Metal Gear Advice, Playthrough Order, General Discussion (HUGE SPOILERS)

TheGreatMusashi

TheGreatMusashi

Member
Advice is greatly appreciated!

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My wife is playing through MGS for the first time, I've played all of the games. We have gone in release order so far. She just started 3. I want her to have the best experience possible.

Knowing what 4 entails,
Big Boss showing up at the end, Zero
and a lot of other ties to stuff, I'm wondering what other fans of MGS think the best playthrough order is.

I played them release order because that's how it was, I didn't have a choice.

Rational train of thought is release order.

I thought about chronological, but I really enjoyed 3 mostly due to what I'd learned in 1 and 2.

I'm wondering if it be better to see the entire Big Boss story before starting 4?

I'm talking 1, 2, 3, Portable Ops, Peace Walker, 5, 4, Revengeance?

If I were playing for the first time, I would think that was awesome but quality of life gameplay regresses pretty greatly from 5 to 4. Also, that's a really long time between Solid Snake games.

Would the payoff of
two old dudes unglugging an older dude's oxgen supply in a graveyard,
payoff more knowing absolutely everything?

What do you think is the best order to play the series for someone new is, knowing the full story?

Also METAL GEAR!
 
For a first time I'd say release order is always the answer.

I don't remember exactly when PW was release but I would to 1,2,3,4,PW, GZ and V.
I did a replay in this order a couple of years ago and I loved it.


I never play portable ops.
 
Release order for sure. The real story is not that of Big Boss and Solid Snake but of Kojima's rise to greatness and descent into madness.

The humble beginnings of MG 1, 2, and Solid: redoing the same game 3 times in a pursuit of perfection, refusing to be shackled by technical restrains.. A man operating at his absolute apex, the knife's edge of ambition and insanity, in 2 and 3. The narcissistic over indulgence of 4. And finally the self parody that was 5: A morose, self-sabotaged farewell from an embittered man.

Plus the gameplay gets better with each entry so it's hard to go back. MGS 5 to MG 1 would be whiplash.
 
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mgs 1-5, can ignore the MG games plus they have a steeper difficulty curve over all for new comers who didn't play games during that gen.
The chronological order doesn't change much in the franchise since a lot of canon was changed to reference the older games.
 
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I'll offer an alterative seeing as everyone is just saying 'release order'. Nothing wrong with that but if you to try something different:

If you can wait a few months, you might as well start with Delta.

Then 1, 2, 4. I think play Peace Walker and Phantom Pain last. They are more like appendices to the main story.

Play Rising after 4 or it won't make sense.

It also may be wise to wait a little while because the Master Collection Vol 2 is likely be announced sometime in the calendar year, which means you won't have to buy a PS3 to play 4.
 
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I think that playing newer games before 5 might lead to a bit of gameplay downgrade suffering, and if we're honest I'm not sure how much the games after 4 really add to the story.

If you started with MG1/2 for the actual Big Boss/Snake stuff (and even if you didn't), then you're good to go. 4 worked at the time told. Everything after was an excuse to have more games.
 
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Release order, always, including spin-offs like MGR.

MG > MG2 > MGS > MGS2 > MGS3 > MPO > MGS4 > MGSPW > MGR > MGSVGZ > MGSVTPP.

It's okay if she skipped the first 2 MSX games (explain to her what happened in those games, though I'd suggest playing them) and started with MGS as most of us did with the franchise because there was no official english translation of them until 2005 with MGS3: Subsistence, and the NES ports are completely non-canon.
 
VolticArchangel said:
Release order, always, including spin-offs like MGR.

MG > MG2 > MGS > MGS2 > MGS3 > MPO > MGS4 > MGSPW > MGR > MGSVGZ > MGSVTPP.

It's okay if she skipped the first 2 MSX games (explain to her what happened in those games, though I'd suggest playing them) and started with MGS as most of us did with the franchise because there was no official english translation of them until 2005 with MGS3: Subsistence, and the NES ports are completely non-canon.
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Agreed with this 100%, except the PSP games can be skipped. They're lesser versions of MGS3 that don't really add anything significant to the overarching story. (Aside from Gray Fox's backstory, which I feel is a detriment overall)
 
Release order but play Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 first (2D originals).

I followed a guide by Optinoobi on YouTube. Only took like 7 hours total for both of them. Some of the series best ideas were first used in those games.
 
Release order. I mean MGS3 might be a prequel but it does answer some things going on MGS2.

Its also quite hilarious how Ground Zeroes and MGSV are direct sequels to Peace Walker, which was a PSP game.
 
Konami should remake metal gear 1 and metal gear 2 solid snake and have david hayter star in it and write the script and have kiefer sutherland playing big boss and make it on decima engine
 
SkylineRKR said:
Release order. I mean MGS3 might be a prequel but it does answer some things going on MGS2.

Its also quite hilarious how Ground Zeroes and MGSV are direct sequels to Peace Walker, which was a PSP game.
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Kind of, but it did get a home console release a bit over a year later with the HD collection. In comparison Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep took nearly five years from its initial release and as a bonus Crisis Core FFVII didn't get one for over 15 years,
 
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Play them in release order.

Chronological will just make you scratch your head.

MGS3 is the first in chronology, yes, but it relies heavily on previous game(s) to be enjoyed, understood fully.
 
adamsapple said:
Play them in release order.

Chronological will just make you scratch your head.

MGS3 is the first in chronology, yes, but it relies heavily on previous game(s) to be enjoyed, understood fully.
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A bunch of fun references to games that released before it that are just entirely missed too.
 
Release order, anything else is fucking dumb

also, keep updating this thread
 
It's always release order.
It's the way the story was originally written and meant to be experienced. It also gives you a natural progression in terms of gameplay and presentation instead of jumping back and forth between multiple generations
 
The Yakuza series has suffered the same issue upon the release of Yakuza 0, where tourists act like 0 is the first one despite it having direct ties to Yakuza 4 and callbacks to Yakuza 2.
Anyway, release order is the best way to play, as other have mentioned, it was the way the story was written.
 
Reducing MGS4s ending to just 'two old dudes in a graveyard' is…Insulting and diminishes how great it is.
Anyway play through them in order of relevance. MGS1-2-3 then Portable Ops, then Peace Walker,then MGSV, Then MG1-2,culminating the series with MGS4 to conclude both arcs.

Otherwise play chronologically MGS3-Pops-Peace Walker-MGSV-MG1-MG2-MGS1-Ac!d-MGS Gaiden(Raiden vackstory)-MGS2-MGS4- Revengeance if you really want to -Ac!d 2
Then follow the whole series up with Snatcher and Policenauts followed by Zone of the Enders 1 and 2 for quite possibly the longest running shared universe in games.
Bare in mind, Portable Ops isnt 'strict' canon but it does a much better job of building up to Big Boss' inevitable downfall and the creation of Outer Heaven than PW or V do. Same with Ac!d 1 its not strictly canon but it fits nicely between MGS1 and 2 and just adds a bit more to Snakes history. Ac!d 2 is questionably canon but its very futuristic, its awesome, and since it takes place years after the main series its not contradicting or retconning anything.
 
Kojima's an awful writer and the story is laughable anime nonsense throughout, so if you wanna appreciate it from a gameplay evolution standpoint, which is probably the right way to do it, maybe the release order. The story, while fun, is so utterly subpar that it really shouldn't have anything to do with your play order.
 
poodaddy said:
Kojima's an awful writer and the story is laughable anime nonsense throughout, so if you wanna appreciate it from a gameplay evolution standpoint, which is probably the right way to do it, maybe the release order. The story, while fun, is so utterly subpar that it really shouldn't have anything to do with your play order.
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Tom Hardy Bait GIF
 
rabbity-thing said:
Tom Hardy Bait GIF
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Nah, it's cool if you guys disagree, it's all just opinions and I don't argue about dumb shit like that. I just think the writing is shit in pretty much all Kojima projects. Eh, is what it is. I fuckin love these games though, they're so fun, and I'm usually laughing from beginning to end so that's just a bonus.
 
poodaddy said:
Nah, it's cool if you guys disagree, it's all just opinions and I don't argue about dumb shit like that. I just think the writing is shit in pretty much all Kojima projects. Eh, is what it is. I fuckin love these games though, they're so fun, and I'm usually laughing from beginning to end so that's just a bonus.
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But you got to admit that writing it better MGS1, 2 and 3 compared to 4, PW and V.
 
(msx1,2) 1, 2, 3, portable ops, Peace Walker, GZ, Phantom pain, (msx1 and 2), 4, rising.

IMHO Big Boss saga is way more interesting than Solid's. Do not neglect the PSP games. Portable ops is one of the most important from the story standpoint and is probably the best written games of the franchise.

I wouldn't play in chronological order because 2 introduces some concepts that are better explored on 3 and on the Big Boss saga. Release order kills the momentum in the Big Boss saga (which culminates with the Big Boss "Turnpoint" at Phantom Pain) and MGS4 kind close both Solid and Boss saga without being the last game of the franchise.

The MSX games are not "that" important but if you feel the need you can play it before MGS1 or after Boss.

Ps. MSX 1 and 2 are the ones that should be remade, not 3.
 
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Metal Gear 5 is the weakest entry of the lot....especially in terms of immersion could have been so much more...and should have been....even Peace walker is better..
 
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