Guide: Best Metal Gear Solid Games Ranked

For me it's Mgs IV -> 3 -> 2
IV by far my favourite, really loved it, 3 and 2 are amazing as well imo.
Never played 1, played portable ops on psp back in the day but I barely remember it, 't was fun though. Ground Zeroes too short for me to really call it a full Mgs game and V just really didn't do it for me, great gameplay but a complete mess of a story. Every mission the helicopter ride and the credits, truly ruined the experience for me, not to mention, the boring, empty open world, It just wasn't for me.

Every MGS fan would have a different favourite top 3. That's why I love this series (except Phantom Pain).

Here's mine -

1. MGS3 Snake Eater
2. MGS
3. MGS4 Guns Of The Patriots

@Amusei
MGS1 is excellent, definitely recommended if you don't mind the old graphics and the lack of non lethal options.

Love the first 4 games. I wonder if we will ever get a MGS1 remake.

Snake Eater is still top for me. I loved the changes they made, although the lack of mini-map and sight cones took some getting used to. MGS a very close second and is a game I completed so many times.

Peace Walker was great fun on the PSP and I actually really liked the art style. So many features were used later on in TPP as well, including the beloved fulton system.

MGS4 is a weird one as I don't remember a lot of it at all. I played 1-3 so many times but that game only once and don't have anywhere near as fond memories of it, even if the ending is all worth it.

Probably for me it goes Snake Eater, Sons of Liberty then the original MGS. I love the original but the PS2 sequels improved on it to great effect.

honestly i would put MGS1 below both MGS2 and MGS3 as they were both far better products in design, story and gameplay

A very solid list (pun intended).
I would put MGS3 in number 1, MGS2 in number 2, then MGS1 and then 4

@LieutenantFatman Yeah, I know I should play it, but I'm secretly hoping for a remake but alas, Konami is Konami so...

Listing my favorite Metal Gear games is always hard for me. It's usually Snake Eater being my personal favorite, with MGS and Sons of Liberty switching out between 2 and 3. It's such a good series that almost any placement works.

Peace Walker is probably the only entry that I'm not super high on. It's good for sure, but it started to wear on me after a while, and while I haven't finished Phantom Pain yet, I'm starting to feel the same about it even with it's slick gameplay.

I’d love to see a remaster or MGS4. Or rather a version with a pause button for cutscenes as I heard it doesn’t have one. I haven’t played the series yet, but I’m looking forward to it. But when I get to MGS4. It’ll be harder to play it, just because those two hour cutsnces make the time you have to play a big factor. I thought it just went to 45 min though, is it really two hours. What happens if you quit while playing a cutscene? Does it restart next time you play?

I've only played ground zero and phantom pain. Enjoyed them both but much of the story seemed buried in liads of audio tapes. You couldnt really play them while playing the game as they would just play over audio cues in the game. I actually listened to some whilst doing my ironing!
Would love to play a remake of the originals. I never played one on the ps1 but my mate still goes on about having to change which port your controller was in for one of the bosses.

You forgot VR missions so this list is null and void.

@LieutenantFatman they did already
its twin snakes- for the Gamecube.

Game play wise my favorite is MGSV. Story wise probably 1. Or 2. Or 3. Or 4. Gah, it's hard to choose.

For me it'd be have to be:
3>2>1>4>GZ>V>MG2>PW>MG1
If we're counting non-Kojima games then:
3>2>1>Rising>4>GZ>V>MG2>Ghost Babel>VR Missions>PW>PO>V>MG1>Snake's Revenge>Acid 2>Acid 1
(Haven't played Survive yet, plan on getting around to it though).

Also can we get a PS4 Legacy Collection? Throw in Rising and Portable Ops while you're at it.

@Revan117
I don't count that is they changed way too much. Just needs a new lick of paint with improved controls. If you change the story, then it's no longer the same game.

@LieutenantFatman
I enjoyed it. I agree the Metal Gear Solid 2 controls did change the game. It was a fun ride though.

MGS 3 > MGS 1 > MGS4 > PW > MGS 2 > Rising > MG2 > MG1 > V > GZ

Anyone can say whatever they want, but MGS3 is easily the best. MGS1 was groundbreaking and amazing for it's time, but I still think MGS3 is easily the strongest in the series. It's one of the best games ever made.

3 should be in first, 2 should be straight at the bottom, and Ground Zeroes shouldn't count.

1. Peace Walker
2. 1
3. 2
4. 3
5. 4
6. 5
7. Ground Zeroes
The last 2 were simply not worth it IMO.

I hated Peace Walker. Not what I wanted from an MGS game at all.

Still need to play 4 and 5. Not sure I'll ever get around to the former, though, thanks to it being a PS3 exclusive.

MGS2 is probably the best game in the series, but I have a massive soft spot in my heart for the original, so I can get behind it being the best.

3 is my favorite. I also quite enjoyed VR Missions, honestly.
Personally, I think the first MGS is highly overrated. Sure the story telling and presentation were amazing, but as a game it was seriously flawed toward the second half of the game.

i like the ranking for the most part. glad to see mgs v way down on the list because that is where it belongs — despite having great gameplay, the story was almost none existent and incomplete. i would rank mgs 3 and msg 2 above mgs 1 due to the improved gameplay mechanics, but i do believe mgs 1 has the "best" and most concise story of the series even to this day. certainly it has stuck with me more than any of the other games... just so many iconic moments in mgs 1 — part of that might be nostalgia talking but i'd like to think that cyborg ninja is one of the coolest characters in the entire series, along with sniper wolf and of course, liquid snake.

Metal Gear Solid 3 and 4 are my favorite.
I hated Ground Zeroes (glorified demo) and TPP.

For me personally it's 1>3>5>2>PW>4>GZ. I don't think I appreciated just how amazing 1 was when I first played it, but the amount of actual game play that was available in that first iteration was incredible. Rappelling down a building whilst being shot at by a gunship, having a sniper battle with a renowned sharpshooter, changing a key cards' state from hot to cold by being in different areas, fighting a bipedal walking nuclear tank with chaff grenades and missiles, using ketchup to trick a guard to think you'd committed suicide, a torture machine, having a punch out with a ninja... I mean, seriously, I don't think anything has come close since in terms of actually controlling a character in game.

@NintendoFan4Lyf
You'll be telling me Nintendo's remake of Resident Evil is the same as well, I suppose. I prefer the originals as they were originally intended.

Metal gear solid 1 has special place in my heart, it's the game that make me think "yeah, games will be better than movies, gaming will be my lifelong hobby".

For my fav (console) mgs list: Mgs 1, mgs 4, and mgs 3. Mgs 2 graphics and gameplay is awesome but I don't like playing as raiden and the story is just too weird, and the boss isn't memorable like the first one.

@NintendoFan4Lyf Mgs twin snake is konami trying to make mgs an anime lol.

Hot Gaming Opinion incoming:
The Phantom Pain is better than all other Metal Gear games except MGS3.

This is like Metallica the old is stuff is great . I never got 5 or this nonsense game survive bad to worse. But yes the classic solid snake games is awsum . I put some time into them ps2 ruled bunch of games from this series and the 4th on ps3. Im waiting for death stranding hopefully kojima can find a loop hole to take this ip from konami!

@Th3solution
Nah, it wasn't even finished, there was definitely potential though.

@LieutenantFatman I know there was more Kojima wanted to put in, but I felt closure at the end. It did close the arc, imo. I get the complaints about repeating missions at the end, but story wise it resonated well with me. I also enjoyed playing out the extra missions to get Quiet’s ending. To me it was powerful stuff.

@Th3solution
To be honest, all the repeated missions at the end burnt me out and I lost interest so I didn't quite finish it. But if the characters and story had been as interesting as previous games I would have stuck with it. But that's just me, I can see the game is very impressive in its own way and has its draws.

If only we had got remakes of metal gear and metal gear 2 solid snake then everything would have been complete

A solid, pretty uncontroversial opinion for the article's ranking. Can understand the arguments, and love that there's more attention for this currently-dormant series, but I obviously have my own ranking.

1. Guns of the Patriots
2. Sons of Liberty
3. Metal Gear Solid
4. Ground Zeroes & The Phantom Pain
5. Snake Eater
6. Revengeance
7. Peace Walker
8. Portable Ops

I include the two non-Kojima entries because I think they're at least worthy of the franchise, even though they're not some of the finest moments. That being said, the worst Metal Gear is preferable to almost all other stealth games. Outstanding experiences, every one.

MGS and MGS3 are the best in that order no doubt IMO

MGS3 is the best for me, in my top 3 of all time

I'm torn between 1 and 2 on your list. My daughter as a young young child would watch the intro to Snake Eater over and over. I especially liked how you could change stuff on that opening song, too. But yes, MGS redefined gaming for me. It came out when Tenchu did, so those two stealth games were my jam.

another funny list from this site 1st gow2 beating gow3, now mgs1 beating mgs3, gameplay, visual, story 3 standsout.

I can't believe you put Peace Walker below Ground Zero! That game is incredible, and I've probably sunk 150+ hours into it. It'd easily be in my top 3 with Snake Eater...

Not a fan of the MGS series I have to say. Well, I've only actually played TPP and GZ to be fair but they do nothing for me whatsoever. I think of them as the Prog Rock of gaming - earnest and po-faced, mostly dull and repetitive, bloated, but ocassionally bombastic and thrilling. That would make Kojima the Rick Wakeman of the analogy I guess. I'm sure he's actually a nice guy, but just really pompous. I'm not a gamer in the strictest sense, and I really don't get the hype around that guy? Emperors new clothes if you ask me.

Despite previously owning the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection on PS Vita, I never actually got around to playing it, and unfortunately, I haven’t had an opportunity to play any entry in the series ever since. But I really want to.

But where would I start? With my knowledge of the series admittedly very limited, I’m really surprised to see (in both the article and here in the comments) how little love there appears to be for The Phantom Pain. If I recall correctly, it cleaned up critically, with 10/10 after 10/10.

Who developed the original metal gear games back in the day. I loved the first one as a kid. First game I ever played with a inventory I think.

@The_Pixel_King You’ll get all kinds of opinions here about what order to play them, and in short it probably doesn’t matter because the game was told all out of order anyways. Story timeline is MGS3, P.O., PW, GZ, TPP, MG, MG2, MGS, MGS2, MGS4, MGRR. And of course the release order was very different. Probably playing them in order of release would be best since characters are introduced in the way they were originally intended to be, although you don’t get the full picture of how they all inter-relate until later installments. And like any long series, gameplay evolves over time, with TPP being the most complex game world and longest game. They are all great. Probably start with MGS if you can get ahold of it, but honestly, I feel like a lot of the love people give it is strictly nostalgia, but it’s still an excellent game and an important milestone in gaming culture and history. And I’ve always felt TPP gets undersold by the hardcore MG fans, and some of this is the Konami break up with Kojima during the game development soured people’s experience. It’s a brilliant game imo, if you ignore the fact that Kojima has more he was going to do with it but couldn’t “finish” the game. To me, the game finished just fine and the story feels complete.

1. Snake Eater
2. MGS 1
3. Peace Walker
4. Guns of the Patriots
5. The Phantom Pain
6. Ground Zeroes
7. Sons of Liberty

I really enjoyed Peace walker- the short missions was nice to play on break-

plus you get to fight Monster hunter Dragons.
Im playing ground zero and metal gear solid v now. Im enjoying it

You have to be crazy to rate peace walker last place in a list that includes ground zeroes, play peace walker on a ps vita or ps3 and it's amazing just a bit awkward to play on the psp. Peace walker is highly underrated.

@Jaz007 It does have pause cutscenes and if you quit mid cutscene you restart back to the last save point.