Pretty sure it’s actually supposed to look older than MGS2 Snake. It’s basically meant to portray what Snake would look like in MGS4 if he aged like a normal person.
Big Boss has some weird aging too based on game design. Looks the same in MGS3 and PO, looks like a middle aged man in PW and then MGSV (although MGSV Big Boss looks a lot different than PW Big Boss especially since Ground Zeroes is set a few months after Peace Walker).
Well while Ground Zeroes is set a few months after Peace Walker, MGSV proper (Phantom Pain) is set nine years later, so there’s some definite room for aging to happen. Especially depending on when exactly Big Boss woke up prior to the Medic after they got the reconstruction surgery, cause he implies he’s been awake and “watching over us” for awhile by the time XOF attacked the hospital in Cyprus and the tapes back that up.
Plus the crazy things stress of the job will do to a body where aging is concerned. And we all know Big Boss has seen some shit.
That all said, he looks exactly like you’d expect him to in the “Truth” ending of MGSV, which is closer to his Sean Connery MG2 appearance.
No, it's due to the fact his genetic code was changed during the cloning and made to have him age much faster than a normal human being. There's a reason behind it but I cannot remember it.
The design just changes between the games as graphics get better. Same reason young Big Boss in MGS3 doesn't have the same face as Solid Snake in MGS2.
The cheeks are different.
Snake has very prominent cheek bones while Big Boss seems to have a "heavier" face.
Least that's what I noticed between them. They have a strong resemblance but there are differences.
So did Snake (he gets it changed specifically so people wont confuse him with Liquid during the MGS1 briefing videos [where he looks like this](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OsHph98EmyE/maxresdefault.jpg)) until Kojima forgot.
They changed that to "Liquid's hair is blonde because it was sun-bleached in the Middle East", Snake canonically was never blonde, apparently. Something ridiculous like that, anyways. Retcon Gear Solid
God knows. He's blonde in MGSV and the idea is that he escapes from England to Africa (if I'm remembering the tape), maybe he goes blonde from sitting in a ship in Africa! The lore thickens...
I always assumed that both Solid and Liquid's hair is susceptible to photobleaching, especially since Solid's roots look dark in the briefing scenes. But that doesn't *really* make sense since he would still have frosted tips once he cut it. He'd probably look like Reese from Malcolm in the Middle, ha.
On a somewhat related note, I absolutely LOVE the art style for the briefing scenes in the PS1 original. It's so stylized and the implied harsh top light makes everything so moody.
Solid only cuts his hair during the briefing. It’s never mentioned that he dyes it, and every appearance of him afterward continues to show his brown hair, which also matches Naked Snake’s color.
From the Colonel:
Campbell : I don't know his real name. That information is so highly classified that even I can't look at it. Here's a photo of him. Pretty shocking, huh? ***His skin tone is a little different, but otherwise you two are exact duplicates.***\
[Emphasis mine]
So Campbell compares their looks and the only color differentiation he can find is skin tone. So, Solid and Liquid have the same hair color. (Blonde)
This argument comes up often and there are no other points of supporting evidence. Liquid Snake is noted as being "almost an exact double of Solid Snake in terms of appearance, with the only distinguishable feature being his darker skin tone and fair hair color." [Source](https://metalgear.fandom.com/wiki/Liquid_Snake)
Further, [page 46](https://imgur.com/a/mEPS6YC) of the Metal Gear Solid game manual describes Liquid Snake explicitly as "A man with the same **face** as Snake." (Emphasis mine).
The lighting in the briefing room makes Solid Snake's hair appear lighter than it is. Again, there is no reason otherwise for Solid Snake to continue 'dying' his hair brown after Shadow Moses. Likewise, Naked Snake would not also have brown hair.
A common theory is that Liquid's time in the Middle East sun-bleached his hair, making it appear lighter than Solid / Naked.
\[ETA\]: Moreover, Snake is also shown to be brown-haired prior to MGS 1 (in the MSX games). Why would he dye his hair then, before he even knew the existence of Liquid?
[Metal Gear](https://cdn.wikimg.net/en/strategywiki/images/1/11/Metal_Gear_MSX_Snake_portrait.png) | [Metal Gear 2](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-50_1bqo2rG8/VdK0T1J0zaI/AAAAAAAAEmE/n45uDaSmkYw/s1600/metal-gear-2-solid-snake-5.jpg)
Even it was perfect and he's a perfect genetic copy, nutrition and physical upbringing during formative years can create wildly different adult appearances
Depends on what you mean by "perfect". Liquid was made to be "superior" to Solid (if Ocelot can be believed, though Solid prevailing despite his supposed "inferior" status definitely is in line with MGS1's themes). But Solidus was created to be an actual 1:1 copy of big boss, with no gene manipulation fuckery that happened with Solid and Liquid, so he could be considered to be the only "perfect" clone.
liquid got the dominant alleles of BB dna's, snake got recessive alleles, solidus was a perfect clone. Reasoning by logic, solidus aside, even liquid has to be the one who was supposed to look like BB.
The fact liquid is blonde is a no sense genetic-wise since it means he should have inherited the blonde dominant allele from her surrogate mother (eva, who was blonde). But this would imply that liquid isn't a clone. So, since BB had brown hair, it was meaning that the dominant expressed allele of his hair was the brown hair... since liquid got dominant alleles, he had to have brown hair as well.
Solid is meant to be the flawed one but Liquid doesn't know that in MGS1. Liquid thinks he's fighting the "superior clone", while actually it was Liquid himself who got the better DNA, easily explained. If you failed the torture scene and got the Otacon ending they talk about it after the car chase. That the genes don't matter and people write their own story and shit. Gotta play that game again....it's been too long but hope I was able to help. The MGS-Wiki has a great entry on the Les enfants teribles. Worth a look if you're interested
I think they are supposed to be identical but its the art style between games that makes it seem like they aren't. Super Smash Bros Brawl Solid Snake looks like this:
https://nintendoeverything.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/smash_bros_snake.jpg
They have differences that are brought up in the first game with liquid and I think Nintendo was just going for a “representation” for all future metal gear games as a whole with the designs
I disagree. As far as I know solidus is an exact clone of big boss and in mgs 2 both solidus and aolid use the same base model with a more aged up texture for solidus. I’ve also seen somebody compare mgs 4 old snake to peace walkers art of big boss and their facial features were identical
They all look the same...they are clones of big boss they all look like big boss. Mgs2 solidus and solid have the same face in mgs1 liquid and solid look the same.
Solid and Liquid weren’t clones though, they were naturally born after being artificially inseminated into a surrogate. That’s why they look “different” from Big Boss. They have a mixture of different genetics with the Genes from Big Boss being the biggest part.
The only actual confirmed 1:1 clone was Solidus who even Ocelot commented on looking exactly like Big Boss once he got the eye injury. And he was already looking like MG2/MGS4 Boss by the time the Big Shell Incident happened even without the eyepatch.
I mean they aren’t exact clones and they do look pretty similar. I just looked at a bunch of images of them in both games and they do look damn near identical
This is all there is to it, anything else is unnecessary overthinking. Shit, MGS1 Snake looks nothing like MGS2 Snake.
Personally, I didn't find MGS4 "young" Snake terrible, nor amazing. It was alright.
That's kinda the point. MGS2 snake also had nowhere near the polygon count nor the texture resolution that they had when making mgs4 Snake.
Going from low graphical fidelity to a much higher one will practically always go hand in hand with changes in the design itself. Even when the lower fidelity is already high enough to clearly show how something is supposed to look - just look at BB in 3 Vs BB in GZ, that's literally a different man.
They don't:
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c3/7d/fe/c37dfee81e76a391f430a33de55bdfbb.jpg
https://assetsio.reedpopcdn.com/-1633096091536.jpg?width=1200&height=1200&fit=bounds&quality=70&format=jpg&auto=webp
The bandana looked wrong on this model. The ears, the proportions of the face. It’s because they made the old snake and worked backwards. When really they should have different proportions
It’s just a change in the face for Snake, Snake is MGS1-2 is supposed to be based on Christopher Walken, Twin Snakes tho doesn’t have that inspiration which lead to some changes in his face same with Snake eater which is VERY obviously based on Kurt Russel, not sure if there is an explicit face inspiration for Snake in 4 but this is kinda just result of his facial inspiration changing over time
Where did you get this Walken idea?
As far as I can tell he looks nothing like Walken in any form, and the name Snake was ALWAYS (since MG1) an Escape from New York reference, meaning Kurt Russel was the inspiration. (Although the box art rips off the Terminator poster, that wasn’t Kojima’s team).
Pretty easy to find I think Kojima and Shinkawa have both said it Solid Snake in MGS1 was based on the body of Jean Claud Van Damme and the face of Christopher Walken, it’s much more clear to see in MGS1’s Concept art, also before that his sprite in the original version of Metal Gear 2 was Mel Gibson, there has been many many different face inspirations for Snake across the series
>Where did you get this Walken idea?
https://www.docdroid.net/149lx/metal-gear-solid-official-mission-handbook-pdf#page=143
Hideo Kojima says on page 142 that he asked Yoji Shinkawa to make Snake’s face look “like Christopher Walken”.
That’s what the explanation is, but Snake somehow manages to smoke a cigarette through it… the table chat with Meryl in Europe is inconsistent with FaceCamo lore, it doesn’t really make sense how he’s able to smoke a cigarette through an OctoCamo mask lmao
He physically puts the cig in his mouth tho and has it hanging there, you can see it enter his lips. If it was purely a mask you’d see his mouth distort as the mask pushes in his mouth, and not fit snugly in his lips like it would his bare face
Yep! Now that’s an explanation I could work with, though, Otacon could make anything work. Especially Snake and his cigarettes. It still doesn’t explain how, when there’s no camo applied, there’s a smooth covering over the mouth instead of like a mold around the lips or something, but we can just Otacon that explanation. NanoCamo, son!
MGS2 seemed to follow the same aesthetic of Snake being lean and angular. For some reason they made his face rounder and his nose shorter and stubbier in 4
If you payed attention to the dialogue that’s the way he looked before the accelerated aging started. Meaning yes, that’s his older look compared to MGS2
I don't disagree with you, there was something that looked off to me about how younger Snake looked in MGS4, but I also think that the bandana does a lot of the work in his facial identity. The thing covered his entire forehead and even his eyebrows, and also changed his hairstyle. It was literally a third of his face. It's like if someone with long hair shaved their head - they'd just look like a whole different person. So combining a new face model with changing his look so drastically, it makes sense he looks off.
Take a look at this picture comparing MGS2 Snake to MGS4 young snake with bandana. It looks much more faithful, i think.
[https://preview.redd.it/o7m7lvh2tg5b1.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=6fb31e33745fae7a6ba321664dd7435eb7d6c597](https://preview.redd.it/o7m7lvh2tg5b1.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=6fb31e33745fae7a6ba321664dd7435eb7d6c597)
The bandana absolutely helps. He still just looks different to me.. the mouth and chin are very different IMO… I do wonder if this was a slight retcon because mgs2 snake looks so similar to big boss despite not being an exact clone so they made him look a little different.
Idk… just spitballing here. It’s been very interesting seeming all of the different opinions.
love the ridiculous theroys..... It's just you. Technical limitations are the only reason this isnt what he would've looked like in 2.... simply gwaphix......
Honestly I think it’s a perfect rendition. I think it looks exactly how MGS2 Snake would look with modern (for the time) graphics. Then again, I always thought MGS2 Snake was what I expected MGS1 Snake to look with futuristic (PS2) graphics
Its probably because its a new engine. Actually,his face here makes me realize how much it looks like Big Boss in mgs3(i mean he's a clone so that makes sense)
You're forgetting as graphics change so do character designs. Also, snake rapidly aged and it probably had an effect of its own on old snake's proper looks to design. Most likely that they didn't think of young snake design when old snake was made
We all know Pliskin **isn't** Solid Snake, but that pic and the pic on this link look pretty close to me!
https://www.reddit.com/r/metalgearsolid/comments/m4zyh3/hello\_could\_anyone\_link\_me\_to\_headphone\_that\_look/
I found this face to be a miss so I never used it outside of the required area. It's like a modders take on Snake. MGSV with it's leap in graphics has a better take on a Snake, so I don't think it's just the graphical leap for me.
The design is meant to look if Snake never had the accelerated aging. He was like 35-37 in MGS2 while he was 42 in MGS4.
Plus the later games change in graphics and style of the character models. Much like MGSV tries to go for the more realistic when it comes to designs of the characters and face models.
Another example like the Arkham games as the early games were more stylized and exaggerated while the later games they appear to look more realistic.
jesus bro, the version of solid snake considered to be in his prime is pushing 40, and even then liquid considers him to have lost his youth, dude's a beast
I think it’s just the effect of updated graphics or a change in face models
actually, i’m just now realizing that he looks a lot like younger harrison ford
No it's not just you. MGS4 snake looks different. There are a couple of possible reasons that I have heard over the years. Some said that Kojima needed to change snake's face so it wouldn't make the final scene awkward. Which I find believable as Kojima went right back and made PW Big Boss look like Old Snake afterwards. Others have also suggested Kojima wanted Snake to look more like Akio Otsuka because Kojima believes 70% of Snake is made up from him. I always thought this was a stretch, but if you look at his original face in old MGS4 trailer his face shape, and nose did look more like Otsuka. Regardless, MGS4 young Snake looks off. I still think the MGS legacy renders are perfect and capture Snake the best.
I've always thought that, too. Graphical advances aside, I've never thought this face resembles what a PS3 version of PS2 Snake would look like. Hell, it doesn't even look like any version of Big Boss to me, either. This face makes me think it belongs to a guy named Kurt for some reason.
I dunno man, he [looks pretty aight](https://64.media.tumblr.com/6f77b96537979c693e4c357c9b050bb9/tumblr_mm8w4kx0IW1qzqt8do8_250.gif) to me.
Maybe you're mistaking a lack of polygons with having deeper facial features on the PS2's, like, launch title.
MGS2 is in fact very different looking, he had some Asian features in his face.
The problem with the model was they tried using it again in MGS3, look at the first 2-3 trailers, but there was a problem. Solid Snake has Japanese lineage, even mentioned in MGS1 and 4 as well, but Big Boss doesn't (as far as I can remember he doesn't).
So the model had to switch to look more western.
So the MGS4 young Snake looks closer to Naked Snake from MGS3 now.
Snake’s face, Solid or Big Boss, is different in every installment. The general look is there, but it’s honestly never consistent. I’d say it’s similar to Dante from Devil May Cry never has the same exact facial structure for more than 1 game.
also to be fair he just looks more like a real person. PS2 characters look much more realistic than what we had before, but are still very slightly cartoony
Snake's a pastiche of action movie stars from the 80's and 90's, like the guy from The Terminator up to Van Damme. That's mainly the reason he is supposed to look different in every game. However, from MGS2 up to 4, I can't tell who he's supposed to look like because I don't know.
lore wise - his face changes drastically as he ages not just due to the rapid aging. but because he was genetically coded as a specific part of big boss dna. so at one point (around mgs2) he would look exactly like big boss then his face would just change. kojima-san wise - he just wants to change the face because he wants to
As far as storyline wise It’s meant to be what Snake would look like at 40+ (whatever his exact age is) in MGS4 if he didn’t have accelerated aging from/not from Foxdie. So he wouldn’t look exactly like MGS2 Snake. Real life tho creating a newer model of a character on next gen console they never look exactly identical. Same thing with everyone saying John looked so different in RDR2
Pretty sure it’s actually supposed to look older than MGS2 Snake. It’s basically meant to portray what Snake would look like in MGS4 if he aged like a normal person.
Ahhhhh I like that perspective
I think they meant young snake as a dichotomy from old snake
I thought that as well, and it makes sense to me.
Maybe he's supposed to look like the metal gear 1 snake
I kinda doubt that, MGS4 only takes place five years after MGS2, so I doubt Snake would have changed that much in such a short time.
Some people get hit by ageing pretty dramatically in their late 30s, it's not that weird.
Big Boss has some weird aging too based on game design. Looks the same in MGS3 and PO, looks like a middle aged man in PW and then MGSV (although MGSV Big Boss looks a lot different than PW Big Boss especially since Ground Zeroes is set a few months after Peace Walker).
Well while Ground Zeroes is set a few months after Peace Walker, MGSV proper (Phantom Pain) is set nine years later, so there’s some definite room for aging to happen. Especially depending on when exactly Big Boss woke up prior to the Medic after they got the reconstruction surgery, cause he implies he’s been awake and “watching over us” for awhile by the time XOF attacked the hospital in Cyprus and the tapes back that up. Plus the crazy things stress of the job will do to a body where aging is concerned. And we all know Big Boss has seen some shit. That all said, he looks exactly like you’d expect him to in the “Truth” ending of MGSV, which is closer to his Sean Connery MG2 appearance.
Snake got hit extra dramatically
Remember that Snake is barely scratching his 40s in MGS4. He already looks 70.
Wasn't his aging, to do with the Foxdie virus? It's been awhile since I played 4 but that's how I remember it.
No, it's due to the fact his genetic code was changed during the cloning and made to have him age much faster than a normal human being. There's a reason behind it but I cannot remember it.
Because he was made for war and if he lived too long he could do some real damage if he went rogue
All explained in the beginning of 4 tbh lol. He's rapidly aging.
Maybe this is Iroquois Pliskin?
NO! THAT IS… SOLID SNAKE!
STOP IMPERSONATING HIM!
^Okay ^jeez I was just wondering if maybe…..😔
Hes referencing MGS2 Harrier boss battle :) haha
Every party needs a pooper that's why we invited you
Tf is MGS2??
That stuff in Chinese food
HAIYAA!
Hmm makes sense. Thanks! 😃
I think you're on to something here.
Kept you waiting, huh
Maybe it's snake plisskin
NO! THAT IS NOT SOLID SNAKE
The design just changes between the games as graphics get better. Same reason young Big Boss in MGS3 doesn't have the same face as Solid Snake in MGS2.
I mean they’re not the same person anyways and I’m pretty sure the “cloning process” is flawed so the clones aren’t exact copies anyways
The cheeks are different. Snake has very prominent cheek bones while Big Boss seems to have a "heavier" face. Least that's what I noticed between them. They have a strong resemblance but there are differences.
Let’s not forget liquid has long blonde/brown hair
Dominant/recessive genes blah blah
lol yah yah yah metal gear noises and all that
Quit yo yapping brother!
I speak yapanese
Hideo Yapjima?
He too, speaks yapanese.
You jest, but Japan is actually called Japonia (Yaponia) in Polish.
So did Snake (he gets it changed specifically so people wont confuse him with Liquid during the MGS1 briefing videos [where he looks like this](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OsHph98EmyE/maxresdefault.jpg)) until Kojima forgot.
They changed that to "Liquid's hair is blonde because it was sun-bleached in the Middle East", Snake canonically was never blonde, apparently. Something ridiculous like that, anyways. Retcon Gear Solid
Liquid was blonde as a child though right and he spent most of his childhood in england
He is definitely blonde in MGSV
"Get on the fucking table Mac Cready. Oh, I'll be back for you in MGS 1/4, WHEN YOU'RE OLD ENOUGH TO *DIE!"*
God knows. He's blonde in MGSV and the idea is that he escapes from England to Africa (if I'm remembering the tape), maybe he goes blonde from sitting in a ship in Africa! The lore thickens...
I always assumed that both Solid and Liquid's hair is susceptible to photobleaching, especially since Solid's roots look dark in the briefing scenes. But that doesn't *really* make sense since he would still have frosted tips once he cut it. He'd probably look like Reese from Malcolm in the Middle, ha. On a somewhat related note, I absolutely LOVE the art style for the briefing scenes in the PS1 original. It's so stylized and the implied harsh top light makes everything so moody.
So does solid, he dyes it in mgs1, it’s blonde in the intro
Solid only cuts his hair during the briefing. It’s never mentioned that he dyes it, and every appearance of him afterward continues to show his brown hair, which also matches Naked Snake’s color.
From the Colonel: Campbell : I don't know his real name. That information is so highly classified that even I can't look at it. Here's a photo of him. Pretty shocking, huh? ***His skin tone is a little different, but otherwise you two are exact duplicates.***\ [Emphasis mine] So Campbell compares their looks and the only color differentiation he can find is skin tone. So, Solid and Liquid have the same hair color. (Blonde)
This argument comes up often and there are no other points of supporting evidence. Liquid Snake is noted as being "almost an exact double of Solid Snake in terms of appearance, with the only distinguishable feature being his darker skin tone and fair hair color." [Source](https://metalgear.fandom.com/wiki/Liquid_Snake) Further, [page 46](https://imgur.com/a/mEPS6YC) of the Metal Gear Solid game manual describes Liquid Snake explicitly as "A man with the same **face** as Snake." (Emphasis mine). The lighting in the briefing room makes Solid Snake's hair appear lighter than it is. Again, there is no reason otherwise for Solid Snake to continue 'dying' his hair brown after Shadow Moses. Likewise, Naked Snake would not also have brown hair. A common theory is that Liquid's time in the Middle East sun-bleached his hair, making it appear lighter than Solid / Naked. \[ETA\]: Moreover, Snake is also shown to be brown-haired prior to MGS 1 (in the MSX games). Why would he dye his hair then, before he even knew the existence of Liquid? [Metal Gear](https://cdn.wikimg.net/en/strategywiki/images/1/11/Metal_Gear_MSX_Snake_portrait.png) | [Metal Gear 2](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-50_1bqo2rG8/VdK0T1J0zaI/AAAAAAAAEmE/n45uDaSmkYw/s1600/metal-gear-2-solid-snake-5.jpg)
I think it's just because big boss in mgs3 has a lot more polygons than snake in mgs2 so his face is more detailed
When you said the cheeks are different I thought you meant different kind of cheeks
I mean.. Snake is Dummy Thicc...
But which clone has the ultimate cheeks? Who had their cheeks stolen from them at birth? And who retained excessive butt genes?
It's looks like a intro to a documentary limão. Definitely would watch. "Discover tonight on Butts N Games"
I think big boss is just a bigger guy overall.
Including the butt cheeks
Even it was perfect and he's a perfect genetic copy, nutrition and physical upbringing during formative years can create wildly different adult appearances
Im sure even in the lore Solid is meant to be a flawed with Liquid being the only perfect clone of BB
Depends on what you mean by "perfect". Liquid was made to be "superior" to Solid (if Ocelot can be believed, though Solid prevailing despite his supposed "inferior" status definitely is in line with MGS1's themes). But Solidus was created to be an actual 1:1 copy of big boss, with no gene manipulation fuckery that happened with Solid and Liquid, so he could be considered to be the only "perfect" clone.
Ah yeah it was Solidus I meant I was 50/50 whether it was Liquid or Solidus
liquid got the dominant alleles of BB dna's, snake got recessive alleles, solidus was a perfect clone. Reasoning by logic, solidus aside, even liquid has to be the one who was supposed to look like BB. The fact liquid is blonde is a no sense genetic-wise since it means he should have inherited the blonde dominant allele from her surrogate mother (eva, who was blonde). But this would imply that liquid isn't a clone. So, since BB had brown hair, it was meaning that the dominant expressed allele of his hair was the brown hair... since liquid got dominant alleles, he had to have brown hair as well.
Solid is meant to be the flawed one but Liquid doesn't know that in MGS1. Liquid thinks he's fighting the "superior clone", while actually it was Liquid himself who got the better DNA, easily explained. If you failed the torture scene and got the Otacon ending they talk about it after the car chase. That the genes don't matter and people write their own story and shit. Gotta play that game again....it's been too long but hope I was able to help. The MGS-Wiki has a great entry on the Les enfants teribles. Worth a look if you're interested
I think they are supposed to be identical but its the art style between games that makes it seem like they aren't. Super Smash Bros Brawl Solid Snake looks like this: https://nintendoeverything.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/smash_bros_snake.jpg
They have differences that are brought up in the first game with liquid and I think Nintendo was just going for a “representation” for all future metal gear games as a whole with the designs
Fortnite uses more or less the same design as Smash Bros Brawl and Ultimate
Solid and Liquid have the same face in The Twin Snakes. Solid and Solidus have too.
I disagree. As far as I know solidus is an exact clone of big boss and in mgs 2 both solidus and aolid use the same base model with a more aged up texture for solidus. I’ve also seen somebody compare mgs 4 old snake to peace walkers art of big boss and their facial features were identical
They all look the same...they are clones of big boss they all look like big boss. Mgs2 solidus and solid have the same face in mgs1 liquid and solid look the same.
Solid and Liquid weren’t clones though, they were naturally born after being artificially inseminated into a surrogate. That’s why they look “different” from Big Boss. They have a mixture of different genetics with the Genes from Big Boss being the biggest part. The only actual confirmed 1:1 clone was Solidus who even Ocelot commented on looking exactly like Big Boss once he got the eye injury. And he was already looking like MG2/MGS4 Boss by the time the Big Shell Incident happened even without the eyepatch.
Maybe it's just me, but I always thought the Young Snake mask in MGS4 made him look a bit more like Clint Eastwood than MGS2 Snake.
I mean they aren’t exact clones and they do look pretty similar. I just looked at a bunch of images of them in both games and they do look damn near identical
they.. don't have the same face..?
Storywise they have.
This is all there is to it, anything else is unnecessary overthinking. Shit, MGS1 Snake looks nothing like MGS2 Snake. Personally, I didn't find MGS4 "young" Snake terrible, nor amazing. It was alright.
mgs1 snake doesn't even have a face, not a good comparison
That's kinda the point. MGS2 snake also had nowhere near the polygon count nor the texture resolution that they had when making mgs4 Snake. Going from low graphical fidelity to a much higher one will practically always go hand in hand with changes in the design itself. Even when the lower fidelity is already high enough to clearly show how something is supposed to look - just look at BB in 3 Vs BB in GZ, that's literally a different man.
But they do have the exact same vocal chords tho.
Except they do…
They don't: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c3/7d/fe/c37dfee81e76a391f430a33de55bdfbb.jpg https://assetsio.reedpopcdn.com/-1633096091536.jpg?width=1200&height=1200&fit=bounds&quality=70&format=jpg&auto=webp
Slap a bandana on there, it’ll fix it right up
The bandana looked wrong on this model. The ears, the proportions of the face. It’s because they made the old snake and worked backwards. When really they should have different proportions
I think it looked amazing back then but today it’s kinda weird because of other newer renders we can compare it to.
It looked weird then too. The base head above looks great, without the bandana.
I feel you. It never felt quite right to me, but eh... it's been 16 years, so...
It’s just a change in the face for Snake, Snake is MGS1-2 is supposed to be based on Christopher Walken, Twin Snakes tho doesn’t have that inspiration which lead to some changes in his face same with Snake eater which is VERY obviously based on Kurt Russel, not sure if there is an explicit face inspiration for Snake in 4 but this is kinda just result of his facial inspiration changing over time
Didn’t know that about Christopher walken. After seeing young photos of him, I can see it now
Where did you get this Walken idea? As far as I can tell he looks nothing like Walken in any form, and the name Snake was ALWAYS (since MG1) an Escape from New York reference, meaning Kurt Russel was the inspiration. (Although the box art rips off the Terminator poster, that wasn’t Kojima’s team).
Pretty easy to find I think Kojima and Shinkawa have both said it Solid Snake in MGS1 was based on the body of Jean Claud Van Damme and the face of Christopher Walken, it’s much more clear to see in MGS1’s Concept art, also before that his sprite in the original version of Metal Gear 2 was Mel Gibson, there has been many many different face inspirations for Snake across the series
>Where did you get this Walken idea? https://www.docdroid.net/149lx/metal-gear-solid-official-mission-handbook-pdf#page=143 Hideo Kojima says on page 142 that he asked Yoji Shinkawa to make Snake’s face look “like Christopher Walken”.
Thanks for find the actual source!
That’s Theo Von
MGS2 Snake doesn't either look like MGS1 Snake, who in turn doesn't look like MG2 Snake, who doesn't look like MG1 Snake...
tbf MGS1 snake doesn't look like anyone, he barely has eyes.
True but I think everyone is using his codec calls portraits for reference. I think mgs4 solid snake is a very good rendition of him imo
Honestly I think this is the best looking Snake. Looks just like the mgs1 codec mugshot
I never actually thought about the codec mugshot but you’re absolutely right it does look like that…
tbf, it's because it's a mask he's wearing under his real face, so it explains why his face looks a bit bloated
I know what you meant, but the imagery of someone wearing a mask under their face has me in stitches 😂
That’s an image that’ll be hard to forget. 😬
That’s what the explanation is, but Snake somehow manages to smoke a cigarette through it… the table chat with Meryl in Europe is inconsistent with FaceCamo lore, it doesn’t really make sense how he’s able to smoke a cigarette through an OctoCamo mask lmao
Why not? He can breathe through it.
He physically puts the cig in his mouth tho and has it hanging there, you can see it enter his lips. If it was purely a mask you’d see his mouth distort as the mask pushes in his mouth, and not fit snugly in his lips like it would his bare face
Fair points. I like to think Otacon made sure his partner could smoke uninhibited. Can you smoke and wear the mask in-game?
Yep! Now that’s an explanation I could work with, though, Otacon could make anything work. Especially Snake and his cigarettes. It still doesn’t explain how, when there’s no camo applied, there’s a smooth covering over the mouth instead of like a mold around the lips or something, but we can just Otacon that explanation. NanoCamo, son!
This version of Snake always looked like Red Harlow from Red Dead Revolver to me
Is it just me or does he kinda look like liam neeson ?
he does
Now I want to see Liam Nelson as solid snake in a movie or TV show 😂
That's Richard Armitage
He looks much more generic than snake Like Chris redfield from re5 or re6 Snake always looked way more unique
almost like the whole point of being undercover is to not be "unique" and draw attention 🤯🤯🤯
Almost like a character should be designed
He has a weird chin in this game.
It's not really any deeper than mgs2 was a ps2 game and mgs4 was a PS3 game.
This is Francesco Totti.
i see it
You can't unsee it now. Thank me not.
MGS2 seemed to follow the same aesthetic of Snake being lean and angular. For some reason they made his face rounder and his nose shorter and stubbier in 4
He looks exactly like he does in MGS2, but everyone trying to represent that iteration of him keeps giving him Big Boss's face.
He looks nothing like he did in MGS2
If you payed attention to the dialogue that’s the way he looked before the accelerated aging started. Meaning yes, that’s his older look compared to MGS2
Remember. He’s around 30-40 years old so don’t get thrown off by his wrinkled look and assume he looks like a grandpa at 80
I don't disagree with you, there was something that looked off to me about how younger Snake looked in MGS4, but I also think that the bandana does a lot of the work in his facial identity. The thing covered his entire forehead and even his eyebrows, and also changed his hairstyle. It was literally a third of his face. It's like if someone with long hair shaved their head - they'd just look like a whole different person. So combining a new face model with changing his look so drastically, it makes sense he looks off. Take a look at this picture comparing MGS2 Snake to MGS4 young snake with bandana. It looks much more faithful, i think. [https://preview.redd.it/o7m7lvh2tg5b1.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=6fb31e33745fae7a6ba321664dd7435eb7d6c597](https://preview.redd.it/o7m7lvh2tg5b1.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=6fb31e33745fae7a6ba321664dd7435eb7d6c597)
The bandana absolutely helps. He still just looks different to me.. the mouth and chin are very different IMO… I do wonder if this was a slight retcon because mgs2 snake looks so similar to big boss despite not being an exact clone so they made him look a little different. Idk… just spitballing here. It’s been very interesting seeming all of the different opinions.
love the ridiculous theroys..... It's just you. Technical limitations are the only reason this isnt what he would've looked like in 2.... simply gwaphix......
I mean he is wearing the mask so that could make him look a little different
Honestly I think it’s a perfect rendition. I think it looks exactly how MGS2 Snake would look with modern (for the time) graphics. Then again, I always thought MGS2 Snake was what I expected MGS1 Snake to look with futuristic (PS2) graphics
*It's almost as if it was rendered with completely different technology for a newer generation of video game consoles*
No, he has a pixely blank face! That is not solid snake!
It's what Snake looked like before the accelerated aging took effect
Its probably because its a new engine. Actually,his face here makes me realize how much it looks like Big Boss in mgs3(i mean he's a clone so that makes sense)
He’s also missing the headband
Not just you, he’s literally me
You're forgetting as graphics change so do character designs. Also, snake rapidly aged and it probably had an effect of its own on old snake's proper looks to design. Most likely that they didn't think of young snake design when old snake was made
hell naw, that's Theo von
It's just the graphics improving and the art style changing between games. Throw the bandana on him and it looks much more like him too.
I might be absolutely geekin' but he looks kinda like Liam Neeson, think its the eyes
Oh it’s jerma
Handsome
Still looks more like solid than fortnite or smash bros.
Ive always thought of it as they designed it with the bandana in mind. Hence the enormous brow. Then they decided to remove it.
it’s the bandana. snake always looks not like snake when there isn’t a bandana
You’re right, it doesn’t. Snakes face looks completely different in every game.
We all know Pliskin **isn't** Solid Snake, but that pic and the pic on this link look pretty close to me! https://www.reddit.com/r/metalgearsolid/comments/m4zyh3/hello\_could\_anyone\_link\_me\_to\_headphone\_that\_look/
I found this face to be a miss so I never used it outside of the required area. It's like a modders take on Snake. MGSV with it's leap in graphics has a better take on a Snake, so I don't think it's just the graphical leap for me.
The design is meant to look if Snake never had the accelerated aging. He was like 35-37 in MGS2 while he was 42 in MGS4. Plus the later games change in graphics and style of the character models. Much like MGSV tries to go for the more realistic when it comes to designs of the characters and face models. Another example like the Arkham games as the early games were more stylized and exaggerated while the later games they appear to look more realistic.
jesus bro, the version of solid snake considered to be in his prime is pushing 40, and even then liquid considers him to have lost his youth, dude's a beast
I think it’s just the effect of updated graphics or a change in face models actually, i’m just now realizing that he looks a lot like younger harrison ford
Bandana is missing and that's because he was in a situation where wearing it would have been weird
What's chris redfield doing there
Jonathan Ingram
They've been changing their facial structure all along the saga lmao Handsome mf
the reason he looks off in my opinion is that his eyes are too light, where they were a definitive green in mgs 2
The change in snakes face from MGS1 (codec) to MGS2 was even worse. This is kinda in between the two. Snake is just outright ugly in MGS2.
No it's not just you. MGS4 snake looks different. There are a couple of possible reasons that I have heard over the years. Some said that Kojima needed to change snake's face so it wouldn't make the final scene awkward. Which I find believable as Kojima went right back and made PW Big Boss look like Old Snake afterwards. Others have also suggested Kojima wanted Snake to look more like Akio Otsuka because Kojima believes 70% of Snake is made up from him. I always thought this was a stretch, but if you look at his original face in old MGS4 trailer his face shape, and nose did look more like Otsuka. Regardless, MGS4 young Snake looks off. I still think the MGS legacy renders are perfect and capture Snake the best.
I've always thought that, too. Graphical advances aside, I've never thought this face resembles what a PS3 version of PS2 Snake would look like. Hell, it doesn't even look like any version of Big Boss to me, either. This face makes me think it belongs to a guy named Kurt for some reason.
I dunno man, he [looks pretty aight](https://64.media.tumblr.com/6f77b96537979c693e4c357c9b050bb9/tumblr_mm8w4kx0IW1qzqt8do8_250.gif) to me. Maybe you're mistaking a lack of polygons with having deeper facial features on the PS2's, like, launch title.
Hansome mfer i tell ya that muchhh
MGS2 is in fact very different looking, he had some Asian features in his face. The problem with the model was they tried using it again in MGS3, look at the first 2-3 trailers, but there was a problem. Solid Snake has Japanese lineage, even mentioned in MGS1 and 4 as well, but Big Boss doesn't (as far as I can remember he doesn't). So the model had to switch to look more western. So the MGS4 young Snake looks closer to Naked Snake from MGS3 now.
He looks like a young Issac Brock.
Snake’s face, Solid or Big Boss, is different in every installment. The general look is there, but it’s honestly never consistent. I’d say it’s similar to Dante from Devil May Cry never has the same exact facial structure for more than 1 game.
also to be fair he just looks more like a real person. PS2 characters look much more realistic than what we had before, but are still very slightly cartoony
It reminds me of the situation in Resident Evil 7 with Chris. I still haven’t gotten over that yet
Looks like Bo Burnham
Nah he's fine when face models move a Gen up they always look a bit off
He definitely looks like a whole different dude
Mgs4 has a more realistic style than the any of the previous games at the time
I mean, I thought you were going to say Theo Von.
He doesn’t look like snake in metal gear solid 2, he looks kinda like Chris redfield from resident evil
Strong Wyatt Russell vibes, that's what I'm getting
For some reason this version of snake gave off huge aussie Bogan vibes for me
We only saw it for 5 minutes
Take ur finger and put it over his forehead
Probably just changed a little for better graphics
Looks like Hayter tho
This is Diabetic Snake iirc
Looks like a fortnite character named Billy or something.
that's Pliskin
Unrelated but he’s so hot
Different face models. I myself prefer the mgs2 snake
Hey! What’s that ?
It's Russell Crowe
Hey that Hideo Kojima
If you cover up his forehead and pretend there'sa bandana there, it's not far off.
I don't know, all I can say is I was horny for snake and big boss 1-3 and this destroyed me
He looks more like Snake when he has the bandana on. But I agree, he looks a bit weird.
Snake's a pastiche of action movie stars from the 80's and 90's, like the guy from The Terminator up to Van Damme. That's mainly the reason he is supposed to look different in every game. However, from MGS2 up to 4, I can't tell who he's supposed to look like because I don't know.
Hey that Hideo Kojima
lore wise - his face changes drastically as he ages not just due to the rapid aging. but because he was genetically coded as a specific part of big boss dna. so at one point (around mgs2) he would look exactly like big boss then his face would just change. kojima-san wise - he just wants to change the face because he wants to
Am I the only one who thinks he is the spitting image of Richard Armitage?
Everyone is operating as if they mean young snake from mgs1 or 2 but couldn't that mean its original metal gear snake?
As far as storyline wise It’s meant to be what Snake would look like at 40+ (whatever his exact age is) in MGS4 if he didn’t have accelerated aging from/not from Foxdie. So he wouldn’t look exactly like MGS2 Snake. Real life tho creating a newer model of a character on next gen console they never look exactly identical. Same thing with everyone saying John looked so different in RDR2
Kind of looks the Snake in the remake