Help with the Metal Gear Solid series!

swolgam

swolgam

CAGiversary!
Feedback
1 (100%)
Ok im a very old school gamer and was one of the first people in my area to beat Metal Gear on the NES back in the late 80's. Loved the game.

Fast forward to PS1 and I was late into getting Metal Gear Solid as my baby brother recommended it to me and I honestly didnt realize it was the same series until about an hour into the game. Nevertheless i never finished it and ended up losing it when I moved.

Now here I am, bought my first PS3 the MGS4 bundle. I havent popped in the MGS4 game yet as I dont want to cheat myself from the story. Ive spent some $ and time hunting down the games in the series and was wanting to know what im missing and how these games come into play as ive seen MGS2 and then some spin offs from that one causing confussion for me. Here is what i have at this time

Metal Gear Solid 1,2,3 - PS2 boxset
Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 2 - Snake Eater
Metal Gear Solid 4

I know there is Metal Gear Solid Substance and Subistinence *ive came across the later at best buy a year ago and sold them on ebay for a nice profit*

How should i play these games in order and why isnt the Spin off games ie snake eater, sons of liberty actually a number of the game such as 3,4,5 etc.


Thanks in advance
 
This is the order in which they were released:

Metal Gear (MSX, NES)
Metal Gear 2 - Solid Snake (MSX) JP Only

Metal Gear Solid (PS1)
Metal Gear Solid - Integral (PS1) - JP Only - Re-release of MGS with extra content

Metal Gear Solid 2 - Sons of Liberty (PS2)
Metal Gear Solid 2 - Substance (PS2) - Re-release of MGS2 with extra content

Metal Gear Solid - Twin Snakes (GCN) - Complete remake of MGS1 with MGS2 style gameplay (including First Person view and updated graphics) as well as new voice acting and cutscene choreography

Metal Gear Solid 3 - Snake Eater (PS2)
Metal Gear Solid 3 - Subsistence (PS2) - Re-release of MGS3 with substantial extra content, including a 3rd person camera and a second disc with the two original Metal Gear games from the MSX (and some other stuff).

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP) - This is the sequel to MGS3

Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection contains MGS1, MGS2: Substance (with bonus content), and MGS3: Subsistence (with 3rd person camera, but NOT the bonus disc with MG1/2 and other stuff)


Chronologically, the games take place in this order:

Metal Gear Solid 3
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

Metal Gear
Metal Gear 2
Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid 2
Metal Gear Solid 4


MGS3 and Portable Ops follow the story of Naked Snake and take place in the middle of the 20th Century

Metal Gear 1 and 2, as well as MSG 1, 2, and 4 all follow the story of Solid Snake and take place from 1995 onward.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I played the games chronologically (except for Portable Ops, which I played shortly before MGS4 after finally getting a PSP), having not known anything about the series when I first started MGS3 (a blind buy for me). I actually don't regret playing it this way at all, and it is the way I would recommend to others, there are some small things in MGS3 that you won't pick up on without prior knowledge of things in the other games, but they aren't incredibly important, and those things are still easy to miss even if you DO know what happens in the earlier games.

It's a bit hard to explain my reasons for recommending a chronological playthrough on your first time without spoiling things, so you'll have to decide for yourself (or get spoiled by someone else).


EDIT: I actually played the GCN version of MGS1, which isn't as big a leap as MGS3 to MGS1 (PS1) would have been.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You don't need Sons of Liberty or Snake Eater since both games are included in the PS2 boxset. MGS2: Substance includes Sons of Liberty and MGS3: Subsistence includes Snake Eater.
 
[quote name='ID2006']
I played the games chronologically (except for Portable Ops, which I played shortly before MGS4 after finally getting a PSP), having not known anything about the series when I first started MGS3 (a blind buy for me). I actually don't regret playing it this way at all, and it is the way I would recommend to others, there are some small things in MGS3 that you won't pick up on without prior knowledge of things in the other games, but they aren't incredibly important, and those things are still easy to miss even if you DO know what happens in the earlier games.

It's a bit hard to explain my reasons for recommending a chronological playthrough on your first time without spoiling things, so you'll have to decide for yourself (or get spoiled by someone else).[/quote]

I don't recommend the story-chronology play through. The gameplay develops a lot over the series, and going from 3-1 can be a bit shocking. The AI develops so much throughout the series that it might be a bit dull to experience 1 after playing 3. Not to mention that there are some interesting plot developments revealed in 3 that you can only appreciate after playing the first 4 games.

I played through them in order (MGS1-3, portable ops, then MGS4) and it took me about 6 weekends to really do it right. I'm sure you'll want to play them again after you've finished the series, and You could play through it in chronological order then.

You might be interested in finding a copy of Subistinence with the 2nd disk if you want to play through MG1&2- MG2 was never released in america, and both games have been polished a bit to include character art that matches the current series.
 
oh yea- there are also some non-canon games in the series, namely:

Snake's Revenge (NES)
Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel (GBC)
Metal Gear Acid 1&2 (PSP)
and some cellphone game
 
[quote name='nbballard']I don't recommend the story-chronology play through. The gameplay develops a lot over the series, and going from 3-1 can be a bit shocking. The AI develops so much throughout the series that it might be a bit dull to experience 1 after playing 3. Not to mention that there are some interesting plot developments revealed in 3 that you can only appreciate after playing the first 4 games.

I played through them in order (MGS1-3, portable ops, then MGS4) and it took me about 6 weekends to really do it right. I'm sure you'll want to play them again after you've finished the series, and You could play through it in chronological order then.

You might be interested in finding a copy of Subistinence with the 2nd disk if you want to play through MG1&2- MG2 was never released in america, and both games have been polished a bit to include character art that matches the current series.[/quote]



I completely forgot to mention that I played the GCN remake of MGS1, so it isn't nearly as different from MGS3 as the original MGS game. I've edited that into my post to make things clearer.
 
Thanks guys..all this info really helped out. Ill search for those early early MG on my xbox emulator discs to get some play out of them. Can't wait to get started!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top