'Metal Gear Survive' review: potential let down by dull game mechanics

After the public breakup between legendary game designer Hideo Kojima and Konami, the fate of the illustrious Metal Gear Solid, a series that Kojima has been synonymous with for decades, lies in the balance. While we do know the series will probably never have that cinematic flair and breath of life that Kojima’s signature style is known for, a return to the world of Metal Gear was inevitable. After the success and brilliance of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Konami has a tough act to follow with Survive.

What’s it about?

Those who have played a Metal Gear Solid game will know the game is packed with lots of acronyms, secret organisations, code words, technologies and more, making it impossible to condense the story into a small space as this. Survive is sort of a standalone game like Metal Gear Rising, which takes place directly after the events of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Taking place in a parallel dimension, where a portion of Motherbase gets sucked into a vortex, you play a soldier sent by a scientist known as Goodluck through the wormhole, to find out what happened. Except you’re infected by some sort of virus, and you’re surrounded by mysterious zombies.

In an attempt to continue what fans expect from a Kojima project, Survive continues the tradition of long cinematics, with an intro that tries so hard it turns out boring. This sets the precedent for the rest of the game, which has a story that has the makings of an exciting one, but ultimately fails on so many levels. Chief of them being the fact that it fails to arouse any interest beyond the interesting premise of a parallel universe, which is just a drab excuse of reusing The Phantom Pain’s maps.

Even the radio conversations, which serve for excellent story exposition and give you the perfect break in letting you get to know the characters, are boring in Survive. There is nothing memorable about the game.

How does it play?

Survive takes the series into new Survival Horror territory, with the signature stealth elements. The survival layer is admittedly fun, as you balance your water and food intake and relentlessly scavenge for ammo, food or materials to build your base. Making things worse, you are also on a time limit, as the infection takes hold, which means you need to scavenge more to stave that off. You can only achieve this by exploring more, and Survive takes great pains in making the process painful and arduous. As your hunger and thirst constantly slow you down, diverting your attention to constantly appease those.

The grinding elements are what bog the game down, though it is oddly relaxing with that whole find, rinse, repeat gameplay of finding resources. In addition to the survival, the game is about building and maintaining your base in a sort of a tower defence gameplay. Something like what Fallout 4 achieves, complete with surviving humans toiling to keep the base alive, as you scavenge for resources to keep everything running and the monsters out of your space. This is the most fun you will have in this game, after you have spent hours scavenging to make those brief moments happen.

Metal Gear Survive uses the same maps and resources as The Phantom Pain. Not to mention the game has an annoying micro transaction element, which would be all right if it didn’t charge you money to start a new character, while keeping your last one. In a world where games encourage you to replay the game with a new character, Survive should rethink this strategy. Even the enemy types are all the same, and there is no variation in their attack patterns to make the game challenging. Instead, the challenge comes from navigating the multitudes of menus micromanaging your base or your stats.

Should you get it?

At its core, Survive is a collection of some great ideas built by a passionate team. The execution though is a boring, uninspiring and uninteresting game that takes itself too seriously, resulting in a series of tiring chores. Survive is a game meant for ardent Metal Gear enthusiasts and those who want a serious survival horror sim.