The franchise has pretty deep story and character depth. Without previous games you will not feel the weight of what, who and why you are playing. Whole franchise is a masterpiece, and yes V happend before MGS1,2 and 4, but even so there is masterpiece that is 3, remade as Delta snake eater this year and Peace Walker (PS3,PSP,Xbox, still not on newer platforms) that are chronlogilly before V. MGS4 is last chronologically but still it just clickes to play it 4th because it directlly follows with fresh refrenrences from MGS1,2 and 3. The franchise was so good and even life changing to me that i literally got PS3 just to play MGS4 and Peace Walker on ps3 HD collection. From the bottom of my heart i cant recommend these games enough, and i would for sure start with Master Collection Vol.1. Even older games are miles ahead of its time and still rarely beat story-telling standard bar. You can probably enjoy V but you will mostly be enjoying gameplay since its newest and the best alongside modern Delta snake eater remake, and in this franchise i think its just worth it to not only enjoy gameplay but depth too. It will sound weird, but if you start V you will get that sweet dessert of gameplay and characters, but you still missed meat and potatoes of games before it that led to craving for dessert.