I bought MGSIV years ago but somehow never played beayond the prologue. I recently watched the fan favorite Metal Gear Scanlon series 1 and 2 and realised this might be a good time to play MGS IV before the fellas get to it.

The question is: should I wait for Drew and Dan to play the third game as far as the story goes (I understand that one is a prequel?) or am I good to go straight from the second one?

No spoilers please, thanks!

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater may be chronologically the first in the series, but it is the most required of all games in the series to really get Metal Gear Solid 4 IMO.

Hope that gets you pumped up! Sorry you have to wait more. I definitely recommend playing MGS3 if you can.

:D

Yeah, a lot of the "big moments" in MGS4 could fall pretty flat without MGS3 there to inform.

Nope. You gotta play (or watch) 3 to get 4. Also 3 is amazing so you should play it!

@quipido: MGS3 is a must before MGS4.

Ok then! Thanks everyone, I'll wait for Drew to play 3 then I'll hop on 4!

Yeah everything in MGS4 is because of what happens in MGS3. Plus 3 has one or the best endings in a game ever :)

I would recommend playing MGS3 first regardless just because it is such a good game, but yes, there are character moments in 4 that will only really make sense if you have played 3.

@quipido: Play 3 yourself. A lot of the best parts of MGS3 are so good because they are interactive.

Play or watch 3 and then you're good. If you want to get up to date with everything in the series up to now (that matters), at least read up on Peace Walker and the original Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2, and Metal Gear Solid 3.

I played MGS4 first, and thought the story made no sense and was really fucking stupid.

Then I played MGS3, and the story of MGS4 made sense but was still really fucking stupid.

You'd be doing yourself a pretty big disservice by skipping MGS3.

As someone that played through MGS 1-3 10 years ago, liked 1-2 but hated 3, and only played 4 after watching Metal Gear Scanlon as a refresher course, I'd say it's worth it to at least try to watch a MGS3 synopsis or wait for MGScanlon3 before playing 4. The broad strokes of 3 came back as referenced enough to understand what was going on but I probably should have glanced at a wiki first.

3 is vital, I think.

MGS3 is vital to getting some big stuff out of MGS4. Wait for it. There will be probably be a long enough break between Scanlon 3 and Scanlon 4 for you to play it.

@quipido Why are you watching the first 3 and playing 4? Why not play all of them?

MGS3 is the best in the series.

I'm playing MGS3 for my first time right now and I can't imagine skipping this one. It's much better than the first two in almost every way. If you want to get everything out of it, you're going to want to play the whole series anyway. At least that's what I'm doing and it really helps to get to know the mechanics from game 1 on up (Solid anyway, I didn't bother with the MSX games, but I might eventually.) I vaguely recall trying to play Subsistence back when it came out and hating it immensely because I had no idea what was going on. Playing through from game 1, it's now become one of my favorite games ever. MGS plays very differently from almost anything else out there, you have to ease into it. For some reason it reminds me of some old obtuse PC and Amiga games more than anything else.

@quipido: Yeah, you really need to go in order of release to get the full impact. Also it's the best by far, so you'd be missing out severely!

Frankly I don't want to PLAY 3, I love the games for their craziness and story but years ago I played two and I thought, from pure game play side, it was poop. Clunky mess. That's why I gave up on 4 when I got it as well. That's why I want to WATCH 3 and then try and play 4 as that one is supposed to play somewhat modern (I gave up on it because I had no idea what was going on and the gameplay turned me off as well). We'll see how it goes.

@sinusoidal: The MSX games are definitely worth a play through, especially Metal Gear 2.