This guide is meant to lay out what I think is the best way to play through Metal Gear and give you tips on how to approach each game. The intention here is to save you as many headaches as possible and maximize your enjoyment and your time with it to the fullest.
There are no spoilers in this list. Only information that I believe to be necessary will be laid out.
Metal Gear is a series of stealth games designed and written by Hideo Kojima. The games feature intricate storylines that reference real world events and cultural/social phenomenas. Each game serves as a way to express Kojima's personal philosophy regarding war, politics and science.
Chances are, you've probably heard of this series before, it's one of those names that seems to always sneak its way into lists ranking the best videogames ever made, you've heard all about how its been used as an example for video games as a valid art form and you decided that you want to find out what all the fuzz is about.
Buy METAL GEAR SOLID: The Legacy Collection available only PlayStation 3 as a physical game.
Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions are included as a downloadable code, as such you're going to want a sealed copy or at least one that you know still has a functioning code.
PlayStation codes are dependent on your region. So if for example you buy an US copy and you live in Europe you're going to have to create an US account to use the code. Those two games will be tied to that US account (meaning that you will have to log into it if you want to re-download them) but you will be able to play them on your regular account once installed.
Buy METAL GEAR SOLID V: The Definitive Experience on Steam.
It includes METAL GEAR SOLID V: Ground Zeroes and METAL GEAR SOLID V: The Phantom Pain + all the DLCs and is cheaper than buying both games separately.
Play all the games included in the collection in RELEASE ORDER. Do not play them in chronological order.
Metal Gear Solid is not a chronological series. A pattern that you will see is that the early games that take place in the "future" will present you with questions that the following game, that takes place in the past, will answer.
Doing a chronological playthrough will undermine the emotional crux of the games and not only spoil you on things that are meant to be surprises but you will be improperly introduced to very complex concepts at the wrong time, making the story much more confusing and difficult to understand.
By playing in release order, you will experience the story in the order that it was actually written in, and both the gameplay and the storyline will slowly grow more complex with each entry as it needs to, resulting in a much more natural ludo-narrative flow in which each game serves as a way to prepare you for the next. You will be presented with mysteries that you will slowly unravel and realize the weight of their implications as you progress further and by the end you will find yourself fulfilling the ultimate cycle of the snake eating its own tail.
The release order is as follows:
To re-iterate; there are no spoilers in this section. The point is to help you avoid unwanted and unnecessary frustration.
Do not look up anything about the story on the internet. Do not read absolutely anything on the Metal Gear wiki as even the most innocent articles will contain spoilers. Do not watch any trailers. If you can resist don't even listen to the soundtrack on YouTube as the algorithm WILL recommend you Metal Gear videos that will spoil you the games.
The games are aware of what information they withold from you. If you get confused and don't understand something that's completely intentional and the answers will be revealed to you at the appropriate time. You didn't accidentally miss anything.
Some of the Metal Gear games like to ask you for your name. If you have played games like Earthbound or Legend of Zelda; you will probably be tempted to be smart about it and call yourself "Snake" or after whatever character either from Metal Gear or other series you like most. Do not do this. When a Metal Gear game asks you for your name, it's in your best interest instead to answer with either your real life name, or what your friends call you.
Metal Gear 1 and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake are accessed from METAL GEAR SOLID 3's main menu.
Make sure you read the original japanese manuals for Metal Gear 1 and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Both games rely heavily on them so having quick access to them during your playthrough will improve your experience with these two games significantly.
It is recommended to play both games on Easy mode.
Not much of the experience will be changed. Except that the games will be made less annoying to play.
In Metal Gear 1. There's a bossfight in which the enemy has hostages. While you can beat the bossfight if one of the hostages dies, you will not be able to finish the game. It will simply soft-lock the game and prevent you from continuing. So make sure to always save your game, and if a hostage happens to die, load your saved game again.
Both games are very cryptic, so don't feel bad about consulting a guide throughout your playthrough. Thankfully you will not encounter this problem with any other game in the series, as the Codec introduced in MGS1 pretty much serves as an in-game guide telling you exactly what to do when you get stuck.
Click here to Download a fan translation of METAL GEAR's japanese manual.
Click here to Download a fan translation of METAL GEAR 2: Solid Snake's japanese manual.
Watch the Briefing before starting the game. You can access it from the game's main menu.
The briefing will provide you with all the information and context you need to understand the game and everything that is at stake.
Play MGS1 on Easy mode, it was the only difficulty in the japanese original and you will have more fun with it that way if you aren't used to the dificulty of old games.
If you've been gone for a while and don't remember what you were supposed to do, call your contacts on the Codec and they will give you a refresher on the situation. If you get stuck and can't figure out how to proceed they will offer help (this tip applies to every game moving forward).
I recommend checking out Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions (Included in The Legacy Collection) for like at least 10 mins before jumping into Metal Gear Solid 2. It's not necessary to beat it, just play it enough to get the gist of what the game is.
When you start a new game in MGS2, the game will ask you which chapter you want to play and it'll give you three options. You want to select "TANKER-PLANT"
The game at the beginning will present you with a question asking you which is your favorite Metal Gear game so far.
Regardless of what you actually think, I recommend choosing MGS2 as your favorite.
The game features two main camera modes: Top Down and Third Person. You can switch between them by pressing R3.
The game was designed with the Top Down camera in mind. Third Person was added in a re-release. You will probably find third person more comfortable and while I do recommend playing the game in third person, it can be easy to get disoriented as the game wasn't designed around that camera style. If you want to re-orient yourself to see where north is, simply switch the camera to Top-Down.
In this game a new style of melee combat called CQC will be introduced. You can throw a punch by pressing Circle like in the older games, but this time if you hold it you can grab enemies as hostages. By combining Circle with movements of the right joystick you can perform a variety of CQC techniques.
In Metal Gear Solid 2, you were introduced to the idea of playing the game non-lethally, however in this game you are rewarded heavily for doing so. Defeating the bosses non-lethally will reward you with items.
You might have heard one of the bosses dies if you wait a week. This isn't a funny easter egg. It's actually a punishment for not playing the game, as you will not be able to get his items as a reward.
This game is huge in terms of file size. Each chapter is installed separately. You will need to connect to the internet and download a very important Update that will allow you to install every single chapter before starting the game. Otherwise each chapter will need to be installed as you play through the campaign, ruining the game's pace.
The cutscenes in this game are notorious for being extremely long, however you can interact with them and you will want to do it as doing so will provide you with additional information. Make sure to play with your controller plugged in so that it doesn't automatically turn off while you are watching a cutscene.
METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE is not canon nor is it made by Kojima. The game does not require you to know anything about Metal Gear in order to play it nor does it contribute anything at all to the series. Playing through it will simply not offer you any insight whatsoever into Hideo Kojima's philosophy/worldview or what Metal Gear as a series actually is or what it wants to be about. Rising is simply a standalone game that happens to take place in Platinum's interpretation of what Metal Gear's universe is. If you want to include it in your playthrough however (and you should, it is a great game!) the best time to play it is after beating METAL GEAR SOLID 4 and before starting Peace Walker. I recommend playing the PC port available on Steam.
Make sure you actually finish Chapter 5 of Peace Walker. The game presents it as if it were just bonus content but the information presented in it is critical for Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain.
IMPORTANT: In order to finish Chapter 5 of Peace Walker you will need the second plant of Mother Base built. For this to be possible you will need to have your Intel Team above level 40. It will take a dozen missions for it to complete so bolster your Intel Team early on.
Much like with MGS1, Before starting Ground Zeroes, check out the BACKSTORY option in the main menu as it will provide you with all the context necessary for the story.
After starting the game and watching the beginning cutscene the game will begin. Do not actually play it just yet. Instead open your in-game menu with TAB (or START/OPTIONS if you are playing with a controller) and listen to all the cassette tapes you have while you are out in the rain before infiltrating the base.
After you're done listening to the tapes, play through the game.
Ground Zeroes has a lot of extra content that's not necessarily canon but is still worth checking out. Some of the stuff you unlock can be transferred to The Phantom Pain. The game has a lot of replay value and experiencing the bonus content will not only help set the tone and atmosphere for The Phantom Pain, but will also serve as a celebration of the series in which you will be rewarded for the time you spent playing these games.
Ground Zeroes features a trailer for The Phantom Pain after finishing the main campaign. The MGSV trailers are notorious for quite literally spoiling the entire game. I recommend skipping it immediately as soon as you are presented with it, as I believe it's best to go into The Phantom Pain knowing as little as possible about the game.
Unlike the previous games; The Phantom Pain breaks with the series' tradition of having long cutscenes. The game instead tells its story through the cassette tapes that are given to you as you progress through the campaign and through conversations the guards have between them.
The idea is, instead of being fed story, the story will be a puzzle you'll have to put together.
Make sure to always listen to the cassette tapes as they will be your main source not just of exposition and worldbuilding, but because they are the game's story.
There are very important story moments in the game you likely won't encounter on your own. In order to find one of them make sure you build the Medical plant on Mother Base. After doing so visit the third floor and look for a door with a green light above it.
At one point in the game you will likely unlock the emblem of a butterfly. Do not use it as your personal emblem as doing so will prevent you from unlocking important story missions.