven Troopers. As Snake, Meryl, and the gang fends against those heavily armed personnel, Snake continues to pursue Liquid in the war-torn Middle East until his first encounter of the BB Corps that wiped out the militias. After the encounter, Snake managed to infiltrate the enemy camp and encountered Liquid until he became lured into his trap.
21) After defeating Laughing Octopus, Old Snake heads to the forest to follow a trail that will lead him to Naomi. After leading him to Naomi's, he saw her being taken by soldiers and Vamp. As Snake shot Vamp in the head, Liquid unleash the abnormalities on the soldiers' nanomachines, acting them like zombies. After rescuing Naomi, Snake hitched a ride from Drebin and fight his way to the extraction point at a village, with puppet soldiers and Gekkos tailing on their backs.
22) As the Resistance escorting the remains of Big Boss to an extraction point, the Raven Sword soldiers, Gekkos, as well as Haven Troopers, are gunning the resistance down while Snake and Big Mama making a quick getaway from enemy fire while keeping the remains safe. After the chase, Snake and Big Mama got cornered by the attacks of the Sliders and Snake goes to the tower to attack Raging Raven. After defeating Raging Raven, he escorted Big Mama to safety, only to found out that Liquid destroyed the remains of Big Boss. Worse, he now has full control of the nanomachines because of Guns of the Patriots, killing everyone on sight. After that traumatic event, Snake's left face was burnt while Liquid and his troops getting away with Otacon's MG Mk.II leapt through Liquid's ship.
23) After Old Snake and Otacon reached REX's hangar to find the remains of MG REX before Liquid get his hands on it, Otacon found out that Liquid wanted REX's railgun rather than the whole unit. As the plot thickens, Vamp appears and Snake faces off against the immortal adversary until he injected him with the syringe to nullify his immortality. With Vamp now being mortal, self-destructing Gekkos appeared and as Raiden appears to finish Vamp off, Snake readies the railgun he obtained from defeating Crying Wolf. With Vamp killed, Naomi tries to end her suffering and with the loss of Naomi, Snake and his allies are in control of MG REX while pursuing against Liquid. As he faces off against Liquid in a Metal Gear Ray, the party really starts. It's a battle between REX and Ray until one stand out from the top.
24) After the virus wiped out all the existence of the Patriots, Snake faces Liquid for one final fistfight at the top of Outer Haven. It became the fistfight to end all fistfights until the winner is named. As Snake defeated Liquid, he says his last words to him before his death.
25) As Big Boss races through the Soviet base in Nicaragua to rescue Paz from Coldman's clutches, Snake realised that he's too late as Coldman inputted a false data on Peace Walker. As Coldman's plot thickens, Galvez emerged and revealed his true identity as Vladimir Zadornov as he manipulates his plan to attack Cuba. He even forced Paz to kill Coldman as well. After Coldman was shot dead, Zadornov's going to dispose Big Boss once and for all until Amanda, Chico, Miller, and his men arrived to save Snake. Just when they thought everything is over, Dr. Strangelove told Snake about The Boss as she sends him to Peace Walker until Coldman activated the nuke to carry out the false nuclear attack as his memento. Snake has to attack Peace Walker before it launches the nuke and after several rockets, bullets, and explosions later to ward Peace Walker off, the false nuclear data still remains just as when the persuasion with the government officials wasn't enough, the Mammal Pod's opened for him to empty it but the false nuclear data still remains. Snake thrown in everything he got until Peace Walker awakens to commit its ultimate sacrifice.
26) After numerous escape attempts, Big Boss neutralized Zadornov once and for all. However, all's not well in Mother Base when his Metal Gear Zeke went active and it was the work of Paz, who was revealed that she's a spy who works from a shadowy organization known as Cipher. When Snake rejected Paz's offer to join Cipher, Paz initiates a nuclear strike and it's up to Snake to destroy his creation cannibalized by a spy. After Paz bailed out from Zeke, things are back to the way things were and the real ending is when Miller told Snake the truth and why it matters for MSF.
27) Following the dramatic conclusion of Peace Walker, Big Boss infiltrates a US military base in Cuba to rescue Chico and Paz while the Mother Base staff prepares for a surprise inspection from the IAEA. After rescuing Chico and Paz, Snake witnessed the fall of Mother Base and almost most of his men while being attacked by some mysterious group of soldiers.
28) Snake and the Diamond Dogs are facing off against Sahelanthropus and they give in everything they got to stop this atrocity and claim their vengeance against Skull Face. After Sahelanthropus was fallen, Snake and Miller finally got the chance to extract revenge against the man behind Cipher. If Snake didn't shoot Skull Face, Miller did but he decapitated Skull Face instead and let him live in agony until Huey killed him. Upon returning to Mother Base, they brought the downed Sahelanthropus with them, proof that they have successfully extracted revenge against Cipher but the road to vengeance is far from over. Moments after Sahelanthropus under Mother Base hands, however, Eli and the child soldiers got away with it, raising questions on its whereabouts.
29) After Big Boss found Quiet held captive by the Soviet troops at the Lamar Khaate Palace, he witnessed Quiet violently attacked the captors and later reunited with Snake as they face off reinforcements storming through an abandoned Afghan palace. Snake needs to fend off the reinforcements while protecting the silent assassin. As they successfully rid the reinforcements, Snake tries to bring Quiet to the designated rendezvous point in the dead of a sandstorm. However, Snake was bitten by a snake and Quiet tries to rescue him while summoning the chopper for pickup. This is the part where we see Quiet literally broke her silence and after the rescue, Snake woke up with Quiet nowhere to be found and all that's left from her is a cassette tape of her testimony with Snake.
30) The real ending of The Phantom Pain is the biggest plot twist no one ever saw it coming. While revisiting the beginning of the story, the one where Cipher's XOF raided a hospital in Dhekelia while Snake is escaping the hospital with the help of someone known as Ishmael. After witnessing the beginning, here's the real kicker; the Ishmael who helped Snake escaped from the hospital is actually Big Boss after all and the Big Boss in question is actually a regular Mother Base soldier now bearing Snake's identity.
And there you have it. My 30 best moments in Metal Gear history and if you have anything else to say, don't be afraid because the celebration of 30 years of Metal Gear continues and with the upcoming orchestral performance featuring the best songs from the history of the Metal Gear saga from Operation Snake Eater to Guns of the Patriots, looks like there's more icing on top of the cake as the world celebrates 30 years of Metal Gear and in preparation for next year's Metal Gear Survive.
