Metal Gear Solid: Ranking The Series From Worst To Best

5. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Following MGS 4's cutscene-overload, Kojima revisited his plans for Portable Ops and decided to double down on gameplay. Ashley Wood was brought in yet again to helm cutscene aesthetic, but this time Hideo had learned from his past portable mistake; this time there'd be a story - and one so important it'd form the crux of both Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain.

Only Kojima would do such a thing - having a portable instalment of a console-born franchise contain some of the most important and impactful plot points of them all - but there you go. The immediately enticing idea that The Boss survived being shot in the face at the close of Snake Eater was a brilliant one, but that was only the tip of the insanity-iceberg as everything from warring governmental factions to singing flying robots got in on the action.

Peace Walker contains some of the best talking-points in the series when it comes to the notion of automated nuclear defence systems and the accountability of humanity, but its off-the-wall (and into the sea) approach will put off anyone who already didn't like the direction MGS 2 headed.