The MGS series has been one of my favourites since the release of the first, MGS2 was the driving force for me getting a PS2, and likewise MGS4 was what made a PS3 a mandatory purchase for me. That said, after the end of 4 I had come to the conclusion that while all the games have had a major impact on me, I found that in terms of how I'd personally gauge them, they were on a downward trend. MGS1 was better than 2, which was better than 3, which was better than 4. Part of that was due to the doubling down of crazy and all the twists and turns the series took, when I just really enjoyed the first for being its own self-contained thing that was still possible to take seriously at the time. The other thing is the framework for the games had been mostly the same for the four games, but with layerings of multiple new mechanics and systems for each successive title, and while the additions were always something ambitious and interesting, they incrementally started making the game feel a bit more clunky every time.
That all changed with V. It felt like a clean break from everything that came before it, and it threw away all preconceived notions of what a Metal Gear Solid game should be. I find it the most playable game in the series, and as a person who only ever watched the cutscenes for the games once during my initial playthrough, I found the overblown sci-fi military soap opera stuff being played down considerably was refreshing.
V is still what I'd consider to be the best of the Solid games, and it's only gotten even better with the mods that have come out for it.
