Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has arrived!
Den of Geek ranks all of the Metal Gear games from worst to best.
The world ofMetal Gearfinally comes full circle in a complex thread.
Dont think of bottom of the list as a reflection of how bad a game was.
And we dont hate the change of pace Raidens lightning quick sword skills make for a very fun distraction.
Where is the bigger message?
It seems more like fanfare to us.
But Kojima originally cancelled this game, and perhaps it shouldve stayed that way.
Instead, you get a heavy metal action game that couldnt stray farther from the spirit of theMetal Gearseries.
Why make the game then?
The cutting mechanic is pretty cool, though.
Still, many considerMG2the best 8-bit game ever made.
Fun fact: it was also Big Boss last appearance as the main antagonist.
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (2006)
Takes place in: 1970
Portable Opscontinues whereSnake Eaterleft off.
The game also focuses on squad-building.
You must recruit soldiers to get to complete missions.
Its a mechanic that would be fully-realized withPeace Walker, the second handheld installment in the series.
Metal Gear (1987)
Takes place in: 1995
The game that started it all.
Snake is tasked with infiltrating the African militarized nation Outer Heaven and finding Gray Fox before its too late.
This game was a crazy concept at the time, focused more on evading your enemies than fighting them.
Getting into a firefight was to be your last resort.
WhenGuns of the Patriotsgets going on its own plot, its just as confusing as its chronological predecessor.
Players need to watch a two-hour closing cutscene to understand whats happened fromSnake Eaterup to this point.
Social engineering at its bloody best.
Big Boss second PSP outing brought with it an emphasis on base building and co-op gameplay.
Mother Base is infiltrated by Zeros agents and all hell breaks loose.
Metal Gear Solid (1998)
Takes place in: 2005
3.
Are all our questions answered?
Who is Skull Face and what is his plan?
How were Solid and Liquid created?
Were puttingGround ZeroesandThe Phantom Paintogether here, because one cant quite exist without the other.
The former lights the fuse and the latter is the explosion.
The game is only a week old, after all!
Still, it was quite the feat: a much more straightforward spy thriller that didnt lose its smarts.
In terms of gameplay,Snake Eaterintroduced adaptable camouflage to the series.
Thats a level of strategy that we hadnt encountered before in the series.
His commentary on the mutation of information in the digital age brought a new focus to the series.
Built on misinformation,MGS2deceives players every step of the way.
But if you dig deeper, you get to the truth of the matter: there is noMGS2at all.
Its not about saving the President and stopping another nuclear weapon.
Kojima wanted to show the dangers of converting information into data.
In a new age of warfare, anything could be manipulated.
John Saavedra is an assistant editor at Den of Geek US.
Find more of his work onhis website.
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