Venom Snake

Venom Snake (ヴェノム・スネーク, Venomu Sunēku) makes a minor appearance in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes as an unnamed combat medic and then throughout Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain as the player character also known as Punished Snake (パニッシュド・スネーク, Panishudo Sunēku).

His original identity (whose face is partially obscured when he's on-screen) was employed by Big Boss's Militaires Sans Frontières private forces. He accompanies Big Boss in the helicopter extraction of Ricardo Valenciano Libre and Pacifica Ocean from a U.S. Naval prison facility in Cuba in 1975. The medic successfully removes a time bomb implanted inside Pacifica's abdomen, however, fails to notice a second bomb within Pacifica's womb which goes off, causing their helicopter to crash in the process. The medic shields Big Boss from the blast and two men survive the crash, but the medic ends up losing his left arm while fragments of bones and teeth are buried within his body, including a large piece of shrapnel lodged within his cerebral cortex.[1] Both Big Boss and the medic fall into a coma for the next nine years. During his coma, the medic gets transferred to a hospital in Cyprus, where he was subjected to Zero's process of subconscious brainwashing and facial reconstruction in order to be Big Boss' mental doppelganger and draw attention away from his mental template.[2]

After awakening, Snake escapes the hospital following an attack by XOF strike force and is extracted by Revolver Ocelot.[3] He takes command of the Diamond Dogs mercenary unit along with a new Mother Base constructed near Seychelles in 1984. Snake then engages in a series of missions in Afghanistan and Central Africa as he and Kazuhira Miller seek revenge for lost comrades and pursues the Cipher organization. With Miller and Ocelot as advisers, he recruits several individuals into his army, including companions such as the sniper Quiet and the canine D-Dog. Snake ultimately comes face to face with XOF's leader Skull Face, as well as the traitorous Huey Emmerich and child mercenary leader Eli. During an unspecified time period, he is shown in Outer Heaven receiving Big Boss' cassette tape, with one side labelled "Operation Intrude N313" which he plays on a Sony BitCorder device connected to an MSX2 computer; the timeline establishes that Big Boss' phantom would later die fighting against Solid Snake in Outer Heaven.[4][5]

Big Boss' character debuted in the original Metal Gear game, initially serving as Solid Snake's commanding officer of FOXHOUND and Snake's main radio contact, while also serving as the leader of Outer Heaven's forces.[6] Despite an apparent defeat, the game ends with a message from Big Boss vowing revenge following the credits.[7] Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake had an in-game rumor about Big Boss rebuilt with cybernetic parts after being mortally wounded during the previous game's final encounter;[8] this explanation was used for Big Boss' survival in the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database,[9] although it has since been retconned with the release of The Phantom Pain.[4][5]

Concept art of Venom Snake standing next to an early design of his canine companion [a Rhodesian Ridgeback in this artwork] (left) and a finalized version of Venom Snake drawn by assistant designer Chihoko Uchiyama (right).

Venom Snake is distinguished from the original Big Boss by his bionic left arm, the numerous facial scars and the shrapnel "horn" protruding from the right side of his forehead. His eye-patch also differs from the one usually worn by Big Boss, as it has three straps instead of just two. The decision to have Snake lose his left arm was made early during the development of Metal Gear Solid V, although originally he was supposed to wear a regular prosthetic rather than a bionic arm.[10]

The game features a hidden "karma" system which causes Venom Snake's appearance to change based on the player's behaviour. Negative actions such as killing people and animals or developing nuclear weapons earn Demon Points. Earning 20,000 causes Snake's horn to grow, and reaching 50,000 makes it grow even longer, with Snake becoming permanently soaked in blood. This demonic appearance is accentuated by Snake's belt, which resembles a tail.[11] Positive actions such as extracting animals and child soldiers, earning certain achievements, or visiting Mother Base's zoo will eventually reverse these changes, which are purely aesthetic.[12]

Kiefer Sutherland voices Snake in English

In Metal Gear Solid V, Venom Snake is portrayed by Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland through voice-over and facial motion capture, briefly as the medic in Ground Zeroes and then as the player character throughout The Phantom Pain. Sutherland plays both Venom Snake and Big Boss but the official credits makes no distinction between either character, with the role simply billed as "Snake". The casting was announced by Konami on June 6, 2013, during the annual Konami Pre-E3 show.[13][14][15][16] Kojima's reason for selecting Sutherland rather than David Hayter (Snake's usual voice actor) was to "have a more subdued performance expressed through subtle facial movements and tone of voice rather than words", and that he "needed someone who could genuinely convey both the facial and vocal qualities of a man in his late 40s". Hollywood producer and director Avi Arad suggested to Kojima that Sutherland could fulfill these requirements.[17][18][19] Akio Ōtsuka was unaffected by this casting change and continued to voice the character in the Japanese version.[20] On March 4, 2015, Kojima said that Snake would have less dialogue in The Phantom Pain than in previous installments, explaining that this would make Snake more an extension of the player, and that he would act based on the player's actions "rather than doing things like making spontaneous comments or flirting with women."[21]

The character was initially introduced as "Punished Snake" in the E3 2013 trailer for Metal Gear Solid V, but this moniker would fall into disuse in favor of "Venom Snake", which is the name that was used in most of the promotional imagery and merchandising since E3 2014. Although the final game bills him as "Punished 'Venom' Snake" in the opening sequence of every mission, the "Punished Snake" codename is never spoken by anyone, while the "Venom Snake" name is only mentioned once in the actual game[3] - otherwise the character is simply referred to as "Snake" or "Big Boss".

During the prologue sequence of the game, the player character is briefly given the Ahab (エイハブ, Eihabu) name by the medical staff protecting him in Cyprus, while Big Boss (whose face is covered bandages) assumes the identity of Ishmael when helping the player thwart off the enemy forces pursuing them in the hospital. These are the names of the protagonist and the narrator respectively in Moby-Dick. According to Kenji Yano (who wrote the novelization of The Phantom Pain under the pen name Hitori Nojima), these names were chosen to symbolize Big Boss handing down the role of protagonist to Venom Snake while Big Boss takes a supporting role in the story.[22]

• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - The Complete Official Guide (Collector's ed.). Piggyback Interactive Limited. 2015-09-01. ISBN 978-1-908172-76-1.