Metal Gear Solid: Every Snake Ranked

The Metal Gear Solid franchise is something of an oddity in that it manages to balance rich storytelling and gameplay while juggling ambitious musings on the military industrial complex, politics, genetics, and social critique.

However, what makes the series most memorable aside from its engaging story and fun gameplay mechanics are the characters throughout the series. Hideo Kojima masterfully created some of the most iconic protagonists and antagonists in the medium.

By fully realizing the plight of each character, Kojima makes them all the more compelling and complicated. They're a reflection of a political climate filled with gray morality and ambiguity that makes villains like Solidus or Big Boss relatable and sympathetic. It makes the player reflect whether they're actually stopping terrorism or impeding a necessary revolution to restart a corrupt system. It's was a breath of fresh air in a medium where villains were often simple caricatures who simply wanted to destroy the world or execute contrived plans of world domination.

Over the years, the series has seen multiple agents donning the moniker Snake as time and time again they confront one another in combat. With multiple Snakes and a Raiden thrown in the mix, we will be ranking each Snake against one another and see who deserves the honorary title of "The Boss".

The epitome of an inferiority complex and sibling rivalry, Liquid Snake made his appearance on the PS1 classic Metal Gear Solid in style and over-the-top villainy. He was 1/3 of Les Enfant Terrible project, cloned after the Ultimate Soldier known as Big Boss. Followed by a band of ex-Foxhound specialists, Liquid sought the remains of Big Boss in order to realize his will of creating Outer Heaven: a country where military reigns and soldiers are cared for, unexploited by governments.

A mastermind and genius, yet filled with incredible insecurity and abandonment issues. His goal of establishing Outer Heaven wasn't so much as fulfilling something for Big Boss, but proving that he can carry on the lineage despite holding so much contempt for the man. However, his insecurities and believing to be an inferior copy of Big Boss ate away at him on top of Solid Snake robbing him of his revenge.

As good a villain as he is, Liquid's motivations still lack a certain depth beyond his myopic view of the events before him and the past. While his monologue riddled with existential dread puts him at the threshold of three-dimensional, he comes across as a compelling caricature at most. Still love the guy, though.