What you need to know before playing Metal Gear Solid 4

by Randy Nelson on Jun 11th 2008 12:30PM

The storyline that's finally wrapping up in MGS4 has spanned six games and 20 years, so things have understandably gotten a little ... convoluted along the way. The series has seen some of the most oddly codenamed characters outside of G.I. Joe and more story twists than can be found crumpled up in M. Night Shyamalan's waste basket.

For those of you heading into MGS4 fresh – or have simply lost track of who's who and what's what along the way (we wouldn't blame you) – we present this painstakingly pruned primer to the names you need to know, with the hope that you embark on Solid Snake's final mission excited rather than bewildered. Get started here!

Snake? Snaaaake? SNAAAAAAKE! Check out our Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots page for all things Metal Gear.

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Tags: joystiqfeatures, kojima-productions, konami, metal-gear-solid-4, Metal-Gear-Solid-4-Guns-of-the-Patriots, mgs4, PS3

Reader Comments (56)

Surely, re-watching METAL GEAR AWESOME tells you all you need to know?

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/297383

You like men.

CRYPTIC METAPHOR!

MASSIVE DAMAGE

I'm halfway through MGS3... I'm just worried I have to finish that one before MGS4.

I don't think you need to finish MGS3 to play MGS4, it will help with the story quite a bit though. I think MGS2 is more essential to play before MGS4 though.

I was wondering the same thing. I never got into the 3rd game....in fact, I only completed MGS 1&2. by the time I bought the 3rd game the controls felt very dated and I was frustrated by them so I never went back to it.

I just played through 2 and 3 and now I'm making my way through twin snakes and I still find myself constantly crouching and then crawling while I'm trying to run away from people.

The GameTrailers retrospectives are really a great way for the backstory

I agree, they do a better job. i dont like the way joystiq talks about roles of the characters in mgs4. Just tell me the backstory without eluding to the new one.

I thought the original Metal Gear games on the MSX/NES had nothing to do with the current games? So it wouldn't really span 20 years, would it?

Nope, they totally do. The original MG had Big Boss as the villian in Outer Heaven. Granted you knew so little back then. Likewise, the story in MGS:PO tells the story of Big Boss forming Outer Heaven.

A lot of MG1 and MG2 did get retconned, but not enough to detract from the whole 'SOLID saga. Trust your good ol'buddy FOXHOUND when he tells ya that you don't have to play through MGS1-3 before playing the fourth. MGS4 does have a flashback option in-game to allow you to retread any parts of the tale you may have missed or not played.

...though, playing MG1&2 and MGS1-3 does help. :]

Okay, here's the simple version: Right now there's about eleven hours left until the East Coast launch.

If you've never played an MGS game before, start drinking now. Don't stop until the game's done installing. Your brain will then be in the right state of mind to understand the story.

If you have played an MGS game before, preferably finished it, start drinking now. Don't stop until the game's done installing. Your brain will then be in the right frame of mind to try to sort out all the great heaving plot inconsistencies that the first few hours of this game will introduce into the story.

(I tease because I love... and my preorder receipt is burning a hole in my pocket. Please keep that in mind when you minus me down.)

I have kept that in mind and lovingly minused you down.

That was actually well written.

Good descriptions of events/characters thus far.

Your avatar makes me afraid to sleep at night.

Sorry

;[

Chigurh means no harm...

to you at least...

"Chigurh means no harm...

to you at least..."

That depends on which side the coin lands....

Noshino...you're right...

generalDEATH...I tried man...sorry. =\ Heads or tails...

Choose your fate.

I gotta know what it is I stand to win...

You really should be more concerned about what you stand to lose...

...heads.

*Nervously waits*

Tonight's the night for you pre-purchasers!

my broke @$$ doesnt get paid until Friday, not being able to play it until after work. So I will be a good 48 hours behind everyone else :(

At least you'll get it! Better late than never!

Don't know what the La-Le-Lu-Lay-Lie-Lee-Lai thing is, don't want to find out.

Sorry to spoil it for everyone but the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo are actually Werewolves... from Space!

It all makes sense now! :O

That actually sounds like a pretty good story. Great job for MGS noobs like me.

I love the conspiracy to control the world thing.

But $100 bln to control the world? That's too little. Freaking Bill Gates has $40 bln and he ... wait a minute.

Yessssssss...now you see...

...Join the Anti-Gates Resistance movement today!

...financed by Sony.

That's 100 BILLION dollars in 1960s.

With Inflation, that's well over 1 TRILLION Dollars today... Bill Gate's got Nothing on that.

I can't buy it until the 20th. I'm not really sure how I'm going to deal with it.

This recap has spoilers from the new game! I'm pretty irritated. I thought it was supposed to be a recap of the old games. I mean maybe they were revealed in some recent trailers or gameplay videos but it's info I would have rather found out while playing the actual game. Spoilers. Particularly the explanation of ocelot's arm and the info on meryl. I quit reading after that. Uncool.

Well ocelots arm was known from 3. I dont think this will ruin the game. Im sure this doesnt begin to scratch the surface of the crap about to go down in 4.

I know it won't ruin the game, but it's something they apparently reveal in the new game and I've been trying to avoid spoilers. I thought reading a recap article would be safe from that sort of thing. I disagree that the ocelot thing was revealed in 3. You could have come up with that theory based on 3 though, considering who his father was, but it wasn't spelled out that that's how the arm thing worked. I was looking forward to Kojima's explanation of it, which he said would be revealed in 4. Maybe this article is just making that assumption as well.

Ocelot's arm isn't a spoiler, though. It was assumed in MGS3 that since he was the son of "The Sorrow" and "The Boss"/"The Joy"; he inherited their uncanny abilities. And then it was confirmed in the IDW comic for MGS2, literally with a half-page artwork of Ocelot and "the Sorrow".

Deaddy,

"I disagree that the ocelot thing was revealed in 3. You could have come up with that theory based on 3 though, considering who his father was, but it wasn't spelled out that that's how the arm thing worked. I was looking forward to Kojima's explanation of it, which he said would be revealed in 4."

No, the thing about Ocelot's hand in MGS1-2 was explained...

Kojima's explanation, that is something COMPLETELY different...

I'd love to pick up a PS3, get the MGS collection and play them all, but there's no backcompat anymore. And I really don't want to go buy a PS2 at this point. Argh.

The new MGS4 80GB bundle should/will have some degree of PS2 support. I'm not sure if the MGS games run on it. I found that MGS3 on PS2 looked like crap on my HDTV, but upscaled on PS3 it looked great. On PS2 it was unplayable cause you couldn't seem the small animals in the grass due to the jaggy image. I was using component cables. I just played through 2 on PS3 and it looked great too.

Thanks for the tip, too bad the price listed on amazon for the bundle starts at nearly $900, that's a little too much for me.

$900 price point is from a third party, you should get the MGS4 bundle from Wal-mart, which atm, is one of the best deals out there...

You would be getting the 80gb PS3, MGS4, DS3 and a $100 gift card...

Anybody fell like making bets?

Personally I doubt that the sales will go past 3-5M copies.

Even MGS fans admit that the series isn't exactly easy on the casual audience and/or newcomers.

I fell once making bets...never got up.

Sorry Jakka, couldn't resist.

Crap...goddamn typos...

One mistake there though, Snake received the dominant genes and liquid had the recessive genes.

Nope. Re-listen to Ocelot's conversation with the President at the end of MGS1

In the phone call after the credits of MGS1 they reveal that Snake had the recessive genes and Liquid was the dominant one.

@George

Nope. Snake received the dominant, supposedly 'superior' genes, but at the end it was revealed that he was actually genetically inferior to Liquid.

@ Solidus

That's what I said.

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What you need to know before playing Metal Gear Solid 4

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