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Metal Gear Solid
World
The MGS world is an alternate-universe version of our own planet Earth. The level of technology is far higher - for instance, nanocommunication having been developed by 2005 - and the political climate different (such as the fact the Soviet Union existed until about 1999), but this still needn't be taken too seriously, as the reason for this is that the games are set slightly in the future from when they were made. (The game set in '99 was made in the eighties, and the game set in 2005 was made in 1999.)
Many locations of the MGS world are therefore visitable in real life, most iconically displayed by MGS2 in which the opening scene sees Solid Snake leaping from the George Washington Bridge, and the final battle takes place on the roof of Manhattan's Federal Hall - however, many more are fictitious, such as the Alaskan island that MGS1 takes place on (Shadow Moses) and the area of jungle that MGS3 takes place in (Tselinoyarsk). The fictional nation of Zanzibar Land played an important part in MG2, as did the fictitious South African state Gindra, where the fortress of Outer Heaven was created in MG1.
The eponymous Metal Gears were all bipedal nuclear weapons, capable of launching a nuclear strike from anywhere in the globe - the early canon models and the MGS1 model (REX, designed by Otacon) fit this standard. However, as nuclear weapons have become less tactically important, Metal Gears are becoming smaller and more mobile, as demonstrated by the sleek, dinosaurian RAYs in MGS2 and the strangely organic GEKKOUs in the upcoming MGS4.
Culture
In MGS2, it is revealed that America is controlled by a secret organisation known as The Patriots - a group of twelve men, known as the Wisemen's Committee, appear to have full control over the President (a figurehead). Towards the end, though, their humanity comes into question as they declare themselves to be born from 'information', and Otacon is able to decode a virus containing the names of the Wisemen's Committee, runs a look-up on these names, and discovers that they have all been dead - for over a hundred years. The Patriots have great technology, extreme skill with psychology (allowing them to manipulate events to generate a certain personality in an individual) and seemingly limitless extent.
The mercenary organisation FOX-HOUND once had a great reputation for providing highly-skilled, talented, dedicated soldiers, and traditionally give their members a two-word codename, the first being a word to describe their personality, affiliations or skills, and the second (usually) being an animal which can be cross-referenced with their entry test scores (the highest accolade being the codename 'Fox'). This group was headed by the soldier Big Boss, an almost supernaturally-gifted soldier with a single eye and a tragic story of his own - and also the genetic father of Solid, Liquid and Solidus Snakes. After his death, the unit ceased to exist in that form, and ended up all-but-disbanding into a six-man team headed by Liquid Snake, which went on to become the revolutionaries 'Sons Of Big Boss' in MGS1. After they were dealt with and their leader killed, FOX-HOUND was completely disbanded, its only legacy being a handful of soldiers who still bore animalistic names and, strangely, a young soldier named Raiden who had been duped into believing he was a FOX-HOUND agent by The Patriots.
The later-on collapse of the Soviet Union means a great deal of political unrest, mainly manifest in small fierce bands of Russian revolutionaries intent on restoring the Communist regime, such as the Gurlukovich Soldiers, who provided huge amounts of equipment to the rebels of MGS1 and manpower to the Sons of Liberty in MGS2.
Powers
Supernatural abilities are uncommon in the MGS world, but those who have them usually end up causing a great deal of trouble for multiple reasons. Snake himself has no powers, but his enemies often do - he has faced a shaman, a psychic, a 'vampire' and a woman who seemed to have magical 'luck' abilities, to name a few. His father fought the Cobra Unit, who were made up of seeming supernaturals - an undead autotroph, a man who could turn invisible at will, a man capable of acting as a hive-mind for hornets stored in his body, a man whose spirit seemed to catch fire after he was killed, and a powerful ghost - his own mentor was able to manifest her agony as a snake on her deathbed.
The most common 'power' seen in MGS is that of a very highly-skilled human, such as Wolf, who had trained herself to be able to go for days without eating or drinking in order to become a better sniper, and Ocelot, whose mind seems to work almost in bullet-time, allowing him to control ricochet in order to shoot around corners and from unexpected angles.
Another common 'power' is that of technological augmentation - Fox, Solidus and (to a lesser extent) Raiden were capable of superhuman feats because of the suits they wore.
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, Feb 11 2007, 11:07 AM EST
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