Hideo Kojima is a madman. I mean that with the utmost respect, but let’s be real: trying to figure out all Metal Gear Solid games in order is like trying to untangle a ball of yarn that’s been soaked in nanomachines and political conspiracy theories. You have release dates, then you have the actual timeline, and then you have the weird spin-offs that everyone argues about being "canon" or not.
If you just want to play them, you’re looking at a saga that spans from the Cold War of the 1960s all the way to a dystopian 2014. It’s a mess. But it's a brilliant mess.
Most people start with the 1998 PlayStation classic because that’s where the "Solid" moniker really took off, but if you're a purist, you've gotta go back to the MSX2. It’s wild to think that a series known for 40-minute cutscenes started as a 2D top-down game where you just hid behind crates because the hardware couldn't handle more than two enemies on screen.
The Chronological Headache: How the Story Actually Flows
If you want to experience the rise and fall of Big Boss and Solid Snake as a continuous narrative, you don't play them in the order they came out. You jump around like a time traveler.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (1964)
This is where it actually starts. Forget the "Solid" for a second. You’re Naked Snake. You're in a Soviet jungle. You’re eating frogs and trying to stop your mentor, The Boss, from starting World War III. Honestly, this is many fans' favorite because it’s so raw. It establishes why the entire rest of the series happens. Without the events of Operation Snake Eater, there is no Outer Heaven, no Patriots, and no Liquid Snake. It’s the origin story that actually feels necessary.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (1974)
People used to skip this because it was on the PSP, but that’s a huge mistake. Peace Walker bridges the gap between the idealistic Snake and the jaded warlord Big Boss. You build Mother Base. You recruit soldiers. It’s basically the blueprint for what The Phantom Pain eventually became. It’s also where we get a lot of the weirdness involving AI and nuclear deterrence that pays off decades later in the game's timeline.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes & The Phantom Pain (1975-1984)
Ground Zeroes is basically a glorified demo, but it’s a brutal one. It sets a dark tone that The Phantom Pain carries into a massive open world. Here’s the thing about MGSV: the gameplay is peak. It’s the best stealth-action game ever made, period. But the story? It’s famously unfinished. Kojima and Konami had their massive fallout, and you can feel the narrative threads just... snapping toward the end. Still, seeing the "missing link" of the saga is essential for anyone tracking all Metal Gear Solid games in order.
The Solid Snake Era: When Things Get Weird
Once you hit the 90s in the game’s timeline, the focus shifts. We move away from the tragic origins of Big Boss and into the shoes of his clone/son, Solid Snake.
Metal Gear & Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1995-1999)
These are the old 8-bit games. Most people just read a summary, but they’re surprisingly playable today if you have the patience. You infiltrate Outer Heaven and then Zanzibar Land. This is where you first "kill" Big Boss. Twice. It sets the stage for the legendary shadow Moses incident.
Metal Gear Solid (2005)
The big one. The 1998 masterpiece. If you haven't played this, you haven't lived. You've got psychic bosses, a twin brother with a British accent for some reason, and a heavy dose of anti-nuclear messaging. It redefined what "cinematic" meant for consoles. Even with the pixelated faces, the voice acting by David Hayter and the rest of the cast holds up incredibly well. It’s the quintessential stealth experience.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2007-2009)
This game was the ultimate "troll" move. Everyone expected to play as Snake, but Kojima gave us Raiden—a rookie with flowing blonde hair. At the time, fans were furious. Now? It’s viewed as prophetic. It predicted meme culture, AI-controlled information, and the "post-truth" world we live in now. It’s terrifyingly accurate for a game made in 2001.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2014)
The finale. Old Snake. He’s aging rapidly because of his clone DNA, and the world is run by PMCs (Private Military Companies). This game is basically one giant "thank you" to the fans, tying up every single loose end—even the ones we forgot existed. The cutscenes are long. Like, "order a pizza and finish it before the scene ends" long. But for a series built on lore, it’s the closure everyone needed.
The Outliers: What About Rising and the Spin-offs?
Strictly speaking, when people look for all Metal Gear Solid games in order, they usually mean the Kojima-directed ones. But Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance takes place in 2018. It’s an action game, not a stealth game. It’s developed by PlatinumGames, and while it’s technically the end of the timeline, it feels like its own beast. It's awesome, but it's "Metal Gear" in name and lore only, trading sneaking for slicing cyborgs into a thousand pieces.
Then there’s Metal Gear Survive. We don’t talk about Metal Gear Survive. It’s a weird alternate-dimension zombie survival game that happened after Kojima left, and most fans treat it as a non-canon fever dream.
Ranking the Experience: Release Order vs. Chronological
Honestly? Don't play them chronologically your first time.
Play them in release order.
The reason is simple: the mechanics evolve. If you play MGSV first, going back to the fixed camera angles and clunky controls of Metal Gear Solid 1 or Snake Eater is going to feel like driving a tractor after being in a Ferrari. Plus, the prequels (like MGS3) rely on you knowing the future to appreciate the dramatic irony. You’re supposed to know who Big Boss becomes to feel the tragedy of his journey.
Practical Steps for New Players
- Get the Master Collection Vol. 1: It’s the easiest way to play the first three Solid games and the original MSX titles on modern hardware.
- Don't skip the "Briefing" tapes: In the older games, a lot of the best world-building happens in optional radio calls or menu videos.
- Embrace the weirdness: You will fight a guy who controls bees. You will hide in a cardboard box. You will be lectured on the genetics of Alaskan huskies. Just go with it.
- Watch the "Legacy" videos: If you can't track down a PS3 for MGS4, there are high-quality "movie" edits on YouTube that stitch the gameplay and cutscenes together. Since MGS4 is about 70% movie anyway, you aren't missing as much as you'd think.
The legacy of these games isn't just the stealth; it's the way they make you question authority, technology, and the "rules" of war. Whether you're starting with the 1964 jungle or the 2005 snowy base, you're in for one of the most cohesive (and chaotic) visions in media history.
To properly digest the series, start with Metal Gear Solid (1998), then move through MGS2 and MGS3. Save MGS4 for the emotional payoff, and treat MGSV as the mechanical playground that fills in the dark history of the series' greatest villain. Once you've finished the core quintet, you'll understand why "Tactical Espionage Action" became a genre of its own.