Where to start with MGS? Which ones are objectively the best games of the series? Which ones I should not play?

Thank you.

I lol'd
The story takes some really debatable turns in 4 and is almost non-existent/useless in 5. I'd still recommend playing them all though, especially if you enjoy the first 3.

its like watching your beloved pet die of old age though man
its encouraged since it makes you into a better person mature enough to accept loss
but it's optional because fuck that shit it's like 2 chapters of gameplay 1 chapter of scripted fake stealth, 1 chapter of sweet but boring nostalgia, and then 1 chapter of either epic combat or stealth that burns all potential in the first five minutes
the rest is just cutscenes, endless cutscenes
you're better off watching an LP

Play 1-2-3-4-PW-5 otherwise you'll have no idea what's going on. And then MGR. PoP is skippable. MG1 and MG2 have been retconned so much that not playing them would actually make you appreciate their stories more

UNDERSTOOD

MG1 and MG2 haven't been retconned all that much. They're still great games anyway.

Shut up with your zoomer revisionism. 4 is the worst MGS game, but it's still great. You forgot that later chapters are full of awesome boss fights, they are definitely worth playing. Not like it's a long game.

Just play them all in release order. Anything else is Star Wars tier autism.

Play MGS1-3 and then wonder why they never resolved that cliffhanger from 2.

Do not let yourself find out what 4 does.

>MG1 and MG2 haven't been retconned all that much
They have. They only make sense in broad brushstroke kind of way, when you actually play them and take in all the details it doesn't fit into the franchise at all.

I dunno man, Miller saying he wants to support Venom and shit on BiBo and then he never says a single word about it to Solid for no reason at all just doesn't add up. MG needs to be remade with story changes and I am 99% sure this is what Kojima had in mind before getting the boot

What does it do exactly that isn't consistent with the story of 2?

>awesome boss fights
there's only one decent boss fight and it's scripted and predictable as hell, and that's laughing octopus
the rest is
>flying health bar
>sniper battle vs sniper tank on a timer, if you don't find and shoot it after so long it runs over and simply throws grenades at you, rinse and repeat
>an interactive cutscene where you roll to dodge attacks and then shoot floating dolls with massive hitboxes, then end the fight with a QTE - the most threatening thing about the fight is not accidentally killing an enemy if doing a non lethal run

the metal gear ray fight is pretty much a rail shooter since your freedom of motion is heavily grid based
the liquid fist fight is pretty much ruined by the metal gear solid 2 section and devolves into yet another QTE at the end

And yet it's still worth playing. Are you really going to tell me you regret playing that? Really?

>Set up incredibly intriguing cliffhanger at the end of 2 that lasts for years
>The very fucking first thing said in 4 regarding it is outright dialogue of "oh haha that was so ridiculous that it was impossible" and then they make a far, FAR stupider twist the reality later on in the game

peace walker starts really abruptly and jarringly if you haven't played portable ops

Shit like OILIX and Big Boss stealing all the nukes don't work, but Big Boss's motivations and goals, the nature of Outer Heaven and Zanzibarland, Gray Fox's relationships with Snake and Big Boss, etc. are all affirmed by later games, not contradicted. Besides, retcons abound throughout the entire series.

That conversation also contradicts MGSV itself (Big Boss and Venom never butt heads according to the timeline) and MGS1 (Ocelot never "takes the other son" at all). I don't think there's much reason to put stock in it unless you think the entire story needs to be rewritten to accommodate Miller and Ocelot's incorrect predictions.

Peace Walker contradicts Portable Ops pretty hard in fundamental ways.

The ending conversation is usually pretty important, having it full of stuff that doesn't add up is just weird.

1,2,3,4,GZ,V, Rising

Skip the rest, they suck. So does 2 btw, but its needed for the story and its not too long

Play the first one, and then learn Japanese to play the rest because they're all fucking abominations in English.

Story is ruined by 4 (well not really, but it is garbage in that game). The gameplay is actually decent, but you won't notice because you only get about 30 seconds of it at a time before getting into awful hour long cutscenes of the story again.
Peacewalker is decent, but it's a handheld game and it shows. You may enjoy it, maybe not.
Ground Zeroes is great but just one mission in one base.
V's gameplay is good, but the story is nearly non-existent and unfinished.

in the same way that i regret playing V sure
i mean i bought a ps3 just to play mgs4 and i still regret it even today
i don;'t know why people including me felt that mgs5 was going to redeem the mess 4 was
it was made just to make 4 look better in comparison
but you really can't convince anyone 4 was anything but one long interactive cutscene, it was full of smoke and mirrors, extremely scripted events where pmcs would slaughter rebels endlessly until you intervened, very static small areas and none of the charm of the original games
mgs3 may have been a run north simulator but it offered multiple paths, playstyles and mechanics to keep you interested
mgs4 was just a fucking joke

Ground Zeroes is pretty great. It had us all fooled that MGSV was going to be good.
Imagine if V had been a series of maps like Ground Zeroes that you went and did story missions on, explored for secrets and resources and had loads of side missions, and wasn't shitty open world stuff but actually had missions with a little story behind them
I swear those joke missions referencing Metal Gear Solid 1 and Metal Gear Rising from Ground Zeroes had more love and care and "metal gearness" in them than the entirety of MGSV

That cliffhanger was resolved in 3 you retard. 2 was referencing the original people behind the philosophers.

I think it just reflects that Miller never anticipated Venom would accept Big Boss and that Ocelot never expected Big Boss and Outer Heaven/ZL to get wrecked by Solid Snake. I really can't think of any other way to interpret it.

It is admittedly strange that Miller would feel such animus toward Big Boss but never spill the beans about Outer Heaven, but this was a weird wrinkle in Peace Walker, too. Maybe he feels more motivated to act against Big Boss once Venom is dead. Who knows.

>they're all dead
>for over 100 years
>what the hell
and then 4 literally
>remember that dummy lead we found?
>about them all being dead for 100 years?
>yeah right, what a waste of time that was
>good thing we didn't believe it for a minute!

I always thought the info they found was about the philosophers, not the Patriots

me too
the original founders who dumped all that money hidden in a microfilm somehow
but 2 handled it like everyone wanted to know who the elite were controlling the world from behind the scenes with a reveal that they're dead (acquiring the list of names was like a major motive of the bad guy)
then 4 which is the next game involving the characters from 2 comes along and they just laugh it off as some weird prank

If we're being honest MGS1, MGS2, MGS3 and Metal Gear rising are the only good ones.

>Metal Gear Rising
kek, you mean Bayonetta for women

As someone who played MGS1 back then on release: I can't understand why people are constantly shitting on Twin Snakes. Yes, the VA is worse but the game itself is completely fine and worth playing if you don't want to get into ancient graphics with OG 1.