Forums / Media / Video Games

so, i've always been kind of interested in the metal gear game series, although i was too young to play the ps1 and ps2 titles at the time and i've never had a ps3.

i did play mgs4 a few times at a friend's place, and i thougt i had a basic idea what the game was about, with the cloes and metal gears and the boss and snakes and stuff.

now, with the q1 2015 release of the phantom pain looming, i've played ground zeroes.
while it was rather good gameplay-wise, but very very short, i didn't really understand what was going on, who XOF was, why big boss had child soldiers, who the fuck cipher was, why metlyface had a melted face, wasn't big boss bad guy, are marth and roy in this game, and why that girl had a bomb in her…, well, that's less of a story relevant point though. at least, i think so.

well, the story background story thingy in the main menu didn't really help either, so i did some reading on the interet, watched a video or two, and i must say that MGS's storyline is either 2deep4me, that kojima guy just doesn't have any idea where to go with his games and makes all that up on-the fly while the game is developed, or he is the biggest troll and makes fans search for a coherent plot where there is none.

so, any story summaries, or directions to such, that are somewhat understandable and cover at least the most important things to know before the phantom pain comes out are appreciated. plz no "just play the games", as i mentnioned before, i don't own a ps3 or a ps1, my ps2 went missing in the basement.

Here, this guy does a pretty good summary of the major plot points of the series. Just don't expect everything to be totally crystal clear because as in real life, all the characters have complex relationships and motives, and I think that's what makes the metal gear series so wonderful and unique.

It's pretty much essential that you play MGS3 and MGS: Peace Walker before going for Ground Zeroes if you want to have any grasp on what the story is going on about, MGS4 is so disconnected from Ground Zeroes era of the game fiction that you might as well not even include it. This is something I've emphasized a few times before when talking about GZ mainly because it is a direct sequel to Peace Walker.

I'm a spastic fan of MGS but I still lose track from time to time if I'm not absorbing each game like a sponge and re-reading shit to get the fiction straight.

Ill answer your questions though brudda, won't go into too much depth though to avoid spoilers in case you do play PW.

"why big boss had child soldiers" Chico, the boy you rescue, was the younger brother of Amanda, Amanda being a commandante of the FSLN, a milita group based in Costa Rica. Big Boss meets this bunch during the events of the Peace Walker incident just one year prior to Ground Zeroes. Paz, the girl with the bombdy bomb was also someone Big Boss meets during PW, I won't go into depth cus spoilers and shit.

"who the fuck cipher was" Cipher is another name for The Patriots, the secret illuminati-esque organization led by Major Zero. At this time in the fiction it is still relatively young, Cipher being its first name (and a nod to the founder) you will know about The Patriots seeing as you've played MGS4 so you're covered.

"who XOF was" XOF is a military organization working for Cipher. Cipher was sorta weak as shit at this time point in time when it came to actually having any physical military, hence it worked through proxy groups.

"wasn’t big boss bad guy" The thing I enjoy most about MGS is that the later games actually change your view of who the good and bad guys are. In the end it all came down to a misinterpretation of "The Boss's Dream" On Big Boss's and Zero's part but that's a different mindfuck entirely. Maybe re-watch the cutscene in MGS4 where you meet Big Momma in the church, she does a solid job of explaining the origins.

"why metlyface had a melted face" If you have enough time for ridiculous amounts of MGS fiction in your life listen to all the audio cassettes you find in Ground Zeros. In one of them Skullface himself tells you how his face became scarred (he worked in an illegal munitions factory when he was younger and it got blew up by government forces. He received the face fuckup from being trampled by the ensuing chaos)

"are marth and roy" Marth? Meryl you mean right? she isn't born yet until at least another 10 years and Roy is currently hospitalized at this point, recovering from Malaria from the events of San Hieronymo Takeover, another game in itself (MGS: Portable Ops)

Hope this helped a bit

Whenever I get into a new video game/book/movie/etc. series, I try to experience them in in-universe chronological order, in order to get a slightly different experience with the series as a whole. If this thread is any indication, I'm gonna have a hell of a time with the Metal Gear series if I ever get into it.

According to Wikipedia, the games' timeline goes in this order:

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

Damn. 11 canon games, and I don't have the consoles to play half of them (fuck you Sony for not making the PS4 backwards compatible).

If all you're concerned with is the main MG story line then you can skip Rising: Revengeance. It's so far removed from the other games that it may as well be non canon.

I thought Revengeance was not canon until they made the direct reference in the Jamais Vu mode in Ground Zeroes. I'm both glad and angry they made it canon.

On one hand, Armstrong exists. On the other, Sam is dead and we will never see him again. Sam would have made a great antagonist for any Metal Gear game.

My point was more the fact that Revengeance is so far removed from the rest of the MG story line that even if it is canon it basically has no effect on what happens in any of the other games.

well thanks for the answers, i'll look into that video.
@laika: as i mentioned, i don't ahve an ps3 (or a psp, or a vita, i also didn't play a lot of MGS4, just a bit at a friend's place), so i won't be able to play peace walker (unless there'll be another HD re-release for the PS4), MGS3 isn't impossible for me to play, i'd have to find my ps2 and get a new controller (RIP in peace DS2 analog sticks).

i thought about watching some let's play, but then again i don't really like these (especially for this kind of game).
so much to do (besides vidya already), yet so little time…

I couldn't play PW until they brought it out sometime last year in a HD collection, I didn't have a PSP nor did I want one so I brought the collection for my 360. When it came to playing MGS4 I scoped out a cheap PS3 and brought it for the soul purpose of playing it and MGS1, that was back when I had some spare cash however….

It's difficult to experience this series any other way than simply playing them. Reading the plot summaries of every game can be nothing but confusing and boring and watching a lets play just sorta shits all over the atmosphere.

Try reading up the storyline on the wiki

Personally, I couldn't give a crap about any of the MGS "Story" except the ones about all the homosexual undertones and relationships between the characters.

My favourite was the secret forbidden love triangle between Solid Snake, Otacon and Ocelot.