Metal Gear Solid Nearly Had Rat Buddies | Screen Rant
Metal Gear Solid is remembered as a tense stealth action game that would lay the groundwork for many stealth games that would follow, but director Hideo Kojima had big plans for the game's smallest creatures: rats. Metal Gear Solid titles have always featured animals throughout their history, from the Wolfdogs of MGS to the seagulls that terrorize protagonist Raiden's balance on Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty's Big Shell. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater would go on to expand this particular facet of the games, with a myriad of wild animals that Snake could encounter (and consume) although players may struggle to get their hands on a copy, given that MGS2 & 3 were removed from digital stores.
The rats that appeared on Metal Gear Solid's Shadow Moses island ended up being a fairly unremarkable addition to the game, although there was a hidden codec call Snake would receive should he gun down too many of them. Director Hideo Kojima originally had other plans for the rodents though, none of which would go on to make it into the final version of the game. Said plans would've departed from MGS' stealth roots, while at the same time playing into the series' quirky sensibilities.
In an interview covered by YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming?, Kojima stated "Another thing I wanted to do was assign names to individual rats, and these rats could then be raised as pets." before going on to say that he believes they are a "Very important element in the game." It isn't clear from this just how much of a role these pet rats would have played in the game, as it seems unlikely that they could do much to assist the player in combat, although perhaps they were intended to be used as distractions or even to help the player find vents, as referenced by Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4. With regular speculation taking place over the possibility of a Metal Gear Solid PS5 remake, Kojima may finally be able to fulfill his original plan of Snake raising his own furry friends.
Metal Gear Solid 3 & 5 both went on to allow the player to tranquilize and capture rats, although there is still yet to be a Metal Gear title that allows the player to give them names. Given Konami's seeming lack of interest in the franchise following Metal Gear Survive, the prospect looks increasingly less likely. Kojima also had other idea's surrounding the rats, as he also originally planned for them to grow in size when shot but ultimately decided it was too silly and removed the Easter egg. It would seem that Kojima gave Shadow Moses Island a lot more thought than players might have realized, although that may not be too surprising given that Metal Gear Solid streamers discover new glitches to this day, proving that even a game as old as MGS still holds secrets to be discovered.
The Metal Gear Solid series is also known for including lighter moments within the often dark storylines, but it remains hard to see just how this mechanic would have been implemented in a way that made any real sense to the player or the narrative, given Snake's status as an elite soldier. The player, and by extension Snake, is also in frequent contact with numerous allies via the games codec system, as well as having allies within the facility itself, seemingly ruling out loneliness as a motive. Ultimately, it may have come down to the simple fact that Kojima liked the irony of a Snake raising rats in Metal Gear Solid.
Source: DidYouKnowGaming?