After watching so much MG Scanlon i decided to check this out since it was $6.80 on PSN. I read the entire backstory that's included in the game and i feel like i have a basic understanding of whats going on.

Is there anything else that would help me enjoy the story more? Should i just watch video of MGS Peacewalker?

There's no story in this game. It's a prologue that was cut out of another game.

Playing Peace Walker will explain who these characters are, but Ground Zeroes doesn't have much going on for it in the way of story. The gameplay is fucking great though.

Eh, if you watch video of Peace Walker, then you need to watch video of Snake Eater first, as Peace Walker is a direct sequel. But if you're just wanting to enjoy the game and catch up with the rest of the lore as Drew plays it, I think you'll be fine. It's really short, and pretty much the equivalent of the Tanker portion of MGS2(maybe a wee bit less in terms of the main story, though there are several side missions to play), so it isn't like you're about to get hit with a ton of stuff. The cutscenes are about 20 minutes or so once you put them all together, and it basically just serves as a prologue. You should be fine with just reading what it has with it.

You don't necessarily have to since besides the ground zeroes mission everything else is pretty much open sandbox type stuff. They do address who Chico and Paz are in Peacewalker.

I don't recommend anyone play MGS games out of order.

I would highly recommend picking up the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for the PS3 and playing Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater first. Then pick up Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (or watch video of entire playthrough) and then play Metal Gear Solid:Peace Walker (which is also part of the HD Collection) before getting into Ground Zeroes. That way you will be fully caught up on everything story-wise up to where Ground Zeroes picks up.

You really think portable ops is necessary?

@frostyryan: I consider it necessary, if you wish to keep the chronological order of the story intact. It explains how the founding of FOXHOUND and The Patriots came to be after Snake's FOX unit that formed after the events of Snake Eater went renegade, as well as the inspiration of the military state Outer Heaven. I consider that to be important to the timeline that the OP should get caught up with story-wise so that when he finally plays Ground Zeroes, he will have a full understanding of the story up until that point.

Metal Gear Solid Timeline

• 1964 – Snake Eater (MGS 3)
• 1970 – Portable Ops
• 1974 – Peace Walker
• 1975 – Ground Zeroes
• 1984 – The Phantom Pain (MGS 5)
• 1995 – Metal Gear
• 1999 – Solid Snake
• 2005 – Metal Gear Solid (PS1)
• 2007/09 – Sons of Liberty (MGS 2)
• 2014 – Guns of the Patriots (MGS 4)
• 2018 – Rising: Revengeance

@shadowknight508: ah, Portable Ops is the only one I didn't play because it wasn't compatible with Vita. I'm not sure if that's still the case though. I also heard it wasn't very important and it also might not be canon or something

Let's put it like this: Some of the events of Portable Ops are canon. This much is confirmed by Peace Walker when Kaz mentions putting San Hieronymo behind them, which is also a dig at the fact that no one likes Portable Ops. We don't know exactly how much of Portable Ops is canon, however.

It's also excluded from any official MGS timeline information. Kojima himself at one point confirmed Portable Ops was canon, but still refuses to leave in any MGS Collection or anything to bring up the fact that it exists.

So yeah, it's canon, but you get absolutely nothing from playing it because it ultimately isn't important to the overall plot, and also it's fucking difficult to play because that control scheme is insane.

Here's as close to an official write-up of Portable Ops as you're going to get. Spoilers, obviously.

Gray Fox was a terminator ninja the whole time.

Sokolov is still alive and strangely boss all of the sudden.

Gene comes up with an idea of a nation consisting entirely of soldiers, giving them both a home and a purpose. Big Boss spends the whole game telling him how stupid it is, kills him, and then immediately establishes MSF.

Dwight Schultz shows up as an Anti-Snake named Python who looks like Pinhead on crossfit. He explodes into ice and no one ever remembers him again.

Colonel Campbell shows up as a complete loser and dies of malaria or something.

There are twins who turn out to be the same person because Snake is a complete fucking idiot and can be fooled by school children.

The end. Nothing of value was lost.