Metal Gear Survive is a survival-action game based on Konami’s treasured franchise. While Hideo Kojima is no longer involved with the series, it uses the excellent Fox Engine and aims to live up to the Metal Gear name while adding several elements from other genres.
Players create a custom character in the beginning of the game. A wormhole opens up above Big Boss’ base and sucks in the surviving members of his army, seemingly dropping them in a wasteland filled with zombies. You are recruited by a government organisation to enter a wormhole and go to the location, in the hope of finding a cure. If you play Metal Gear games for their over the top story, Survive is let down by its boring premise and cast.
After setting up a base, you can use all sorts of facilities to manufacture equipment, medicines, cook food and so on. You can further expand this by building new facilities as well as defences. In Metal Gear Survive you are required to keep track of food and water, and keep a steady supply with you at all times. As expected, you can get infected with various illnesses and cannot consume raw meat or dirty water.
Metal Gear Survive is filled with busy work that doesn’t quite fit well with the story, nor does it make good use of the lauded combat of MGSV. The game lacks focus; it does not understand if it wants to be a stealth game, a new entry in the Survival genre or a Metal Gear title. The crafting and collecting loop is just as enjoyable as any other game, as long as you don’t get bored of its tedious systems. You will find yourself collecting items to make better gear, building your base, running away from hordes of zombies, trying to sneak past them to infiltrate, participate in wave defence and harvest Kuban Energy which acts as a primary resource. The game is nothing more than a venture to sell a survival game by associating it with a beloved franchise.
While it has its positives, it is nothing more than a misguided attempt at attracting both sets of fans.
