The philosophy of the Metal Gear series
- sn pubs
- Mar 26
- 6 min read
Despite Metal Gear Solid being a video game, I've always thought of it as something that is deeply political and philosophical. As someone who strongly believes that video games are one of the best mediums for posing deep and interesting questions about morality and ethics, I feel that the Metal Gear series has always been more than just a silly game. Rather, it examines what it means to be human, whether that be in the background of our genetic makeup, our environment, or the digital landscape we find ourselves in, and is hence something that I would like to analyse.
Metal Gear Solid is a series of video games produced by the Japanese game company, Konami, and mostly helmed by famous video game creator Hideo Kojima. The series itself is rather old, with the earliest game published in 1987 and spanning across 40 years, yet the themes brought up within the games are still deeply relevant in today's modern context.
Firstly, the Metal Gear series, especially in Metal Gear Solid 1, discusses the importance of genetics in shaping one's character. While this is mainly a fighting, “tactical espionage action” game, such philosophical themes show up very strongly through characters actions, motives and dialogues. The main character, Snake, grapples with his own personal identity throughout the game after finding out he is but a clone of his father. He poses the question of the ethics behind biological gene replication, as well as whether they dictate the meaning of his life. While the main antagonist in this game, his very own brother who is also a clone, strongly believes that they will turn out exactly like their father, Snake ends up fighting against that belief. The game concludes with him succeeding over his brother/clone and realising that regardless of whatever DNA he has, whatever environment he is surrounded by, he ultimately has the choice to decide how he wants to act, behave or steer his life; in the end, everyone gets to choose how their life unravels, is the main philosophy of this first game. By defeating his brother, Snake has proved that one does not have to resign to the fate of their genes and can instead have a much more optimistic outlook to life.
Secondly, the series also goes on to discuss the inherent effects of war on humanity. From the very start, the metal gear series has had an anti-war and anti-nuclear weapons stance. With footage taken from war documentaries, war shootings and storylines borrowed from actual wars like the Cold War, the series has always been very very clear about its take on war: that it is inherently bad, and will always cause irreparable damage to societies; it has continued to emphasise this through its gameplay as well. By showing war from the point of view of soldiers within these conflicts, it portrays the devastation of war; from child soldiers, to trauma from the battlefield, as well as the large military industrial complex founded on money pumped in by governments for nuclear weaponry. Yet the series also works hard to represent the humanity of soldiers; how despite the fact that they are used as tools by governments in wars, they still have emotions and reasoning and empathy. The protagonists of the games are always someone with a background in the military, and each of them have their own stories of what being in a war is like, triggering sympathy from players at each of their traumatic experiences.
Lastly, the second installment of the series talks about the dissemination of information, the dangers of an overload of data, and how they can shape the beliefs of an individual, as well as how one can find their purpose in life. This, in my opinion, was one of the best-shown ideas displayed in the series; Metal Gear Solid 2 made use of the horror genre to bring about the importance of this issue within a digitized society- fourth-wall breaks, glitches, and even manipulation of the player were all effective ways of distilling these ideas into the theme and narrative of the game. Even the very first trailer of the game itself manipulated eager players of the first game as part of Kojima’s plan to let players experience information manipulation first-hand.
The idea of memes is very stark through Metal Gear Solid 2. Memes, which are information in the shape of data, pictures, words, are ideas and concepts passed between people. They shape an individual's feelings, beliefs and personalities. Within the game, we (both the player and the protagonist, Raiden, which are made to be one within the game) are constantly being bombarded with memes- dialogues, flashbacks and sudden reveals causes “us” to become very disoriented, and the main storyline of the game becomes very convoluted. Despite many critics saying this is a major flaw of the game, I think it is rather genius. The gameplay is indeed revealing of today's society, which the game agrees with later on: that humans are so easily manipulated in a fatal flaw of humans themselves. This manipulation is revealed at the ending when Raiden finds out he has been lied to and used as a pawn throughout the game, something the player wouldn’t have expected either. At the expense of following along with the game (synonymous to our actual lives), Raiden gives up his desire to find out the truth behind information he is given, and instead blindly believes in everything he’s told. The game argues that this causes a lot of misinformation and misunderstandings to spread within society, and this is made even more prominent with the rise of the Internet. While Metal Gear Solid 2 was produced in 2001, this is indeed a similar situation to what we see nowadays, and hence many game critics have praised it for foreseeing the future.
The game’s themes don’t stop here. It is later revealed that the main antagonist of this game isn’t an actual human, but rather an Artificial Intelligence programme bent on eliminating what it considers “redundant” information from the Internet as means of cultivating a proper society where humans only refer to relevant information. A 20 minute cutscene then ensues, with the AI ranting about the unnecessarily large influx of information on the Internet that only serves humans’ confirmation biases, whilst Raiden argues for the case that humans deserve freedom to whatever information they like. This then becomes a discussion on the ethicality of censorship- to what extent does it start infringing on the human right for free speech? This topic of censorship, mass media and AI is an age-old discussion, and is captured very well by this series in the span of a game.
Finally, Metal Gear Solid 2 talks about how humans use information to give themselves a fake sense of comfort and control, and how by giving that up can one ultimately find their purpose and reality in life. The characters’ lies, the fake and rigged elections created to soothe the American people, and the players’ own assumption of what and who is right and wrong within the game are all fabricated narratives, and do not help the actual situations that they have to come to terms to. The protagonist, Raiden, initially struggles with an identity crisis after realising he has been lied to throughout the course of the game, and does not know whether he is real or not. He finally finds out that only by having an unwavering sense of right and wrong such as the opinions he developed throughout the game, and by making them his true personality, values and beliefs, will he find his purpose in life, and then will he become a “real” person.
These are just the first two games within the series. There are plenty more that touch on other meaningful topics, but I think it is telling that already within the very first two games, the series can do so much. Metal Gear Solid is genuinely a very impactful game, and has used such an interesting medium and platform to talk about these philosophies and ideas while making the gameplay enjoyable and memorable for players across the world. If you’d like to truly enjoy the immersive experience that is Metal Gear and learn more about such themes within the games, I’d definitely recommend playing the games themselves.
Naomi Tan
4 Purity
2025
(Below are the links to some analyses of the series if you’re interested in learning more!)
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