Metal Gear Countdown: Top 5 Creepiest Moments
The Metal Gear series features historic events, military accuracy and visual realism, but it also has its share of supernatural elements, that stand out all the more in the otherwise realistic looking series. Ghosts, inexplicable events and mythological experiences give the series its unique face. During the saga, we have also seen some downright creepy moments. The ominous atmosphere before the Psycho Mantis fight. A bloodsucking freak slaughtering an entire NAVY squad. The dark corners of a wolf-dog filled cave. But which are the creepiest? Here is a top 5.
The blinding blizzard of a monster’s hunting ground
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
When he returns to Shadow Moses island in Metal Gear Solid 4, Snake finds himself in a desolate, crumbling facility whose only inhabitants are patrolling robots. Snake struggles through a raging snowstorm and abandoned buildings, until he arrives at the snow field where he fought and killed Sniper Wolf nine years earlier. Here, a monster lies in ambush for him: Crying Wolf, a giant metallic wolf with a rail gun on its back. What follows is a nerve-wrecking fight between an old soldier and a high tech enemy that has the senses of a wolf and the attack power of an armored vehicle. The dark, open field with the blizzard taking away every visual beyond a few meters, an extremely fast, agile machine that can even smell Snake from afar, and the obliterating rail gun attack that follows, make this location one that you’re glad to be leaving when the fight is over, so you can finally feel safe again.
The furiously burning face in the dark halls
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
The fight between Snake and The Fury is like a twisted game of hide and seek. The Fury, a former astronaut armed with a powerful flamethrower, slowly marches along the dark corridors and concrete pillars of the room. When he spots Snake he yells angrily and blasts his weapon in the direction of his enemy. After Snake manages to defeat him, the Fury takes one last shot at trying to take Snake with him. A ghostly face of scorching flames chases Snake around the room, and crashes into the wall.
The threatening face of JFK
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
At the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden winds up in what looks to be a twisted nightmare. Unexplainable things happen around him, his CO Campbell speaks only in cryptic, nonsensical messages, until at the end he learns the whole truth. His role was to be part of an experiment, an experiment to collect data on how to control the human population. The AIs that conducted the tests explain their vision of how the world should be lead – not by humans but by machines who carefully select what information to preserve and what to delete. During these last few conversations, the visual reference of Campbell begins to deteriorate. He is no longer a human being, his voice turns scratchy, his skin disappears and behind it a skull appears. The illusion fades and the image falls apart. What remains is a ghastly image. Hollow eyes, rows of teeth, a faceless face, the face of something beyond humanity.
The sorrowful river at the border of life
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
After escaping from his prison cell in Groznyj Grad, Snake is almost captured, but manages to escape by diving from hundreds of meters into a river. He loses his consciousness, and suddenly finds himself in a world between life and death. A shallow river, knee-deep, with burning bushes on both sides. It starts to rain and the flames are doused. Snake slowly wades forward through the river, while all the life he’s taken drifts past him. First fishes and other animals, then soldiers, their heads crooked on their necks as a result of their sliced throats, reaching for Snake in anger and sorrow. Here Snake encounters The Sorrow, a former soldier drifting between life and death. Unable to harm this ghostly apparition, Snake’s only option is to accept defeat. He wakes up in the land of the living, but this experience he won’t ever forget.
The blood stained hall way of Gray Fox’s victims
Metal Gear Solid 1
Snake isn’t the only one who has infiltrated the facility on Shadow Moses Island. A cyborg ninja, the result of a sick, inhuman experiment stalks the cold hallways of the buildings. Armed with a katana and stealth camouflage, he goes round looking for Snake, mercilessly killing everyone who stands in his way, stripped of most of his humanity. In the corridor just before the lab he encounters a batch of soldiers. They don’t stand a chance, and are brutally slaughtered within seconds. When the ninja has disappeared, Snake enters the room end witnesses the massacre. Blood is dripping from the walls, mutilated bodies cover the floor, and the surfaces are riddled with bullet holes. One enemy stumbles from behind the corner, uttering the words “It’s.. it’s a ghost…” before collapsing to the floor and bleeding to death. The ninja’s creepy voice still echoes through the hallway, semi human, semi mechanical.