Metal Gear Solid: Revolver Ocelot Explained

Don't Confuse Me With Those Uniformed Fools!

To put this into perspective, let's go back to the start. Or at least the start from Ocelot's introduction, at least. Metal Gear Solid, the 1998 breakthrough hit for the series, started out like any spy/action game: defeat colourful platoon of soldiers and their leader, stop world-ending macguffin, save day.

The FOXHOUND unit are indeed as colourful as they come, but for all intents and purposes, they're only here for one night only. The giant shamen, the sniping wolf, the psychic fetish-wear enthusiast were, whilst all great battles, only booked for a one-off gig at Shadow Moses.

All of them... except one.

Revolver Ocelot, the man with a duster coat, cracking moustache and penchant for that particular style of gun he's named after, became something of an enigma about halfway through the game. You might have thought the fight against him was pretty weak, and you were right to think so, but that turned out to be some classic Kojima misdirection. By brushing Ocelot out of the way early, players would forget him.

Yet by the end, it becomes apparent that is more of a major player in the grand scheme of things, let alone Shadow Moses, than just another wacky member of FOXHOUND. Liaising with the President at the end of the game is only the beginning... for players.

But for the actual beginning, we need to go further back. Back as far as the Cold War, and perhaps a bit earlier than that...