So I played the MGS4 demo

You might find it hard to understand the story because there old characters from the previous series and mentioning some and events that you will only come familiar with if you played the previous games.I recommend playing the previous games, the best way to understand the story is to play the games.

If you can't you can simply download the MGS DATABASE from the store it is free it has a lot of details about characters, locations, items,weapons etc....

Play the first 3.

Otherwise you will be totally lost.

In a sense.

It'll be like when someone says something, and everyone but you is laughing, because it was an inside joke.

You don't want to be that person, do you?

I highly recomend you to play the previous games, since the last chapters of MGS4 has a lot of fan service that you might miss if you don't know the previous games.

Other than that, you can download the database and read it. It is rather large, but it can be read completely in a few hours... and will give you enough background to understand most things. I didn't play all previous MGS games and did that, and had no problem with the story.

i didnt play the previos games but i understood the story. 

i think becous my freind played them all and xplayned the story for me b4 i played it. and in my opinion you can play the game and understand most of the story becous of the flashbackes and the MGS Database  or if you have a freind  that played the previos game to tell you the story...

Play the first 3.

Otherwise you will be totally lost.

In a sense.

It'll be like when someone says something, and everyone but you is laughing, because it was an inside joke.

You don't want to be that person, do you?

Scianix-Black

No one wants to be that person. TC, get the Essentials Collection and play it first.

I have never played an MGS game before and I played the demo last night and I was totally intrigued. I love the mix of stealth and third person shooting (I hate FPSs with a passion). Is it worth getting the game without playing the others or will I be totally lost with the story?s-baller23

I have never played an MGS game before and I played the demo last night and I was totally intrigued. I love the mix of stealth and third person shooting (I hate FPSs with a passion). Is it worth getting the game without playing the others or will I be totally lost with the story?s-baller23

 No I don't think you should have a problem given the MGS encyclopidia that they made to go along with the game, its free for download. Yeah this version was designed with the fans and people new to the series in mind. You will probably miss out on some jokes and easter eggs that are in the game the first time around. Other then that it is an awesome game and is a must have for the PS3.

Never played the previous MGS games but I loved MGS 4. There's some kind of Prologue you can download on the Playstation Store it should catch you up with the series.

Actually you dont have to play it to understand the story. You can download the Metal gear database on PSN which is like a huge encyclopedia of the whole metal gear world. But playing trough the previous games will prolly be more involving and fun then reading pages and pages of text on your tv.bobonator3

Yeah I would recommend that. It's really informative. Tells you who killed who and who everyone is.