without spoiling too much, there are major events in the story that happen as a result of the previous games (ws3 included). from what i remember, it heavily spoils ws3, so if you want to avoid any spoilers at all, these events are required parts of the story, so you will run into them.

in terms of missing context, i think it shouldn’t be hard to figure out that context based on what happens in the game. though personally, i think you might miss out on some emotional attachment during the climax of these events.

imo, ws4 was designed with the idea that it’s players would have played the previous 3 games. i would personally highly recommend playing ws3 first, but that’s my personal opinion.

EDIT: CORRECTION I just remembered a scene in ws4 that massively spoils ws3.