This is a ramble post. I promise you won't hurt my feelings if you don't read it all.
Spoilers obviously.
So I started playing through the MGS series (skipped Metal Gear 1 and 2 because they're too old for me to get into) and so far I haven't been super blown away by anything but it's been good so far. MGS1 was a pain in the ass to play because the controls felt so bad. The craziness of the story and not wanting to be lost was enough for me to power through it.
I started MGS2 the next day, already a huge improvement in controls, although they're still not perfect, so playing through it was much easier although I suck ass at the game. I already knew about the whole Raiden thing thanks to Metal Gear Rising (my first actual Metal Gear game) and the plot was kinda just more MGS up until the last three hours. If you've played the game then you know what I'm talking about.
Now I'm starting to get hooked, but actually playing the games is still a bit of a slog because I'm bad at them and the controls feel really outdated. But next is MGS3, the one I've heard the most about, the one where half the memes come from, the ladder song, the one I see people say is their favorite. I gotta keep going.
I start MGS3 like a week after I beat MGS2 and I play up until the part where Snake meets Eva for the first time and you fight the GRU guys. I don't know why, but I'm just not feeling it. I thought Volgin is a really stupid villain (particularly his design), Ocelot is kinda dumb, no one has a Russian accent and it takes me out of it, and Snake always seems to be staring at Eva's titties in every scene. Now I know why people say Kojima can't write women. Maybe I'm just getting burnt out at this point but I'm not feeling this game so far.
Like four or fives months later, I just feel like playing again out of nowhere. I really don't knoq what's different this time but it finally just clicks. I blaze through the beginning and I'm actually playing really well and the story is just hitting right (Volgin and the titty pov are still dumb). Outside of the boss fights that require you to run and gun a little like Ocelot or the Pain, I'm having a lot of fun. Way more fun than I had in the last two games.
The story is a little dumber than 2 because Kojima read some Wikipedia articles about the Cold War or something so there's a lot of times where they'll say something about the Soviet Union and I can't help but think like "that makes no sense why would they do that." But I went in knowing there was gonna be dumb radlib stuff because Kojima is a radlib who read two or three books and wants to put it in his game. The Boss' motivations are also EXTREMELY unclear until the very last cutscene in the game so I ended up wondering if things were happening just to happen. But despite all that, I was still invested.
After finally beating at 19 hours, I can say this is one of my favorite games ever, and one of my favorite final bosses in any games ever. I admit I cried at the cemetery cutscene. Also I think the Boss is super hot.
So now I'm gonna take another month long break before I play MGS4. Can't wait to play what many people seem to consider the worst game in the series after the best one!
If you have a good enough PC, you can probably emulate it. But yeah, 4 is a slog because it's Depressed Kojima. Act 3, especially is awful because it's a tailing mission.
It's not HORRIBLE, but it's just... painful to play after the other 3 before it.
If you don't emulate it though and get it on PS3, look into the downgrade patch (unless you want the achievements/trophies for playing) to play MGO. I dunno if there is a playerbase still playing it, but someone reverse engineered it to where you can play it, compared to MGS3's which was shut down and not revived like Biohazard: Outbreak File #1-2's was.