Now with Hollywood bad-ass Kiefer Sutherland at the helm as main protagonist Big Boss, you might be forgiven for assuming this "thinking man's" stealth/action game was going in the same direction of his world wide hit 24 (also, coincidentally, out this year).
From the first hints of this game, however, there were already glimmers that this would not be your typical all-American action game. "Nerd alert! Who would play video games that isn't under 12 years old!" You might think. But please, I invite you to read on.
For a start, it is made in Japan. And the opening shots of the very first trailer depicted the high-security military prison "Camp Omega"... A very clear nod to the real-world prison at Guantanamo Bay "Camp X-Ray". Where a child soldier is being held, having been apparently interrogated and tortured. And also where a female soldier has, apparently, had a bomb implanted inside of her... Necessitating an emergency operating procedure following rescue. Without anaesthetic. Following an (judging from a report a few months ago by the American Video Games Rating Board) already traumatic experience of sexual assault as a prisoner of war.
No, this isn't your typical action game. The "Metal Gear" series has always been one to tackle difficult and sensitive subjects; unique in an industry with budgets rapidly increasing to (and surpassing) those of Hollywood films. But first, some back story. This job isn't made much easier because of a storyline that could easily rival Lost in complexity. And to any pedantic geeks... Yes, I have glossed over a lot of the points on purpose to save this becoming an essay. The Metal Gear Series covers games set in the present day and prequels set around the era of the Cold War, and it is this part of the timeline I will be focusing on.
Set in 1974, Ground Zeroes is the first part of the two-parter "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain", and follows the exploits of our main character with the code name "Big Boss". This was a code name given to him following a top secret mission in the Soviet Union where he managed to save the world from the brink of nuclear war; precipitated by the apparent defection of American Special Forces agent "The Boss" and former mentor of our hero (then known as Snake).
I say apparent, because our primary antagonist was herself undercover in order to obtain the Russian's share of a cache of funds amassed by the world's powers in the aftermath of World War 1 in order to try and prevent any kind of needless war from happening again. This mission all went wrong when her gift to a rival Soviet faction of a portable nuclear missile resulted in America having to explain an American-made nuclear missile being exploded on a Russian research base. In order to cover their tracks, the US government agreed to send one of their own agents in to assassinate her, as a show of faith they had nothing to do with it and that it was a "genuine" defection. The Boss was fully aware of this; and knew her mission was to allow herself to be killed at the hands of her former student.
After learning about this right at the end of that game, Snake was understandably a little bitter. He left the US army to set up and wander the world with a "rag tag set of mercenaries", using his army to fight for nations or peoples he believed to be the victims of US or Russian aggression in their proxy war. Things came to a head in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, when the US government attempted to directly intervene with aggression in Nicaragua in order to stem the number of Soviet-friendly countries in Central and South America, areas the USA saw as it's "back yard".
It turns out the funding and snazzy off-shore base used to pay for Snake and his private army were provided by none other than another Soviet general wanting to make his mark in the world, using secret nuclear technology being developed in Nicaragua to destroy the base and army of Snake as well as assassinate him... By this point he had made himself a hero you see, and having him murdered and his base destroyed by a secret nuclear bomb from a secret US nuclear base would see an untold number of countries convert to communism, with much the same heroic imagery as Che Guevara.
Needless to say, Snake managed to overthrow this plot and, again, save the world from nuclear annihilation. But not before learning that the US had actually influenced the situation from the beginning, through a new intelligence agency known as "cypher". They needed an army and a situation to keep the world occupied, knowing the cold war would soon draw to a close and that the concept of "deterrence" would no longer keep America dominant in the new world. Cypher sought to gain dominance through information technology, and controlling the flow of information to eventually prevent war and ensure the superiority of the US in the coming generations. Refusing to accept being used, Snake gunned down the agent sent in to assess and sabotage his base. But not before acknowledging he had allowed his army without a country, intended for nations and peoples unable to fight or protect themselves, to interfere with the times and become a target themselves.
So at this point, Snake (now fully accepting his new title of Big Boss as a new start) is understandably very bitter towards any kind of government or order at this time. We also know that he becomes a major villain in the games set in the present day, and with the theme of "revenge" being continuously asserted in the advertising for the latest installments of the series this could well be the Metal Gear equivalent of Anakin Skywalker's transformation to Darth Vader in Star Wars.
With a unique tapestry of canon to draw on, including plot points regularly dealing with the betrayal of former soldiers by the state and government surveillance, a story like this could not be more apt at a time of NSA and government scandals across the world. I don't think there is a better time than now for video games to finally mature enough to deal with themes like child soldiers and rape within war, as a contrast to glorified violence in games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. From the trailers seen so far, this is one of those uncomfortable but unforgettable experiences in the same way as "12 Years A Slave". Maybe we could see a change in the coming decade of video games finally being seen as a serious art form.
