Do I need to finish Peace Walker before playing MGS V?

[aric201812]

So I had never played MGS prior to MGS V being announced but after messing around with Ground Zeros I decided to jump in but felt like I needed to catch-up with the series to understand all the crazy history (Ground Zeros was utterly confusing!). I don't have a PS3 so could not play MGS 4 but this seemed ok as it is chronologically way in the future from MGS V.

 

I started by finishing MGS, MGS2 & MGS3 on the Vita and had a lot of fun even though the controls for MGS3 on Vita were less than ideal.

 

The final step is Peace Walker but despite the hype around this in some quarters I am really struggling with this and not really enjoying or getting into it. It is not helped by the fact Konami could not be bothered to release the HD edition on the Vita as the PSP version is quite grainy on screen compared to MGS3 HD and the controls are odd [+ no trophy support!].

 

Anyone have thoughts on whether I need to finish this to enjoy MGS V? If I'm not enjoying the gameplay loop am I even going to like MGS V?!?

 

Thanks!

[HaserPL]

You should play it. In fact, play every single game of frenchise before playing Phantom Pain.

[TehUberCheezCatz]

If you don't want to finish it, at least read a plot sum of the game before phantom pain.

[Waffle-Sensei]

The general consensus seems to be that MGSV's story was mediocre at best, and thus I believe it's not really worth fully understanding it honestly. However, if you do want to understand it more and have the full MGS experience then I highly recommend playing through Peace Walker or at least looking up the story. Characters like Paz, Chico (Chico is more prominent in Ground Zeroes than he is in MGSV itself), Kaz, and Huey are all pretty important to the plot in both PW and MGSV, and if I remember correctly PW gives you a lot more background on them and such. I'm slightly biased on this though since Peace Walker is pretty much my favorite MGS game.

From a gameplay standpoint, the missions in MGSV are structured similarly to PW, but the actual gameplay is much, much better.

[xWinson]

In terms of understanding the significance of some plot points in MGSV, knowing the story of Peace Walker does definitely help - reading a summary or browsing Metal Gear wikia should suffice though.

 

Edit: I found this 3 hours Youtube video that explains the important plot details in Peace Walker (cutscenes, radio calls, etcs) - I haven't personally watched it though.

 

Edited September 14, 2016 by xWinson

[PSXtreme_]

If you don't...the Feds will kick down your door and drag you off to jail...

 

[ShadowReplicant]

Not really. Just do some research on the story, carefully read up on what happened prior to Ground Zeroes, who the characters and organizations are etc. and you should be fine.

[aric201812]

In terms of understanding the significance of some plot points in MGSV, knowing the story of Peace Walker does definitely help - reading a summary or browsing Metal Gear wikia should suffice though.

 

Edit: I found this 3 hours Youtube video that explains the important plot details in Peace Walker (cutscenes, radio calls, etcs) - I haven't personally watched it though.

 

This is great... the video looks ideal.. 3hrs of cut scenes for a PSP game says it all about MGS! 

 

Thanks everyone for suggestions/thoughts. I have a 6hr flight coming up Sunday. If I can't get into it after that I think I will watch the video instead. I've been playing it so intermittently it has been a slog after MGS1-3.. I think you can have too much MGS in a short time!

[Carttagos]

I would say that you should play:

 

MGS 3

MGS Peace Walker

MGS Ground Zeroes

MGS V: The Phantom Pain

 

But I think the MSG 3 is not necessarly to understand MGS V but Peace Walker.

 

In any case if you don't want to, just play MGS V at once but you will be lost in some parts. Not big deal.

Edited September 14, 2016 by Carttagos