I was the same. Only nearly a decade later did I give MGS3 a go, and was not disappointed - it was more like MGS1 than MGS2 and is one of the best in the series.

MGS4 follows right in MGS2 footsteps and I would say better skipped. Peace Walker is surprisingly good, although parts of it towards the end get tedious. MGS5 goes back to weirdness, although a particular sniper's story line has some merit to it.

I actually think that Ghost Babel (the Japanese name) on the Game Boy Color is a really underrated game. It's worth checking out if you have avoided it because of it being a portable game. It has a fairly elaborate story, a delayed intro scene, and actually pretty decent graphics for the GBC.

Parts of it are deliberately nonsensical (you essentially just drugged an AI that has the ability to feed false information to your senses), but yeah, even the "real" parts are pretty wild. If you haven't seen it already, you might get a kick out of the "External Gazer" side story added to MGS2: Substance, which is widely regarded as self-parody of that aspect.

Yeah, I was referring to the "real" parts; I understand that the "I NEED SCISSORS 61!!!!" stuff is purposefully trippy, but the cutscene with the woman who can deflect bullets but not really then you're suddenly swordfighting with your father or something because of the internet(?) really confused me.

I'll check out External Gazer.