Elevator

Elevators, also known as lifts, are a type of transportation equipent used primarily in multiple storied buildings, vessels, or other related structures for the transportation of goods between floors. They are normally powered by electric motors that either drive traction cables or counterweight systems such as hoists or pump hydraulic fluid to raise a cylindrical piston like jacks. Although they are generally as large as a small room, some are also designed to be large platforms for large amounts of equipment.

Usage
In September 1964, GRU Colonel Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin activated a large elevator platform meant for delivering supplies for developing or maintaining vehicles in the hangar area of Groznyj Grad to use as a makeshift "ring" to fight Naked Snake in.

During the San Hieronymo Takeover in late 1970, Big Boss and his resistance had to locate and deactivate a cargo elevator to prevent the transportation of nuclear warheads for the ICBMG, eventually resorting to destroying the power source, but they failed thanks to Python, and had later discovered that they had in fact failed to stop the delivery of nukes since before they even knew about it. Likewise, Big Boss later fought Cunningham on a cargo elevator in the silo complex that was used to deliver IRBMs, or in this case, the ICBMG, to the main launch pad of the silo.

During the 1974 Peace Walker Incident, the Crater Base utilized a massive cargo elevator for Peace Walker in the Crater Base and the Mine Base. Likewise, Big Boss and the MSF themselves would utilize a room-sized cargo elevator in the latter location when infiltrating it, as well as another elevator when trying to press through to the communications tower at the U.S. Missile Base in Nicaragua to prevent Peace Walker's activation.

During the 1995 Outer Heaven Uprising, Solid Snake had to utilize elevators throughout his mission in Outer Heaven. There were two elevator systems in Building 1 of the Outer Heaven fortress, one of which skipped the second floor.

In the Zanzibar Land Disturbance during the late 1990s, Solid Snake utilized elevators just like in Outer Heaven to access various parts of the Zanzibar Fortress. In addition, because Snake did not heed Gray Fox's warning to leave Zanzibar Land, he also fought the Four Horsemen assassination squad on the elevator in the Zanzibar Tower. He eventually defeated them, although the fight likewise resulted in severe damage to the elevator.

During the 2005 Shadow Moses Incident, Solid Snake frequently utilized elevators to access various parts of the base. Likewise, he utilized a large-scale cargo elevator to travel down to the Snowfield in Communication Tower B after Liquid Snake damaged the stairs with his Hind D, although it had seemingly broken down, requiring Hal Emmerich to fix it due to the weight alarm going off. In actuality, it breaking down was actually the result of Hal Emmerich unknowingly foiling an assassination attempt on Snake by four stealth-camouflaged soldiers hiding on the elevator, of whom Snake later defeated. Snake also utilized a two-part freight elevator to go down to the Underground Maintenance Base that REX was stored inside, although he ended up having to fight a squad of four enemy soldiers who boarded the elevator just as it was taking off. The Underground Base that REX was stored inside also utilized a freight elevator to carry REX up to the supply route, which Liquid later activated upon REX's activation to fight Snake with.

During the 2007 Tanker Incident, Snake utilized various elevators throughout the Tanker to access the various decks of the U.S.S. Discovery. Two years later, during the Big Shell Incident, Raiden would access some elevators throughout the Big Shell. In addition, he also had to disguise himself as a Gurlukovich Soldier to find Secret Service agent Richard Ames, in order to bypass a surveillance camera-monitored elevator.

During Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection against the Patriots in 2014, Solid Snake utilized elevators on Shadow Moses Island and Outer Haven to access various parts of the locations, the former to access Emmerich's lab to reactivate power throughout the base as well as locate the ruins of REX in the underground maintenance base after Vamp sealed the way to the freight elevators, and the latter to rush to the GW control room to deactivate it.

Behind the scenes
Elevators were frequently used throughout the series since the first Metal Gear. The first one, however, primarily utilized sidescrolling elements for the elevators, also requiring the player to use arrow keys and similar controls to actually move the elevator to the required floor. The non-canon sequel to Metal Gear, Snake's Revenge, utilized a similar gameplay method, although it also uilized miniature elevators for the player to use. Elevators made a return in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, although with a revamped gameplay method to make them more similar to how they are utilized in real life, where the player has to access the elevator and then press a button to access the floor. The gameplay change is also commented on in-universe by Holly White. In Metal Gear Solid, its remake The Twin Snakes, and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, accessing regular cargo elevators also acted as a subtle method of transitioning scenes due to gameplay limitations during that time of actually interacting with elevators, the only exception to that rule being boss fights onboard elevators. It wasn't until Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and the PS3's processing power that the player could both utilize an elevator and interact with it as it was moving around. Peace Walker had the player accessing elevators in a manner similar to that of the Solid games prior to 4, however.