A gross miscalculation on behalf of Konami
METAL Gear Survive is nothing short of a gross miscalculation on behalf of Konami.
Gone is the expansive drama and intrigue of previous Metal Gear games, only to be replaced with a ham-fisted attempt at emulating the currently-in-vogue survival mechanics of more popular titles and the inexplicable decision to include zombies as a “novel” gameplay feature.
Undoubtably conceived in a boardroom meeting and peppered with cynical microtransactions, Metal Gear Survive is so utterly devoid of the personality and grandeur that defined previous games in the series, you have to wonder how much longer the hallowed series can survive Konami’s gradual assassination.
Survive begins immediately after the events of Ground Zeroes, casting you as one of the military grunts left behind in the wake of Big Boss’ escape.
For some reason or another, a wormhole opens above the smouldering embers of Mother Base, transporting you to another dimension.
If you are going to hit the audience with a McGuffin in the form of a dimension-altering wormhole, surely you would see this as an opportunity to take artistic and creative liberties with the game world but alas, this alternate dimension is simply a barren desert littered with rubble, wrecked cars and abandoned outposts.
It has the feel of a player-made map from Far Cry 2. After the drawn-out tedium of the tutorial phase of the game,
Survive does come out of its shell a little as you fall into the comfortable routine of base-building and materials gathering.
The greatest feature Survive keeps in its sparse arsenal is The Dust, a dangerous zone where the majority of the game’s resource-gathering and zombie-battling action takes place.
The four-player co-op centered around base defence is also quite fun, but these moments of few and far between in this murky quagmire of a game devoid of personality and rife with busywork and tedium.
Metal Gear Survive strikes me as a sign of a series that is systematically having its charm chipped away for reasons beyond the scope of this review.
A definite one to avoid, unless you are particularly prone to masochism.