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i have always wanted to get into the mgs games, but i never did. i always hear good things about them, though, so i feel like i am missing out.
is it worth it to play all the games?
is it worth it to play all the games?
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Yes and no.
MG1 and 2 are great, but are totally products of their time and total trope-starters as far as the game series goes. MG2 didn't get a goddamned Western Release until almost 20 years after it was released. You basically are stuck with the choice between an Emulator for it or flagging down one of the MGS collection. I honestly prefer the NES version of Metal Gear 1; it runs infinitely smoother than the MSX version and has a number of changes that make it less of a fucking pain in the dick to play.
MGS1 is rough. While it came out in a time when it was bleeding edge tech on the PS1, the game has a number of structural issues that tamp down just how fun it is, with an insane amount of backtracking and a fucking insane amount of callbacks to MG2 (seriously, almost every single boss-fight in the game is a reference). A lot of quality-of-life improvements the series would get just aren't in the original, and while it's definitely worth playing, it's aged fucking terribly. If you can nail it, its remake, The Twin Snakes, which was released on Gamecube, is fucking amazing and despite some bizarre gameplay choices is easily the game's most solid version.
MGS2 is the one that everyone loves to shit on, because it sits upon a throne of WTF. The game's plot is ridiculously convoluted, with the game introducing hundreds of new ideas and concepts that only get described in later games, tons of questionable logic, and a narrative that develops attention deficit disorder as you play and can't keep a consistent tone for more than 20 minutes at a stretch. Graphically it was great for the time and it is a decent game on its own merits, but the fact that it basically lied to the fanbase in the promotional materials and the fact that it brought in the character Raiden (who would late redeem himself and become sort of badass) means a lot of people fucking hate it. You can basically skip it without consequence, though it's worth a playthrough if you're willing to give it a chance; this shows a game taking chances that no developer in the world would have the balls to try today.
MGS3 is widely considered the best one. Though I disagree with this, it is easily one of the best games in the series and fucking gleams with polish and care. The plot is heavily mired in 1970s-80s politics and uses it quite well as a backdrop for its story, which essentially is the first one, chronologically, in the series. The jungle environments, huge amount of interactivity, and ungodly amount of bonus content make this an absolute treat, and the last half-hour or so of the game is legitimately touching and tragic.
While the most story-heavy of the bunch, MGS4 is notorious for its horrid cutscene-to-gameplay ratio. Fans of the series will want to see how things end, and the game has ten fucktons of great moments, but there's so many issues getting there that it has trouble, and the fact that it's PS3 exclusive and never got an HD release means you actually might have a great deal of bother getting to play it. I like it for mostly trying to do some new things and really trying its level best to provide some level of closure for this confusing spidernest of a series.
Revengeance is a (shockingly) canon story rife with cyborg ninja flip-outs. It's pure bouncy anarchic fun but it also has some interesting callbacks to MGS2 and 4 and gives you a fantastic view into just how irreparably fucked-up Raiden is mentally. The entire game has Autism, but it's one of the hilarious strains and the inability to keep its spaghetti in its pockets is outright endearing. It also has one of the internet's finest memes:
Yes, Hideo Kojima predicted Trump 3 years before the election.
MGS: Peace Walker is a damned solid side-story showing Big Boss' search for meaning following MGS3. It's got some great gameplay, was the first multiplayer MGS that wasn't just a versus game like Substinence's MGO, and the story is the primary lead-in for MGSV (along with ground zeroes). It's available via the MGS Collection, and it's a damned fun game in and of itself, frankly looking fantastic for what is, essentially, a PSP port.
Ground Zeroes is purely setup for MGSV and is essentially a full-price demo for it. While it has a ton of content in and of itself (including a Raiden mission in one version of the game), the game's overall content is pretty threadbare and it exists solely to drum up support for MGSV. All evidence is that Kojima was against making it anything other than a demo so while it's mechanically rock-solid, I can't really recommend you go out and buy it.
MGSV is my favorite one in the series, essentially covering the time between Peace Walker and Metal Gear 1. It is loaded with dangerous amounts of the 1980s and the gameplay is, IMHO, the best of the series. Its story is also, while traditionally MGS-style convoluted nightmare-fuel, filled with some fantastic moments and the open-ended mission design menas you can come up with some.... Well, unorthodox ways to S-rank a given mission....
MGSV gets a lot of shit because Konami basically kneecapped the game because Kojima kept fucking with them. A lot of story was sliced out at the last minute and while the game still works ostensibly, it's also got some issues that just aren't resolved by this.
MGS1 is rough. While it came out in a time when it was bleeding edge tech on the PS1, the game has a number of structural issues that tamp down just how fun it is, with an insane amount of backtracking and a fucking insane amount of callbacks to MG2 (seriously, almost every single boss-fight in the game is a reference). A lot of quality-of-life improvements the series would get just aren't in the original, and while it's definitely worth playing, it's aged fucking terribly. If you can nail it, its remake, The Twin Snakes, which was released on Gamecube, is fucking amazing and despite some bizarre gameplay choices is easily the game's most solid version.
MGS2 is the one that everyone loves to shit on, because it sits upon a throne of WTF. The game's plot is ridiculously convoluted, with the game introducing hundreds of new ideas and concepts that only get described in later games, tons of questionable logic, and a narrative that develops attention deficit disorder as you play and can't keep a consistent tone for more than 20 minutes at a stretch. Graphically it was great for the time and it is a decent game on its own merits, but the fact that it basically lied to the fanbase in the promotional materials and the fact that it brought in the character Raiden (who would late redeem himself and become sort of badass) means a lot of people fucking hate it. You can basically skip it without consequence, though it's worth a playthrough if you're willing to give it a chance; this shows a game taking chances that no developer in the world would have the balls to try today.
MGS3 is widely considered the best one. Though I disagree with this, it is easily one of the best games in the series and fucking gleams with polish and care. The plot is heavily mired in 1970s-80s politics and uses it quite well as a backdrop for its story, which essentially is the first one, chronologically, in the series. The jungle environments, huge amount of interactivity, and ungodly amount of bonus content make this an absolute treat, and the last half-hour or so of the game is legitimately touching and tragic.
While the most story-heavy of the bunch, MGS4 is notorious for its horrid cutscene-to-gameplay ratio. Fans of the series will want to see how things end, and the game has ten fucktons of great moments, but there's so many issues getting there that it has trouble, and the fact that it's PS3 exclusive and never got an HD release means you actually might have a great deal of bother getting to play it. I like it for mostly trying to do some new things and really trying its level best to provide some level of closure for this confusing spidernest of a series.
Revengeance is a (shockingly) canon story rife with cyborg ninja flip-outs. It's pure bouncy anarchic fun but it also has some interesting callbacks to MGS2 and 4 and gives you a fantastic view into just how irreparably fucked-up Raiden is mentally. The entire game has Autism, but it's one of the hilarious strains and the inability to keep its spaghetti in its pockets is outright endearing. It also has one of the internet's finest memes:
MGS: Peace Walker is a damned solid side-story showing Big Boss' search for meaning following MGS3. It's got some great gameplay, was the first multiplayer MGS that wasn't just a versus game like Substinence's MGO, and the story is the primary lead-in for MGSV (along with ground zeroes). It's available via the MGS Collection, and it's a damned fun game in and of itself, frankly looking fantastic for what is, essentially, a PSP port.
Ground Zeroes is purely setup for MGSV and is essentially a full-price demo for it. While it has a ton of content in and of itself (including a Raiden mission in one version of the game), the game's overall content is pretty threadbare and it exists solely to drum up support for MGSV. All evidence is that Kojima was against making it anything other than a demo so while it's mechanically rock-solid, I can't really recommend you go out and buy it.
MGSV is my favorite one in the series, essentially covering the time between Peace Walker and Metal Gear 1. It is loaded with dangerous amounts of the 1980s and the gameplay is, IMHO, the best of the series. Its story is also, while traditionally MGS-style convoluted nightmare-fuel, filled with some fantastic moments and the open-ended mission design menas you can come up with some.... Well, unorthodox ways to S-rank a given mission....
MGSV gets a lot of shit because Konami basically kneecapped the game because Kojima kept fucking with them. A lot of story was sliced out at the last minute and while the game still works ostensibly, it's also got some issues that just aren't resolved by this.
All in all, most of them are damned good and worth your time, but a lot of them are timesinks and each and every game in it has some kind of issue or another, ranging from awkward controls to insane design decisions to just poor map design.
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What about survive though
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More like Metal Gay, am i right?
just kidding I love the series
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2014
No idea. Haven't played it and have zero interest.
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It looks terrible and you where supposed to be triggered.
Fuck you and your essays you ruin everything
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- Jul 23, 2016
I remember people saying how "great" the MSX version was years later... when I finally got around to playing it, I was thinking, this is it? NES version is better, pure and simple.
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- Jun 27, 2014
I'm not even your real father
I actually got the game free via my bank's rewards program.
I found it far more fun than I ever thought I was going to, especially given all the carping it got.
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- Jul 23, 2016
It's the best one as far as I'm concerned, though I completely skipped MGS1, going from nes MG1 to MGS2 due to never having a playstation at that time and never going back to play it later. You got it right about 2, the story is a mess, it's ADD and impossible to understand for the reason you said. The graphics of MGS2 were a big deal at the time and I remember thinking they were extremely polished, the best the PS2 had done at that point and possibly ever.
I basically forgot about the series after finishing MGS2, though I liked it enough, I really thought it started picking up steam at the end when everything was going to shit for Raiden and his whole world was being uprooted, though the final boss was lame iirc. I borrowed MGS3 from a friend after he kept ranting and raving about it, and idk, I couldn't get into it. It was late in the PS2's life and I didn't even have an HD television at the time, so while I appreciated the camouflage and sneaking around, it was too blurry to me, too ahead of its time technically for the PS2 imo. But then, many many years later, I bought the HD version on xbox 360 on a whim and replayed it, and yeah, holy shit that was a good one.
The story blew away MGS2's story, and it seemed to hit all its marks. It was even legit funny to me especially compared to MGS2 (I didn't think making Snake beat his meat in the locker and having him get caught was all that humorous), but in MGS3, when a couple hours into the game you fight Ocelot 2 or 3 times and whip his ass each time, yet he keeps coming back more determined, lol, I enjoyed the piss outta that. When he comes back with TWO guns and starts twirling them for what seems like 30 minutes I about lost it lol.
Not ever having a PS3, I missed out of MGS4 and it pains me to hear that it could be a pain in the ass to play because I'd actually like to maybe go back and try it one day. The cut scene to gameplay ratio that you mentioned, I thought MGS2 was very guilty of that but I still liked it enough.
MGS5 is my favorite though at this point. I played and played it when it came out and eventually put it down because I wore it out, but not because the game did anything wrong, if anything, it did everything too right. It's just too massive, too much shit for me at one time. I haven't finished it yet after all this time, I'm waiting for the moment when I'm in that mood in again, but I think it surpasses MGS3. To me, it took everything that MGS3 did right, and expanded upon that 20 fold.
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- Sep 8, 2016
It looks like a dumb version of MGSV co op and it also looks terrible.
That said I will buy it day 1 as an MGS die hard.
MGS3 Subsistence's version of MG1's MSX version is infinitely better than the NES version, the random disappearing floors, the terrible coding so if you use the binoculars enemies respawn, metal gear not even being in the game, it's good as nostalgia, but objectively the NES version is a bad game.
Agreed about the backtracking, but Twin Snakes while much better graphically, ruins the original experience, not only with the cutscene changes that have Snake do flips every two seconds, but the first person aiming ruins boss fights like Ocelot where you can just point and shoot at him instead of doing it the way it was actually intended. There's a PC version that looks a bit better graphically that got a fan patch recently to run on modern hardware.
As convoluted and crazy as the story is. It's the best story in the series. I'm not saying it's the best overall or the best plot in terms of writing or simple storytelling, because MGS3 beats it there, but in terms of the themes and ideas it's discussing it's simply incredible. It's not like they were just throwing stuff at the wall for MGS2, there is so much planning and effort that went into it that they were able to accurately predict the nature of the internet from 2001. Thinking you can skip it without consequence though is crazy, the rest of the series is built upon the ideas of the patriots and information control that are brought up in MGS2, MGS4 makes no sense without MGS2 as a reference point.
http://www.deltaheadtranslation.com/MGS2/DOTM17.htm
It's the best emotional story, and is one of the best examples of prequel storytelling ever made. I'd say it's the best overall in terms of an amazing story and gameplay that is so intricate that players can find new things even years later. I've beaten it over 8 times and just found out this year that you can feed alligators grenades.
MGS4 is amazing for being able to take all the ideas from MGS2 and a story that was never meant to have a sequel, and may at the time have been taking place inside an artificial reality, and providing a satisfying ending for everyone, there are no loose ends after MGS4, the only reason Peace Walker exists as a story is to expand upon plot points in MGS4, and MGSV only exists as a story by adding new plot points that were never there in the first place. If MGS1-4 were the only games in the series, 4 would be a perfect ending, and even still with Peace Walker and V it's still an amazing chronological ending.
It's canonicity is in the same spot as Portable Ops, where it can be considered semi canon or not canon at all as Kojima has flip flopped on this a couple of times. It's a good side story or spinoff to the main series, and a good game in its own right, but the story isn't anything special.
Peace Walker though, is no side story, it was originally going to be MGS5: Peace Walker before Konami didn't want a main numbered entry on a portable system. In the context of MGSV it's an amazing set up as the happiest time of Big Boss' life before what ends up happening, and it fleshes out characters that have real significance later like Paz, Kaz, Strangelove and Huey.
Now with the MGSV Definitive Collection there's really no reason to not just get it along with The Phantom Pain, and its a very necessary part of the story that sets up all of what happens in The Phantom Pain. The rest of the story relies on the emotions felt and the revenge the player will want for what happens in Ground Zeroes. The cassette collecting and side missions did make the game length more palatable at the time, but now most people will just play the main mission and skip straight to The Phantom Pain.
The gameplay is the best in the series, and while the story is better than a lot of people make it out to be, it's unfinished, and whether its meant to be or not is up for debate, it's a great game, but it was clearly rushed and lacks the polish that earlier entries like MGS2 and 3 had, which is sad because it could've been more than what it already is.
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- Joined
- Jun 18, 2014
I willlig to give Metal Gear Survive a chance since the best part about MGSV was the gameplay and all the silly stuff you could do and I assume throwing zombies into the mix won't make it less dumb. I also booted up MGO the other day and couldn't help but smile at the chaos of it.
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Metal Queer Solid
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- Sep 29, 2016
I like Phantom Pain the best, with 3 being my second favorite and having played the NES version in Jr High when it came out. I never really liked 1 due to the weird-ass controls it had at the time, and 2 was enjoyable but at the time the Raiden bait and switch still seemed like a shitty move by Konami to pull.
But 5 is probably the most perfect military game (as far as gameplay itself is concerned) that I have ever played. The entire reason I like Ghost Recon: Wild'n Out Lands is because it's the Co-op MGSV vibe I had been wanting since MGSV dropped
But 5 is probably the most perfect military game (as far as gameplay itself is concerned) that I have ever played. The entire reason I like Ghost Recon: Wild'n Out Lands is because it's the Co-op MGSV vibe I had been wanting since MGSV dropped
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- Jun 18, 2014
Some of my biggest let downs with MGSV, and its probably just me, were building Diamond Dogs and Miller. I was expecting more from them considering how Peace Walker handled Miller and MSF. They don't really seem to do anything except cause drama. Miller just second guesses Snake and makes weird decisions like not getting robot limbs and actively get his revenge while your army never leaves the base and gets into knife fights with eachother. Peace Walker has side missions that force you to play as your soldiers in ways that support Snake like holding off the enemy while he fights a boss or opening a short cut on the map. At one point in the story Miller actually leads the army into battle to save Snake. Even Portable Ops has a sequence were Snake gets captured and his soldiers have to find out where he is and stage a rescue. In MGSV Snake tells Miller he needs back up and Miller decides to bring himself, the other cripple, and two soldiers as the back up.
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- Dec 11, 2014
Well, in V, if they failed, the army would still exist, albeit with only one leader, because of that whole
Venom isn't actually Big Boss
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- Mar 26, 2013
Metal Gear Solid 4's multiplayer was restored by fans a few years ago. This is great since Konami took it down and it was easily the best part of that game.
Very very recently they got it working on official PS3 firmware. Meaning all you need now to play it is a PS3 and a copy of the game.
There are downsides though. You need to wipe your existing data on your PS3 because the way it works is by reloading a backup. So you need to backup your save games/redownload your digital games. Also you need a copy of the game that has the MGO data on it. Meaning the original black label release or the Greatest Hits/Platinum release. The 25th anniversary/Legacy/Downloaded versions had this content scrubbed by Konami. You also need to not be banned from PSN.
If you're interested in trying it out the link is here. I can personally vouch that it is working on my PS3 super slim console.
https://savemgo.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&p=4423#p4423
Very very recently they got it working on official PS3 firmware. Meaning all you need now to play it is a PS3 and a copy of the game.
There are downsides though. You need to wipe your existing data on your PS3 because the way it works is by reloading a backup. So you need to backup your save games/redownload your digital games. Also you need a copy of the game that has the MGO data on it. Meaning the original black label release or the Greatest Hits/Platinum release. The 25th anniversary/Legacy/Downloaded versions had this content scrubbed by Konami. You also need to not be banned from PSN.
If you're interested in trying it out the link is here. I can personally vouch that it is working on my PS3 super slim console.
https://savemgo.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&p=4423#p4423
- Joined
- May 25, 2016
I've tried MGS1 and MGS5 and they're by far some of the best video games I've ever played, and looking forward to trying the rest.
Go for it
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2014
I've been thinking of getting a ps3 just for MGS 4 for awhile now I have more incentive. Until then I'll just go back to MGO3 and its crazy CQC clusterfucks.