>>717867934
>THPS1
Fun game that's technically worth playing, as it still has the series identity, but the lack of mechanics that would come to be standard and low framerate makes it better to play AFTER you love the others, as a novelty
>THPS2
Where everything starts coming together due to how Manuals revolutionized the gameplay formula. Everything about freeform level exploration and player expression really starts to come together here. Only real reservation is, again, 5th Gen framerate
>THPS3
Strict improvement on THPS2, especially on 6th Gen. Great to play in general, great jumping-in point if you can't stomach the unstable 5th Gen 15-30FPS range
>THPS4
First one that's kinda worth skipping. They attempted to tackle the problem of how people learn the level to chain goals, instead separating a lot of the same gameplay into individual, railroaded missions. Great for the casuals that never cared about mastering a level, terrible for everyone else, as it drained all the personal expression out of the goals + moving between them
>THUG1
Tried to fix 4's problems, and kinda worked. Goals without great gameplay now have better narrative motivation, while a lot more have been made more open or are decent tests of player skills. Getting off your board also massively expanded combos
>THUG2
Story mode tries to find a middle ground by giving you free reign to do goals again without being locked into a single one, but you really gotta be into speedrunner autism to really give two shits. If you can stomach the Viva la Bam plot, it's fine
>THAW
Story mode is again kind eh. It's closer to 4's goal design again, and has constant tutorials that lock your shit up. However, it's the basis of the reTHAWed mod, which is the ultimate form of the Neversoft games. You can customize the gameplay and physics into basically any entry, there's online multiplayer, and along with other game's levels, they're now adding other games' classic modes as well
tl;dr play 3, THUG, and reTHAWed
