Venom Snake

Venom Snake
Metal Gear character
Promotional CGI render of Venom Snake
First game	Metal Gear (1987)[note 1]
Created by	Hideo Kojima
Designed by	Yoji Shinkawa
Voiced by (English)	Kiefer Sutherland
Voiced by (Japanese)	Akio Ōtsuka
Motion capture	Kiefer Sutherland (Metal Gear Solid V; facial) Erik Brown (Metal Gear Solid V; body)
Fictional profile
Aliases	Medic V Punished Snake Ahab Big Boss Big Boss's phantom
Nationality	American
Affiliations	Militaires Sans Frontières Outer Heaven Diamond Dogs

Venom Snake (ヴェノム・スネーク Venomu Sunēku), originally introduced as Punished Snake (パニッシュド・スネーク Panishudo Sunēku) in the E3 2013 trailer and credited as Punished "Venom" Snake in the game, is the lead playable character in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Within the narrative, he is the leader of the fictional mercenary unit "Diamond Dogs". Throughout the game, Venom Snake is referred to as the legendary soldier Big Boss, but the ending of Episode 46 (titled "Truth: The Man Who Sold The World") reveals that he is actually another character whose true name, appearance and date of birth are chosen by the player at the start of the game, and who has been transformed into Big Boss's doppelgänger via plastic surgery and brainwashing. He is also retroactively revealed to be the antagonist of the original Metal Gear, in which he battles Solid Snake under the guise of Big Boss. The character has divided critics, with most commentary focusing on the dramatic implications of the game's closing twists.

Appearances

Metal Gear

In the original Metal Gear, Solid Snake is sent to infiltrate the fortified state of Outer Heaven to destroy the weapon Metal Gear. Eventually, Snake learns that his commanding officer, Big Boss, is in fact the terrorist leader of Outer Heaven. Snake kills Big Boss, but Metal Gear Solid V establishes that this character was not the original Big Boss but his doppelgänger, Venom Snake.^[1]

Metal Gear Solid V

Venom Snake is in fact the Medic seen at the end of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, whose face is obscured. He who was once Big Boss' most loyal soldier at Militaires Sans Frontières, but fell into a coma after taking a blast for him in the helicopter. During the coma, the medic was subconsciously brainwashed into believing that he was the real Big Boss and underwent facial reconstruction in order to serve as his decoy. As the leader of Diamond Dogs, Snake defeats Skull Face and his XOF Unit. At the game's conclusion, Venom Snake receives a cassette tape from Big Boss that leads him to realise his true nature.

Creation and design

Physical appearance

Pre-production concept art of Big Boss (Venom Snake) shown at GDC 2012.

Venom Snake is distinguished from the real Big Boss by his bionic left arm, the numerous facial scars and the shrapnel "horn" sticking out from the right side of his forehead. The player is given the option to use the avatar's natural face in place of Snake's after clearing Episode 46.

The game features a hidden "karma" system which causes Venom Snake's appearance to change based on the player's behaviour. Negative actions such as killing people and animals or developing nuclear weapons earn Demon Points. Earning 20,000 causes Snake's horn to grow, and reaching 50,000 makes it grow even longer, with Snake becoming permanently soaked in blood. This demonic appearance is accentuated by Snake's belt, which resembles a tail.^[2] Positive actions such as extracting animals and child soldiers, earning certain achievements, or visiting Mother Base's zoo will eventually reverse these changes, which are purely aesthetic.^[3]

Casting

In Metal Gear Solid V, Venom Snake is portrayed by Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland through voice-over and facial motion capture, briefly appearing as the medic in Ground Zeroes, then as the player character throughout The Phantom Pain. In a double role, Sutherland also plays the original Big Boss in both games. The casting was announced by Konami on June 6, 2013, during the annual Konami Pre-E3 show.^[4][5][6][7] Kojima's reason for selecting Sutherland rather than usual Snake actor David Hayter was to "have a more subdued performance expressed through subtle facial movements and tone of voice rather than words", and that he "needed someone who could genuinely convey both the facial and vocal qualities of a man in his late 40s". Hollywood producer and director Avi Arad suggested to Kojima that Sutherland could fulfill his requirements.^[8][9][10] Akio Ōtsuka was unaffected by this casting change and continued to voice Snake in the Japanese version.^[11] On March 4, 2015, Kojima said that Snake would have less dialogue in The Phantom Pain than in previous installments, explaining that this would make Snake more an extension of the player, and that he would act based on the player's actions "rather than doing things like making spontaneous comments or flirting with women."^[12]

Reception

Asserting that Metal Gear Solid has always been a primarily metafictional series, Dave Thier of Forbes praised the game's substitution of a player-created avatar for Big Boss: "It's not ending the actual plot – lord knows how anyone would actually go about doing that – it's ending the game, and the series as well. You’ve made it through every mission, you've backtracked, perfected, gotten your S ratings and employed perfect stealth. That's it, you're Big Boss, you're Snake, You're 'you.' And you're done."^[13] Chris Carter of Destructoid said that Venom Snake made sense within the context of the series, as the games have "always dabbled in the concept of 'the legend' being stronger than the actual person", but suggested that a depiction of his death at the hands of Solid Snake (recreating the original Metal Gear from the villain's perspective) would have been a stronger ending.^[14]

Writing for PC Gamer, Samuel Roberts called the revelation of Venom Snake's identity "one perfect moment in a bad story". The reviewer elaborated: "The epilogue takes away the pillar of his identity as Big Boss, and all you're left with is every unscripted experience you've had in the battlefield, no backstory other than the one you’ve just created. The ending is about what MGSV the game is ... a freeform experience shaped by your intent – and such an ending is a perfect thematic match for this game Kojima Productions has created, a true military action sandbox where few situations ever play out the same way." Roberts also noted that the twist worked on a literal level, making the medic a "tragic and unsettling" figure whose only meaningful relationship is with a woman who thinks he is someone else.^[15]

Writing for Kotaku, Jason Scherler said: "Scrutinized in a vacuum, this twist is kind of neat – turns out the 'legend' of Big Boss had always trumped the man himself – but the harder you think, the more it unravels, leading to all sorts of questions with no clear answers ... Turns out that while we thought we were experiencing Big Boss's revenge-driven evolution from noble soldier to misguided villain, we were actually watching someone else entirely, which seriously cheapens the emotional effects of Mission 43 and just about everything else you do in The Phantom Pain."^[16]

Footnotes

1. The ending of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain retroactively reveals that the character defeated by Solid Snake in the original Metal Gear is Venom Snake rather than Big Boss.

References

1. Bailey, Kat (September 9, 2015). "Metal Gear Solid V Story Guide: What Happened and How it Connects to the Rest of the Series". US Gamer. Retrieved March 14, 2016.
2. HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN (June 14, 2014). "There's a horn on V Snake but in fact he also has a tail. Instead of physical tail, the belt looks like the tail." (Tweet).
3. Kelly, Andy (September 22, 2015). "Metal Gear Solid 5's hidden karma system". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
4. Romano, Sal. "Metal Gear Solid V clip teases Snake's new voice actor". Gematsu. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
5. Brian. "Snake’s voice actor in Metal Gear Solid V to be revealed during Konami’s pre-E3 show". GamingEverything. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
6. Staff. "Konami’s pre-E3 stream: Kiefer Sutherland Playing Snake in Metal Gear Solid 5". VG24/7. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
7. Narcisse, Evan (27 March 2013). "Beloved Solid Snake Voice Actor Says He Wasn’t Asked to Be in Metal Gear Solid V". Kotaku (Gawker Media). Retrieved 27 March 2013.
8. Goldfarb, Andrew. "Kiefer Sutherland Playing Snake in Metal Gear Solid V". IGN. Retrieved 7 June 2013.
9. "Metal Gear Solid 5 - Behind The Scenes". YouTube. GamesHQMedia. 6 June 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
10. "Metal Gear Solid 5: Kiefer Sutherland = More Cutscenes - IGN Conversation". YouTube. IGN. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
11. "ヒデラジE3スペシャル（後篇） 【通算第315回】 （13.06.21）" (in Japanese).
12. Albert, Brian. "SNAKE 'WON'T REALLY SPEAK MUCH AT ALL' IN METAL GEAR SOLID 5". IGN. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
13. Thier, Dave (September 8, 2015). "The Real Meaning Of 'Metal Gear Solid V's' 'True' Ending". Forbes. Retrieved March 3, 2016.
14. Carter, Chris (September 18, 2015). "SO, LET'S TALK ABOUT METAL GEAR SOLID V'S ENDING". Destructoid. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
15. Roberts, Samuel (November 26, 2015). "Why MGS5's ending is one perfect moment in a bad story". PC Gamer. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
16. Schreler, Jason (September 10, 2015). "Why Metal Gear Solid V's Ending Is So Disappointing". Kotaku. Retrieved March 16, 2016.