Steel Gear Stable is a complicated franchise. As somebody who’s by no means performed an entry all through—aside from the very good Revengeance, which isn’t actually a Steel Gear Stable recreation—I’m conversant in the sequence however all the time discovered myself perplexed by its intricate narrative threads that span many years. Fortunately, David Hayter, the voice of the legendary spy Stable Snake, has considerably remedied my confusion with a quick rationalization of MGS’ affect in a brand new YouTube advert.
To advertise the primary quantity of the Steel Gear Stable: Grasp Assortment, which launched in October 2023 to fan frustration, Hayter appeared in a March 15 YouTube video on Konami’s channel. In it, he grabs our hand and rapidly takes us by way of the sport’s storied historical past, discussing the signature qualities of the primary three entries of Steel Gear Stable. (Sure, he additionally briefly acknowledges that Steel Gear extra broadly started with the 1987 launch of Snake’s first journey on the MSX.)
He doesn’t fairly do an in depth story breakdown in the way in which that somebody like myself, who’s heard of however by no means actually understood the sport’s narrative, would respect. Nevertheless, he does humorously nod to the sequence’ twisting plots, admitting that newcomers could also be daunted by all of the “shadow organizations, secret brokers, double brokers, triple brokers, nonlinear timelines, large nuclear weapons, clones, and a number of characters named Snake.” However, he says, this assortment will set new gamers on the suitable path to make sense of all of it.
He then briefly charts how the sequence garnered the clout it has, highlighting “a handful of components that Steel Gear uniquely Steel Gear.”
Hayter—who’s most likely finest recognized for his work because the gruff voice of MGS’ protagonist Stable Snake—touches on the “progressive and iconic gameplay” discovered within the sequence, together with how boss Psycho Mantis can ”learn your thoughts” by accessing your reminiscence card. It’s cool listening to all this historical past, nonetheless transient, particularly since that is simply half one in all what’s going to turn out to be a multi-part sequence. In line with Hayter, the second episode shall be about the Steel Gear Stable 3: Snake Eater remake, which doesn’t have a launch date but however seems rattling good.
Anyway, I don’t know in case you’ve seen, however having actors pop up in gaming advertisements appears to be changing into a pattern. At first, it was Succession star Brian Cox giving us the rundown of Tekken 8‘s lore. Then, Ian McShane, from Deadwood and the John Wick movies, defined Dragon’s Dogma 2‘s story. And now, we’ve got David Hayter doing the identical. Hayter, after all, has a longtime connection to the sequence he’s speaking about right here, so it’s not fairly the identical, however it’s yet one more instance of an actor with a well-known voice explaining a recreation or sequence to us at size. I’m not mad about it. It’s only a bizarre coincidence.