Metal Gear Forums

Hello! Here's another of our "Cardboard Box Vox Pops", where we get the general consensus of the forum on some simple questions.
For those of you that use a theme with a sidebox you'll have noticed the poll has appeared there to maximise the number of votes we get. If you wish to explain your answer feel free to in this thread, but otherwise, feel free to vote and explain nothing!

This time our question is do you think the series should be played in release order or chronological order?

Release order. For any series, not just MGS.

Most series don't have full prequels in mind when the first games come out. Playing the prequels first means one misses out on refrences from the later games that came out first.

BK nailed it. I've always done replays of MGS by release and always will enter a new series in the same manner where I can.

Release order because the story becomes dogshit after the first 3.

(30-04-2026, 12:05 AM)Dirty Duck Wrote: [ -> ]Hello! Here's another of our "Cardboard Box Vox Pops", where we get the general consensus of the forum on some simple questions.
For those of you that use a theme with a sidebox you'll have noticed the poll has appeared there to maximise the number of votes we get. If you wish to explain your answer feel free to in this thread, but otherwise, feel free to vote and explain nothing!

This time our question is do you think the series should be played in release order or chronological order?

Ive noticed that the best way to play the games are in the order which you feel like. I found myself always jumping between them depending on my mood. If I'm a bit slow and tired I put on MGS4 for the long cutscenes, if im alert and active ill go for mgs2, if I feel like really grinding I go for PW, and for awesome gameplay its always TPP! For depression MGS3 takes the prize!

For a new player, release order is a must. I still do it in release order myself. You just miss heavy hitting stuff by playing chronologically.

Not just MG. If a series have several installments and I never played it, I'll always start in release order. That way you get to see how the series evolved.

(01-05-2026, 03:39 PM)Silent Assassin Wrote: [ -> ]For a new player, release order is a must. I still do it in release order myself. You just miss heavy hitting stuff by playing chronologically.

Not just MG. If a series have several installments and I never played it, I'll always start in release order. That way you get to see how the series evolved.

I agree for a total beginner release order is the way to go.

I say we consider the matter closed.

Release order. Consuming any media in chronological order is stupid in my opinion because these are still games/movies/books made by people and the choices made in a prequel are informed by the preceeding work. MGS3 makes far less sense for why it's made that way it's made if you don't play MGS2, for example. Playing MGS4 after MGS2 makes little sense because it's a follow up to 3 more than it is to 2.

For a first-time fan, the best exposure is release order. If they aren't keen on 8-bit stuff, they can read "previous operations" in MGS1 and start there. I think starting with Delta Snake Eater is also a reasonable gateway into the series, but it is best followed up with MGS 1, 2, and 4 before doing Peace Walker and 5. There's too much spoiled or heavily foreshadowed in those prequel / interquel titles that would otherwise diminish the impact of revelations that happened in titles that had been released earlier. The timeline at the end of Phantom Pain is absolutely, positively, not meant to be read by someone who doesn't even know who Solid Snake is!