Retcons in the MGS series are as common as wacky bosses, but most are called out or at least discussed by fans. But in my many years of playing MGS and engaging with its fanbase, I’ve never seen anyone bat an eye at MGS4’s most bonkers plot omission.
MGS4 is called Guns of the Patriots for a reason. That name refers to Liquid Ocelot’s plan, which mainly aims at gaining control of all weapons systems in the world, down to personal-use weapons with biometric scans. Remember biometric scans on guns? Those were mostly a fad, but they were pretty popular back in the day and showed up in most spy stories for a few years. Check out James Bond below being saved by a tag-team of biometric scan and Komodo Dragon in what most call the most grounded version of 007!
And Kojima is a visionary. He talked about the tech 4 years before the 007 series, which once served as the inspiration for a lot of things in MGS. It would’ve made sense in its attempts to foresee the evolution of war to touch upon them, but not when that game’s a follow-up to Metal Gear Solid 2.
In MGS2. Ocelot has a force-field emitter device that immediately deflects and disables any projectile fired at him. The “little gizmo”, as Ocelot calls it, has been with him from the beginning of the game. It makes all weapon systems pretty much irrelevant, greatly undermining his later quest to gain control of something he’s already made obsolete.
So, how does Kojima deal with this in MGS4 after its shocking reveal in MGS2? He seemingly ignores it ever existed, and nobody really complained. And I get it. There’s a lot of really weird stuff going on in MGS4, but there’s always time and space for curiosity. To better understand what might’ve gotten Kojima to even introduce such an obviously overpowered device, we must talk about Fortune.
Fortune, Dead Cell’s Lady Luck
Fortune is a member of Dead Cell, the rogue special ops unit that Raiden and Snake go up against in MGS2. She’s arguably the most powerful member of the bunch, seemingly cursed to be unkillable by some magical force field that deflects any projectiles directed at her. Oh yeah, and she also has a rail gun similar to the one used by REX, the huge Metal Gear unit from the original game. She’s such a badass that she even manages to beat Solid Snake all by herself! That, however, all comes crashing down, as we later in the game find out she actually possesses no real superpowers: she was simply unaware that the Patriots had her equipped with the “gizmo.”
And, as wisely pointed out to me when researching this strange plot shift, the “gizmo” is more connected to Fortune’s story than to the series’ overarching plotline. Still, featuring a piece of tech the size of an iPhone but powerful enough to undermine even Metal Gear Ray’s arsenal would always introduce issues in a game largely about shooting from all sorts of guns.
The “gizmo” even introduces problems in MGS2, as Fortune ends up replicating its effects without players ever getting any sort of explanation as to why. MGS4 would go on to explain that everyone’s powers in the series were actually the result of nanomachines, making her heartbreaking story culminate on a completely nonsensical note.
Fans are eager to discuss so many of the elements of these games, but never this shameless retcon. Did we all just silently agree that Kojima had made a mistake, and gave him another go?
What about you? Is there a moment in the MGS series that seemingly only you thought was strange? Bonus points if it isn’t in MGS2 or MGS4.
