| Series
Generally |
MGS |
MGS2 |
MGS3 |
Other
(MG1, MG2, ZOE, Snatcher) |
| Sunny uses a GA-KO duck
alarm clock. GA-KO has previously appeared as a capture-the-flag
maguffin
in the online modes of MGS3 and MPO. |
During Act III's Mission
Briefing, Naomi wears the white hoodie overshirt that Otacon had worn
at Shadow Moses. By visually likening her character design to Otacon's
in MGS1, MGS4 reinforces the player's identification of her as
fulfilling
the Saga's "rescued scientist" trope. |
Naomi and Otacon's love
recalls Emma's love for Otacon. Both are scientists; Snake's crew
rescues
Naomi as they had Emma in MGS2; and Otacon removes his glasses after
recognizing his love for Naomi, recalling Emma's request that he do
the same for her. MGS4 reinforces this association by preceding
Otacon's
and Naomi's love scene with an image of Emma lifted from MGS2 without
being updated for MGS4's higher graphical resolution. |
Naomi wears a USB flash
card around her neck. This recalls the bullet that Young Ocelot had
worn around his neck to remember his first loss against Naked Snake. |
Snake's character design
at the start of Act III resembles Gillian Seed's design from Snatcher. |
| Otacon iterates a stock
lamentation: "It's us scienceholics who are doing [the
military-industryal
complex's] dirty work for them." See similar speeches from Otacon
in MGS1, from Emma in MGS2, and from Sokolov in MGS3. |
Campbell provides a
voice-over
Briefing as Snake enters the Eastern Europe level via train, recalling
his voice-over Briefing during Snake's infiltration of Shadow Moses. |
Ocelot requires "biometric
data" to access SOP, recalling MGS2's use of President Johnson's
biometrics as the final password for launching Arsenal Gear. |
Snake receives a Signal
Interceptor item from Otacon. The item's abbreviated name, SIGINT,
recalls
the pseudonym of DARPA Chief Donald Anderson, who had served on
Snake's
support staff during MGS3. |
Act III's atmosphere
places
Snake as a low-key agent in a near-future city, recalling the settings
of both Snatcher and Policenauts. MGS4 reinforces this association by
placing iPod tunes from these games in Act III. |
| The Resistance member
whistles
a tune reminiscent of the Metal Gear Saga's traditional theme. |
Snake disavows his status
as a hero to Meryl immediately after she recollects their time
together
as a couple. ("I'm no hero. Never was. Never will be.") This
recalls Snake's attempts to distance himself from her veneration of
him as a legend as well as the relationship that resulted from that
hero-worship. |
Naomi becomes a surrogate
mother figure for Sunny, recalling Sunny's lost mother from MGS2. MGS4
reinforces this association by showing monitor and framed images of
MGS2's Olga. |
If Snake behaves
suspiciously,
he will attract attention from the Resistance member. The Resistance
member's lean-forward-and-inspect animation closely resembles the same
action of Graniny Gorki scientists in MGS3 if Snake behaves out of
character. |
Raiden and Otacon mention
a character named Dr. Madnar, recalling identically named robotics
experts
from Metal Gear 1, Metal Gear 2, and Snatcher. |
| Under certain conditions,
the Resistance member will urinate on Snake. This recalls previous
instances
in the Saga wherein the player's character gets urinated upon. See the
wolf-dog that urinates on Solid Snake's box in MGS1 and the
Gurlukovich
soldier's urination on Raiden in MGS2. |
When the Resistance member
dons an enemy uniform, Snake must identify him in part by his
different
way of walking. This recalls Snake's need to identify Meryl apart from
other Genome soldiers by her "cute way of walking." |
Sunny's relationship with
Otacon resembles the Platonic aspects of his relationship with Emma.
She treats him like an older brother, has superior hacking skills, and
shares Emma's status as an orphan. |
Snake can destroy dormant
vehicles under guard, recalling Naked Snake's option to destroy the
Hind helicopter at Bolshaya Past Base. |
Snake allows himself to
be captured by Meryl at the start of Act III, recalling his similar
infiltration tactic during Metal Gear 1. |
| Act III regularly receives
criticism for feeling like a non-MGS sequence. However, it is the
first
Act in MGS3 wherein Snake infiltrates an occupied region with patrol
stations, recalling the usual contexts for infiltration in the Metal
Gear Saga. |
Helicopter searchlights
appear in several areas of Act III, recalling the helipad searchlights
at the start of MGS1. |
Music resembling MGS2's
"Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday" plays while Otacon and Naomi
chat before having sex. "Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday" had
played while Jack and Rose met in person at the end of MGS2, and the
acoustic resemblance in MGS4 associates Naomi's and Otacon's
relationship
with Jack's and Rose's. |
Snake arrives in Eastern
Europe wearing the Young Snake Facecamo. This recalls one of the
possible
openings of Virtuous Mission when Naked Snake wears the Raikov mask. |
The design of the Signal
Interceptor recalls the radio designs from Metal Gears 1 and 2. |
| The end of Act IV features
the first large info dump that ties the stories of the Metal Gear Saga
together with revisions to the Saga's prior canon. This kind of
retconning
is typical of Metal Gear Saga titles. |
Snake receives a stunning
revelation about his natural birth from his mother, recalling the
stunning
revelation about his natural birth that he had received during MGS1
from Liquid Snake, his brother. |
Act III's title suggests
Solidus Snake's relationship to Liquid and Solid Snake, much as MGS2
had introduced him as "the other clone" without connecting
his identity too closely to his brothers'. |
Snake's tracking of the
Resistance member recalls Naked Snake's tracking of Raikov inside
Groznyj
Grad. |
Act III's tracking
sequences
ends at a church, recalling the end of Snatcher. |
| The Resistance member uses
an enemy disguise to slip through the Raven PMC's ranks, recalling
Solid
Snake's use of an Enemy Uniform item to access Metal Gear 1's second
building, Raiden's use of BDUs to infiltrate the Shell 1 core, and
Naked
Snake's use of Raikov's uniform (with mask) to infiltrate Sokolov's
holding cell in Groznyj Grad in MGS3. |
Ocelot torments Snake with
a combination of physical buffets and electric shocks. The electric
shocks recall Snake's time on Ocelot's revolving torture bed in Shadow
Moses. |
Ocelot's victory at the
end of Act III resembles his victories at the end of both the Tanker
Chapter of MGS2. In both, he kills a slew of highly skilled American
soldiers while getting away with the games' respective "big weapon." |
Snake beats down several
armed antagonists once reaching the Church, recalling Snake's defeat
of the Ocelot Unit after reaching Sokolov's location at the end of
MGS3's
Virtuous Mission. |
Snake must track a wary
insider to an unknown destination, recalling Metal Gear 2's green
beret
tracking sequence. The player must complete these sequences by
following
the mark, despite the possibility of knowing the destination
beforehand. |
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|
Snake waits for the
Resistance
member to input the Church's door's access code before taking him
hostage,
recalling Raiden's taking a Gurlukovich soldier hostage and using his
eyes to access the Shell 1 Core's door. |
EVA uses the recoil of her
Chinese Mauser to perform her signature spreadshot attack, first seen
after her meet-up with Naked Snake during Operation Snake Eater. |
Dwarf Gekkos appear
disguised
as a person, recalling the way that Snatchers disguist themselves. |
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|
Otacon encourages Snake
to use sound cues when tracking the Resistance member, recalling when
Raiden had been encouraged to listen for Ames' pacemaker with the
Directional
Microphone. |
Snake's and EVA's bike
chase
heavily resembles the escape sequence from MGS3, breaking into two
segments.
They first escape a phalanx of enemies in vehicles and then escape the
pursuit of a mechanical boss, recalling Naked Snake's and EVA's flight
first from GRU soldiers on bikes and then from the Shagohod. |
EVA (Big Mama) takes in
war orphans for her Resistance as Big Boss had in Zanzibarland. |
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EVA complains about the
relationship between war orphans and videogames, recalling Raiden's
role as a nexus between videogames and his past as a child soldier. |
Snake's and EVA's trek
toward
the Volta River recalls Naked Snake's escape through Groznyj Grad's
sewers. Both MGS4's and MGS3's sequences end on a confrontation with
Ocelot near a river. |
Snake uses contacts within
a local Resistance to work against the PMCs as Snake had worked with
the Resistance in Outer Heaven to work against Big Boss. (No small
coincidence
that there's a Dr. Pettrovich Madnar there too.) |
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Ocelot stands off against
a slew of US forces on boats beneath a bridge at the end of Act III,
recalling his stand off against Dolph's Marines on board the Tanker
and the Tanker's passage beneath the Verrazano Bridge. |
Snake is manipulated into
killing his natural mother with FoxDie, recalling how Naked Snake had
been manipulated into killing his symbolic mother, The Boss. |
Act III features a
Resistance
force fighting against occupation, recalling the Resistance force that
resisted Big Boss's occupation of Galzburg as Outer Heaven. |
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|
Ocelot uses Guns of the
Patriots to hijack a number of military vessels, recalling his similar
hijacking of the Tanker in MGS2. |
Snake acquires the Vz.83
submachine gun before Act III's bike chase, recalling the Scorpion
that
Naked Snake had found in Groznyj Grad before MGS3's bike chase. (The
Scorpion had proven one of Naked Snake's more useful weapons during
MGS3's bike escape due to its laser sight.) |
EVA's role as surrogate
"parent" of war orphans recalls Big Boss's similar role as
ward of war orphans at Zanzibarland in Metal Gear 2. |
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|
Johnny's character design
combines elements from the designs of Raiden and Young Solid Snake. |
If players use Autoaim
rather
than over-the-shoulder aiming, they can watch the escape sequence from
a number of dynamic, filmic camera angles, recalling the same aspect
of MGS3's bike escape. |
Snake's and EVA's escape
through the sewer recalls Snake's and Gustav Heffner's escape through
Zanzibarland's sewers in Metal Gear 2. |
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Snake must lay cover fire
for the Resistance member, recalling when Raiden did the same for Emma
while she crossed the Oil Fence in the Big Shell. |
Snake's leaving EVA to
fight
Raven resembles Naked Snake's leaving EVA to fight The Boss. In both
instances, EVA asks Snake to promise to return, and each Snake refuses
to confirm that possibility. |
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Ocelot's cigar bounces off
the Solid Eye, recalling how Naked Snake's eyepatch had deflected
Ocelot's
eye-poke during their standoff on board the WIG in MGS3. |
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Ocelot disarms and
physically
beats Snake to incapacitation, recalling many instances during MGS3
when The Boss had disarmed and defeated Snake. |
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The fire caused by
Ocelot's
Thor handrifle permanently scars the side of Snake's face. This
recalls
when exhaust from Ocelot's SAA permanently damaged Naked Snake's eye.
In MGS3, Naked Snake pushed EVA out of Ocelot's juggling target
sights,
and Snake pushes EVA out of harm's way in MGS4. |
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Ocelot's hand signals for
Guns of the Patriots resemble his signature hand gestures from MGS3. |
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Ocelot torments Snake with
a combination of physical buffets and electric shocks. The physical
attacks recall Volgin's brutal beatings of Naked Snake and Granin in
Groznyj Grad. |
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Thunder and lightning
effects
herald Old Snake's learning that EVA was his mother, recalling the
same
effect and camera angle when Volgin realized that Naked Snake was
after
The Philosopher's Legacy. |
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The burns on the side of
Snake's face recall Young Ocelot's singed cheek from the Shagohod's
afterburn. |
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EVA's standing in fire
visually
resembles Volgin's fiery death atop the Shagohod. |
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