Metal Gear Solid: Ranking The Series From Worst To Best

8. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

I went back and forward on whether to include this or not, being it was clearly siphoned off from the main game by Konami as a proof of Phantom Pain's increasingly expensive development being something they wanted to pursue.

Thankfully, there's enough story here to make it worthwhile, despite price tags and half-hour long runtimes facing in opposition. MGS fans across the globe lapped it up, and although it was essentially a paid-for version of MGS 2's Tanker section or MGS 3's Tselinoyarsk demo, we were eager to get hands on how everything would look and feel on the newest hardware.

The answer was "Better than ever", as Big Boss was immediately responsive, had a ton of fleshed out CQC moves ranging from sprinting slams to round-corner grapples, and overall Ground Zeroes brought about a very tactile feel to your movement that Phantom Pain would build on.

It can't be recommended even remotely now than PP is out - unless you really want to hear the villainous horrors of Skull Face's rape-filled torture techniques - but its place in the canon and overall real-world Metal Gear timeline is a very important one.