Hi all. I just bought Metal Gear Solid 4 but unfortunately, I'm new to the series. I played the first game and 2: Substance very briefly so I don't really know anything about the storyline.

I know it seems maybe sad to care about the storyline of a game but I heard that its meant to be really good. An obvious solution could always be just to get the first 3 games, finish them and I'll be up to speed but it would take quite some time to do, not to mention cost a fair amount of money in the process so what I wanted ask does anyone know where I can find some written documents with the storyline from the first game to the third. Thanks.

Wikipedia!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Gear_Solid#Story
Search for the 2 and 3 also and you're set!

I think theres a metal gear solid database on the Playstation Network Store. That tells you everything about the entire metal gear solid series.

Quote from Leprekaun :

I know it seems maybe sad to care about the storyline of a game but I heard that its meant to be really good.

MGS is one video game storyline worth paying attention to.

MGS is one of my favorite games of all time, and a lot of that has to do with the story.

If you have about 12 hours to kill, get a PSX emulator and the MGS .rom and play through it. Trust me, it's well worth it, despite the game's age.

YouTube for "Metal Gear Awesome". You'll get the idea...

Seriously though, surely there are bundles of sites where people have explained the full story and picked apart every detail?

IMO just go on a torrent page and download the movies/cutscenes from the 3 first games. Tells pretty much, like a movie, just roughly clipped.

Honestly, I never found much appeal in the franchise. The gameplay is shallow and just an excuse for hours of admittedly well made cut scenes with tons of cheesy dialogue and a story that is deliberately trying to confuse...

But then, I kind of kidnapped the topic merely to rant, so feel free to ignore that.

Quote from ColeusRattus :

Honestly, I never found much appeal in the franchise. The gameplay is shallow and just an excuse for hours of admittedly well made cut scenes with tons of cheesy dialogue and a story that is deliberately trying to confuse...

But then, I kind of kidnapped the topic merely to rant, so feel free to ignore that.

Saying that, MGS:1 was awesome, I remember it quite vividly. First game to actually scare me (bare in mind I was only about 6 or something at the time!).

I've had every MGS on PS1. The best one was probably MGS:3 - MGS2 was very good as well, but it was dissapointingly short.

MGS:3 had a great story, excellent gameplay, some very interesting locations, and, as you say, some great screenplay.

If you haven't ever done it before, you have to play through AT LEAST MGS1, 2 and 3, and just revel in the experience.

i have MGS1, MGS2 and MGS3.

Now i get the connection between MGS1 and MGS2 since there are mentions of MGS1 in MGS2 and if you follow the story line it fits in rather well.

But MGS3 has just lost me,i cant get it to tie in with the others... its lost me as far as storlines go.

The gameplays good and its a decent length but deffinatly confusing.

Quote from 91mason91 :

i have MGS1, MGS2 and MGS3.

Now i get the connection between MGS1 and MGS2 since there are mentions of MGS1 in MGS2 and if you follow the story line it fits in rather well.

But MGS3 has just lost me,i cant get it to tie in with the others... its lost me as far as storlines go.

The gameplays good and its a decent length but deffinatly confusing.

MGS3 is set before MGS1,2 or 4.
Therefore there wont be any mention of any of the other games in MGS3

So how does MGS1 tie in with MGS3?

I've played a bit of MG1 and MG2, found them very hard and read up on the story.

Completed MGS1, MGS2, MGS3 and MGS4. I'm still not entirely up on the story though.

In chronological order storywise the games are: MGS3, MG1, MG2, MGS1, MGS2, MGS4.

I'd go into greater deal, but it's so complicated.

Quote from 91mason91 :

So how does MGS1 tie in with MGS3?

Big Boss in MGS3, is the father of the other Snakes.

ofcourse, it all makes sense now

MGS3 is acctually extremely confusing as the character you play as is called snake, and looks exactly the same as snake from the first and second games. It was only when my friend explained it to me fully i understood that the person you play as in MGS3 isnt Solid Snake, its Big Boss

Quote from Migz :

MGS3 is acctually extremely confusing as the character you play as is called snake, and looks exactly the same as snake from the first and second games. It was only when my friend explained it to me fully i understood that the person you play as in MGS3 isnt Solid Snake, its Big Boss

and in MGS2 the big boss is the guy u shoot out the plane right? or is he the fake big boss?

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

MGS is one video game storyline worth paying attention to.

A cloned mercenary, suffering from premature aging tries to kill his evil clone brother, who is dead, but lives on though a hand, installed on to a body of.... Excuse me, but paying attention to this is really comparable to paying attention to a assylum inhabitant's line of thoughts...

Quote from 91mason91 :

and in MGS2 the big boss is the guy u shoot out the plane right? or is he the fake big boss?

*****SPOILER****
URMMM, it was so long ago that i finished MGS2 that im not sure what part you mean.
But im guessing you mean when your playing as raiden you go after this guy who's crashed in the middle of a big town or something?
Thats one of the three clones of the Big Boss.
He's called Solidus

Please put spoiler tags on that, Migz.

Short answer: no, the guy with the black suit in MGS2 is not Big Boss.

@squidhead: MGS1 isn't really that weird.

ahhh i get it now, so snake is THE original big boss but there are another 3 snakes going about who are fakes.

1: solidus
2:?
3:?

Not fakes, clones.

**SPOILER**

Big Boss (MGS3's "Naked Snake") is Liquid and Solid Snakes Father. They were an experiment, blah blah (MGS1,2,4 explains this more).

Quote from squidhead :

A cloned mercenary, suffering from premature aging tries to kill his evil clone brother, who is dead, but lives on though a hand, installed on to a body of.... Excuse me, but paying attention to this is really comparable to paying attention to a assylum inhabitant's line of thoughts...

Squid, In the most polite (or not) way possible.

**** off.

Quote from squidhead :

A cloned mercenary, suffering from premature aging tries to kill his evil clone brother, who is dead, but lives on though a hand, installed on to a body of.... Excuse me, but paying attention to this is really comparable to paying attention to a assylum inhabitant's line of thoughts...

Completely wrong my friend