Kojima Productions' Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is but a few weeks away, and the last stretch of any long wait is always the most unbearable. While we can't help you get the game any earlier than the 12th of June, we've got a little something to keep you preoccupied.

Every week from this point on, we'll be placing the spotlight on some key personalities who'll be making comebacks in the much-awaited  title. This should freshen up our collective memories on the storyline of the franchise and tickle our imaginations as to what impact each character will bring to the next-gen tactical espionage extravaganza. Without further ado, let's kick things off in a big way by putting the main villain on the hot seat. Oh yes, it's Liquid Ocelot!

Character history: Liquid Ocelot will have the deepest character history of all the personalities we'll cover in this profile series. If you've been following the earlier MGS games, you'll know why: He's actually two baddies rolled into one. How so? We'll tell you in a bit. First, let's meet the two men that comprise him.

Liquid Snake

Liquid Snake is a product of the US Government's Les Enfantes Terribles project which was geared towards spawning clones of Cold War hero Big Boss for use in situations when a perfect soldier is needed. The covert project, however, blew up in the military's face as Liquid began to think independently and set out plans to further his own agenda.

Not much is known about Liquid's early life, but he did mention in one of his talks with Solid Snake that he was always referred to by Big Boss as the "inferior one" among his artificial children. Because of this, he developed a resentment for his old man and his genetic brother whom he believes inherited Big Boss's dominant traits.

Liquid grew up to become a decorated warrior nonetheless, as evidenced by his leadership of the elite FOX-HOUND unit. In one encounter with Solid Snake, his aide Revolver Ocelot expresses admiration for his boss for shooting down two F-16s using merely a Hind-D helicopter gunship.

Things came to a head for Liquid as he led a mutiny in Shadow Moses island over at Alaska to steal the American top secret weapon Metal Gear REX. At the end of the incident, he fails to defeat his brother in combat, and is then killed by the FOX-DIE virus. It's revealed in the trademark Metal Gear series mystery phone calls after the ending credits that Liquid was the carrier of Big Boss's superior genes after all, while Ocelot was actually working for the US President, George Sears (Solidus).

The plot thickened in MGS2: Sons of Liberty as it was revealed that the villain lived on in a very strange way. Liquid survives through his arm which was implanted into Revolver Ocelot's decapitated limb. Liquid starts off as a mere part of Ocelot's subconscious, but appeared to have gained more strength as the story went on. Ultimately, he gives the impression that he has taken over fully in MGS4, giving birth to a whole new entity who calls himself Liquid Ocelot.

Revolver Ocelot

Few villains in gaming are as enigmatic and unpredictable as Revolver Ocelot. He was originally introduced as Liquid's right hand man who specializes in gun-slinging and brutal interrogation techniques. He wears a cowboy-themed garb replete with spurs, and cockily announces that he's a one-man army.

His weapon of choice is the Single Action Army revolver which bores into victims at low velocities, giving targets more pain than regular gunshots would. There's no doubt he has sadistic tendencies - something he picked up from his stint under Russian strongman Colonel Volgin. Master Miller says its best when he describes Ocelot as "one sick puppy."

It has been heavily implied in MGS 3: Snake Eater that the young Major Ocelot is actually the biological son of American World War II heroes The Boss and The Sorrow. He first appears to be a GRU operative, but is then revealed to be something much, much more.

As it turns out, Ocelot is actually a double agent for Russia and America. It's revealed in the ending that he's been working for the American DCI all along, and was after the vast riches of Colonel Volgin in the form of the Philosphers' Legacy. He was actually supposed to assist Big Boss in his mission from the start, but Chinese spy EVA beat him to the punch and he had to adjust.

In Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, he assassinates the DCI and switches allegiance to Gene's faction. Towards the end, he does his usual wheeling and dealing, and is then revealed to be working for "the man with the same codename as Null" in an effort to revive the Patriots organization.

Ocelot does more of the same in MGS2, which sees him hijacking the new Metal Gear RAY for the Patriots. However, he suffers the worst backfire of his life when his body is taken over by Liquid after he replaced his decapitated arm with one sawed off Liquid's corpse. You could say he got a lot more than he asked for.

In MGS4, we haven't seen any indications yet that Ocelot still has some say as to what his body does. However, you can never be too sure about this guy. Do we smell plot twists? Damn right.

 

What makes him tick

Assuming that Liquid's mind is in complete control of Liquid Ocelot's body, we might see a rarity in this MGS villain in terms of being straightforward with his motives. Liquid has made it clear in the first MGS that he wants to surpass Big Boss and create a Cold War atmosphere where men like him were honored and valued.

We already know that Liquid Ocelot established the mother private military company Outer Haven to fulfill his goals, and things have been going on so well that he now has a force that rivals that of the US military's in terms of manpower. Liquid is setting up an armed insurrection, and he might be aiming it towards the Patriots whom he swore to eliminate in MGS2.

There's no question that Liquid Ocelot won't mind getting rid of Old Snake, but he probably isn't as bent on doing that now as he used to be. If he was, he probably would have done it atop Arsenal Gear in MGS2 when he had the chance. He probably found peace in the fact that he has the superior genes, and he's focusing now on taking down the bigger fish like the Patriots.

That's just about all the recon we've got on Liquid Ocelot. Stay with us and watch out for our next MGS4 character profile which will drop on the same day next week.

This article was originally published on April 18, 2008 at 1:58 p.m.