A lot of fans are pretty upset about the idea of a non-Kojima game bearing the Metal Gear name being released.
Truth is, Konami owns the name, and just because there is a new game coming out for the Metal Gear franchise that isn’t under the direction of Hideo Kojima doesn’t mean that everything that cam before isn’t as brilliant as it is.
Seriously, gamers can be so twitchy.
With that said, Metal Gear Survive feels like a Metal Gear game in name only. Yes, you will recognise many of the models in the game (like the ruins of Mother Base) but there is very little that ties this title to what came before.
In fact, it seems at times that the Metal Gear part of the name was put in to take advantage of not having to build an army of new assets for the title.
Metal Gear Survive could just as easily have been called Survive, because the links between it and the rest of the franchise are tenuous at best.
So here’s where it fits in: just after the attack on Mother Base that saw Big Boss (I love these names) escape at the end of Ground Zeroes, the whole facility gets sucked into a wormhole and deposited on an alternate world called Dite (obviously pronounced ‘Dee-Tay’). Already the apron strings have been hacked off with a machete. Here, the player is tasked with surviving the dangers of the world, which translate to (in no particular order) hunger, thirst and Wanderers. Any further ties to the Metal Gear universe are so flimsy that they might as well have not been there.
If you are a Metal Gear fan unsure about buying Metal Gear Survive, just ignore the Metal Gear bit and you’ll have yourself a pretty decent survival horror on your hands.
There is a lot to do here. The player is tasked with building a base and equipment, while searching for survivors and trying to find a way home.
That’s a big task list, really.
Even just the crafting list is massive, and the grind of going out and finding raw materials over and over again feels pretty good when there are very tangible rewards on the return to base. From farm plots through to water purification systems, base defence systems and everything in between, Metal Gear Survive will keep you busy.
The game will try to convince you of it’s Metal Gear roots time and again, including the requirement for stealth to truly make a run of things.
Avoiding the Wanderers is simple enough, but when they swarm thing get pretty tense, particularly in the first few hours, when your health and stamina are negatively affected by a lack of food and water. The enemies are not varied in the title. Most are crystal infused zombies called Wanderers, and it will take you a few hours to find any kind of enemy variation in this desolate and dangerous world. Even the environment can be an enemy here, with little to eat or drink, and the dangerous Dust regions resplendent with diminished visual range and wandering monsters.
Metal Gear Survive, as a single player game, is pretty addictive. Sadly the multiplayer game falls into a cycle of repetitive scavenging missions that certainly aren’t a strength. But going things solo is addictive and rewarding, for the most part.
And if you’re really sore about Kojima, simply forget the Metal Gear section of the name; Metal Gear Survive stands up as a decent survival game without that connection.