Metal Gear Solid will likely never return to its former glory. Series creator Hideo Kojima has moved on to form his own studio and release the uniquely fascinating Death Stranding, so any return of the franchise would likely not involve him.
While we are sad about this fact, we can spend a lifetime celebrating the weirdness and drama filling every moment of the military stealth-action games. To showcase just how bizarre the series can get, the following list showcases the darkest things you can do throughout the Metal Gear Solid games. Most of these have to do with the impressive amount of interactivity with the world.
10 Metal Gear Solid 2: Kill Birds
In Metal Gear Solid 3 you had to kill animals to survive. In the prior entry from 2001, any animal murder was done purely out of some sick sadistic desire. To be fair, the game berates you for engaging in this activity. Do it enough and you will receive a codec call from Colonel Campbell and Rose yelling at you. If the game didn’t want you to do it, why did it make it a feature in the first place?
9 Metal Gear Solid 5: Hurt Children
Child soldiers are a major part of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain’s plot. While you fail if mortal harm befalls them, you can still tranquilize them and knock them out. One particular shocking moment in an earlier mission has you open a door only to reveal a child pointing a gun at you. If you happen to have a lethal firearm equipped, reflexes might get the best of you and you will fail the mission for maiming a kid.
8 Metal Gear Solid: Peeping Tom
It is not Metal Gear Solid unless there is some oddly placed titillation. While on the way to see the Darpa Chief, Snake crawls through a vent and sees Meryl. Leave the duct and look at her several more times and eventually Meryl will be in her underwear. Later on you can do the same if you quickly follow her into the woman’s bathroom after finding her disguised as a soldier. The former is less ethically sound, since you are staring without her knowledge.
7 Metal Gear Solid 2: Beat Up Emma
Part of Metal Gear Solid 2 involves escorting Emma Emmerich through the Big Shell. She is completely useless and afraid of water, so you have to hold her hand while walking through the areas.
If you are a terrible person, Raiden can beat up and shoot Emma. Otacon yells at you for it. We would not recommend it, especially since the sequence does not end well for Emma in the first place. At least make her moments before then pleasant.
6 Metal Gear Solid 2: Getting Peed On
While sneaking alongside outside of one of the struts, a guard will relieve himself off the edge of the structure. Unfortunately, this is right where Raiden is standing, and you can be right under the shower of gold if you so choose. Campbell offers his sympathies to the Raiden in a codec call. Fortunately, at this point you have a grenade launcher, so you can enact some explosive revenge on the guard who douses Raiden.
5 Metal Gear Solid: Kill Rats
While it is not as morally repugnant to kill rats as it is to kill birds, it is weird to spend time doing this Shadow Moses instead of stopping Fox Hound. You also have no choice but to do this at one point when you lose the PAL key to deactivate Metal Gear Rex and a rat eats it. Similar to Metal Gear Solid 2, doing this to the rats and crows in Shadow Moses will initiate a comedic codec conversation.
4 Metal Gear Solid 3: Slitting Throats
While killing is a part of the franchise, there is a particularly nasty way to dispose of guards in Metal Gear Solid 3. While having an enemy in a chokehold you can brutally slit their throat, sending a river a blood down the front of the guard. The PS2 technology could not make the intimate death as uncomfortable as it is in The Last of Us Part 2, but it is still a bad way to go regardless of console generation.
3 Metal Gear Solid 2: Shooting A Pregnant Woman
It is one thing to shoot at Olga during the boss fight. She is trying to kill you, after all. However, after you defeat her you can interact with her while she is sleeping.
You do not have ammo for any lethal firearms at this point, but you can still shoot her up with tranquilizer darts. If Snake is the type to shoot a sleeping pregnant woman, he probably would not give up his seat on public transportation.
2 Metal Gear Solid 4: Looking Up Naomi’s Dress
Despite only being 42 years old in Metal Gear Solid 4, he is rapidly aging and appears as an old man. This has now made him extremely lecherous, apparently. When meeting Naomi Hunter in Act 2, Snake pretends to drop a cigarette in front of the doctor. The player can then look in the first-person during this moment as Snake tries to look up Naomi’s dress.
1 Metal Gear Solid 5: Killing Your Comrades
One of the darkest points in Metal Gear Solid 5 involves containing a deadly virus taking over Mother Base. Venom Snake enters a quarantined area and kills everyone inside. Some of your comrades are begging for you to spare them, while others understand their fate and salute Snake during their final moments. This brutal sequence is dark even when compared to the rest of the game.
