Metal Gear Solid Games in Order

Why this order?

Metal Gear is the rare series where the order you play it genuinely changes the experience, because Hideo Kojima wrote it out of sequence on purpose. The release order starts with the two 2D MSX classics, jumps to the genre-defining Metal Gear Solid on PlayStation, then leaps backward and forward across decades as each new entry fills in a different slice of the timeline. This is the order most players actually grew up with, and the one we default to.

Release order is the order we recommend for newcomers. The reveals, retcons and dramatic reversals were authored to land in this sequence, so playing chronologically spoils several of the saga's best surprises. Start with Metal Gear Solid (1998) if the two MSX originals feel too dated; everything you need to know is recapped.

Chronological order is where the real fun is, and it splits the saga cleanly into two eras. The Big Boss era runs first: Snake Eater is set in 1964, Peace Walker in 1974, Ground Zeroes in 1975 and The Phantom Pain in 1984. Then the Solid Snake era follows: the original Metal Gear in 1995, Metal Gear 2 in 1999, Metal Gear Solid in 2005, Sons of Liberty around 2007-2009, and Guns of the Patriots in 2014. Portable Ops (set in 1970) bridges Snake Eater and Peace Walker.

Which version you buy now matters, and it matters most on Metal Gear Solid 3. The 2004 PS2 disc had a fixed overhead camera, the 2005 Subsistence revision added the free player-controlled 3D camera, and every modern MGS3 release is built on that Subsistence version, which is why the camera you get today feels nothing like the original disc. On top of that sits Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater (August 28, 2025 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Steam), a full remake with a deliberately unchanged story and a choice of New Style or Legacy Style controls. Delta is the easiest way in for a newcomer, while the Master Collection build is cheaper and stays the purist pick. Whichever you choose, MGS3 keeps the same position in both orders.

Metal Gear Solid has a remake too, but a much harder one to find. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (GameCube, March 9, 2004 in North America) was built by Silicon Knights with Konami, adding MGS2 era mechanics, sharper enemy AI and new cutscenes directed by Ryuhei Kitamura that fans still argue about, because they turn Snake into an action-movie acrobat the 1998 script never suggested. It was never re-released on any other platform, so it is a collector's purchase, and the Master Collection build of the PS1 original remains the practical way to play MGS1. Both remakes are listed as their own steps next to their originals rather than tucked inside another entry.

The collections do the heavy lifting on modern hardware. Master Collection Vol. 1 (October 24, 2023 on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch and Steam) holds eight titles: the MSX2 Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, the NES Metal Gear, Snake's Revenge, Metal Gear Solid, VR Missions, Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater. Master Collection Vol. 2 follows on August 27, 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Switch 2 and Steam with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Peace Walker in its HD Collection form and the bonus title Metal Gear: Ghost Babel. That second one changes the buying advice on this page, because MGS4 has never been sold outside the PS3 and Peace Walker has been stuck on PSP and PS3, so from that date the whole saga is finally purchasable on current machines.

The key gotcha: release year and setting year almost never match, so a chronological playthrough scrambles the disc order completely. Note that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is an action spinoff and sits outside this main list. Fans of Kojima's later work should also look at Death Stranding.