Jonathan Ferguson, a weapons expert, analyzes Metal Gear Solid and praises Hideo Kojima: “He knew exactly what he was doing.”
Hideo Kojima and his team took the depiction of weapons in the first Metal Gear Solid very seriously.
When Metal Gear Solid arrived on PlayStation in 1998, it didn’t just revolutionize the stealth genre with its cinematic narrative and unforgettable characters. It also impressed with the meticulous attention to detail with which Hideo Kojima and his team depicted the real-world weaponry used by Solid Snake—an aspect that greatly contributed to the game’s sense of realism. Now, 28 years after its release, weapons expert Jonathan Ferguson has subjected the game to a thorough analysis, and his verdict is clear: Kojima approached this aspect with a high level of rigor and a degree of respect far exceeding industry standards—especially at the time of its release.
A weapons expert analyzes Metal Gear Solid and confirms what many suspected about the PSX game’s arsenal
Jonathan Ferguson is no ordinary gun enthusiast. He is a historian specializing in weaponry and a curator of firearms and artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum in the United Kingdom. From his unique vantage point as a firearms expert, Ferguson has spent years analyzing the realism of the weapons depicted in movies and video games in various YouTube videos. He has examined franchises such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, Halo, Resident Evil, and—as in the case at hand—Metal Gear Solid.
This time, the expert has focused his attention on the original Metal Gear Solid for PlayStation, and the overall verdict couldn’t be more positive. Throughout a review lasting just over half an hour, Ferguson highlights that Hideo Kojima and Konami did an outstanding job of researching real-world weapons, paying close attention to both the specific models chosen and their nomenclature and technical specifications. At several points in the video, he even goes so far as to praise the wealth of accurately depicted details, stating that the development team “knew exactly what he was doing.”
Among the examples that have impressed him the most is Solid Snake’s iconic HK Mark 23 SOCOM pistol, which he notes is still in production today and whose enormous popularity he attributes in large part to the Metal Gear Solid series. He also offers a few words of praise for the depiction of the French FAMAS assault rifle, noting in particular the use of the correct variant for the era and even the way the game officially described its name—a little-known detail that, in his opinion, demonstrates the care with which Kojima and his team treated the game’s weaponry.
That said, Ferguson doesn’t accept absolutely everything he was shown about Metal Gear Solid. In the video, the historian also takes the opportunity to point out some technical errors and creative liberties, such as Revolver Ocelot’s famous line about loading a bullet into a “well-oiled chamber,” explaining that a revolver’s chamber should never be lubricated. Similarly, he also believes that oversized weapons like Vucan Raven’s gigantic minigun or certain action scenes added in The Twin Snakes are clearly the result of narrative and cinematic choices rather than realism—something he accepts as a hallmark of the series.
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Thus, the expert’s conclusion is unequivocal: nearly three decades after its release, Metal Gear Solid continues to stand out as one of the most meticulous and well-researched depictions of real-world weaponry ever produced by the video game industry. This recognition confirms that the military realism in Hideo Kojima’s work was not the result of chance, but rather of the meticulous research that made Solid Snake’s adventure one of the greatest video games of all time.
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