With four main games in the Metal Gear Solid series – excluding the original two Metal Gear games – there are plenty of stand-out characters in the game mythos. This article sheds light on some of the most important and memorable. Read on for the full list of memorable Metal Gear characters…
Memorable List of Characters in Metal Gear Solid
Over the last couple of decades, the Metal Gear series has produced a litany of memorable & vividly entertaining characters, welcoming them into its vaunted mythos. This article looks at several of these Metal Gear Solid characters and provides some detail on the more bombastic or enjoyable people encountered during the story of Solid Snake. Read on for the list of characters in Metal Gear Solid that stand above the rest of the ensemble cast of miscreants, grunts & in-game bosses.
Solid Snake - The Protagonist
Any list of characters in Metal Gear Solid would be remiss if it didn’t contain the series protagonist. Solid Snake goes through some traumatic events during the course of Kojima’s constructed tale. He fights his mentor and father, as well as defeating his biological brother in Liquid Snake and finally putting an end to both the patriots & Ocelot’s plans for global autocracy. His genetic makeup as well as his sense of place and time is constantly nourished throughout the four main games as the motifs of the series reinforce themselves through Snake more than anybody.
Raiden - A Divisive Metal Gear Solid Characters List Choice
Perhaps a divisive choice - even after seeing his Grey Fox influenced redesign in MGS4 - but none-the-less a useful character within the two games he appears (three if you count Raikov from MGS3). Although he enters Sons of Liberty under the auspices of a cipher for the player, Raiden becomes his own character throughout the narrative of MGS2, while being expanded upon further during Guns of The Patriots. His girlish hair and anime flavoured design may not be to everyones taste, but Raiden has a larger role to play than most of the other Metal Gear Solid characters.
Noami Hunter - The Vengeful Doctor
Adopted - in somewhat dubious circumstances - sister to the erstwhile Frank Jaeger (Grey Fox ), Naomi Hunter is the creator of the FOXDIE virus and vindictive doctor who initially holds a grudge against Solid Snake. She was directly responsible for the deaths of ArmsTech President Kenneth Baker, Decoy Octopus and Liquid Snake. By 2014 and the events of MGS4, Naomi would give Snake a grim prognosis on the now mutated strain of FOXDIE she had injected him with nine years prior. Before her death, she gave Sunny the building blocks for creating FOXALIVE, as a means to destroy GW and the Patriots systems in a viral attack.
Revolver Ocelot - One of The Best Metal Gear Solid Characters
Not content to be a double-agent for then president Solidus Snake while working for FOXHOUND in the original MGS, Ocelot is in cahoots with seemingly every side of each Metal Gear based conflict. From being an undercover Russian agent for the Philosophers in MGS3 to creating a faux-Liquid personality to trick the Patriots and ultimately gain control of the System in MGS4, Ocelot is the principal antagonist of the series, even if he is a facsimile of Liquid Snake until the very end of the fourth game.
Psycho Mantis - The Psychic
One of the more memorable Metal Gear Solid characters and perhaps oft remembered boss battles in the entire series. Psycho Mantis is a crazed psychic who worked with FOXHOUND during the Shadow Moses incident of the first Solid title. The infamous second controller port solution to his boss battle is still fondly remembered by longtime Metal Gear fans and was subsequently the premise for a reminiscent scene in Guns of The Patriots with Screaming Mantis.
Solidus Snake - The Perfect Clone
Former President, the perfect clone from “Les Enfants Terribles” project and traitor to the Patriots and Raiden’s childhood guardian. As with a host of Metal Gear Solid characters, Solidus has a checkered history within the game universe. After being ousted as president in the aftermath of the Shadow Moses incident, he would start an insurrection on the Big Shell cleanup facility some four years later, with the help of Dead Cell. In keeping with the recurring nature of story elements in the series, Solidus was the adoptive father of Raiden and had killed his parents before doing so, in the same way as Grey Fox & Naomi Hunter before him.
