Considering that some of the moves in Metal Gear aren’t something flashy you see out of a Hong Kong or Thai movie, Volgin and Ocelot thought CQC was a form of Judo since it became an Olympic sport in 1964 when Snake Eater takes place. Since it uses throws, trips, clinches, and joint locks in order to neutralize hostile combatants, it is natural to assume it could be Judo. In some ways, you can call CQC a hybrid martial art made for the most intense situations. In an athletic definition, you can reasonably compare it to Mixed Martial Arts. While grappling plays a significant role in MMA competitions, it has rules and rounds that do not apply on the streets or in the battlefield. In war, there are rules of engagement but depending on the nature of certain missions, police officers or elite military units may need to capture their targets alive, and CQC is a skill necessary in getting that job done.

Metal Gear Solid 4 expands the CQC in instances when holding up enemy soldier after pointing a gun at them at point blank range, it allows the player to pat them down while they have their hands up to take items. In MGS2 and Twin Snakes, while you can hold a hostile up by pulling a gun on them, the only way to get items is to point the gun at their head or crotch to make them drop it. But in MGS4, holding up enemy soldiers takes a comedic approach by giving players the option of knocking them out by grabbing their crotches (and if you try this on a female soldier, just see what happens). Similarly in MGS3, if you grab an opponent from behind, you can either get them to speak by pointing a knife to their throat, slitting them, slamming them down with a Judo throw, or choking them out.

Peace Walker simplifies and extends CQC to comedic levels but still gets the job done. This time, you get to throw your opponents up against walls, trees, or against other opponents for more damage. Since interrogating enemies while holding them was rather difficult in Snake Eater and Guns of the Patriots, Peace Walker prompts up an options screen with what you can do in that position such as interrogating them, letting them go, or choking them out. It also introduces the multiple opponent takedown systems if enemy soldiers surround you. What some martial arts enthusiasts appreciate in this game is that whenever Big Boss or Solid Snake choke out an enemy, they isolate one arm so they can’t reach for a weapon demonstrating a sense of dedication to realism. For wrestling fans reading, the grip of this choke is similar to how a wrestler named Taz, who uses this move as the Tazmission, his finisher.

With the fifth game, it further refines the CQC system in both style and substance. This installment properly gives it a fluid striking system while it was rather stiff and useless in previous games. As opposed to using flashy jumping spin kicks in fighting games, in MGSV, you can set up your knock out punch with a leg kick or a body shot in order to lower the opponent’s posture to get his chin open for it. What many martial arts and combat enthusiasts have given praise to in relation to that is when Venom Snake throws that punch, he throws it with rotation concentrated onto his shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hips for maximum power, and to allow the knuckles of his index and middle finger to make an impact.

Realistically, if you try to punch with any other knuckle or any part of the head beyond the jawline, it can damage your hand. In addition, it also allows players to disarm opponents or properly counter a knife attack. So if you find yourself held at gunpoint, you can use CQC to immediately act and take the hostile’s weapon and fire it back at them.

As previously shared, CQC and MMA do share foundational similarities with being hybrid forms of martial arts, and for its emphasis on takedowns, chokes, and joint locks. In both video games and reality, MMA is meant for one-on-one competition and no weapons. If in the instance a fighter locks an armbar on another fighter, a tap ends the match in both real life competition and in a UFC video game with no arms getting broken. In a non-competitive hostile situation, the moment you apply that same technique, the purpose is to break the arm and not get a tap. The same can be said for applying choke holds.

While Metal Gear Solid popularized CQC, other games that are centered on warfare have progressively adopted their own distinguishing CQC systems. One instance is with the famous Call of Duty series, which demonstrates CQC as a more team-oriented SWAT tactic as opposed to being used for stealth. Some of the training levels in select installments of Call of Duty allow players to learn how to raid in indoor situations by kicking down doors, firing at a respectable distance, and setting up barges with flash-bang grenades. In fact, this is one of the tactics developed by Fairbairn when he developed CQC.