The Metal Gear series went through more than its fair share of phases, using the first game leading players with an adventure of top-down espionage, the fifth installment using the established third-person shooting format into a wide open world, as well as the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance spin-off trying its hand in a hack' n' slash action experience. With the beloved godfather of Metal Gear, Hideo Kojima, booted from developer Konami, the future of the series was uncertain. Now, the series' latest installment, Metal Gear Survive, is out, and fans continue to be fairly confused. Metal Gear Survive runs in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain's Fox Engine, so fans of the previous game may go through right at home at the outset, but Survive's true nature caters much more to survival game purists than Metal Gear loyalists.
Before it goes off the rails, the start of Survive's story will be very familiar to fans of the series. The game accumulates in the end of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, directly following a attack on Mother Base (spoiler alert). Your created character was among the casualties of the attack, but through some mysterious technological and other-worldly shenanigans, you're cut back from death to complete an important mission. The gamer will be sent through a wormhole-just such as the one that opens over Mother Base directly following the attack, which no MGSV character appears to notice-transporting them to another version of Earth called Dite.
Most of the planet's surface is covered inside a thick cloud of toxic dust, appropriately titled The Dust, which transformed its population into zombie-like Wanderers and something massive Lovecraftian blob monster. With the help of an AI struggling with multiple-personality disorder, plus several unique survivors picked up on the way, the gamer must uncover why they were sent to this dying planet, and how they are able to get home.
Nearly all dialogue and interactions are delivered through text screens, and the player character doesn't speak at all, so it's fairly hard to get invested in the melodramatic cast. When it comes to story in general, subtle references to the adjacent MGSV will keep hardcore fans a minimum of mildly engaged, and the game's ultimate twist, while just a little out of left field, wasn't dissatisfying.
Not frequently is really a game's key objective very well epitomized by its title. The gamer is thrown in to the deep end right from the get-go, instructed to come to terms with the game's scavenging, crafting, and upgrading while constantly managing hunger and thirst, which impacts the character's max quantity of life and stamina, respectively. While “survive” may be the name of the game-literally and figuratively-the beginning simply feels too aggressive. There's plenty that should be crafted and created to progress hanging around, but for the first hrs, attention has to be almost exclusively focused on water and food. Even messing around in the home base doesn't slow the downward tick of those statuses, so the oppressive nature from the game's survival begins a little excessive while you're still learning to tie your shoes.
Ironically, when a survival foundation is placed, it becomes the game's greatest strength. To achieve the required resources to outlive, players must scour every inch of the game's two maps, each of which are covered in Dust. Oxygen is needed to explore within the Dust, which only can last for a limited time. In addition to that ticking clock, visibility is also severely restricted, which could impact your path finding and lead you to inadvertently stumble across threats. Regardless of the inclusion of two maps, the environments quickly get repetitive-more then when they are clouded by Dust-but the constant threat of both enemies and limited resources makes every outing an adventure, otherwise additionally a little exasperating. In the same way, the tedious process of collecting materials is made surprisingly satisfying through the game's extensive selection of weapons, tools, gear, and facilities to craft, where getting a bit of rubber can be exciting when it is the thing you needed to craft whatever's next in your wishlist.
Materials and recipes will range in value, even though the Wanderers since the land won't allow them to go with no fight. Wanderers are available in a few varieties, most abundant in common by far to be the standard zombie-like form. Survivefeatures some fundamental stealth mechanics, like distraction tools and visibility indicators, and Wanderers need to be taken out if the player really wants to farm them for that game's valuable Kuban Energy. This really is yet another resource, utilized in everything from crafting to upgrading one's character. It can be obtained through stealth takedowns, but if a large crowd is descending upon you, a far more direct approach must be taken.
Survive's killing instruments cover a wide spectrum of spears, axes, bats, and much more. A number of firearms are available to be crafted too, but unlike its parent game, Metal Gear Solid V, Survive's melee combat is significantly more prominent than its gunplay. As the game's primary way of fighting the Wanderers, players will find how awkward and stiff the melee combat actually is. There are a number of moves to unlock for that different weapon types, and some can prove useful, however they normally won't save you from the game's unintuitive dodge mechanic and sticky movement. What's strange about the frustrating combat design, however, is the fact that once you play of sufficient length to come to terms with it, it really starts to want to belongs hanging around. When the combat was fluid and responsive, fighting off waves of Wanderers would likely feel too easy. The clunkiness adds to the oppressive nature of Survive, an essence that is necessary to the survival genre. It would have been nice to do this without kneecapping the player, but the outcome is exactly the same.
After mastering the clunky combat and amassing a cornucopia of materials, the game's building opportunities begin to open. Base building is integral to one's success, as the player can use a variety of crafting stations and resource cultivation units to make surviving in the wasteland that much easier. At set points in the story, the player's primary base-located within the first map-will come under attack, so defensive structures should also be established. Among the many crafting recipes players may come across while exploring, there are plenty of defensive units to learn to set up, including various entrenched weaponry and a wide variety of barricades. These defenses aren't exclusive to one's base, as they possibly can be equipped in the player character's loadout and brought out in to the Dust to assist in the game's survival missions.
Unfortunately, the sport doesn't expand upon its building mechanics as expeditiously as it should. Because of the slow trickle of recipes and also the character's limited carrying weight, players will have a restricted arsenal of building options for a large area of the game, squandering one of Survive's most promising qualities. Most defensive objectives could be beaten simply by throwing down basic fences and poking enemies through it having a stick; a strategy the simplistic AI from the enemies seems ill-equipped to avoid. Because of the one-track mind from the Wanderers, and the scarce opportunities for extensive building, the majority of the campaign seems to prioritize offense over defense, which does not do the experience justice.
The objectives players will encounter generally include fighting the right path to access computers, protecting a wormhole generator from waves of Wanderers, or saving a savior so they can help in base management. These survivors will feature different skills that may benefit your base's progress. By slotting them into roles based on their strengths, players can make utilities that farm resources they'd otherwise need to go out and check for. The machine is advantageous and helps develop a prideful link with one's base, but again, it does not gain much momentum until the end game because of the infrequency of survivor missions.
Ultimately, the end game may be the area of the experience that truly vindicates the player's efforts. With the much to understand, it's not until far into the game players will likely be prepared for everything it provides, which is when you can begin manipulating it most to your benefit. The greater epic instances of base defending are also few in number during the main campaign, with the limited resources which makes them feel rather anticlimactic. After the adventure, however, players are granted the option to initiate base attacks at will, along with the plethora of recipes and resources one will have accumulated within the entire campaign, it simply makes for much more interesting survival following the credits roll.
An alternative to chipping away in the game's single-player campaign to get to the good stuff takes on Survive's 4-player cooperative mode. The mode's format is rather simple: up to four players are tasked with defending set points for three waves of attacking Wanderers, while collectible side objectives lure players from the safety of the fortress. Wave-base survival is really a genre of gaming that feels inherently better when enjoyed with others, and Survive's tower-defense-like features result in the tactics of it that much more gratifying. It should be noted that the mode's hardest difficulty doesn't unlock 'till the end game, with how easy the other cooperative difficulties are, true survivalists are only quite happy with its greatest challenge.
This is an additional reason to make it to the end of the game, but it does not mean players should plow through the entire single-player experience before checking out the co-op. The valuable resources obtained through the single-player are distributed to those gained and expended in co-op, and vice-versa. With how gracious the co-op is by using end-of-match rewards, and also the ease of completing its low-tier difficulties, co-op turns out to be a good way to farm helpful information on use within the single-player, almost for an unbalanced degree. Although this mutualized resource economy may trivialize some of the single-player's struggle, it is ultimately the best route for that game, because the recipes from the single-player and the resources from the co-op give both modes comparable value.
Metal Gear Survive can seem to be just like a grind, particularly in its earlier stages, but that inexplicable quality that makes survival games addictive is equally as present here as it's in other games of the like. Just about anything, even poking zombies having a stick for hours at a time, can feel worthwhile when the rewards after it are tantalizing enough. Besides the progress itself scratch the survival itch, however the end game makes for its own valid case to push onward, even if the game does boot you out for losing an internet connection. You'd be forgiven for quitting on Metal Gear Survive half-way through, but I recommend you stick with it.
