The Phantom Pain is easily my favourite to play, but MGS4 will always have a special place in my heart for being my way into the series.

Hmm, it'll go something like this...

1. The Phantom Pain
2. Snake Eater
3. Metal Gear Solid
4. Peace Walker
5. Sons of Liberty
6. Guns of the Patriots

I haven't finished Metal Gear or Metal Gear 2, so I don't rank those.

For the record, for me it's

1. 1 and 4
2. 3
3. V
4. 2
5. Peacewalker

I haven't played the original Metal Gears, though V kinda makes me want to go back.

I loved TPP and it is obviously the best game as far as game play goes. However, there is still something special to me about MGS3. I think it has a lot to do with the time it came out for me as well as the structural narrative of the whole game.

Man, that's a really difficult question! I'd say MGS4 is my favorite due to just how big it is in scope story-wise, but every other game has great strengths too. I think that Portable Ops and Peace Walker are my least favorites, but everything else is a grab bag. MGSV has the best gameplay, hands down, though.

For me its Metal Gear Solid 1 nothing will top how much of an impact that game had on me. MGS V second favorite. I'll just say it now I think MGS 3 is actually the worst one if I had to pick a worst one.

I haven't played V yet, but I really can't see it dethroning Snake Eater.

I had three false starts with MGS3. I didn't understand what the game wanted me to do. Then late last year, I decided to play through all the Metal Gears in order.

One was rough around the edges with some fairly dated game play (I'm looking at you lame-ass tower climb) and graphics but an interesting story and some iconic moments I'd heard of that really hit home.

Two was much of the same; rough, but improved on the first. It's also got the most insane story of the bunch.

Then MGS3 just completely blew me the fuck away. The best game play of the series up to that point by a mile, the best story by multiple miles and the most interesting bosses in the entire series uncontested to this day. (Unless V does something amazing, but I doubt it.)

After 3, 4 was a disappointment in most respects. Kojima kind of always has had his head stuck up his ass, but with 4 he must've been peeking through his back teeth. It starts out really strong, but by chapter 3, the game doesn't know what it wants to be anymore. Some really lame game play segments and loads of horrifically long cutscenes later, it kind of crawls to an end. A pretty fucking awesome end, but it was one hell of a tedious process getting there after the most enjoyable parts of the game were past one-third of the way in.

I have high hopes for V, but I probably won't get around to it for some time.

1. MGS2
2. TPP
3. MGS3
4. MGS1
5. MGS4

I never played Peace Walker.

3 is still my favorite, but V is a damn close second.

3, 4 and then 2.

I didn't like V that much as a MG game. The gameplay and so much about it are fantastic, but the game isn't MG. Story was a huuuge letdown, and the open world made me realize that not every game SHOULD go open world. A great game, but not a great MG game.

For me it goes:

1. The Phantom Pain

2. Metal Gear Solid

3. Snake Eater

4. Sons of Liberty

5. Guns of the Patriots

6. Peace Walker

I have only played a few hours of Peace Walker but I really didn't like what I played.

3 for sure. Likely would have been this one if it was finished before it was released.

...Let's be honest, Peace Walker Sucks.

Snake Eater might be the best game so far in the series. However, Phantom Pain wins mega points for taking such a different approach to Metal Gear.

V barely feels like an MGS game to me.

Favourite is still Peace Walker.

Sons of Liberty came out at the right time for me and was a great combination of something I loved (Metal Gear Solid) and cool systems/tech (guard patrols, shooting their walky walkies, melting ice cubes, shooting melons). Plus the twists in that game messed me up as a teenager.

I NEED SCISSORS! 61!

@hunkulese: What makes it not feel like an MGS game for you? Is it the lack of cutscenes or just the structure? I totally get why some people might feel like it's not a Metal Gear game.

I think there was enough "Metal Gear" in there, I really enjoyed the story and the gameplay is the best in the series, even if I did have some issues with the mission structure.

I'm not done with it yet, barely halfway it would seem, but I think I can say 5 is my favorite now. They all have their own little thing, but this one just plays great and has already provided me with dozens of hours of entertainment. I'm not entirely sure story wise just yet, obviously, but I don't mind how different it is in tone and delivery from the others.

@pompouspizza: Pretty much everything about it. The pacing, the gameplay, the characters. Nothing feels like a MGS game. I've played 30 hours and next to nothing story wise has happened. None of the characters are interesting. Ocelot is far less cool than he's ever been, Miller is annoying, Quiet just lays in bed, Snake doesn't talk, Skull Face hasn't really said or done anything. Every mission in Afghanistan was more or less identical.

The game is fine but it's missing the do something, watch a movie loop that I love about the other games.

MGS2>MGS1>MGSV=MGS3>Peacewalker>MGS4>MG2>MG1

I'm still unsure if I like V better than 3. As much as I love V's gameplay and story and characters I just think 3 feels like such a focused MGS story even if I think it plays pretty bad and the bosses are bland compared to 1 and 2.

Definitely V. Even if I was ultimately disappointed with the story side of the game, the game part of the game is just so much better than anything else in the series. As much as some of the older games mean to me, story wise, and shaped who I was growing up, this is just simply the best game of the bunch. And thus, my favorite.

@hunkulese: Those are all completely valid complaints but for some reason the story really clicked with me, a shocking amount of the story is in the cassette tapes though. I Really like the tone of the game.

Oh and I completely agree about Miller...fuck that guy!

Snake Eater is still top for me. It just feels so much more focused than Phantom Pain. I find the open world style doesn't help Phantom Pain that much as so many of the missions just end up being "Go to X and extract some dude/vehicle/container.

Snake Eater also seemed to hit the perfect balance of goofy Metal Gear stuff and serious/crazy philosophical stuff.

I would put them:

1. Snake Eater

2. MGS 1

3. Phantom Pain

4. Peace Walker (Hey it isn't that bad)

5. Guns of the Patriots

6. Sons of Liberty

I put MGS2 at the bottom not because of Raiden but because of Big Shell. Big Shell is just such a boring environment. MGS4 being low is because that game is just insane and not always in good ways.

1. MGS 3
2. MGS 5
3. MGS 2
4. MGR R
5. MGS 1
6. MGS PW
7. MGS 4

Or something along those lines. I haven't beaten 5 yet, but It hasn't spoken to me on the same level 3 did, though it definitely plays the best. 2 only ranks so high because I respect and find it interesting conceptually. It plays like ass and it's paced terribly.

Fuck you Rising counts.

Still 3. Just a ton of tactical options and one of the strongest stories. Also got me back into playing games after quitting for a few months, so there's that.

5 is a hell of a game, but I haven't finished it so things are subject to change.

The original Metal Gear Solid will never be topped. The characters, boss fights, Pac-Man like stealth gameplay, story and music are all great, even today. The controls seem weird and archaic now, but like old Tomb Raider, once you wrap your brain around them they work reliably and make for a unique experience. From beginning to end, every room and encounter is so memorable and well-done while the rest of the series has its ups-and-downs.

The Phantom Pain is the worst main console entry MGS for me. I still like it a lot but it suffers from its ambition, in both story and design. Not to mention the action set pieces are seriously awful. The skulls and quasi-boss fights are not fun, interesting and are very, very frustrating. The mission and level design is repetitive in the extreme. The characters and game lack personality, Snake is basically a silent protagonist, and the story can't decide what it wants to be or where it wants to go, switching gears every couple of missions or so. It doesn't help that everything is face value so 90% of the game is spoiled just by watching those E3 trailers. The tapes are poorly done and so boring, especially the Code Talker ones that put me to sleep. Did Kojima copy-and-past medical journals? Compared to the character, amusing dialog and pacing of the codec conversations, the tapes are a bad alternative.

That all said, when the game is set on open-world stealth or delivering a high-budget set piece (like the lengthy opening), it makes up for all these flaws. MGS4 was such a satisfying, memorable ride the first time through, but I don't want to return to it since the gameplay is such a mess. MGSV is kind of the opposite. It was very unsatisfying and uneven overall, but the core gameplay is so fun that I find myself pulled-in to play more even though I got the final ending.

With 1/3rd of the ending cut and some core gameplay features removed (like the battle gear), I have to wonder how much better MGS V would have been if Kojima had just a little more time and money. Not going into spoilers, but I got serious Evangelion cost-cutting vibes when it came to the final missions. Surely they wouldn't repeat so much content if they had more stuff to put in there.

MGS2 forever and always. I honestly don't know why people like 3 so much.

1. The Phantom Pain
2. Snake Eater
3. Metal Gear Solid
4. Sons of Liberty
5. Peace Walker
6. Guns of the Patriots

I don't remember what Jeff's problems with Snake Eater were. Aside from the cumbersome menu heavy camoflauge system, that game was amazing.

I have played and beat every game in the series including ac!d and I'd rank it.

Metal Gear Solid 2

Metal Gear Solid V

Metal Gear Solid 1

Metal Gear Solid 3

Metal Gear Solid 4

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker

It's still MGS3 by a mile for me. The story and characters in that game are great and CQC remains one of my favorite parts of Metal Gear. I'm about 30-35 hours into The Phantom Pain, so I guess conceivably it could pick up story wise (though I doubt it at this point), but even if it does, I think I prefer the focused experience of MGS3.

After Snake Eater it gets harder to make a list for me. I like parts of MGS4 a lot, but I've never felt the need to go back and play it again like I have with 2 and 3. MGS2 was incredible at the time, but I think the tanker mission is the best part of that game and everything between that and the end sequence is less compelling. I haven't played MGS1 recently enough to have any confidence in my memory of it, and Peace Walker seemed interesting but was a pain to actually play, so I never finished it.

I'm really surprised to see such a big gap between V and Peace Walker for some people when they're so similar. My list goes:

Snake Eater

MGS

Phantom Pain

Peace Walker

Guns of the Patriots

Sons of Liberty

Portable Ops (it's canon, it gets a spot)

@xceagle: Peace Walker and Phantom Pain really aren't all that similar besides the top level stuff of constructing a base and breaking the game into missions. I don't think anyone thinks PP is amazing because of that. Peace Walker is my personal favourite because it has the best story and the best pace in the series.

It's still MGS 1 for me. Nostalgia and the fact I've mapped that game out in a major way. LobosJr was doing a blind playthrough the last week and the dialog in that game is just part of my conscience like the alphabet.

V manages to address some of Peace Walker's real problems. Sneaking is a real treat and there's more incentive to let the player go out and just get stuff done.

For all of those putting Snake Eater over MGS, you have some poor taste in quality.

To me The Phantom Pain feels like what Peace Walker could have been if it wasn't on a handheld. Granted I only played a few hours of Peace walker but the levels were so small, the whole thing felt really restrictive. I appreciate that the missions were designed with short play sessions in mind but something felt off. Also, after watching the cutscenes on Metal Gear Scanlon, I didn't think that much of the story.

@grixxel: Explain, if you can.

I like them all the same, though five perhaps not due to story, and I don't care as much for the original Metal Gear's. I also liked Peace Walker about the same, though think the upgrading was a bit much; it felt like too much grinding, which five fixed.

Snake Eater still reigns supreme. IV and V are in a desperate struggle for number two though.

MGS3 remains on top, but I have to admit I will spend far more hours in V. It's just such a good open world game, even if the story bits seem to be few and far between. I think perhaps if the cassettes were presented as codec calls, people would be less critical of this aspect, almost as if they want story to be lined up in front of them like a goal to work towards.

For the MGS1 folks: the only thing that really raises 3 over it is some simple quality of life things in the controls. And even then, I kinda wish camo micromanagement wasnt in 3, because it's more annoying than its worth with all the menu diving.

Say what you will about Kojima's ego, and often I agree with the critics when they say he's rather overpowering - the people at Kojima Productions, whether through his direct influence or not, have made an open world game that does what all of the others claim but fail to deliver on, because instead of simply leveling you through increasingly tougher enemies, it just gives you more tools to use. Approaching a base from different sides or with different weapons and buddies can fundamentally change the experience in a way that even Skyrim's many classes and play styles can't match.

Before V were my ranking as follows:

1. Metal Gear Solid: Simply blew me away back in the day and still holds up despite its archaic consoles.

2. Sons of Liberty: Builds on the first both in crazy story and solid gameplay but feels unfinished and had annoying elements Rose, swimming, escort mission etc.

3. Snake Eater: Great story but drowned in menu busy work plus it was stretching the limit of the ps2 was framy in spots and had to many things bolted on to an already clunky control system and the camera was plain awful for what you were doing.

4. Guns of the Patriots: Crumbles under the weight of cutsceens and fanservice but controlled better than 3 and had some nice touches.

5. Peace Walker: Bad story, bad bosses, grinding missions, bad framerate, less challenging stealth, bad control scheme. The game just didn't work well as a handheld.

Phantom Pain probably lies (I haven't completed it yet.) between 2 and 3 as a total experience. It's a tonal rollercoaster has a really bad story, off pacing plus all the grinding from Peace Walker but the gameplay is excellent.

Two different answers.

If we are talking which of the listed choices are the best 'game' to me? Then its V with no questions what so ever. It's game-play is leaps and bound above any of the others, and infact is better then some of the other games in this open-world stealth genre we might get this year/got last year. Not the best ever, no, but still good.

If we are talking "Metal Gear Games" then uh....its 4 hands down, no question. The end of the story, to me, is always the most satisfying part of a multi-part series. In that sense then, 3 is also just above 5 on the bottom of this list of only cause its not really what I consider the cannon (Solid Snake's) story, but big-bosses instead..which I am 'eh' on. (Been said before, no need to argue with me, enjoy as you like).

In fact the specifics of the question more or flips my list on its head. The more metal gear like a game is..the less a 'game' I find it. Its like, yes its a game, but its a movie first off. The finale/third act tends to trump the others if what I care about from a game is story in first place, gameplay dead last. The same way Mass Effect 3 would have been the best game of that series..if they hadn't ruined the story with the ending. The same way the witcher 3 i the best game in that series..well cause of both but again, story first for me. etc etc etc.

So yah, 4. But I acknowledge 5 to be the best 'game'. I'm one of the crazy ones who loved MGS4's nonsensical plot, story and pacing. (Bosses kinda sucked but..again..gameplay).

MGSV is my favourite Metal Gear now, followed closely by Snake Eater because that was a formative gaming experience for me. I was at the right age and it was the right time to fully welcome MGS into my life. Before that I had only played Sons of Liberty, and that was only as a weird curiosity because a friend of mine at the time said it was weird as hell.

MGS4 I can take or leave. Sometimes I want to play it, but then I remember I don't have a platform to play it on. MGS1 I never played and I'm not digging out an old Playstation One, nor am I going to track down a shoddy PC port that's likely to never work with Windows 10.

Oh and there's Peace Walker, I guess. I liked it, but I don't care if I never play it again now that MGSV is here.

1. MGS3
2. MGS5
3. MGS
4. MGS4
5. MGS2

Phantom Pain is amazing to play no doubt about that, but the story of 3 is still the best, with also the best female character in all of gaming The Boss. Really wish Hideo had made the MGS5 focus on The Boss in WW2 like he planned originally that would of been amazing!

It's really hard to say, because I have so much love and nostalgia from the stories in the previous games. The story in MGSV is the weakest in the series by far, but the gameplay is the best by far.

I used to be able to rank them pretty easily (mgs2 > 4 = 3 > 1), but now I can't say the same. All I know for sure is that I love this series a lot, warts and all.

MGS 2>MGS V and Ground Zeroes>MGS 4>MGS>MGS 3>MGS PW>MG>MG 2

Three is a damn fine game, but compared to the modern standards it's unbearably clunky. So yeah, I'm gonna go with the newest one. If I had to make a list...

1.MGS 5 (fantastic gameplay, cool characters, the story is sparse but engaging, it looks great)

2.MGS 3 (great boss design, really good self-contained story, the gameplay is so-so, it looked fantastic back in the day)

3.MGS (impressive when compared to other PS1 games, great bosses, cool 80's action movie story)

4.MGS 2 (garbage bosses (better than 4's though), story jumps the shark (but hey, still entertaining), the setting is kinda cool, but very sterile and gets boring)

5.MGS 4 (oh my god this game. Bosses are the worst, just, the worst. The setting is super bland, and... well, the gameplay is fine, but absolutely nothing special)

Flying too close to the phantom sun to say for sure right now.

V for me, but I've always had mixed opinions on the series and the reverence it gets. Doesn't matter to me which is the most "Metal Gear" of the bunch.

1. Metal Gear Solid (the whole package)
2. Metal Gear Solid 4 (the story)
3. Metal Gear Solid 3 (the story)
4. Metal Gear Solid 2 (The story, save for the Rose bullshit)
5. Metal Gear Solid 5 (The game play)

I never played Peace Walker (I watched the same Youtube video that Drew and Dan did, and listened to all of the tapes), and I never got really far in Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2, but I got everything from it that I needed from the Metal Gear Wiki and Youtube. I played and beat Portable Ops at some point, but I honestly forget 90% of that game except for all of the Grey Fox stuff and the ending where Ocelot shoots the DCI

Still 3 for me. The pacing, the story, the cast of characters, the addition of CQC and the enormous amount of environment intractability are what makes it so good.

Even though the core loop of MGSV is amazing I was supremely disappointed with the pacing and the structure of the game. I also thought out of the 50 main missions only about 8 of them were actually worth calling main missions.

On top of that MGSV told a story that while still cool was not what I wanted.