Editing Solid Snake (section)

====''Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots''====
{{Main|Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots}}
''Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots'' features an aged incarnation of the character who nicknamed himself {{nihongo|Old Snake|オールド・スネーク|Ōrudo Sunēku}} as the protagonist once again. Thanks to Otacon and [[List of characters in the Metal Gear series#Sunny|Sunny]], he wears a sneaking suit outfitted with "Octocamo" technology which allows him to blend with his environment as well as a face mask which alters his appearance.<ref name="1up">{{cite web|url=http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3146394|title=Metal Gear Solid 4 101|access-date=2006-12-25|publisher=Ziff Davis Media Inc|year=2005|author=MacDonald, Mark|work=1up.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927192646/http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3146394|archive-date=2007-09-27}}</ref>

For his final mission, he is once again enlisted by Campbell to assassinate Liquid Ocelot, CEO of a giant mother company that are trying to take control of the Patriots' AIs.<ref>{{cite video game|title=Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots|year=2008|developer=Kojima Productions|publisher=Konami|quote='''Campbell:''' His will lives on - in the body of the man once known as Ocelot. He aims to fan the flames of war even higher - to create the perfect world once envisioned by Big Boss. / '''Old Snake:''' The one world in which soldiers will always have a place... / '''Campbell:''' He must be stopped... Before it's too late.}}</ref> He also learns from Naomi that his life has been artificially shortened as part of the cloning process so that his genes can't be used as a weapon in later research, thus explaining why he has the physical appearance of an elderly man despite being only forty-two years old.<ref>{{cite video game|title=Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots|developer=Kojima Productions|quote='''Naomi Hunter''': You're clones created for one purpose - war. And so in order to prevent you from being abused by clients or stolen by the enemy... They shortened your lifespan and removed your ability to reproduce. It was a safety device to ensure that the seed of Big Boss didn't end up in the hands of others. The reason you're aging so rapidly isn't that of disease, or faulty research, or FOXDIE. It's how you were born. It's your natural lifespan.}}</ref> Snake and his allies are forced to destroy the Patriots' AI and fight through Ocelot's forces until Snake defeats Liquid's doppelgänger in hand-to-hand combat. Snake tried to commit suicide as his DNA contains a mutated FOXDIE virus that might trigger an epidemic, but Big Boss revealed a new variant overwrote the mutant version to which the two make up as father and son. David is told he still has a chance to live "not as a snake but as a man" so he decides to live out the remainder of his life in peace, vowing that he will live long enough to see what the future holds for the new world he has helped create.<ref>{{cite video game|title=Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots|year=2008|developer=Kojima Productions|publisher=Konami|quote='''Otacon''': Our fight is finished. There's nothing left for us to do. / '''Old Snake''': No. There's one thing I still have to do. I have to see this age off... See what the future brings.}}</ref>