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Metal Gear Solid Seems To Get A Shoutout In Ghost Recon Wildlands' New Splinter Cell Mission

"I've heard they don't make them like me anymore."

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Ghost Recon Wildlands' new Special Operations I update is themed around Splinter Cell, effectively throwing a bone to fans of a series that hasn't been heard from since 2013. But it also seems to feature a brief reference to Metal Gear Solid.

After completing the new Splinter Cell mission in Wildlands, players get to watch a cutscene with Sam Fisher. This features the return of voice actor Michael Ironside, who wasn't included in the last game, Splinter Cell: Blacklist. His absence is possibly acknowledged when Fisher is told he's "clocked some miles" since his last encounter with the Ghosts' handler, Karen Bowman, which then prompts the apparent Metal Gear reference.

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"Yeah, a few. I've heard they don't make them like me anymore," Fisher says around the 4:17 mark of the video above. "There was this other guy though--army infiltration. He wore a bandana or something." His name isn't explicitly stated, but it seems like a clear reference to Big Boss/Solid Snake, the protagonists of the Metal Gear series.

Bowman tells Fisher that he heard that certain someone finally retired, to which Fisher responds, "Really? ... Then it's only me..." The thought lingers for a brief, somber moment, just enough to bring a tear to the eye of longtime Metal Gear fans.

Metal Gear itself as a franchise is not retired, even with series creator Hideo Kojima having moved on from developer Konami. Just this year, we got a survival game spin-off, Metal Gear Survive, though that was a marked departure from series norms (and wasn't warmly received, as you can see in our Metal Gear Survive review). Where the series goes from here is unclear.

The same is also true of Splinter Cell, although there is a glimmer of hope for fans. Following a tease last year from Ubisoft's CEO, this same cutscene in Wildlands features a possible teaser for a new Splinter Cell game. Right after the Metal Gear talk, Bowman informs Fisher of an "empty quiver" situation, which describes a missing or stolen nuclear weapon. That could be the setup for a new game or just a means for getting Fisher out of Wildlands, but fans are certainly hoping it's the former.

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