I’ve been thinking of playing them in release order, starting from mgs1, would be using the master collection on steam though, I feel I missed out on the kojimaverse, there are apparently some mgs easter eggs and references in death stranding 1 and 2, so it would be cool to spot those connections eventually

But where should I even start?

MGS1 and then go order of release, anyone who says anything different for this series detests art

Which ones are skippable?

Ghost Babel, MG1, MG2, both Ac!ds and Portable Ops unless you REALLY enjoy the MGS stories or peace walkers gameplay, Revengeance probably unless you like character action games

Metal Gear Solid PS1

Definitely the OG one, Twin Snakes is sort of a fine take on a reimagining but it loses much charm compared to the original one

what are some tips I should know?

If you come from MGS1 to 2, you might've never used the first person feature barring some forced gameplay sections or maybe to gawk at the cool artstyle. Use it in 2 liberally. You'll understand.

Starting at 2 whatever bullshit you can think of to do with combining items and systems, the devs likely thought of it. You can just cover-to-cover-sneak and knock out or shoot people, but half the fun is in the odd things you can do

Definitely play MGS3: Subsistence over Snake Eater. The game does work better with OTS view.

Starting at 2, if you feel a cutscene of importance coming up, make sure you have time to actually view them. I think the worst of the worst is MGS4 at 90 minutes. Excluding Peace Walker these tend to be games that aren't really well suited to 30 minute playing sessions

For a lot of later Peace Walker the absolutely most crucial, critical item is the resupply radio thingy. Keep it in mind.

Play MGS V on PC so you can easily load sick tunes in

One thing to note is that MGS1 is a lot less self-aware compared to the later games, especially with how Snake is written. His status as a badass legendary super soldier is played completely straight where the later games soften him into an endearingly silly unc who's much more likeable. Being a super macho man written by a Japanese guy in 1998 his interactions with women in the first game are very cringy by today's standards

I knew nothing about the series and I enjoyed playing Metal Gear Solid (PS1) this year.

At times it was also really annoying and I needed my partner to motivate me to keep playing it. Usually I was approaching something wrong or I just needed to take a break. I think I restarted on easy difficulty.

Note that it's prominently about the story and has long cutscenes.

A certain part of the game is experienced much better on original hardware than emulator, so if you do have a PS1 laying around, plug it in. If you don't, emulator is fine.

Apparently the sequel is better but I got demotivated too early on.

It's funny to think of people seeing MGS as "chuddy" because the first experience I had with it was MGS2 where you start by raiding a ship secretly transporting US marines and an illegal weapons platform owned by the US government and it talks a lot about the rich manipulating countries for their benefit. I was like "hell yeah, the US aren't even the good guys and you're working against them!" It's definitely silly as well. There was a quote from Kojima talking about being scared easily, something like "I like horror movies but they scare me so when I have heavy scenes I add humor afterwards." Really a unique vibe and style that I fell in love with, unlike any other action series to me. It's the only action series I know of that there is almost always a way to win without killing anyone too.

Looking through these comments I'd honestly put your expectations in hell. You might get more enjoyment. Especially for 2, I fucking couldn't stand that game.

3 is my favorite personally. It's my type of camp.

I just wanted to warn you that there is some serious rose tinted goggles going on in this thread as someone who didn't play them growing up. The mechanics for some of the older ones was clunky as fuck. MG1 will have you go "well that is certainly one way to pad out game time". And I won't say what my problems with 2 are cause oh dear god does it never end. Also get ready for misogyny. That's where the chud stuff is. It's very Male Gaze 101 stuff.

Soundtrack always slaps through.

Before anyone gets on to me. I'm saying this as someone who went to play this after being around fans IRL and someone who LOVES these games. I'm seeing similar stuff in this thread. I wish someone had warned me before I attempted them. And oh god the hell that is MG2. Though my hatred for a particular character might be special Idk. But anyway. Kind of hoping this puts your expectations lower so you can actually like it.

I played MGS1 for the first time a couple of years ago, and I thought it slapped. The aesthetics are impeccable, and it's more playable than I thought (though you have to moderate your expectations, especialy for certain boss sequences). The begining sections are good, try it out, and if you're not vibing with it just bail.

what are some tips I should know?

love can bloom on a battlefield 😌

I would ignore remakes and remasters and play them as released, MGS3 is pretty well positioned to satisfy some of the questions and lore exposed in the previous two games, which is not as satisfying/memorable if you play it as an intro.

MG1 and 2 do contain quite a bit of lore but it's ok to skip them if you're not big into retrogaming. Both NES MG1 and twin snakes are mostly cash grabs that Kojima wasn't involved in, the former only makes sense if you have trouble with MSX2 emulators and can deal with a worse port, while TS is just non-canon.

A small note: almost every game makes some "creative use" of the original hardware - discs, controllers, etc - which don't translate very well to emulation. Of course they don't impact the story and they are limited to a few moments, with one exception - you should really get a DualShock and an adapter if you can, as the game does use the analog face buttons quite a bit. Most notably, if you want to lower your weapon without shooting after aiming, you need to slowly release the square button. If you use almost any other controller that becomes impossible as no matter how slowly you go it will be read as 1->0 and it will shoot.

I’ve been working my way through them chronologically (playing 3 now) and I have to say I found MGS2 to be an absolute masterpiece. I did not expect to be so hooked into a ps2 game in 2025.

If you're looking for the kind of storyline you described and you don't mind clunky controls and old game mechanics you should start off with MGS1 and go chronologically. If you don't care about storyline and you want a wonderful and tense stealth experience you should give MGS5 a try.

MGS5 with the HUD and the radar deactivated and using headphones is the most immersive and tense game I've ever played by far. Just lying down on the floor and listening to the footsteps, the smoking, the conversations of the guards around to know where they are and how to get to them stealthily and knock them out.

All MGS games can be played two ways: stealth or action. As action games they're meh, the combat mechanics are clunky and unrealistic and not that fun. The stealth part is the juicy one, try and restart missions if you get caught instead of just shooting your way in, much more rewarding and tense.

MGS1 is not too long and bangs from start to finish. Mgs2 can feel slow at times but then you get to mgs3 which is the best in the series and probably peak Kojima.

2 and 4 are where a lot of storytelling happens, 5 has the best gameplay of any game of this type, 3 does both.

After MGS2, you should read up on the awful discourse surrounding that game at the time, specifically the E3 trailers.

Look up what happens in the non-Solid games at some point before playing Ground Zeroes and MGSV

If you had not already mentioned it in the post, one of these tips would be "watch Escape from New York"

more like metal QUEER

Lucky you that psx, ps2, and ps3 emulators are pretty solid now.

Play the originals in the first versions that came out IMO, but you can find a copy of the HD collection for ps3 that has MGS2, MGS3, and MGS: Peacewalker on it.

I dont really recommend playing the remakes because Kojima was very intentional with what he puts into the games. He too is a bit of a character in the series.

You should start with Revengeance and then stop once you beat it

I'm big into playing the originals in release order. Only play the HD versions or remakes if you really can't stand PSX/PS2 controls. NES and MSX games can be skipped (MGS is a stealth remake of MG2 anyway) unless you really like that era of games in particular. Revengeance is something totally different that manages to capture the same spirit, worth playing at any time. The handheld games are all skippable, EXCEPT for Peace Walker.

Honestly, I would recommend the Metal Gear Solid games in release order. If the gameplay doesn't entertain you, but you want to see more of the world/story, ChipCheezum has pretty detailed Lets Plays of the games.

Twin Snakes is a remake of the PS1 gayme, but they let Kojima loose with all the new cutscene tech. It's very entertaining.

Revengeance is the last one timeline wise and a lot of fun, play it to get a magnetic ninja man talk to you about memes and listen to the banger soundtrack.

You can probably skip the NES games, the events in there do get mentioned later, but they're old and show their age.

I just started working through these myself a month ago or so, somehow never got around to them after all these years until now.

I know I shouldn't give Konami money for these but I'm a lazy asshole who just wanted them all in one place on Steam, easy access. Master Collection versions are fine, but there are some mods out there to fix up a bit of the jank (MGSHDFix and MGSM2Fix mostly).

I was told to go mostly in release order, and that worked well enough. Could start with MGS or the MSX classics if you want to go that far back (those also fit in nicely right after Peacewalker).

I will say that playing release order made PW feel really weird, especially since 4 feels much more modern than it actually is while PW is very clearly a handheld game, but by the midway point it legitimately became my favorite so far.

Narratively I took so long to get around to these for a similar reason, just the military theme was offputting, but alongside the camp/pulp aesthetics they're filled with, they're very anti-military and anti-nationalism. But still gotta remember the earlier ones especially are products of the times, and Kojima's never been able to write women characters.

I'm playing through them with my friend right now. Just finished 1. My plan right now is to go MGS1, MGS2, MGS4, MGRevengeance since that's always going forward in time, basically in release order, and progresses in mechanics.

Then go back to the in-universe start and go MGS3, MGS PW, MGSV. I'll probably play the MSX games and the other portable games roughly in release order after that by myself. Not sure about Twin Snakes.

MGS1 is the one to start with. It references the MSX games a bunch but it's playable without that knowledge. I'd recommend skipping the NES one entirely, it's basically a worse version of the MSX games. Any of the versions of the other games seem to be mostly fine, I'm a purist so I'm gunna' stick to the original console versions mostly though.

I played them in roughly chronological order, and that was fun. I think it was 3, 5, 1, 2, 4, and then there were some non- numbered ones in there, too. Some of the non-numbered ones are better than others, but 3 is a pretty good starting point.

Where do you start and what are some tips you should know?

It’s military glazing in the same way Twin Peaks is FBI glazing is about the best way I can put it, especially in response to your comment about it being kind of goofy and not chuddy. MGS is sexy/goofy in the best way.

If we want to do it chronologically, it would be MGS 3 and then MGS V, MGS 1, 2. 4.

3, V, Metal Gear, 1,2,4 would be interesting.

Anyways, if you start with 3, you can continue with 1 (and then 2 and 4) or go to V and then 124. You should start with 3 imo. Biased since it’s the first MGS I ever played but I can’t imagine any other intro. So much pulpy fun, and you can go into the story with a blank slate.