Metal Gear Solid 4 character countdown: Colonel Roy Campbell

We have several weeks left before we finally get our hands on Konami Digital Entertainment’s Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and the home stretch of the waiting period is killing us. To keep you preoccupied, we decided to feature some of the key characters of the game on a weekly basis to freshen our memories on their roles in the series. This week, we’ve got the decorated soldier who’s worked with Big Boss and served as Solid Snake‘s long-time commanding officer: It’s Colonel Roy Campbell!

Welcome back to the Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Character Countdown. We’re on this weekly feature’s fourth week now, and it’s been a nice run so far. If this is your first time reading a part of this article series, it’s a weekly thing we’re doing here at QJ.NET to freshen up your memories of the Metal Gear franchise by profiling characters who will be making comebacks in the next game.

In the past three editions, we’ve taken you through memory lane with such stalwarts as Liquid Ocelot, Vamp, and Otacon. This week, we’ll be digging through the files of a very decorated soldier who’s been in the Metal Gear series on almost every installment. Yes, as some of you requested, here’s Solid Snake‘s long-time commanding officer: Colonel Roy Campbell.

Character history: Colonel Campbell has one of the deepest character histories in the Metal Gear series. He made his first appearance in the franchise’s MSX days when he assumed the position as Solid Snake’s commanding officer in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. He then makes appearances in sequels and prequels in the franchise, including Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, and come the 12th of June, in MGS4.

For everyone to be on the same page and for the purpose of order, let’s have a look back at Campbell’s life in chronological order: Roy Campbell first got involved in the Metal Gear storyline when he met Naked Snake (Big Boss) in San Hieronymo Peninsula, Colombia, during the events of MGSPO. He was introduced as a Green Berets operative whose squad was wiped out. Left roaming in enemy territory, Campbell teams up with Snake and the two plan their escape.

Campbell is depicted in MGSPO as his young self. His military pedigree also includes a stint with the Marine Corps in his younger days. However, he left the regiment for personal reasons involving a love triangle with a woman whom he and his brother Matt fell in love with.

In any case, Campbell provides support to Naked Snake in MGSPO and the two survive the harrowing ordeal relatively unharmed. With the experimental Metal Gear destroyed and Gene’s FOX unit defeated, he and Snake part ways at the end, with the hero going out to seek his calling.

Between the events of MGSPO and Metal Gear, Big Boss apparently switches to the dark side and finds his calling in building his own military state much in the same way Gene wanted to establish Army’s Heaven as a dominant power. His plot is uncovered in Solid Snake’s infiltration of Outer Heaven during the events of the original Metal Gear in South Africa, and Big Boss is beaten in the end.

Campbell makes his return in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake as he assumes the role of Solid Snake’s commanding officer for the first time, taking the place of Big Boss. He takes Solid Snake out of retirement and instructs him to infiltrate Zanzibar Lands where a new terrorist faction is building weapons of mass destruction. In this mission, Campbell guides Solid Snake as they expose a plot by surviving enemies Big Boss and Gray Fox to pick up where they left off in Outer Heaven. Campbell and Snake succeed, and the world is once again saved.

When the Metal Gear franchise went 3D in the PlayStation One era, Campbell and Snake were called back from retirement to face a new threat in the form of the Liquid Snake-led FOXHOUND unit which seized control of a weapons research facility in Shadow Moses Island in Alaska. The events of Metal Gear Solid unfolded, and more light was shed on Colonel Campbell.

Aside from performing his duties as a military officer, Colonel Campbell had a deeper purpose in guiding Snake during his Shadow Moses exploits. Roy’s “niece” Meryl Silverburgh was trapped inside the military facility with FOXHOUND and Genome Soldiers swarming the place. In the good ending where Solid Snake resists Revolver Ocelot’s torture, Meryl is found alive after the hand to hand combat fight with Liquid and is whisked off to safety.

The bad ending, however, is a bit more revealing as far as Campbell is concerned. If the player gives in to Ocelot’s torture, Meryl will be found dead by Snake. Campbell then reveals via Codec that Meryl is actually his daughter.

In MGS2, Campbell makes somewhat of an appearance. A person who looks like him in Codec assumes the role of Raiden’s commanding officer. However, his attitude towards references to Solid Snake in the Big Shell mission raise doubts about his nature early on.

Near the game’s end when the GW programming system of Arsenal Gear was infected with a virus, Raiden’s “Campbell” begins acting strange, and is later revealed to be a false one. As it turns out, the Campbell that’s been guiding Raiden is nothing more than AI that conforms to Raiden’s expectations.

Campbell skips major roles in MGS3, as this game’s events happen before the crisis in Colombia depicted in MGSPO. However, he will be available via radio in the “Snake versus Monkey” mini game where he gives Snake instructions for a joke mission.

The “real” Colonel Roy Campbell is scheduled to make an appearance in MGS4, perhaps as Old Snake’s commanding officer. In one of the upcoming biggie’s trailers, he talks to Old Snake in a cemetery where he gives the protagonist a new mission: eliminate Liquid Ocelot.

Campbell tells Snake from the get-go that this is not a mission from the White House or the United Nations. This is simply a hired hit where Old Snake is the gun tasked to do the wet work.

Conspiracy theories

Not to sound too cynical, but Colonel Campbell raises more questions than ever as to what his true motives are. Given what we summed up in his character history, this blogger would be surprised if ol’ Roy turned out to be the straight arrow that he seems to be. Consider the following points:

• Campbell has had ties with Big Boss way before he had with Solid Snake. Where was he in the years between MGSPO, Metal Gear, and Metal Gear 2? Could he have been in league with Big Boss all that time? Could he have been trying to lead Solid Snake into a death trap in the Zanzibar Lands the same way Big Boss did back in Outer Heaven? We don’t know.
• Even if that was the case, Campbell’s loyalty to Big Boss is questionable. For instance, do we really buy the story in San Hieronymo where he said he was the only surviving member of the Green Berets in the area? For all we know, he might have been injected into the scene by another faction. The Philosophers or the upstart Patriots, perhaps? What we do know is that Ocelot and presumably Major Zero were working in the shadows of Portable Ops.
• Why would Campbell hire Solid Snake to eliminate Liquid Ocelot in MGS4 if he wasn’t ordered by the White House or the UN? There’s hardly been a direct grudge between the two. The only group with real issues now against Liquid are the Patriots whom the villain vowed to destroy near the end of MGS2.
• That said, could it be that Roy Campbell is receiving orders from the manipulative Patriots? If so, does this mean that the subtitle Guns of the Patriots refers to Campbell and Solid Snake who are out to get Liquid Ocelot? We’ll see.

At the end of the day, those are just this blogger’s conspiracy theories, and they should be taken with a grain of salt. What do you think? Post your comments below.

Article originally posted on May 10, 2008 at 1:45 p.m.