The Inside Story Of Recording Metal Gear Solid

GI:
The first Metal Gear Solid on the original PlayStation was a turning point in the game industry. In 1998, Hideo Kojima and his team at Konami delivered a game widely praised as one of the most cinematic, interactive experiences in gaming. A large part of the game's positive reception hinged on some of the most memorable voice-work in the industry. On this special edition of The Game Informer Show, we take a deep dive into the history and recording process of that first game.

[-Foxtrot]

Don't worry David you honestly didn't miss much, just a forced story which didn't really add much to the franchise.

"They made me re-audition to play Old Snake, and the whole time, they were trying to find somebody else to do it. I heard that Kojima asked one of the producers on Metal Gear 3 to ask Kurt Russell if he would take over for that game. He didn’t want to do it"

Jesus man. Say what you want but Kojima sounds like a douche here. Kurt Russel...I mean it seems he's too bothered about finding a link to Hollywood. Kurt Russell, then Kiefer Sutherland.

[naruga]

Sutherland destroyed completely the character of Snake, thats a fact (and i agree^^ that considering the lame quality of MGS5 Hayter didnt missed smthing important) .Hayter in MGS1-2-3 was perfect and imo none could have performed better the complicated voice/character of Snake (experienced,tough but also with a lot of humor in its tone) ...but in MGS 4 i agree with Kojima ..Hayter should have been replaced as he was acting over the top in order to present an Old Snake, creating a lot of cringe moments, not fitting to the general atmosphere of the game..but again in comparison with Sutherland abysmal acting, Hayter s performance even in 4 was stellar

[SolidStoner]

Im sad that so many people miss on this game..

no one who played MGS cant complain on the story or gameplay.. even MGS5 was damn good game, the story itself was bit letdown, but those added tapes and side stories added alot of immersion and information.. if you like MGS stories, want to know more or just want to understand philosophy of the human nature listen to those audio tapes, it takes days!! so many hidden parts in that game.. cant wait to see next Kojima project!

[sdcard4gb]

Sutherland didn't destroy anything... Because there isn't much to destroy - the guy has maybe 15 lines total in the whole game.
Now, the one who actually destroyed something was Troy Baker who presumably voice-acted Ocelot: the problem with him being that you cannot feel THE Ocelot behind his dialogue... There is no oddball shit like meowing to summon his troops or talking non-stop about how much he loves his SSA Colt, nothing like that !!! Now THAT'S a destroyed character !

[Fez]

I think the writing has more to do with it than the voice actors respective performances. Ocelot was definitely not himself, but that is down to the director and writing. If that is not how they wanted the character they should have had the voice actor portray it as they wanted. It's not like Troy Baker or Keifer Sutherland are bad actors/voice actors...

It seems like Kojima did not like the performance of Hayter which is very surprising to me because imo he is just as important to the success of the series as the gameplay, graphics and boss battles were. Even if Hayter had been in MGSV though, it would not have done much to make up for the shoddy storytelling and dialogue.

[hay]

I find it surprising to say but MGS5 and it's cast were forgettable. Story progress was the same as in Peacewalker and similarity of storyline among those two was mindboggling. For example, they just shoved one child to the backgorund(Paz) and put another in it's place(Elijah) and given them similar influence on the story.
The game had literally no effect on the universe. Carried almost no themes from the previous parts(except being a screenplay copy of PW), and carries none to the future of the series.

**SPOILERS START NYAH**

It kind of looks like Kojima was meant to leave, made the real Big Boss "doing that other thingy" and slapped some impostor in his place to say: "this is not the real thing. imma gonna git gud and maek a bettur gurm meself. not a game dev studio, a nation. imma transcendent nao."

**SPOILERS END NYAH**

Hayter dodged the bullet here, since most of what I remember of Venom Snake is sounds he made, not the actual words he spoke, most of the dialogs were rubbish. David should play the game "for teh lulz" to see how the series have fallen in a pursuit of "moar salez" and do as every MGS fan, stick to the original games.

[nveenio]

60 hours of humiliation? This guy is nobody without Snake. He's just bitter that he lost the role, that's all. Without the MGS franchise, he's just another voice actor from one of a thousand games. In this business, your face and your name are virtually meaningless. Even Troy Baker and Nolan North stand to lose their roles if they start to feel entitled to have the roles in the first place. Uncharted can move to a new hero, and many gamers would welcome it. The Last of Us is already prime to follow different characters. That's the nature of the business. A good professional shouldn't get so bitter. These sorts of comments will only hurt his ability to get new work.

[Gatsu]

Kiefer didn't destroy it lol. The reason people are pissed is just because Snake wasn't given much lines in MGSV. Kiefer did awesome job imo, but he needed more VA lines. Venom would most likely be as silent with David.

[Dir_en_grey]

@naruga
So if you haven't played the game by now you probably never will, so here it goes. The main character is a complete different person you idiot. Why would a different person sound the same? Even in the story Snake went through a fire and a coma of years not using his vocal cords. A voice change is totally logical. Oh and did I mention, IT'S A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PERSON?

Can't blame Kojima that Hayter has no acting range, and basically just sounds like he's on the crapper all the time. Knowing Japanese and played both US and Japanese versions of the games, there are so many lines that should have been comedic gets completely messed up by Hayter because he tries to sound cool all the time.

[rainslacker]

Sutherland did fine for what lines he had. The scenes where he actually acted were pretty well done. There was a lot of subtlety to his line delivery. Unfortunately, the lines he was given were sparse, and outside a couple scenes hardly worth Snake being there in the first place. Some of his acting on the tapes was pretty good though.

I doubt Hayter would have done any better, and while I think Hayter is certainly a capable and talented actor, Sutherland is still in a very different league.

People got used to Hayter in the role, and it's always difficult to adjust for someone new. I understand this, but to say Sutherland completely destroyed the character is giving him credit for Kojima's failure in this instance in making a compelling character.

I don't think Sutherland was overly enthusiastic while performing the role, but he still did as good a job as Hayter would have, and do you really think Hayter could do much more than Sutherland did given what script was provided? You even state that he couldn't handle Old Snake well enough, how would he handle a character that isn't actually Snake, but rather a doppelganger who has his own personality? As far as atmosphere, I think Sutherland performed the role the way one would expect given that the atmosphere was not really that MGS like to begin with, but rather that of a fledgling military organization with a brooding legendary commander.

[naruga]

@ rainslacker ..Big Boss and his Avatar were voiced BY THE SAME ACTOR ..have you played the game guys?? ..yes dopleganger was a different person but Sutherland also did without ANY change the voice of Big Boss...in MGS5 Big boss = Sutherland that what Kojima wanted and it was a terrible mistake end of story...

[Dir_en_grey]

@naruga
Taking everything in the final reveal scene literally would be such a juvenile response. Read some books or watch some movies please.
It was every much filled with surreal elements of sounds and images representing that fact. Kojima is not an idiot so of course he is going to use elements to back that up.

Now on to Hayter. If that big mouth didn't throw a hissy fit when he didn't get called for a job that he feels he's automatically entitled to (when he's not) from the very beginning, Kojima might have called him back.
But who would hire back somebody who have no professional integrity and just runs his mouth whenever he feels like throwing a hissy fit?

Hayter is immature and short sighted like the hissy fit PM you sent me, and ultimately caused himself to lose his job even if he was considered to be called back.

[rainslacker]

Yes, I've played the game. Just got the platinum this past week in fact. One of my most played games this generation in fact.

Him doing the voice for both destroyed the character how? If Hayter had done the voice for both, would he have saved the character somehow?

I wasn't talking about if it was right he voiced both, rather that Sutherland didn't destroy the character of Big Boss at all.

No changes at all? Vemom Snake was more like what I'd expect Snake(or BB) to sound like. The actual BB sounded more urgent and nothing like I'd expect BB to sound like, because he's always been kind of this brooding character. The tape at the end is the only place where he portrayed the real BB as more like I'd expect him to be.

It's not the voice itself, it's how that voice is used. BB in the hospital sounded like a guy in an urgent situation who wasn't calm and patient. The fake BB was stoic and commander like.

[sweendog]

Kurt rusell did play snake plissken in escape from New York. I always thought mgs snake was based on him. It's an uncanny resemblance

[Goldby]

it was, and kojima was almost sued in the beginning, but Kohn Carpenter said no to it as "Kojima seems like a nice guy"

[sweendog]

@Goadby. I didn't know that thanks for the info. I was a big escape from New York fan as a kid so when mgs came out I just assumed it was a homage to kurts snake. Had no idea it almost ended up in court, kojima would have lost he even talked like kurts snake

[SnotyTheRocket]

Damn, you are so negative dude. Maybe the story wasn't great, but the gameplay was on point (here comes the "it's repetitive" argument).

[Fez]

Well it was repetitive... Surely you pointing this out shows that you agree on some level or you understand why others would have found it repetitive?

I make a distinction between the game mechanics and the overall gameplay. The mechanics were great, what they had you do with these mechanics was repetitive, disjointed and lacked depth.

Not good enough for my once favourite series. The only redemption from my perspective is how it ties together the events of the series and the idea that "The Phantom Pain" is the feeling Kojima has left in fans who played through a game targeted at the casual and grindfest gamers rather than fans of the previous games. The last Kojima MGS game did not fulfill many, most likely the majority, of the series fans. That is the Phantom Pain that will linger on...

I know, very dramatic... but that is the only way I can reconcile the game we got rather than the game we could have got. It was all part of an elaborate plan by master troll Kojima. Well played.

[Niceman91]

It is repetitive.

[-Foxtrot]

Oh shush...anytime any one criticises something to you they are negative

It was negative how is it negative to speak the truth

[Fez]

Did people honestly think this game wasn't repetitive? How can you reconcile this with the fact that chapter 2 literally repeats the same missions? (Incidentally proving that these missions were totally irrelevant to the story) Or that side objectives have about 6 different variations, each numbered 1-6... does anyone *honestly* think this is good game design and want more of this in their games!?

When I look about at the 60+ hours I spent on the game, only a few hours were actually fun. The rest was a chore. An open world chore. Not for me. PW was a little repetitive too, but at least the boss battles, story and travel time between missions (0 minutes) were far, far better.

[nowitzki2004]

I felt like I was strangling the same guy in the same place over and over again.. While getting the same replies. It was way too repetitive.

[rainslacker]

It was repetative. I ended up platting this game this past week. Probably played it more than any other game this gen so far.

What made me die a bit inside is that the screen shot for my platinum trophy is the after mission screen, with a gerbil prominently displayed in the center.

That gerbil was indicative of the rather inane content that existed within the game. Most of the missions, and even the extra mission tasks were pretty engaging throughout the game, and I enjoyed completing all the tasks and getting S ranks(which is rare in games like these). But the side missions while OK at first get very boring after having to extract the 10th enemy specialist, or destroy the 15th armored vehicle unit. Unfortunately, more than half the non-recycled missions had no real direct connection to the plot, and offered nothing or practically nothing to the story progression. It didn't even round out the universe that much, because all that auxiliary stuff where you could learn more was beaten to death by Ocelot or Miller already in the tapes or cut scenes.

It was a waste of the great game play, because in most of that extra content, you didn't really have to do much to take advantage of what made it so great.

What I've learned most from MGSV is that Ocelot seems to have way too much love for live gerbils.

[UnHoly_One]

Kojima is awful. I don't get the love for that guy.

[nowitzki2004]

I wouldnt say he is awful the man pretty much reinvented the way we play stealth games, but he isnt as great as most people think. Like some people were saying "Konami is done when he leaves".... BS!! I knew Konami long before I knew Kojima.. and most Konami games I play have nothing top do with Kojima.

[alvgamin4lif]

Imo mgsV was a flawed masterpiece. The ideas were there but the execution wasn't upto the standard a mgs fan expects from the series (no I'm not talking about the gameplay since the gameplay is and the mechanics are freaking amazing).

[DarXyde]

I'd completely understand Hayter if we were talking about a sequel to MGS2 where his age was closer to the MGS1/MGS2 era Snake, but having to audition for Old Snake or Big Boss are totally fair if you ask me.

To be fair, the games weren't supposed to be as numerous as they were, meaning there was a time when Hayter would have been the only voice. Certainly, he could have reprised the role, but I also believe he never should have been Big Boss to begin with.

[Eamon]

A lot of people miss that the japanese voice actor is the same for Solid Snake and Big Boss. Even in MGS5.

So whether or not you feel he shouldn't have been Big Boss is irrelevant because Kojima had always intended the two characters to have the same voice.

[DarXyde]

You're right about that, however I believe even that was a mistake, though not as big of one. Why? Because Kojima had always cared far more about the English voice acting. He said as much before. It's entirely possible they felt Hayter was losing his touch. After Peace Walker, I'd agree. Or maybe Hayter had something going on that rubbed the team the wrong way where he was unreliable at times.

What I'm saying is this, like the problem with Konami, has more questions than answers. Nobody was given insight on any of it. Heck, I didn't frown upon Konami too much until they basically banned Kojima from the awards. We've been given very limited insight on Kojima's problems and also on Hayter's.

We're unlikely to ever fully understand, but I still say Big Boss should never have been played by David.

[DivineAssault]

To be fair, big boss is a different character so a different voice might've worked.. It was to late by MGSV but maybe that was his vision.. Its not like liquid sounded like venom or anything.. All the clones couldve had different voices.. Snake didnt have that many lines of dialog in 5 like before anyway.. It wasnt a bad game to me but i agree that the loyalty being broken kinda sucks..

[rainslacker]

I'd agree, except for the hospital scenes, where it's pretty obvious from the start who the guy helping you is based on the voice alone. Sutherland has a pretty recognizable voice after all. I think the twist was kind of ruined because of this, so it wouldn't have been too much to put Hayter in there for that part, and just let them all continue to troll which is typical for a Kojima game anyways.

Of course, the twist kind of makes the deleted chapter 51 ending nonsensical....as well as most of Snake's interactions with Eli to begin with.

I dunno though, in the end, given how at odds Miller and Ocelot were with one another throughout the game, and Miller's own interactions with snake, it does seem odd that they would continue on with the charade for so long, even if the real BB ordered it.

[cleft5]

Yeah Kojima sounds like a royal ass that got what was coming to him with the whole Konami debacle. I think if we all had more information about why Konami got rid of him, there wouldnt be so many folks thinking he is oh so great. Konami gave him a taste of his own medicine and I am glad Hayter moved on.

[-Foxtrot]

See I'm thinking the same

Konami are arseholes but it goes both ways, I don't see why people are just seeing it from Kojimas side what if Kojima was really using too much money for how much time he had. A lot of money went into that game and if some other developers had that their games would be better and less repetitive.

$80 million was spent on MGSV

306 million polish zloty which is $81 million was spent on the Witcher 3

Which one is better...we know the answer.

[Majister-Ludi]

Sounds like a serious dick move from everyone's game God. People loved Davids voice so why change it. Nothing threw me off more than the voice of fucking jack bauer coming out of snake. Seriously why do that.

[Muzikguy]

I liked MGSV. I mean I had to, I put over 300 hours in! Yeah the story was awkward, but the gameplay was awesome! It's one of my favorites this gen

[2pacalypsenow]

The medic had like 10 lines of voice anyways not counting the tapes.

[LOL_WUT]

Even Skullface had more dialogue than Snake ;)

[2pacalypsenow]

Even quiet had more dialogue

[scark92]

David IS the voice of Solid Snake and Big Boss no doubt

[Ogygian]

Humiliation?

They replaced David Hayter with silence for most of the game.

[tamd]

Spoiler Alert for those who haven't played it.

You were not even big boss, just his clone. David Hayter doesn't fit anywhere.

[Fez]

Big Boss is in the game though, it would have made a lot more sense to have two different voice actors for two different people.

Hayter should have been used in the reveal, I think he may have understood why the story would have been that way and therefore been okay with only playing a small role at the end. I think the reveal would have been far more enjoyable had it been Hayter. I would have looked back at the entire game more favourably if that was the case, that's for sure. I still had my fingers cross Hayter would be in the game (maybe as Solid) before I played it. As it turns out, it was absolutely feasible for him to be in the game as is but the opportunity was totally missed.

[I3loggs24]

Definitely should have used Hayter in the reveal episode, which i believe was Ep46... missed opportunity, and I think the fans would have appreciated the 'twist' a lot more, despite the weak narrative in general.

[Mikefizzled]

Hayter would have refused out of spite cause of how little Konami offered him.

[Eamon]

Ironically your spoiler is incorrect.

[Bass_fisherman]

indeed

[Nivekki]

Spoiler Alert - MGS5 is a boring mess of a game. And crap when compared to the others in the series.

If you haven't played it yet, be prepared to do the same thing, over and over, and over and over, and over and over...

[cleft5]

He isn't his clone by the way. And they used the same Japanese voice actor for Venom Snake as Snake in all the previous games.

[guyman]

Kiefer Sutherland was so non-existent and dull that even quiet gave a better voice performance. Dont worry hayter, metal gear solid v is a shadow of it's previous entries in terms of overall experience

[slappy508]

Such a Hayter

[MegaRay]

Not agreeing with, but well played sir XD

[slappy508]

Yeah in all fairness I liked Hayter better. I still thought this was a very good game, not my favourite metal gear solid though. I just ordered the legacy collection for ps3 looking forward to playing the older ones again

[sdcard4gb]

More like 80, Hayter-san.

[Artemidorus]

Sounda butthurt. However it was the strangest MGS I ever played

[cleft5]

Butthurt? No way. This is a guy that cared about his job and the fans. A guy who invested himself in a character for over 10+ years. Then he was summarily tossed to the side like garbage.

You work a job for 10+ years and tell me how you would feel if they fired you without any proper notice. Hayter could have been a lot more salty about this whole thing, but from day 1 he has said to fans to play the game they have invested so much time and love in.

[Artemidorus]

"You work a job for 10+ years and tell me how you would feel if they fired you without any proper notice"

I'd feel butthurt...

[Moe-Gunz]

Solid Snake and Big Boss should have never sounded the same anyway.

[Whitefox789]

But Solid is an actual partial clone of Big Boss, with both having similar origin's and ethnic backgrounds (Both grew up in America and both were heavy smokers). So on paper yeah they should sound pretty damn similar.

Plus what people don't seem to realize is with them saying having a young Solid Snake and Big Boss in a scene together talking wouldn't make sense or just wouldn't work here is what we were given. We have a scene in MGS:V at the beginning where we have Ishmael and Ahab talking to each other, two completely different individuals yet they sound exactly the same.

Why is this situation more accepted than having a scene of a clone talking to the original?

[Moe-Gunz]

Solid is not a perfect clone. Solidus is the perfect clone and therefore should have been the one that looked most like BB and sounded most like BB.

It was always a bad idea to have the same voice actor to play both characters. People forget that Liquid and Solid are damn near failed closes and they forget Solidus is the "perfect" one.

Richard Doyle should have been the voice of BB. With all that being said I can not deny the acting ability Kiefer showed in the funeral scene. Absolutely beautiful how he played that.

[rainslacker]

I don't recall Ahab having many lines in the prologue and final mission. Just a couple confused, "what's going on, who are you" type lines. rest was just Ishmael doing the tutorial...which was pretty lame for the final mission.

Although I don't think it was meant to be the final mission...probably just the end of Chapter 2, which would have made Quiet's departure much more heavy in terms of effect IMO.

There is a deleted final mission scene floating around out there. Involves going after Eli and the Metal Gear.

[ginsunuva]

MGSV at launch: "OmG so amazing the graphics so much to do very open world mind blown kojima has done it again goty!!"

MGSV a few weeks later: "Zomg it sucks wtf did I just play fu konami where's the rest of the game!!!"

Same for Fallout 4. Y'all never learn.

[Scatpants]

I actually didn't like Fallout 4 from the start and neither love or hate MGS5. I'd probably give it a 7.8

[cleft5]

I still enjoy Fallout 4, even if it did kind of get sort of boring.

[Dirtnapstor]

Hayter fit the bill as an older Snake. But I think he got too gravelly sounding for this younger Snake in MGSV timelines.

[RedDeadLB]

I actually liked both Kiefer's performance and the game itself. The ending was amazing, although sudden.

People hate it, I know - but I don't, I got >90 hours of gameplay out of the game and I enjoyed every second of it - cutscenes and all.

[shadowraiserx]

I agree with the Kiefer's performance is not that bad.

[Whitefox789]

They just never really did anything with it.

[shadowraiserx]

MGSVTPP sadly is a game that is very difficult to connect to the story and feel something about it,those extra missions getting in the middle of the story and the "open" world experience is crap.
Ground Zeroes was a better MGS than The Phantom Pain, Konami obviously was trying to sell this games into chapters and maybe that was part of the problem with Kojima.

[AstroCyborg]

about time somebody talked about kojima that didn't involve kissing his backside

[zackdollars]

David Hayter isn't handling this in a professional manner. He should never complain in public. He should always defend the project and act like it doesn't bother him. Personally, I think Sutherland is a better actor and a much better Snake.

[Hozi]

David Hater, without a doubt would make the better voice actor for Snake...I mean, whether or not it's Big Boss, if it ain't broke then don't fix it. Also, I'd love to see Hayter reprise his role in the acting industry...He played Guyver fairly well and although I may get dislikes I thought that movie was bad-ass for it's time. Wouldn't mind seeing a reboot or part 3 today.

[ColonelHugh]

I've always loved Hayter's goofy Snake, but Kojima wasn't the one playing up the hilarity of previous titles even if he was good at it (there were separate writers before MGS4). I think Kojima wanted to be taken more seriously. Let's be honest, the old titles had their fair share of haters towards Hayter's performance too, just look at the old forums. Hopefully he stays a presence in the game industry or even continues to act on screen.

Just so long as he doesn't go back to writing screenplays. X-Men, X-2, and Scorpion King weren't the greatest movies of all time by any means.

[Gatsu]

It's time to move on and forget what happened in the past Hayter. Same thing I'd say to fans :).

"I've got no particular love for Kojima," he tells us. "I don't feel any need to go back and work with him again."

At least he was given the opportunity to be part of MGS series, so should be thankful. Kojima had his reasons which one can argue forever and in MGSV David would talk just as less as Kiefer did, because I think that is how it was intended to do. So would it really bring so much difference?

I've said this before, but imo it was good to get a different voice actor, even if I love Hayter in previous games.

[Scatpants]

Hayter always overacted so hard. He's a terrible voice actor.

[ColonelHugh]

Personally, I always felt that he falls into the "so bad it's good" category. He was one of the best in the biz in the late nineties, though. You'd be hard pressed to find a voice actor with so much longevity in this industry.

I never agreed with all the Sutherland hate around here. Big Boss was never meant to have the same voice as Solid (think MGS4 ending). Neither did Liquid or Solidus, or Venom.

Just imagine Hayter performing each and every Snake, and it becomes funny but hilariously bad too.

[MRJefferson]

As a hardcore mgs fan I think MGS1 and MGS2 is fantastic work by david hayter but if I would kojima place, I was give big boss to keifer Sutherland in the first place (mgs3), MGS4 and peace walker was terrible by david hayter, fact mgs4 ending ruined, kojima was forced to change it because of hayter and kojima staff. Kojima will be better with hes own studio without hayter and old mgs4 "kojima staff". As for Venom Snake and Sutherland I think he did a fantastic job for MGSV, I like Venom Snake.

[MasterD919]

I wasn't going to replay through it again but I actually ended up starting a new game last night and playing a bit today.

[Austin48]

Day 1 buy!!!

[Drakul]

I wonder when this guy gonna stop crying....

[Antifan]

Snake would have done better just as a silent protagonist. Sutherland was just out of place. Throughout the entire game, he was better silent.

[Ferrethat22]

He may not have been a great VA but he is Snake and screw Kojima for getting rid of him

[Clown_Syndr0me]

I don't care what anyone says, MGSV was he most over hyped, booooorrriiinngg game ever.
MGS2 and 3 are amazing,p.

[silvacrest]

I agree, don't forget about MGS1 though

[Clown_Syndr0me]

Never played it until recently, and too dated to truly appreciate now, but I'm sure it was a classic.

[silvacrest]

If you do some research about kojima you would know that he is in love with Hollywood but apparently gives no fu*ks about english voice actors, seems kinda weird to me but that is why we've got kiefer even though no one asked for hayter to be replaced.

And for those of you who think hayter is crying and should just forget it, look and see how kojima treated the Japanese voice actors, nothing but love and the utmost respect.

im a kojima fan but what he did wasn't right

[Chaos_Order]

It's okay, David. You only missed out on being a part of the worst Metal Gear game since Metal Gear Acid. Don't sweat it.

[oIITSBIIo]

The game is disappointing anyway.

[Germany7]

And some people here still complain about MGS 4, a real masterpiece.

[PiperMCFierceson]

Best mgs ai, deff a good game. Still hard to hear kiefer as snake. Big let down. I was on the fence on whether even bothering to buy the game.