Line #96 Headscratchers/MetalGearSolid


1	'''Remember''': ''Metal Gear Solid'' is not the name of the series. This page is for [[Headscratchers/HomePage Headscratchers]] concerning the first title ''Metal Gear Solid'' for the Platform/PlayStation and Platform/NintendoGameCube. Put [[Headscratchers/HomePage Headscratchers]] for the entire series on the [[Headscratchers/MetalGear Metal Gear Headscratchers page]], or, if your Headscratcher is about something that only happened in one game, try one of the following pages:
2
3	* ''Headscratchers/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty''
4	* ''Headscratchers/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater''
5	* ''Headscratchers/MetalGearSolidPortableOps''
6	* ''Headscratchers/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots''
7	* ''Headscratchers/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker''
8	* ''Headscratchers/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain''
9	* ''Headscratchers/MetalGearAcid''
10	* ''Headscratchers/MetalGearRisingRevengeance''
11	----
12	* When the DARPA chief dies, Dr. Hunter implies that she saw it happen. Is Snake wearing a camera?
13	** It's established in the game that Snake can see people on the other end of the codec, for example calling Mei Ling cute when he hasn't met her in person and Liquid physically disguising himself as Master Miller.
14	** Also, when the DARPA Chief's green dot disappeared from the radar, that was probably how they realised he had died.
15	* What was Snake's plan once he'd rescued the hostages?
16	** Get them to some extraction point and escape.
17	** Exactly which extraction point would that be? Because it's never mentioned how this extraction is planned or where, and it's implied they can't just land a helicopter, thus the mini-sub insertion. It does seem awfully convenient that the hostages both die before Snake has to worry about getting them out of there.
18	** Standard operating procedure (according to ''Webcomic/TheLastDaysOfFOXHOUND'') is to leave the hostages in place until he's ready for extraction. Once Metal Gear and the terrorists were dealt with, Snake would worry about how to get the hostages (and himself) out of there.
19	** Simple: [[spoiler:there was no plan. Snake had no idea that [[VirusAndCureNames FOXDIE]] was in his system, the real plan all along was to send him there and cause the deaths of Anderson and Baker with Snake's mere presence. They both died almost as soon as he met them, meaning there was never any need to worry about an 'extraction point'. Snake probably assumed Campbell would tell him what it was when he'd saved the hostages... but he didn't save them, ergo the information, if it existed at all, would be pointless.]]
20	* Where and when exactly did Gray Fox get hold of the arm mounted laser cannon he uses to destroy Rex's radome? Firstly, at no point was this weapon even alluded to until he comes to Snake's aid - Otacon or Natasha certainly won't mention it if you call them. Secondly, he blatantly doesn't own the thing during your boss fight with him, meaning he must have acquired it afterwards from... the armoury? Alongside the Nikita in the nuclear storage building? Both places have been explored completely ''before'' you fight him. Nowhere else on this base apparently stores small arms, so keeping this gun anywhere else would be stupid in itself.
21	** Gray Fox is a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot sci-fi futuristic cyborg ninja]]. Just because he didn't use the laser cannon in his fight against Snake doesn't mean he didn't have access to it at that point. He wanted to fight Snake ''fairly''. Hand to hand. He ''spells this out during the fight''. The reason he busts it out against Rex is because Rex is a different opponent, that he's not going to be able to fight hand to hand or with a sword.
22	* During MGSV we learn that a certain psychic child is [[spoiler: able to control Sahelanthropus]] with his powers. If the psychic child is in fact the same character as Mantis from Metal Gear Solid 1 (as we are led to believe), why did he not utilise his abilities to control REX at Shadow Moses? Even if Mantis was dead by the time Ocelot and Liquid manipulate Solid Snake into activating it for them, the entire premise of their plan was ALREADY based upon relying on Solid to activate REX. Why rely on an elaborate gambit roulette when you have someone with such a convenient ability on your side? To add to the confusion, Liquid already knows of ([[spoiler:and has already taken advantage of]]) Mantis's said abilities. Unless it's explained why Mantis is not using this ability by the time the Shadow Moses incident comes around, Kojima has inadvertently punched a gaping plot hole into the narrative of MGS 1.
23	** How is there a gaping plot hole? Sahelanthropus was being controlled by Psycho Mantis with Liquid inside it and it was already active during ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes''. Now compare that to ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' where REX was inactive at the time and neither Liquid nor Mantis had any idea how to activate REX until Solid Snake inserted the activation card key, of which both Liquid and Mantis had no idea how the key worked at the time. Also if Liquid entered Rex while it was inactive while Mantis was using his powers to help pilot it, it would be comparable to a passenger guiding a driver inside a car only for them to realise they had no keys in the car ignition to be able to drive. Mantis couldn't use that ability since Rex would still be inactive.
24	* What was Solidus' motivation for Shadow Moses, I mean at the end of this game it is stated that Ocelot and Solidus are behind everything. What was going on here, what was the point?
25	** There's no specific source that really attacks this issue, but based on information from [=MGS4=] [[spoiler: for Solidus specifically, it's fairly obvious by now that he was being played by Ocelot all along. His motivations have always been clear - he was manipulated by the Patriots into office, but he had always resented their control and wanted to seize "liberty" for himself all along. REX was the weapon he likely planned on using as a bargaining chip to back the Patriots into a corner and cut them down, just as he did with Arsenal Gear in [=MGS2=]. He simply didn't realise the extent of what he was dealing with until it was too late. As for events of the first game as a whole, it's possible it has to do with Ocelot's masterminding and the deconstructive forces behind the breakdown of the Patriots. If Big Mama is to be believed, Big Boss' betrayal was the final straw for Zero. He lost his faith in humanity and chose to leave his legacy in the hands of an immortal AI, so that means by the time this game rolls around, the AI structure is already in place thanks to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2000_problem Y2K]] scare and other efforts on his part. It seems logical to assume that this would cause friction amidst the Patriots - after all, Eva had already formally left to create her own resistance, Paramedic/Dr. Clark was dead, Ocelot was working as a double agent. So that leaves us with Donald Anderson, aka Sigint. It doesn't seem too far of a stretch to think he might have had his own motivations for aiding in the development of REX in an effort thwart Zero or otherwise. In addition, while Ocelot couldn't have predicted the far-reaching impact that leads to the events of [=MGS4=], he certainly could have manoeuvred much of the Moses mission in order to give himself a wild card. Ocelot's presence in the Patriots means that he would've known of the coming development of SOP - creating REX gave him a weapon that would be free of Patriot control. After all, why else would a nuclear walking tank be sitting around, functional and unused in an abandoned facility? The government isn't that negligent. Somebody must've worked it so that Shadow Moses was left buried for its potential use as a last resort.]] Mind you, this is just one fan's speculation, so the point is highly debatable.
26	** I was under the impression that the Patriots allowed the development of REX to fuel the early stages of the war economy - after all, they must have planned for the REX documentation to be sold on the black market, otherwise it wouldn't have been allowed. Remember that in [=MGS2=], they not only know what Solidus will do, but have actively planned his every step up throughout the game, so it's not unreasonable to assume they'd planned this out, too. Sigint is on hand as Zero's representative during the game, making sure everything comes together as planned, Solidus intends to use REX against the Patriots but is forced to pull out and resign, and Ocelot, with his, what, ''quadruple agent'' status takes advantage of everyone involved for his own ends, killing Anderson and playing Liquid and Solidus like cheap violins. It's stated that, in part, Shadow Moses was Solidus' scheme against the Patriots, to have a weapon that he can use against them - just as the President in [=MGS2=] allies with Solidus to use Arsenal against the Patriots. But the Patriots are behind nearly everything until Ocelot outwits them and takes charge in the fourth game, meaning that REX would have been their's, in the end, just like RAY is once Ocelot steals it to become part of Arsenal's defence systems.
27	** Solidus loves his daddy. Why wouldn't he want a Metal Gear unit ready and waiting for him just a faked death away? In addition, though the Shadow Moses incident destroyed his presidency (before the faked death part), it also ended the career of his Secretary of Defence. Secretary Houseman witnessed the births of the Les Enfants Terible and was [[spoiler: close friends with one of the founders of the Patriots]], and he was working in Sears' own office. When Solidus says he resented the Patriot's control over him, he very well might have been talking about this man, specifically.
28	* Liquid goes on and on about wanting Big Boss's corpse so he can have a gene sample to fix the genome soldiers, except Liquid also knows that both he and Solid Snake are clones of Big Boss, which presumably renders the whole "We need Big Boss's genes" subplot redundant and pointless. I realise that Liquid is kind of an idiot in regards to ANYTHING related to genetics, but it seems kinda annoying this is never brought up once. Liquid presumably has all the same genes as Big Boss (being a clone and all) and even with the whole "Recessive" clone thing Liquid is so obsessed with, you'd think capturing Snake, the "Dominant" clone, would lead Liquid to at least consider the idea of taking gene samples from Snake, using the gene samples from himself and realising he doesn't need Big Boss's body after all.
29	** Its possible Liquid thinks that his and Solid's genes are going to be weaker, much like how in the days of VHS tapes, a copy (or "second generation") VHS copy was always going to have worse quality than the original. Alternatively, he might've already known or suspected that Solid Snake was [[spoiler: infected with [=FoxDie=]]] and so didn't want to even bother repairing his soldiers with [[spoiler: genes he knew had a virus in them designed specifically to kill him.]]
30	* Why does everyone, in this game at least, call Solid Snake "Snake" and Liquid Snake "Liquid"?
31	** Snake was the original holder of the codename. Liquid got it later. Solid is the one everybody thinks of when they hear the word "snake" in soldier context.
32	*** Most of them seem to go by the animal part of their code names. The way I see it, Snake's codename is simply "Snake" and "Solid" is just descriptive. If Ocelot started using an M61 Vulcan perhaps he would become known as Vulcan Ocelot, but the "Ocelot" part won't change.
33	* Liquid Snake's plan [[spoiler: requires Solid Snake's presence in order to activate Metal Gear REX. He then sticks the FOXHOUND unit and the Genome Army in Snake's path. OK, he's got to keep the charade up to avoid suspicion, but isn't this going a ''bit'' far? Either Snake's going to die and his plan's a failure, or FOXHOUND are going to get killed, which makes his whole "I want a world where warriors are respected" spiel seem a tad hypocritical.]]
34	** [[spoiler:It's not hypocritical. It's believing that in order to ''make'' that world, sacrifices have to be made. Liquid and the others were willing to make that sacrifice.]]
35	** Could they have at least [[spoiler:turned off the electric floor and gas? I don't see Snake saying "It's safe to walk on this floor? I must be doing their dirty work for them!"]]
36	** Or just kill Snake and take his PAL key?
37	** Actually, that won't work. There was a specific way to use the PAL key (memory shape alloy) and only the DARPA Chief knows how to open it. The bad guys figured that Snake will somehow know this, and he did, thanks to Otacon hacking the account of the Chief and discovering how it can open.
38	** Welcome to [[GambitRoulette Metal Gear Solid]]. Actually, maybe the [[spoiler: Microwave Scene in [=MGS4=] was the faraway justification for that, since in that scene it's stated flat out that Liquid absolutely needed Snake to get through his killer hallway in order for his plan to work. I guess Liquid just feels like he's not being sneaky enough if Snake isn't being killed by a hallway.]]
39	** [=MGS4=] actually makes more sense, since Liquid had a [[spoiler:back-up plan: the rail gun.]] In the first game, [[spoiler:he had nothing, and if Snake died, he was screwed.]]
40	** Well not completely; they still [[spoiler:had Metal Gear Rex's testing data. As it's revealed in [=MGS2=], Ocelot sells this data to the highest bidders and gains a lot of money out of it, which could've then been used to do pretty much any other project he wanted. Assuming Snake died, Liquid still could've gotten his money via this method and possibly use some of it to fix the Genome Soldiers like he wanted.]]
41	** Remember that Ocelot is a torture fanatic, as stated in [=MGS3=] he feels a man only shows his true self when subjected to pain and fear of death. Forcing Snake to half kill himself to get to the objective is perfectly in character for him.
42	** [[spoiler:Liquid's plan didn't HINGE on Snake finding the PAL key for him, he was just simply killing two birds with one stone. He knew he had to find the key, and he also knew that Snake was coming and would royally ruin his shit. Instead of diverting everyone's attention between looking for the key and holding off Snake, he decided to let Snake look for the key instead while FOXHOUND tried to kill him, eliminating one of their burdens. If they killed Snake, fine. Now they can look for the key in peace. If Snake finds the key, awesome. Let him come and turn on REX like an idiot.]]
43	** Nothing wrong with Liquid's plan - it worked, after all. It's just that [[spoiler:no one was actually following the plan.]]
44	** [[spoiler:Vulcan Raven and Sniper Wolf are just playing with Snake when they first meet him; they're both perfectly fine after their respective encounters. Later the plan gets thrown out of the window when both Raven and Wolf get obsessed with killing Snake for their disturbed personal reasons. Psycho Mantis never cared about the plan in the first place; he only cares about killing and thus tries to murder Snake for real in their first encounter. Liquid actually berates their actions as Master Miller if you call him after you kill them.]]
45	** That sort of makes sense as a bit of a fanwank. If Liquid really didn't want to kill Snake, though, cornering him with a Hind and shooting at him with missiles and rockets suggests he got a bit carried away.
46	** [[spoiler:The danger to the Genome Soldiers was probably considered acceptable, since FOXHOUND would've expected Snake to evade them all sneaky-like (that's the point of the game, after all).]]
47	** [[spoiler:As for the lethal traps, Liquid might have simply overestimated Snake's abilities. Liquid himself is a Bad Ass who's seen taking massive amounts of punishment throughout the game and shrugging it off moments later. Solid Snake is supposed to be genetically superior to Liquid, so Liquid might have figured that Solid must be capable of withstanding even more. Liquid doesn't know Solid is actually the inferior one, so it's possible Liquid never realised how close Solid actually came to dying in his mission.]]
48	* Okay, so the Genome Soldiers are supposedly all super soldiers enhanced with Big Boss' genes, yet they can't see past 6 feet in front of them, can easily be distracted ("whose footprints are these?!"), fall asleep while on duty, don't seem to be much tougher than a normal human and are in fact very weak compared to other characters in those games and apparently can't even stop a nerdy guy like Otacon, who has no fighting or sneaking skills (sorry but the camo combination doesn't explain everything. Knowing him, he must bump into loads of noisy crap or even into soldiers, which would blow his cover) from freely roaming through their base. What sense does it make?! Real life soldiers are a bigger threat than these supposedly "enhanced" ones!
49	** GameplayAndStorySegregation. If you were up against enemies who were on par with what normal people could see, hear, and do, the game would have been '''impossible''' because they would have spotted [[HighlyVisibleNinja Snake in his black sneaking suit]] against the white snow, and filled him full of lead right when he got off the elevator.
50	*** Not only that, but there were more limitations on AI back on the [=PS1=] on 1998 due to hardware and software. But yeah, in-story, they are supposed to be better than real soldiers, even if it doesn't seem like it in gameplay.
51	*** There is also the possibility that Snake is ''just that good.'' The Genome soldiers are the fastest, smartest, toughest soldiers ever... it just doesn't ''seem'' that way from our perspective because we're controlling the most legendary mercenary alive. Kind of like how [[Anime/DragonBallZ Krillin is one of the strongest guys in the universe until you stand him alongside Super Saiyan 3 Goku]].
52	*** It's also worth noting that the Genome Soldiers are all being mind-controlled by Mantis at the start of the game. [[spoiler:After his death, the game actually points out that their reaction times will be better and such because the brainwashing has worn off]]. So at the start of the game, they're all a little dopey because they're only half paying attention to what's going on, while the other half of their mind is full of Psycho Mantis and his tricks.
53	** The Genome Soldiers are modified with Big Boss's genes, enhancing them. But the gene therapy that was used wasn't very good. One of FOXHOUND's demands is for Big Boss's body so that Liquid can have his Genome Soldier "brothers" fixed at the genetic level. The Genome Soldiers should be super soldiers, but they aren't because their genes are faulty.
54	** It's also said that the Genome Soldiers are VR trained, and have never faced real combat before. While they have all the knowledge of being a soldier, they may not have that much discipline or common sense that comes from being in a few battles. Thus, falling asleep on the job is very easy for them.
55	** As for Otacon, he is pretty smart, even if he does get scared easily. Combined with his camo and a little luck, it isn't unreasonable that he was able to plan and execute his way around guards and so on for a few hours.
56	** Of course, since [[spoiler: it was all a ploy to get Snake to activate [=REX=]]], they might have been doing it deliberately.
57	* So... what happens if you use autofire during the torture scene anyway?
58	** Nothing special. Ocelot won't know it.
59	** I've heard conflicting accounts. Some say he is bluffing and the game can't tell if you are using autofire, others say the game can detect an unlikely high amount of button presses in a short time, and others say that if you use a controller which is older than the game it can tell if you are using autofire but that's not the case for controllers made after the game. If he CAN tell, you are supposed to get a GameOver. I have no idea what is true for what version, though.
60	** I can confirm this. I remember well as a young kid cheating my way through that scene... and ending up with a dead Meryl.
61	* They said that a railgun-launched nuke would be impossible to track, because there would be no exhaust. I'm pretty sure that the air resistance from firing a shell into orbit would generate at least as much heat as just using a rocket.
62	** Most of the mass of a missile holds the fuel, while the railgun would just fire the warheads. So it's possible the warhead couldn't be tracked due its small size, though you're right about air resistance.
63	* If Psycho Mantis is so disgusted by sex, why does he dress in bondage gear?
64	** Strictly speaking, he's disgusted by the fact that sex is what everyone thinks about all the time. (Incidentally, artbooks reveal that he is... ''pierced''.)
65	** I always thought Psycho Mantis was wearing a prototype version of the FOXHOUND Skull Suit. Not only is he in the correct organisation but Raiden's version also has a mask.
66	** It's mentioned in Mantis's background that he worked for the FBI by getting into the heads of serial killers to understand them more, and turned evil because he got 'too'' into one person's mind and adopted too much of their behaviour. If what he says is true, about everyone constantly thinking about sex, his clothing could have been picked since he too is subconsciously thinking about sex, even if he hates it, simply because he's picking it up from everyone else. Yes, he wears the gasmask to prevent that, but it doesn't totally block his powers, and therefore probably doesn't totally block anything else.
67	* On behalf of one of my friends who just played the game for the first time: just a minor quibble, but does Meryl know who Liquid is (and his relationship to Snake) from the beginning?
68	** She does seem to know who Liquid is (she notes that Snake looks almost identical to him...), but she doesn't know his relationship to Snake (...but she says it in a way that implies she doesn't know Liquid has any relatives or BBBBBROOOTHERs)
69	* On the back of the box for "The Twin Snakes", it says, "Two of the greatest games of all time, VideoGame/MetalGearSolid and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' are fused together to form the Platform/NintendoGameCube classic VideoGame/MetalGearSolid The Twin Snakes". Obviously, this is not the case. Why does it say this when there's only one game?
70	** It is making reference to the enhanced gameplay features of Metal Gear Solid 2 being fused with Metal Gear Solid's story and general gameplay, for example they both have the same general controls now. It is not saying that Twin Snakes has both Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2 on a single disc.
71	** Also, [=MGS2=] has significantly better graphics than [=MGS1=], which also formed a graphical base for the remake.
72	* Part of Gray Fox's backstory for this instalment involves him literally getting resurrected by Dr. Clark and his team. So, yeah: science figures out how to bring someone back from death... and the process is never repeated or discussed again.
73	** For that matter, why did Clark even need to resurrect Fox in the first place? Remember, he wasn't trying to synthesise the world's first resurrection serum or anything; all he needed was a test subject for his prototype exoskeleton and gene therapy techniques. He could have just tested those on a ''living'' person.
74	** Depends on how "dead" he was. If you get to someone fast enough after they receive a mortal wound, yeah, you can "bring them back." Medical history is filled with people who were considered clinically dead for minutes or longer who were "brought back." So no, Dr. Clark didn't develop some magical bring-someone-back-from-the-dead serum, so much as she got to the body fast enough that his tissues were still usable.\
75	As for why they used Grey Fox, if you're going to build a cyborg ninja, it makes sense to make one out of the best damn soldier you have available, and from all accounts, Grey Fox was the next best thing at fighting to Big Boss himself. Also, being legally dead meant his rights were forfeit-- a living person is going to have to ''agree'' to it, and be adequately compensated.
76	** As for why it was never repeated, most people wouldn't consider the Cyborg Ninja a resounding success. Yes, he was able to walk through armies like they were tin foil, but he was also so batshit insane that no one could control him. Also, didn't he kill Dr. Clark after he was activated? If so, then it's likely that Clark took the secret of how to do this to her grave.
77	** Well, why would the results of a very expensive and important technological research project be confined to the mind of its lead scientist? As opposed to her colleagues, research notes, databases, off-site backups, etc.
78	** Related question, but if you're gonna do the whole Film/UniversalSoldier thing, why would you give him a completely different fighting style? I thought the whole point of using someone like Grey Fox was because of his muscle memory and combat expertise, neither of which really apply if you're giving him a katana and having him perform ninjitsu. This would be like resurrecting Bruce Lee and then giving him a [[Film/EvilDead2 chainsaw and boomstick]] ([[RuleOfCool which might sound awesome, but still]]).
79	* So how was someone without the game box supposed to get Meryl's codec? I get that in 1998 the idea of digitally distributed games was in its infancy, but surely there'd be some practical way in-game to get it. If one had to look online or ask a friend or something to get the code, would that be an intentional GuideDangIt?
80	** It's a low number, so players who don't get it/don't have the box and just start at the bottom until they find it don't have far to go.
81	** If you call Campbell enough, the code will be displayed for you.
82	** I think you answered your own question to be honest. There was no reason at all not to have that case back then if you bought the game legitimately. Digital downloads weren't just in their infancy, they were non-existent on the [=PlayStation=] 1.
83	** On the other hand, it's possible some brick and mortar rental stores (and certainly online ones such as Netflix's early operation and the UK's LoveFilm) would decline to lend out the box as opposed to cheap foam protective sleeves or blank disc cases. Also, most trade-in stores may resort to using a generic box with the title of the game written on by marker, if the person who traded it in only had the disc. In both cases, that would be a legitimate reason as to why someone may not have access to the box and may feel stymied and disgruntled unless they think to brute force the codes one by one.
84	** As a really old person it actually amazes me that MGS gets called out for this more than most other games. There used to be times when ''most'' games (especially on PC) required you to have a code or the ability to look up something on the jewel case or in the included documentation (see: old role-playing games that made you look up "paragraph ##" in an included adventurer's journal). While MGS is unusual in being a console game with such a requirement, its far from the first--''Startropics'' on the NES was a bigger offender, since for that game if you lost the special letter included in the box (and with cartridge-based games you were very likely to throw away everything but the cart) you got stuck midway through the game. At least with [=PS1=] games, most people started actually trying to keep their games complete just due to the fragility of optical media, so you're more likely to have a [=PS1=] game's case than an NES game's manual.
85	* Does Otacon ever actually give you rations and ammo? I've played through the game three times and every time I call him he just chats about the plot.
86	** The only instance in the game in which he gives you a ration is when he meets up with you in the holding cell after getting tortured by Ocelot. Other than that...
87	* When Snake is snooping in the REX Hangar's control room and hearing Liquid and Ocelot's discussion, Ocelot clearly sees Snake on a surveillance camera for some time, and then Liquid does as well. When Snake looks over the PAL Key and Ocelot quickly shoots it out of his hand, Ocelot said "who's that?" Wouldn't he know the guy he's been seeing on camera by the door for the last five minutes is probably the guy screwing around with a key right outside the door?
88	** Did you miss the part where they're constantly putting on an act for Snake's benefit?
89	** I wouldn't think they would need to bother with an act for shooting the card. In fact, if anything, that would make Snake more likely to react and dodge the shot quicker. [[DullSurprise Then again...]]
90	** In that scene, they need him to hear what they're saying-- if they let on that they know it's him, and the only reason they can know it's him is because of the camera, Snake is going to wonder why in the hell they only shot at him after the big infodump. By going "Who's that?", Ocelot makes it seem like they only just spotted Snake, instead of knowing he was there the whole time.
91	* Usually when I play, Psycho Mantis tells me that I'm a "cautious man, the kind who checks his tires before he goes for a drive". What triggers this specific line? The only thing I can think of is that I usually pick up the mine detector early. And what are the alternatives to that line?
92	** If memory serves, he says that if you save a lot.
93	** That's not it. I always get that line, and I almost never save before that point. Plus he follows up with "You have not saved often, you are somewhat reckless". You're giving me mixed messages here, Mantis!
94	** Did you have any other game saves on the memory card? He's got a bunch of responses to finding other savegames on your cards... I'm sure some psychoti-, er, devoted individual out there has run through that scene with save files from every Playstation game ever published just to check them all. Maybe he's reacting to a save file from a racing game or something? Or how often you used the mine detector, perhaps.
95	** It's based, at least in part, on how many alerts you trigger before that scene. If you are cautious and avoid getting seen too often, he will call you cautious. If your philosophy is MoreDakka, then you will get one about being reckless.
96	** The line I get is, "You are a very methodical man. The type that likes to kick his tires before he leaves". I always assumed it was because I went out of my way to collect any rations, ammo or equipment that I needed in every area and make sure I am fully healed whenever possible- "kick his tires" = "check everything is working and prepared".
97	** I also get "You are a highly skilled warrior, well suited to this stealth mission", which means I neither die nor get caught or set off an alarm; and "You are extremely careful of traps. You are either very cautious... or you are a coward", which means I know where the traps are because I played this game so many times I can remember exactly what Mantis says from memory and thus don't get killed by them.
98	* The Metal Gear Solid novel mentioned this and I have to wonder: Why did they put sound effects in Metal Gears post REX? It doesn't sound like it would provide any sort of beneficial effect.
99	** Well Ray was an underwater Metal Gear so the funny noises it makes could be part of it sonar system. Its really funky sonar system.
100	** Psychological intimidation. Yes a gigantic animalistic ultra effective walking tank is scary in and of itself, but if you're an enemy guarding an outpost I think you'll be even more shit scared if it launches a surprise assault and makes dinosaur-esque screams, right? Same reason why the Gekko models make cow and cicada noises.
101	** Also bear this in mind; a Metal Gear bellowing is ''loud''. Almost certainly loud enough to damage hearing in people who are too close to it. What do people usually do in these instance? Cover their ears. With their ''hands''. What do you typically use to fire guns et al? Your hands. So a distraction and Incoming DPS reduction in one package, making those affected easier targets. Now true, soldiers often wear hearing protection ([[NoOSHACompliance though Snake isn't, or anyone else on Shadow Moses for that matter]]) but they're better for lesser decibels over a longer period of time (like firing guns in an extended engagement) rather than the short sharp shock of a Metal Gear in full voice.
102	* So do you think Snake ever got around to competing in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iditarod_Trail_Sled_Dog_Race Iditarod?]] Obviously he was too busy being on the run to compete the year he was training for at the start of the game but do you think he ever had another opportunity to compete in one?
103	** Unlikely and unfortunately for Snake, he and Meryl (canonically) spent six months in a relationship with one another before it withered down, due to Snake's inability to live happily with himself as a civilian; sometime afterwards, Snake and Otacon founded Philanthropy and got busy taking down various Metal Gears worldwide for two years, [[MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty and then the business in 2007...]]
104	* What was the purpose of the two cells Meryl and The Darpa Chief were being held in before Fox Hound took control? There is an office right next to it but they are designed like prison cells. This was supposed to be a civilian base. So why did they have it?
105	** In case one of the soldiers needed to be held for court martial or something along those lines. They're in the middle of Alaska, it's probably easier logistics than having them shipped somewhere else first.
106	** Fair enough I suppose. But why only have two in that case if the security detail was so much larger even before FOXHOUND? The torture room was designed to be a medical bay apparently so it isn't like they had another place to put them.
107	** Also the office right next to the cells is probably for whoever's meant to be guarding them.
108	* What was the purpose of creating an inferior clone?
109	** As Liquid understands it, it was sorta like in ''Film/Twins1988'' where they made Snake out of the inferior genes left over from Big Boss. But Liquid's a dope when it comes to genetics, and fact is there was no "inferior" clone, it was just a bunch of BS fed to Liquid to give him an inferiority complex.
110	** I haven't seen ''Twins'' in ages, but why would anyone bother to use the leftover genes?
111	** That's probably a better question for that film's page (though in Twins, I think, they say it just sort of happened, not that they did it on purpose).
112	** They don't actually say that Liquid and Snake were superior / inferior "on purporse" in the game either. It could well have been ''exactly'' like ''Film/Twins1988'', except less "Arnie and deVito" and more "Arnie and Stallone".
113	* Why does Campbell's voice sound so different from call to call? Campbell's voice seems to alternate between regularly gruff and digitally enhanced and it sounds weird. If you don't know what I mean listen to these to conversations: Get the PSG1 and hear him say "You got a PSG1, you can use that against Sniper Wolf! Hurry up and save Meryl!" Compare it to calling him on the docks and saying "Snake don't forget this is a covert operation, there are lots of bad guys and only one of you. If your spotted you'll be surrounded before you know it!"
114	** IMO, video game voice acting wasn't quite sophisticated back then and I believe there was trouble behind the scenes.
115	* Snake is in a deadly race against time that becomes even more urgent as the game progresses. So, ¿what could possibly compel him to waste time stopping to listen the longwinded last words of the people who scant moments ago were trying to murder him?
116	** Respect. He's an old soldier with a sense of honour, and he sees himself as a mercenary who is just doing his job rather than a hero trying to save the world (but he actually ''is'' a hero, he just doesn't want to see himself like that) and his enemies as just soldiers on opposite sides of the battlefield rather than monsters who need to be killed. He can spare them a few minutes to listen to their dying words about how sad and miserable their life has been.
117	* Let's say [[spoiler: Decoy Octopus]] hadn't died from the virus. How would he have been able to keep up the charade as [[spoiler: Donald Anderson]] after Snake "rescues" him?
118	** He's a master of disguise. That's his whole thing. What do you think would have been difficult for him to do in convincing Snake that he was someone Snake was totally unfamiliar with, hadn't ever met and knew next to nothing about?
119	** There was originally going to be a boss battle between Snake and Octopus, but technical limitations prevented that. My guess is Octopus was originally going to be the first boss battle (not, Revolver Ocelot), and in-game Octopus would have lured Snake somewhere on the base before ambushing him, similar to Blind the Thief in ''The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past''.
120	* How is REX's launch system supposed to work? I understand its supposed to be undetectable with no exhaust flame, but how is the warhead supposed to bleed off speed and guide itself from the electromagnetic launch? Say REX launches towards the other side of the world; that warhead is going to go straight as an arrow for a long while at high speed since its electromagnetically launched. It can't bleed off speed or guide itself without slowing down somehow, rendering it visible to detection. Unlike an ICBM, which launches upwards, REX sits at ground level and its railgun has limited elevation. What targets can it realistically hit?
121	** It's a purely ballistic projectile. The idea is Rex does the calculations to hit its target by firing in an arc. ''Nothing'' that doesn't have its own continuous propulsion actually flies "straight." It's like shooting an arrow into the air -- if you do the math, you can hit what you want even without directly aiming it.
122	* Hello, just finished the game a couple hours ago, and am I the only one SERIOUSLY bothered by the vague answer Naomi gives Snake when he asks her how long he has left to live? Clearly he's fine and doesn't die until ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' (and that's because of old age mutating the FOXDIE virus), so what happened? Did Naomi not program the virus to kill Snake? I'm seriously confused! Also, the virus killed Baker and Decoy Octopus right away when they were exposed to it but took way longer to kill Liquid, so what the heck is going on?!
123	** Prior to the mission, she programmed FOXDIE to activate at a random time for Snake in order to maximally torture him in retaliation for his history with Gray Fox. This, ironically, ended up saving his life, since "random" ended up turning into "years and years later on".
124	** That or she was lying. She is an extremely manipulative person.
125	* Why limit Solid Snake's equipment to what he can obtain on-site? The manual to the previous game explains this is normal operating procedure for FOXHOUND to maintain plausible deniability: they commonly handle operations that the United States government cannot be shown to be officially involved in, and high-end military equipment could be traced back to U.S. military if it fell to enemy hands. This makes sense. However, there is no reason to apply this policy for Shadow Moses. First, this is government forces working to suppress criminal activity on their own soil. There is absolutely zero need to hide their involvement. Second, it would be impossible to maintain anonymity because the place is full of people who can recognise Snake by appearance!
126	** I think the manual mentioned that it was the fact that most of the equipment could not fit in that small submarine torpedo that Snake was launched out of in the opening. Also, what they need to keep secret here isn't that FOXHOUND has gone rouge but that Metal Gear Rex and the genome army exists. Though it is easy to miss, the codec calls mention it a couple of times in the game. Like "Metal Gear is one of the most secret black projects!" and "Publicly the president has been very vocal in his opposition to genetic experiments, we don't want the existence of the genome army to go public." Basically it is less the government has to do illegal stuff in this case, but that the whole situation is an embarrassment to them.
127	* Baker was heavily involved in the creation of Metal Gear REX, so wouldn't he have known that the card keys would ''start up'' REX, rather than deactivate it? Snake brings this up while interrogating him (after saving him from Ocelot), but Baker doesn't correct him.
128	** Give the guy a break. He is an old man who is exhausted, has just been tortured half to death and has spent God knows how long strapped to a post surrounded by C4.
129	** The key does deactivate REX, 'if' it's been activated. It's a one time use binary switch. REX is off, use the key to turn it on. REX is on, use the key to turn it off. But you can use a code to turn it on too. Baker gave up his code to Ocelot under torture and Octopus told Snake he (as Anderson) gave his code to Mantis via mind reading. So Baker and Snake are both under the impression REX is now active and the key is needed to deactivate it. The one thing both of them fail to catch is that it makes little sense that Mantis could read Anderson's mind as nano technology to resist mind controlling exists and the DARPA Chief definitely should have something like that installed (and almost certainly did as they were trying to get his code via torture and not mind reading).
130	* During the battle with Metal Gear Rex, Snake finds himself unable to shoot a missile at Liquid as it would kill Gray Fox as well. Seeing how he can't bring himself to kill his friend is a real {{Tearjerker}}... but it seems unlikely considering ''he already did exactly that'' in Videogame/MetalGear2SolidSnake. Not only does he beat Fox to death, he later leaves his body on the floor and carries on with the mission like nothing happened. So killing your buddy to stop a dangerous terrorist is fine, but killing him to stop another terrorist is unacceptable?
131	** Presumably killing (or thinking he killed) Gray Fox the first time left lasting scars, and now the situation is repeating itself... to use an analogy: let's say one year ago a friend of yours asked you to help him commit suicide, and you did, and you'd been messed up about it ever since (so much so that you ''quit your job'' over it, as Snake did after Zanzibarland) and then somehow you woke up and it turned out you somehow time traveled back to that very day one year ago and are reliving it all over again... would you be able to go through with it a second time, knowing what psychological hell it put you through before?
132	* Decoy Octopus and Liquid. Something that's always bothered me about the plot is that despite going through the trouble of having Decoy Octopus disguise himself as the DARPA Chief to get answers from Snake, once he's killed, Liquid seems to make no effort to hide that fact from Snake. When Snake is captured, Liquid openly talks about "Baker and Octopus" in front of Snake, and he leaves the actual DARPA's Chief's decomposing body in Snake's cell. Both of these were huge hints, yet the overall plan was still clearly on right up until Snake activated REX. So why tip Snake off about this? If Snake had figured out about Decoy Octopus when he was in the torture room (as opposed to much later when told by Raven, which probably wasn't part of the plan), he could've well pieced things together. Makes no sense.
133	** Liquid may have surmised that Snake figured it out and that's why Octopus is dead.
134	** No, he knows for a fact that Snake didn't kill him, because he's posing as Master Miller and knows what Snake knows. In fact later on, it's "Miller" who tells Snake about FOXDIE in the first place.
135	** The way I see it the plan was temporarily on hold at that point as they safely had Snake in their possession. They were free to search for the key themselves.
136	** Most likely explanation? FortheEvulz. If you Codec call Master Miller, he'll tell you to find your HeroicResolve and not give into the torture Ocelot is giving to you, which in hindsight obviously means that he just wants Ocelot to torture you some more. Leaving the body of the real DARPA chief in your cell (or throwing you in there with him) is just another way for Liquid to mess with your mind (or maybe it was Ocelot), his way of Snake "Wow, Snake- you really are a dumbass aren't you? Can't even figure out what's right in front of you".
137	* FOXDIE was programmed to target people with specific gene patterns. So why in the hell did Liquid think that because he would be safe if Snake didn't die? The whole problem between the Dominant/Recessive thing is that Liquid and Snake '''can't''' have the exact same genetic pattern, not unless they wanted a whole string of carbon copies in the first place, which was not what they were looking for. Sure, Naomi could, and [[{{Revenge}} would program]] the virus to kill Snake, but if a non-hostile party had programmed/injected the virus into Snake, there's no guarantee that FOXDIE would kill both of them.
138	** Liquid thought he'd be safe because Liquid ''really'' doesn't understand genetics. According to Kojima, Liquid just plain doesn't know what he's talking about.
139	** He probably thought that he, Liquid, was exposed hours ago (just before the torture scene) and still hasn't died, while Baker and Octopus died within minutes of being exposed, so between his own survival and the fact that Snake himself hasn't dropped dead either despite being exposed even earlier, he assumed FOXDIE must be faulty, perhaps due to Naomi's sabotage or just a bug.
140	* The thing with the shape memory alloy key always bugged the living hell out of me. Not for how gimmicky it was, after all it was a callback to [[VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake MG2]], I get that. What I don’t get is what idiot at [=ArmsTech=] actually thought it was a smart idea to allow a supposed safety feature on a damn nuclear weapons platform to actually allow it to arm it? There’s a reason weapons have a failsafe, particularly nuclear weapons, and not faildeadly. Especially on a prototype! What engineer is gonna be anywhere near something that, if you’re not wanting to cause World War III, could vapourise you just because some idiot decided to trigger it on a dare? Or “oh crud, I put in the launch code, can you disarm it for me? Kthx... oh wait, I typoed on the arm code... um...”
141	** Is it possible that one of the nefarious agents in the story, who wished to allow Liquid and his team to gain access to REX, were able to backdoor-program this anti-feature into it as a means of said access, unbeknownst to the main engineers? Potentially, anyway.
142	* In an optional codec call with Master Miller, Snake comments that he has no sense of smell. Later on in the game, he comments at the stench coming from [[spoiler: the corpse of the DARPA Chief]]. What's this about? Possibly a throwaway joke about not being able to smell in a game... as opposed to anything else?
143	** Or maybe the smell of the corpse is ''just that bad''.
144	* Occasionally when you're in a cardboard box, the guards will say "Get out of the way!" and then uncover you. Soooo... which scenario is dumber: the guards giving Snake a chance to fight back instead of shooting the box while he's just sitting there, or the guards seriously expecting the box to move ''before'' knowing that there's someone inside?
145	** Maybe they assume there's a rat (as in a literal rodent) or something inside the box, which would cause it to move around.
146	* I don't understand Ocelot's ultimatum to Snake during the torture sequence. If Snake resists the torture, Ocelot promises not to kill Meryl; if Snake gives in and tells Ocelot everything he knows, Ocelot promises to kill Meryl. Surely Ocelot should want to incentivise Snake to give in?
147	** Ocelot doesn't care one bit about any info Snake may give to him (he is a double agent, so he already knows everything), all he wants is to have fun with the torture session so he puts the incentive on the option that will make it last longer.
148	* Something weird I never noticed anyone talking about. They mention that the base was taken over 5 hours before the briefing in the original Metal Gear Solid. But apparently Psycho Mantis had the idea for manipulating Snake by impersonating Master Miller after they killed the DARPA Chief. But later on, it was said that Master Miller's body was discovered at his home with at least three days of decay. So that leaves us only three options.
149	1.) Foxhound killed the DARPA Chief three days before the attack was reported and the gave their demands to the government. Unlikely since the government was in constant contact with [=ArmsTech=] and their soldiers on the base.
150
151	2.) Liquid and Foxhound's kidnapping and killing of the DARPA Chief when unnoticed by Baker, Otacon, the genome soldiers and Maryl for 3 days. Very unlikely, and it is obvious not everyone was in on this.
152
153	3.) Master Miller died of unrelated circumstances three days prior, somehow Liquid knew this and decided on this disguise at the last minute.
154
155	Anyone got an explanation for this? If there is something I missed can you please tell me?
156	** IIRC in the novelisation, there's specifically a page or two showing Miller getting taken out by Liquid's men. Can only assume this is a genuine oversight by the script-writers. Probably the "he's been dead for at least three days" line was added in to emphasise that Snake had been talking to Liquid all along and that Master wasn't taken out during the mission.

Context Headscratchers / MetalGearSolid