Every Metal Gear Solid game has its share of iconic moments. No one can forget when Psycho Mantis read the player’s memory cards or the final fight between Snake and Ocelot. But while every game has big, flashy scenes, there are also smaller moments that still feel poignant today.
In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Solid Snake delivers a powerful speech that digs into the themes of the game and the series as a whole. It’s one of the best video game quotes of all time, and it’s so meaningful that Snake’s words also hold true in the real world.
Solid Snake Gives the Greatest Speech in Video Game History
In Metal Gear Solid 4, players control an aged version of Solid Snake who only has about a year to live. He’s grappling with the fact that he won’t be around much longer and trying to decide what to do with the time he has left.
The game opens with a speech from Solid Snake that sets the tone for the rest of the game. Snake speaks via voice-over in MGS4‘s opening cutscene, which shows a shrouded Snake and other soldiers headed into battle. It’s not being delivered to anyone and particular and seems to be aimed at the player more than anything else.
From the very first line, players know they’re about to hear something special. “War has changed,” says Snake. It’s a direct contrast to one of the most memorable video game quotes of all time: “War, war never changes,” the opening line in the Fallout games.
“It’s no longer about nations, ideologies, or ethnicity,” Snake continues. “It’s an endless series of proxy battles, fought by mercenaries and machines. War, and its consumption of life, has become a well-oiled machine. War has changed. ID-tagged soldiers carry ID-tagged weapons, use ID-tagged gear.”
While Snake is clearly referring to the world of the Metal Gear Solid games, his words still feel incredibly true. “War has changed. The age of deterrence has become the age of control. All in the name of averting catastrophe from weapons of mass destruction. And he who controls the battlefield controls history.”
Then, with his final words, Snake delivers a line that gets to the bottom of what Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima is trying to say. “War has changed. When the battlefield is under total control, war… becomes routine.”
Metal Gear Solid 4 came out in 2008, but the speech Snake delivers feels even more resonant now than it did back then. Real soldiers aren’t being boosted by MGS4‘s nanomachines, but technology has changed the way that war is fought, with technology like drones playing an increasing role.
The game delves deeply into how technological advancements affect the outcome of warfare, and why that makes war so different from what it was like a century or even a few decades ago. Snake also highlights one of the biggest risks of these technological advancements when he talks about nanomachines.
“Nanomachines inside their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities. Genetic control. Information control. Emotion control. Battlefield control. Everything is monitored and kept under control,” says Snake. War has changed, and it’s more insecure than ever because all sides are so reliant on technology.
Metal Gear Solid 4 was released in the last full year of George W. Bush’s presidency, which was largely defined by the “war on terror,” which saw the United States at war with Iraq and Afghanistan. The United States military has always been a major part of the MGS series, and these real-world conflicts influenced the game’s story.
Even though MGS4 emphasized the state of technology in warfare in 2008, much of what Snake says is still true about the state of war today, if not more so. Many would argue that drones and other military tech have made warfare monotonous, even though it still has a real human cost.
Metal Gear Solid 4‘s speech is incredibly powerful and raises real questions about warfare that have no easy answers. Even though the Metal Gear Solid series is famous for its boss fights, this speech proves that Hideo Kojima’s writing is what makes the games so special.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
- Released
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June 12, 2008
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Crude Humor, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Kojima Productions
- Publisher(s)
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Konami
- Engine
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Havok
- Prequel(s)
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Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004)
- Sequel(s)
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Metal Gear Solid 5 The Phantom Pain
- Franchise
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Metal Gear