Anyone else check out of the MGS series storyline after MGS4?

pel1300

pel1300

Member
Seems like it got really messy with the prequel/Big Boss storyline. I totally checked out after MGS4.

I look back fondly on MGS 1 through 3, storywise those were the ones I really enjoyed. MGS4 ended up being a bloated, messy, greatest hits that while playing it was exciting, but in the end was disappointing.

My favorite of the series is MGS2 by far. I think it has aged the best even if at the time many of us had a WTF reaction to the plot twists in the final act.

I tried watching this timeline recap and damn the prequel era seems confusing AF.

 
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I don't understand the story too much but I guess in a way since MGS4 is my last Metal Gear game. First played MGS3 after watching my cousin beat it and then bought MGS2 myself and finally bought MGS4.
 
I checked out after MGS2.

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4 is the ending so w/e
 
It got messy very fast. There are a few retcons because it would make even less sense without them.

To me the hardest retcon was the one that led to what place Venom Snake has in the timeline.
 
I began the series with MGS2, then played MGS3 and adored it, then played Peace Walker, never played 4 because I never owned a PS3 and then fell in love with the franchise again with Ground Zeroes.
I also played MGS1 not so long ago, personally without any rose tinted glasses I much prefer Big Boss's storyline against Solid Snake's. But then again I did not play MGS4 or any of the original Metal Gear games.

I also loved TPP but I must admit I was disappointed with that Venom Snake bait and switch bullshit. After Ground Zeroes with that absurdly dark tone I was expecting TPP to be all about Big Boss's descent into madness and unfortunately that never materialized... Thankfully the gameplay more than made up for it.
 
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Also the series wasn't the same after losing the mgs main theme song. Mgs4 just didn't feel like mgs without it.
 
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Yes. PW is just stupid, V is almost a non-event.

How do you take a game with Mantis, Volgin, Liquid, Ocelot and BB and make it so boring.

GZ was great though, all 30 mins of it.
 
It never made sense. The storyline is supposedly to be like falling down a rabbit trail of 4chan conspiracy theories.
 
pel1300 said:
Seems like it got really messy with the prequel/Big Boss storyline. I totally checked out after MGS4.

I look back fondly on MGS 1 through 3, storywise those were the ones I really enjoyed. MGS4 ended up being a bloated, messy, greatest hits that while playing it was exciting, but in the end was disappointing.

My favorite of the series is MGS2 by far. I think it has aged the best even if at the time many of us had a WTF reaction to the plot twists in the final act.

I tried watching this timeline recap and damn the prequel era seems confusing AF.

Click to expand...

MGS2 will go down as Kojimas best work.

To this day it looks good, plays great, and has aged like fine wine.

If MGS1 ever gets a proper well done remake it could take that crown but it currently looks like shit and play is serviceable.
 
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Arsic said:
MGS2 will go down as Kojimas best work.

To this day it looks good, plays great, and has aged like fine wine.

If MGS1 ever gets a proper well done remake it could take that crown but it currently looks like shit and play is serviceable.
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ran sons of liberty the other day on an emulator and couldn't believe wtf i was seeing

l9D4gGu.jpeg
 
Pretty much yeah.
I didn't like peace walker so I didn't even finish it.
And I didn't really care for the story in 5 (or the game in general, to be honest).
 
Well for me Peacewalker was the last great entry after 4, with MGS5 being nowhere near as immersive as that game, to this day I don't regret trading it in...I even tried watching the game as walkthrough but never got around to finishing even that
 
4 should have been the final one, no more games no even prequels, oh and and Snake should have killed himself, Kojima was a pussy about this, but fuck me i love what he does, replaying death stranding right now...
 
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Yoshichan said:
ran sons of liberty the other day on an emulator and couldn't believe wtf i was seeing

l9D4gGu.jpeg
Click to expand...
I've played through mgs2 on my steam deck like 3 times in less than a year.

Picking it up again for ps5 this week just to get trophies.

It's in my top 5 games ever made now. The more I play it the more I appreciate it.

I've never seen players be so wrong about a game at launch to where my opinion is now. To be fair I didn't have discourse over the game back then, and loved it then too. I enjoyed mgs3 way more back then but as time has gone on I'm convinced this is kojima as best game.

Maybe the delta remake will change my mind again?
 
Porcile said:
I can't stand The Boss and how everyone is so emotionally obsessed with her.
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Omg finally someone who says this. I never liked the character.

Her and Big Boss's relationship was so weird. Shes like a mom to him...uh. eva describes her as being a woman who transcends romantic partner and family.

And the way Eva worships her is so cringe.
 
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I liked V. Sure the game was half-finished and the bossfights sucked ass, but the gameplay was super fun with some of the best control feel.

When it comes to it, my favorite would be 3. I never played 4 beyond the first segments on a PS3 someone lend to me. I remember the Metal Gear from Snatcher being there, and someone shitting themselves as if they were playing Mafia III. Should go back and finish it some day.

Rising is the best of them all tho. But I guess that one doesn't count as it is a spin-off game.
 
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Phantom Pain is incredible but I could never play that game again after knowing what I know now about it. The game is incomplete, but it accomplished living up to its name metaphysically. It's brilliant in my opinion, even though it is my least favorite MGS, and actually, I kind of hate the game.

That probably doesn't make any sense right? Why would I hate the game and also call it brilliant? It has nothing to do with the gameplay (which is excellent). It's because I think that's exactly what Kojima wanted, for you to feel betrayed and lied to.

Every MGS game has followed this theme, of course MGS2 was notorious for the bait and switch it delivered. And Phantom Pain is very similar to MGS2 to in that sense. We had Ground Zeroes first where we are actually playing as Big Boss, very similar to when that MGS2 demo so many people played back in the day where you play as Snake. When the full game released with MGS2, you found out after the tanker mission that you would not be playing as Snake, people felt betrayed and lied to. In Phantom Pain, you find out at the end that you were never actually playing as Big Boss.

Another betrayal, but this time it felt like it hit way harder (at least to me) and it was directed at the player more personally. Venom was devoid of any personality, he barely talks. Nothing really about his past, he doesn't engage in any conversations. He knows he is not who or what he is claimed to be. This all works in favor of the end goal of the game. To make you feel the pain of something that is not there.

Something felt very off about the character all the way through, it wasn't the Big Boss we knew but I totally fell for the bait and switch regardless.

The game made me feel anger and resentment in a way that game has never made me feel before. So to me, that was brilliant.


The_hunter said:
Peace walker is really good.
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It is, and a very important part of the Big Boss story.
 
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I started with MGS2 plant chapter (so I fell for Iroquois Pliskin like a sucker). It even had me thinking solidus could be secretly snake because he claimed to be.

Then I played the tanker and felt like an idiot.

I went out and bought MGS1 after and loved it

MGS3 was already released so I got that too. Top class game.

There was me thinking there'd be a new MGS every year. How wrong was I.

Eventually MGS4 released and it was pretty decent. I got the Ps3 port of peace walker and it was ok for a psp game. Gave up on portable ops.

MGSV I put 500 hours into so it was good.

With the master collection I finally completed MG1/2 the 2D games. I appreciate them now for having a lot of the original cool MGS ideas.
 
Yeah, I kinda checked out of caring about the overall plot and lore after 4, but I enjoyed moments in 5.

Kojima just didn't organize his timeline of events that well, kept trying to do too much, and the series just got more convoluted over time. He needs someone to constrain him so his stories have more focus and better pacing. 5 offloaded so much crap on to long audio diaries, when System Shock showed that approach works best in smaller time blocks back in the 90s.

That said, 5 was the best gameplay the series ever had by a country mile.
 
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Mgs2 left on such a cliff hanger it was disappointing they did a prequel with a new character. I didn't give a shit about big boss.

I wanted to see where the story went and kojima took a giant whiff of one of his farts and shat out peace walker and mgs4.
 
The story of MGS is what a high schooler or a really dumb person would consider 'deep' or 'complex.'
 
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I only sorta like Metal Gear on the NES and MGS1 on the ps1. But i absolutely hated MGS2 (that and FFX), to the point where I stopped playing most Japanese games for bit. And because of that I was very late to the party in regards to MGS3 (I played it on 3DS first) which I absolutely loved. Also really like Peace Walker and MGS5 (as unfinished as it was). Seems like I really only liked the games with big boss and his body double. I also really like Metal Gear Revengeance even tho I loathed raiden in MGS2 and would very much like a sequel.
 
Tbh I think 4 has the best story. 1-3, and especially Peace Walker, were a slog to get through. 5 had an alright story, but the best gameplay.
 
Only my take on it....
But after mgs4, there was peace walker for the psp. But not everyone owned a psp. It felt like that the main mgs storyline games were console while PW was sort-of a spin-off. Yes, still canon but "an additional story set in the mgs universe with Big Boss back in the day". Cool.

Here's the problem... at the end of mgs4 they finish off Solid Snake's story as well as even big boss! so that chapter was done. But MGS still makes money so we all knew a mgs5 would eventually happen. So rather than re-setting the series with a total new story and set of characters, Kojima sadly went back to the well and made the story a sequel to Peace Walker. Again, not everyone played Peace Walker and Big Boss' story was finished in mgs4.
 
Donald mac Ronald said:
Mgs2 left on such a cliff hanger it was disappointing they did a prequel with a new character. I didn't give a shit about big boss.

I wanted to see where the story went and kojima took a giant whiff of one of his farts and shat out peace walker and mgs4.
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This is kind of my take. Metal Gear Solid 2 is easily my favorite in the series. I was so excited for 3 to build off the cliffhanger of two. I expected the next game in the series to be about Snake going all over the globe to figure out who the Patriots were and take them down. Instead we got a lazy retcon that made Para Medic and the Codec douches the Patriots. That pretty much killed my excitement for the series. 4 was okay. One day I'll play 5 and Peacewalker.
 
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