Basic timeline for newbies (as well as which games are canon)

[docbell1516]

By now, you'd have seen the trailers for the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection vol. 1 and Metal Gear Solid Delta: SNAAAKE EEEAATERRR. You will have probably wishlisted the latter as the Steam preorder for the Collection isn't up yet, so you'd have probably taken the opportunity to buy the prior Metal Gear releases on this platform, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and the Solid V series (of which the short Ground Zeroes is the first). You might be confused, so this timeline should get you up to speed:

Metal Gear Solid 3/Delta: SNAAAAKE EEAAAATEEEERRRR! - A Cold War Crisis that broke a young Naked Snake and changed our world forever over two missions.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - The illusion of peace fades as a cynical Snake goes on ops in the 1970s alongside his private military force, MSF.

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes - Peace ends, Venom begins. [You are here!] (also, this game is short (though sweet) and serves as both the first entry in the Solid V series and an epilogue to Peace Walker)

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - Venom's revenge.

Metal Gear - Venom ends, Solid begins in the genre-defining 8-bit adventure that started it all.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake - It seems that Big Boss (naked snake) hasn't learnt his lesson, because another Metal Gear incident occurs in Zanzibar Land. Solid Snake defeats Big Boss for real. Maybe.

Metal Gear Solid - Solid Snake's origins are specified (he's a clone), certain details are revealed about his past, and the Patriots make their presence known.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - Things are NOT as they seem. At all.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - The end. The last revelation. The final triumph. All on a battlefield you can find any time, any where.

Oh, and if you're wondering about Rising, that's a standalone outing set after Solid 4. You're good to play that without any prior knowledge. As for the NES Port and Solid: Portable Ops, the former is definitely not what happened, and the latter WAS canon until Kojima covertly retconned it in favour of his own Peace Walker and Solid V.

[Lar Dass]

I still think playing release order is a good move, mainly because (retcons aside) the gameplay getting improved over time will be beneficial to the player

[Devsman]

Originally posted by docbell1516:

Oh, and if you're wondering about Rising, that's a standalone outing set after Solid 4. You're good to play that without any prior knowledge. As for the NES Port and Solid: Portable Ops, the former is definitely not what happened, and the latter WAS canon until Kojima covertly retconned it in favour of his own Peace Walker and Solid V.

Of course, if you're judging by what you're expected to know, the chrono order is a bad choice. The Phantom Pain straight-up spoils MG1 and MGS1 both. So release order is Metal Gear, MG2, MGS1, MGS2, MGS3, MGS4, Peace Walker, MGR, Ground Zeroes, The Phantom Pain.

[TheOrangeBox]

Originally posted by Devsman:

Of course, if you're judging by what you're expected to know, the chrono order is a bad choice. The Phantom Pain straight-up spoils MG1 and MGS1 both. So release order is Metal Gear, MG2, MGS1, MGS2, MGS3, MGS4, Peace Walker, MGR, Ground Zeroes, The Phantom Pain.

If you include Peace Walker I would also include Portable Ops, the story line is also cannon while not a Kojima Production game, it continues to tell the story period.

[docbell1516]

Sorry, but... It was retconned in favour of Peace Walker and Solid V. I have no idea why. I guess because Portable Ops' plot clashed heavily with what Kojima and his writing team was building for Peace Walker? I dunno, man. It WAS canon when it came out and in 2007, 2008 and 2009 when MGS4 was making the rounds, but it's not as of Peace Walker.

Now if Portable Ops were included as the bonus game for Master Collection Vol. 2 alongside the AC!D series... I'd be down for that.

[Devsman]

Originally posted by TheOrangeBox:

Originally posted by Devsman:

Of course, if you're judging by what you're expected to know, the chrono order is a bad choice. The Phantom Pain straight-up spoils MG1 and MGS1 both. So release order is Metal Gear, MG2, MGS1, MGS2, MGS3, MGS4, Peace Walker, MGR, Ground Zeroes, The Phantom Pain.

If you include Peace Walker I would also include Portable Ops, the story line is also cannon while not a Kojima Production game, it continues to tell the story period.

It was supposed to be but it was retconned. I'm the Ground Zeroes side mission where you're supposed to find the titles of the previous Metal Gear games, Miller won't acknowledge it, instead saying something like "I don't remember that one." Which is what he does for other non-canon or alternate universe games.

[Tyrant (My Vision is Augmented)]

Originally posted by docbell1516:

Sorry, but... It was retconned in favour of Peace Walker and Solid V. I have no idea why. I guess because Portable Ops' plot clashed heavily with what Kojima and his writing team was building for Peace Walker? I dunno, man. It WAS canon when it came out and in 2007, 2008 and 2009 when MGS4 was making the rounds, but it's not as of Peace Walker.

Now if Portable Ops were included as the bonus game for Master Collection Vol. 2 alongside the AC!D series... I'd be down for that.

I mean... how many times is Big Boss going to create a massive "country" in the middle of no where? At this point, he's done so FOUR TIMES. They keep getting destroyed and his plans keep getting foiled.

If we include Portable Ops, then the count is up to 5. I feel like that factors into the reason it was retconned. Not a lot about the story of PO clashes with the rest of the series. I think the only reason it got canned was because, yet again, Big Boss creates a "soldiers without borders" Outer Heaven clone, and it was just getting out of hand.