Violent. Funny. Weird. Sexy. Political. Historical. Gothic. Incomprehensible. Brilliant. Awful. Original. Lazy. The very best of games. The very worst of games.
Metal Gear Solid is all of these things and more. For twenty years, it has incited as much as it has entertained–thrilled and inflamed in equal measure. It begs analysis while at the same time defying simple definitions. To make any sense of
Metal Gear Solid would surely take an entire book.
Hence
Okay, Hero. By looking at how its identity has gradually changed, and the social and pop cultural events that have influenced it, we, the
Bullet Points editorial team of
Astrid Budgor,
Reid McCarter, and
Ed Smith, attempt in
Okay, Hero to pin down precisely what makes Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid; to identify the inspirations behind its bizarre sci-fi design, untangle its fraught relationships with sex and gender, and hone in on its ideas about the modern world.
Also featuring a cover illustration
by artist Sishir Bommakanti, and released in conjunction with a special series of the
Bullet Points Podcast, the first of which
is available now, through discussing the core six
Metal Gear Solid games–
Metal Gear Solid,
Sons of Liberty,
Snake Eater,
Guns of the Patriots,
Peace Walker, and
Ground Zeroes/The Phantom Pain–
Okay, Hero aims to provide a comprehensive, readable critical companion to one of the most popular videogame series ever made.
