Hello,

Im a russian. Mentioned in the game as "East" side of world. I would like to ask if is the series Anti-russian? I heard a lot of that kinds of words in my country attacking MGS but don't know if it's true.I would really like to play it because i love sneaky-like games. Enjoyed Splinter cell :)

I have MGS HD collection on Xbox 360. Tried to play MGS2 first but controls are awful. MGS3 is much better but im afraid that it can be bad experience for me as im from the "East" side. Should I worry about it?

I have console for a bit weeks so it's still new for me. Do I have a choices in MGS games? Can I help soviet union or im forced to work for the USA?

Waiting for your reply :)

Regards

I don't think it's antirussian, there is a faction in one of the games that are ex-russian spec ops that are bad guys, but for the most part the villains of the series are made up groups that aren't necessarily affiliated with any country.

A lot of American made entertainment, up until the mid 90s or so, would cast Russians as the defacto enemy mainly due to the Cold War. It just made sense rather than to piss off a potential friend or having to set up why another country would be at odds with us. This influence clearly effects culture at large and trickled down to the Metal Gear series. Since the series is from the point of view of the United States and sometimes during the Cold War it simply casts the Russians as the adversary.

It's a cheap story ploy that decades after the fall of the Soviet Union you'd hope writers and creators would move past but we still see it today. Old habits die hard.

The Americans are just as corrupt as the Russians in that series. Everyone's compromised. That's the point.

If anything it's Anti-American. Yes in 3 you play as a spy who is working against Russia. (Though really you are more working against a Russian extremist group bent on world dommination.) But by the end of the game you end up disillusioned with your work and end up more or less betrayed by your government. Dan may say that MGS3 is super patriotic, but that is ignoring the COMPLETELY OBVIOUS subtext. Hell, it's barely even subtext.

There are notable Russian characters in MGS, but they are not ever the ultimate bad guys. They are usually being manipulated by the big bad guys who are either American or nationless.

Metal Gear are very tightly controlled story games, there is not much choice available in those games. You play as Snake, an American commando

I'm sorry but in MGS you don't get to pick which side you help. In most of the games that means you play for US, eventhough the antagonists are not often Russian.

I don't know if you would find the portrayal of the Soviet Union in the MGS games upsetting or not. For what it's worth I don't think any country looks good in MGS games, espcially the USA

Hello,

Thanks for claryfing the situation. Im very grateful. I think I will give a shot.

Any advice how to make MGS2 controls a little more comfortable for 2000+ player? I found them very odd and really unintuivie, any tutorial? Maybe should I skip MGS2 and play MGS3 first?

Regards

I do think 3 is where it deviates. It is very strongly about Cold War politics, and the players in the story are in service of their countries, but it's also about those players first and foremost, and what their allegiances and duty means is a huge theme. George Weidman pointed out in a video the notion that Russia and the US are seemingly portrayed as equals in MGS3, even in the fact that the Russian soldiers in the game speak in unaccented English.

So it is a story about working for the interests of the US, but you shouldn't be worried about that fact, because it's about a lot more.

I mean it's basically the love child of an 80s action movie and a 90s anime so of course it's going to be anti Russian.

No, it's not anti-Russian

No, not at all. That's actually kind of a big factor of the plot of MGS3.

It's anti-sanity.

Without going into specifics. No. MGS is most definitely not anti-Russian. It's more fitting to call it anti-American, even though that isn't entirely accurate either.

@avenger21: It's not anti-Russian but it is pretty accurate in it's depiction.

Most of the Metal Gear Solid games take place during the cold war. Solid Snake is clearly in the camp of the western powers as an intelligence operative. This doesnt mean that Soviet Union is the main protagonist in the games but they are clearly an opponent without a democratically elected government.

So one could say that ideologically Soviet Union is one of the so called bad guys in the Metal Gear Solid series.

@avenger21: yeah, i too have struggled with mgs2 control at first but it is really easy to get used to it and i bet that you are not going to have any problems with it past the first hour of gameplay.

The controls are just something you have to get used to if you really want to play MGS1-3.

I feel like MGS doesn't take its Russian-grunts seriously enough to be anti-Russian. In some cases, as with MGS2, it seems to me like you just have some bad-guy grunts that just happen to be Russian.

In some games it makes more sense that the grunts are Russian more than others. I think MGS2 is the game where having the grunts be Russian makes the least sense. In MGS1, the grunts are just genetically modified soldiers, and aren't Russian to my knowledge. In the first two Metal Gear games the grunts could be of any ethnicity for all we know; they're just Big Boss's henchmen.

In MGS2 the grunts are Russian because...? I don't know, something to do with Ocelot's relation with Gurlukovich I guess.

There are no Russian grunts in MGS4 as far as I know, and even in that game you can side with the ethnic minorities (Middle Eastern and South American "rebels") in each region and fight against the PMCs; yet you cannot side with the PMC's.

It makes sense that the grunts in MGS3 and MGSV are Russian, given the settings of those games (Russia and Soviet-invaded Afghanistan). And even in MGS3 you're only fighting against anti-Khrushchev Russians; the KGB are on your side for the majority of the game. And in MGSV your group is ready to fight any ethnic group, especially since you travel to Angola after finishing all the story stuff in Afghanistan.

And in Peace Walker, the enemy grunts are CIA mercenaries.

Furthermore, the biggest bad guys in MGS are never usually Russian; not even Ocelot is Russian, he's American. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Volgin, who was part of that anti-Khrushchev regime.

Whenever I think of a gaming series that is a candidate for being Anti-Russian, I always think of the Modern Warfare trilogy, but even in that game you have "good Russians and bad Russians". But that might be more of a cop-out than anything else.

The impression I get from MGS as a whole is that it doesn't really care who it's enemy-grunts are, and the big bad guys are too integral to the story to be conduits for Russian-hate

I actually think it's better than a lot of American action movies and games and stuff towards the Russians. The Russian bad guys in 3 are an off shoot and radical wing of the Russian military. It's not like 24 or something where they had stereotypical Middle Eastern terrorist group as bad guys but then the RUSSIANS ARE REALLY BEHIND IT! Russians are an easy group to use as a bad guy around here.

Everything is anti-russian

Yes, kojima hates russians, he created the game to indoctrinate players with pro-US sentiments. That's why Ronald Reagan is a co-producer. It's good that our world is black and white because that way we always know that if you're country is painted with any negativity it automatically means you're being attacked. God forbid we should look past what we don't like about something and try it before deciding it's bad just because the Russians in it sometimes shoot at the player character.

That's why I don't read anything about the Iraq or Afghan wars, it always makes the US seem like the bad guy! How rude! Clearly my home country is lovely and all other countries can go to hell.

Has anyone played GTA V? I hear it makes fun of american culture alot, so as an American, I want to know if my sensibilities will be offended. I even hear there is a scene that suggest the CIA's use of torture is WRONG!! How was such an american-hating game even allowed to be released?

(End of sarcasm)

Please just try it and then form your opinions, until you experience it, you won't know if it's unfair to the russian people or not. As a russian, i'm sure you understand that there is more to being a russian than any sort of media can portray, and that's what really matters. I agree wholeheartedly that they're misused way too often as the default villain in US games, but MGS is by no means meant to be an insult to Russia. I for one would welcome more games criticizing the US for it's myriad of problems, because I know even if a game tries to tear the US to pieces, that doesn't automatically mean I should feel bad about being from that country. I really don't think there is anything in MGS that should bother you.

I'm sorry about being sarcastic, but it's never good to ignore something because an idea in it MIGHT offend you.

No, but Metal Gear Scanlon is.

No.

No people, ethnicity or nation are the villains of Metal Gear Solid, the villain of Metal Gear Solid is the military industrial complex.

Many of the best, most interesting and flatly most capable characters are either partly or entirely Russian, so no. For better or worse it also makes no statements about Russia's modern politics, other than 'man, some people really miss being a superpower,' which is true, but again, of only certain people. It could be construed as somewhat anti-Soviet, but no more than it could be as anti-NATO.

Besides, while the Philosophers may have been global in their reach, the Patriots were always firmly US-based and concerned.

The Phantom Pain WILL have you going up against Russians for a significant portion of the game (as the first major area takes place in Russian occupied Afghanistan), but even there, Russia itself is never the main antagonist nor does the game revolve around anti-Russian sentiment, and the same goes for the earlier games in the series (which often feature Russian enemies, but never an enemy Russia, if that makes any sense).

Hello,

@nickm спс

Big thanks for the answers. I never thought that so many poeple would help me with this questuion as I see a lot of hate towards my country in mass media and internet. My question may be odd for some poeple but it's really important for me.

You know when I first launched MGS2 and saw russians invading ship I thought "Ok. Modern Warfare.". Then I started MGS3 and saw the "bad russians" again so i wanted to ask before going deeper in the game.

Thanks again.

Have fun :)

Regards

Oh, I'm sorry! I thought this was America!

I think calling MGS either anti-american or anti-russian is kinda missing the point. If anything the series as a whole is anti-goverment (and anti-corperations in MGS4).

One of the most important narratives throughout MGS as a whole, is that people in absolute power will find a way to misuse that power and manipulate the masses for their own personal gain/control. This isn't really a matter of nationality and more a problem with goverments as a whole who fear lossing their power so badly (to other goverments/political adversaries/the people), that they are corrupted by it.

That being said there are both russian bad guys in MGS2 and MGS3, but the first is an independent mercenary group and the other is a fanatical wing of the russian military. Russians as a whole are never painted in a bad light the same way you might see in american action movies of the 80's and 90's and MGS3 even portaits Kruschev in a pretty positive way.

First off, OP, it's not anti-Russian; it's anti-nation. Militaires sans Frontieres - an army without a country, fighitng for the highest bidder (which, considering what we know about real world PMCs and how MGS4 portrayed them, is a weird thing to be glorifying, or at least honoring as Big Boss's dream). Second, even if it was, it wouldn't be the first - before and since the collapse of the Soviet Union there's been tons of movies and books portraying the Soviets as the enemy, and international relations haven't done much to change that impression. Third, a majority of gamers don't really care to delve into all the geopolitical implications, so no biggie.

@august said:

In another words, pro-Russian.

MGS is anti-nuclear warfare (while at the same time romanticising it).

Given how poorly the story is written Metal Gear games are anti-American, anti-Japanese (at least very embarrassing), anti-science, and anti-intellectual too. Russians are in good company for who Kojima is trolling since he is trolling anyone and everyone including gamers.

@dudeglove: Are you sure that score was removed from the HD re-releases? I might need to replay my copy of 2 but I could have sworn that piece was still in there...

Thanks for the brief insight into Russian-Japanese relations though! Even that small amount was super interesting.

lol-ski.

If you're offended by dumb american movies that portray russians as villains (007 or whatever), I guess Metal Gear will annoy you at some point or another. But you shouldn't be offended by either of those things, these movies and games are not things that should be taken seriously. Metal Gear is a really dumb action movie combined with an overly complicated anime (still waiting for a Metal Gear moment in which you fight God in the form of a giant robot or something to that effect). It is also very fun and it would be a shame to miss it.

@avenger21: as a Russian how do you feel about the ussr/former Soviet Union?