hmm.. i guess from a technical standpoint it would be 4, especially with the streamlimed camouflage, having aim & shoot on the triggers and having a varied amount of weapons. But the game doesn't always put you in situations that lead to 'fun gameplay'. 3 is personally more fun to play, but you have to be okay with tinkering with menu's to adjust for the right situations. It's my favorite game. the gameplay of 2 feels like a big improvement over 1 by having some neat physics (melting icecubes, pipes that release steam) and first person options. Playing this before MGS1 might also ruin the best parts of the game.
MGS1 is a hard one because it's such a different game at this point. Almost no first person options, mostly isometric, very close quarters combat focused and a game where you absolutely need to take advantage of stealth, because you can't shoot your way out of it. I still love it, but seeing Drew struggle with it, maybe a newcomer wouldn't enjoy it. It's totally worth trying though, because it's an absolute classic.
I sort of understand the idea that you want to play the best 'playing' games of this series, but i have to stress that all these games are very narrative based and would be 100% more enjoyable if you played them in order of release. Like the highpoint of 4 is that it wraps up all kinds of narrative threads in spectacular fashion, not necessarily that the camouflage system is more streamlined. Same for MGS2. When people talk fondly about that game, it's about the narrative and it's connection to MGS1. Not necessarily because people enjoy activating terminals to gain access to their minimap. Or enjoy hanging on rails to increase their grip level.
Shoutout to Peace Walker which is probably the closest to MGS5 in gameplay and story. However, remember that this is originally a PSP game and has it's limitations because of it. But the whole idea of building up your motherbase and recruiting enemies to work for you is all there. And it features most of the characters you met in MGS5.
Ground Zeroes was sort of a standalone demo for Phantom Pain, so if you haven't played that yet it's worth picking up. Storywise, there's not that much to it. But i still got a lot of time out of doing all the missions and trying to get better at it.
Some extra ramblings:
I tend to see a lot of those 'which metal gear is your favorite' type of lists, and often people that don't care for the gameplay but are mostly there to see Kojima display his trickery think that 2 and 4 are the best games. While people that enjoy Metal Gear beyond the narrative threads value 1 and 3 more. Just some food for thought.
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