Metal Gear Solid V - Where to start?

[Hanyuuu]

Hello,

 

I haven't played Metal Gear Solid before. Can i get right into Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain?

 

Or should i play previous versions first to understand the story and other things? If yes then which one should i play first?

 

Thanks

[wonkehcheetah]

I didn't play any prior MGS games, and I kinda understood everything that was going on. However, I hear that three, then peace walker, then ground zeroes has most of the story stuff relevant to the phantom pain. They uploaded all the relevant story stuff to youtube if you don't want to spend the time/money getting the games/setup to prepare for the game.

[Riftshaw]

I began playing MGS II, and I already felt kinda left out, although they did kindof explained it but not completely.

 

You should really play all of them from the start to not miss out on anything, like backstories and character development etc.

[OrXain]

Probably the most complex storyline of any game series, it would make a lot more sense if you played them all and understand the timeline.

[iXenite]

As another poster mentioned, the most relevant games to play for the Phantom Pain are as follows:

 

1. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

2. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

3. Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes

 

I personally suggest playing the entire Metal Gear Solid series. There are some games you can skip, like the first two Metal Gear titles and some of the spin-offs.

 

The essential games to play in the series are as follows:

 

1. Metal Gear Solid (the PS1 version, the Gamecube version is bad)

2. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (the Substance version)

3. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Subsistence version)

4. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (the "HD" version)

5. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

6. Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes

7. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

 

The big downside is that not all of these are available on PC - and the emulated versions are not exactly the best versions of these games either (and only some of them are playable with emulators). All of these are playable on a PlayStation 3 though which is a relatively cheap console these days. You would want to get the two recent ones on PC though (Ground Zeroes and MGS5).

 

As a bonus, you could get Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance on PC. But it's not really an essential title in my opinion.