I just beat MGS2 for the first time and I though it was amazing. Now I am itching to play another Metal Gear and I want to see what it is like on the current consoles. I played a bit of MGS3 when it came out but I really want to play MGS:GZ to see a modern iteration. Am I going to ruin the whole story of MGS3 if i play GZ first or will MGS3 be just as fun even though some things will be spoiled.

Thanks,

Scott

Ground Zeroes will spoil Peace Walker more than anything. I think it's safe to play this before playing 3.

Not especially. Like Vextroid said though, it will spoil some fairly important Peace Walker stuff. Ground Zeroes really is just the equivalent of the Tanker in MGS2 but shorter, so there isn't enough time to spoil much of anything.

@ruethewhirl: I'm Playing on Vita and it has the free look camera. I would rather play GZ at home and then MGS3 while i'm commuting.

Yeah, it will spoil Peace Walker more than anything as the first post said. It doesn't really do much to three.

Uhhh, not really. It will spoil Peace Walker. That might be fine with you, as Peace Walker was a game with flaws. The gameplay is great, but the bosses are unfairly balanced somewhat with it's Monster Hunter-like design. I don't know if that was tweaked in the HD collection.

yea kinda this really,

I bought GZ during the sale. Outside of maybe a single convo with Chico, is there anything considered story-related? I was under the impression it was a enemy base sandbox where you just accrue resources and fulton out people.

@ch3burashka: The ending is the entire catalyst for The Phantom Pain. Outside of a couple of brief moments, there are three main cutscenes: the intro, finding Chico, and the ending. All put together, it's about 20 minutes of cutscenes. The rest are just the tapes you can find. However, all of the side missions have zero story content, so those can be freely played without worrying about spoilers. And those are just as sandboxy as the main game.

Metal Gear Solid 3 also happens to be THE Metal Gear game as well as far as many fans are concerned. Myself included. Chronologically it is the first game in the entire series, it does more to tell you who Big Boss is and how he came to be than any other game so far, and it explains the origins of many long term major characters like Ocelot. Not to mention it explains many of the events that set the stage long term for subsequent games like Metal Gear Solid 2 and 4 primarily. It also has some of the best moments in the entire series and easily some of (if not the) best boss fights.

For a serious Metal Gear fan it is a must play.

@ch3burashka: If you listen to any of the tapes you'll be spoiling the end of Peace Walker to some degree. And I'm not talking about Chico's tapes, but Paz's diary, Paz's Tapes and the pre-mission tapes. There's lots of story in GZ. It's just all in the tapes.

Just played through it. It is really story light, mostly gameplay. Had a good time with it.

Thanks guys!

Im a huge huge HUGE MGS fan. But am I the only one who could not stomach peace walker at all? I played it for an hour and learned the mechanics and systems and was not enjoying it at all. is the game worth it to just push through for the story or no?

Nah I got half way through it and just had to stop too. Of course I was on the original PSP version. There was just too much jank and the controls were a serious pain on the psp. Check out the movie someone linked above, it does the job.

I never played it on PSP, and the PS3 version plays just as well as MGS4. So I really enjoyed it and ended up S ranking every mission and unlocking everything. I can understand why playing it on the PSP would turn people off from playing it. Which makes me wonder why so many people are playing MGS2/3 on the Vita of all things. The games play way better with the DS3/360 controller.

@kasaioni: Maybe I shall check out that movie. I need more metal gear! I also played PW on ps3 when I got the mgs collection and even though I went from MGS3 to peace walker, I just wasnt enjoying it. The 4th game is my personal favorite (yes im a 4th lover and proud!)

Maybe I'll give peace walker another chance.

I would play MGS3 first because that game is FANTASTIC, also, there are spoilers of MGS3 in Ground Zeroes loading screens.

I don't see why you couldn't?

Play Subsistence first. Peace Walker is pretty good, though it kind of drags because some missions are just not fun, especially when it forces action on you towards the end of the game.

Playing Ground Zeroes before MGS3 not only makes whatever thin piece of story in Ground Zeroes make no sense, but it will also spoil you with much better/modern controls so much so that I don't think you will ever want to play MGS3 afterwards. At the very least you will have a harder time enjoying MGS3. Play MGS3 first, then Peace Walker if you really want to stick to the Big Boss story.

I wouldn't say peace walker has better controls. They do some more modern things with the controls, but its still on a fucking PSP.

@ssully: I wasn't referring to Peace Walker having better controls in my post, but to Ground Zeroes. But actually, even with the face buttons being a substitute for the camera, I think Peace Walker is better than MGS3 in the way it plays. The crouch stealth mechanic introduced in MGS4 makes Peace Walker much better for stealth than the slow methodical approach from MGS3. That's why it's a shame they added the crouch stealth for the 3DS version of Snake Eater, but didn't do it for the HD Collection version. I'm looking forward to playing Peace Walker for the first time on the HD Collection.

@ssully: It's also on 360 and PS3, and plays like MGS4. So it plays great.

@probablytuna: My mistake! Ground Zeroes plays like a dream compared to all the other MGS games. Even with the addition of the crouch stealth in Peace Walker, I still preferred simply because of the PSP controls. But as @kasaioni informed me just now, Peacewalker is actually on consoles now. I completely forgot about them bringing that over.

@ssully: I like to remind people since my first experience with PW was on console, not PSP. So I never ran into any problems with the controls; it felt like the smoothest game in the series at the time. I think if people have tried it only on PSP and didn't finish it, it should be given another chance on console. Better controls, sharper graphics, 60fps. I also think it can be bought individually digitally on the PSN/Live store.

Of course if people have other problems with it like the mission structure and overall gameplay that's understandable. Although it becomes the easiest game in the series once the right equipment and weapons are unlocked.

Yeah I really should give it a shot. I actually liked MGS Portal Ops and a big chunk of Peace Walker despite the controls on the PSP. My biggest issue with Peace Walker was the boss difficulty when playing solo.

@ssully: Once you unlock the right equipment, you can beat most of the main boss battles in minutes. Pupa, for example, you can take down with just two rockets from the M47 rocket launcher. Also, you do not get penalized at all for using the bandanna, so you would only need to use the supply marker for rations. It just takes a bit of time to get the right stuff; Peace Walker is like the monster hunter of Metal Gear and requires some light grinding before things get easy.

Play 3 before. Simply because the gameplay. If you play GZ it will be hard to go and play 3 with the way the game handles. You just played 2 so you will be fairly used to the controls